TRAINING

Forget the treadmill. Our bodybuilder-driven cardio program uses power-packed exercises and familiar equipment to help you burn more bodyfat faster

| By Jim Stoppani, PhD, and Eric Velazquez | Photos BY michael darter |

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is a fantastic tool for burning bodyfat and helping you uncover your hard-wrought muscle mass. But many muscle & fitness faithful are lovers of iron you love to get your hands on heavy dumbbells and loaded barbells as often as possible. As far as youre concerned, any time not spent waging war against some kind of resistance is futile. Devoted gym rats such as yourself enjoy building muscle while torching bodyfat, rather than programming in an extra halfhour for an entirely separate pursuit. For you, we have just the answer. By piecing together the following high-intensity, powerbased movements in circuit fashion, you can build muscle and eat away at bodyfat more efficiently than by just running or biking. The m&f Ironclad Cardio program will not only help you burn more bodyfat but will also leave you with a distinctively more refined and athletic physique. After all, if you had your choice between bigdaddy dumbbell swings and another mindless jaunt on the con veyor belt, which would you choose? Thats what we thought.
HIIT OR MISS

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>> The exercises listed in this program all have one thing in common: muscle recruitment. Each move requires the coordination of several muscle groups, thus ensuring a greater total calorie burn. Upper Body Lower Body Whole Body Core

Ironclad Exercises

Push-Up Walking Lunge Clean and Jerk Plank Assisted Pull-Up Jump Rope Dumbbell Swing Weight Plate Woodchop Medicine-Ball Throw Squat Jump Thruster Dumbbell Shadowboxing

Workouts
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>> Complete these circuits twice, performing each exercise listed for one minute straight. Rest only long enough to get to the next move. Once you can comfortably finish three cycles of a given workout, increase the intensity of the exercises, aim to complete more reps, add more weight or swap out the moves for new ones in the same group. Beginner Workout Push-Up Walking Lunge Weight Plate Woodchop Clean and Jerk Intermediate Workout Clean and Jerk Plank Push-Up Jump Rope Dumbbell Swing Weight Plate Woodchop Assisted Pull-Up Walking Lunge Advanced Workout Squat Jump Push-Up Thruster Weight Plate Woodchop Walking Lunge Medicine-Ball Throw Dumbbell Swing Plank Jump Rope Assisted Pull-Up Clean and Jerk Dumbbell Shadowboxing

By now you should be familiar with the term HIIT, or high-intensity interval training. Its a type of cardio in which you perform short intervals of high-intensity exercise followed by short intervals of low-intensity work, or recovery. For example, on the treadmill youd alternate about 60 seconds of sprinting with 3060 seconds of slow walking until you reach your desired total time. Volumes of research show that HIIT cardio burns more fat than cardio done at a steady pace, even when the steady pace is maintained for a longer period. Leave it to us to boost the effectiveness and brutality of an already effective workout. The m&f Ironclad Cardio program uses the same basic interval scheme as HIIT, but running shoes are optional. Were swapping out boring treadmill or bike sessions for hardcore exercises thatll hit every muscle fiber in your body to burn more

bodyfat and send your strength and conditioning off the charts. This program also addresses two of the main drawbacks of traditional cardio: 1) Its not as effective at burning calories postworkout as weight training; and 2) most programs really work only your lower-body musculature, thus limiting the total release of fatburning enzymes. >> Calorie Limitations Weightlifting boosts your metabolic rate (calorieburning) higher and for longer after a workout than cardio does, research shows. One reason is that weights provide resistance, which is what causes the muscles to become taxed, both biochemically and mechanically. This is why many calories are expended to get the muscle fibers back to their original condition and beyond. Typical cardio, like running, does provide resistance as your legs propel your body and absorb the landing, but not to the same degree as resistance training.

Total Muscle Limitations Most cardio is a labor of legs: running, cycling, StepMill, etc. What about the rest of your muscle mass? Selective weight training allows you to broaden the scope of the muscles you want to involve. And the more muscles in need of recovery, the more calories that are burned to fuel that recovery process over the next several hours to days. Hitting more muscles also engages more fat-burning enzymes, poten tially doubling their activity in your body, which means an instant increase in fat-burning. >>

PUSH-UP
START Face the floor with your hands spaced slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, your palms flat on the floor and your elbows out to your sides. Your body should be straight, with just your palms and toes touching the floor. EXECUTION Raise your body by pushing your palms into the floor to fully extend your arms without locking out your elbows at the top. Reverse the movement
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WORTH THE WEIGHTS

The m&f Ironclad Cardio program will mimic a HIIT cardio scheme. You simply do an exercise for one minute followed by 30 seconds or less of active rest (however long it takes you to get to and set up the next exercise), then you do the next exercise for one minute, and so on.

to return your body toward the floor. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform all reps on your knees Intermediate: Perform as written Advanced: Perform decline push-ups with your feet propped up on a bench behind you, or try doing them one arm at a time, alternating arms between reps

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Weve selected three exercises each for upper body, lower body, whole body and core. To keep yourself wellrounded, we suggest you do the same number of exercises in each group, with a minimum of one and a maximum of three. In other words, its probably not best to perform upper-body exercises exclusively in one session, lest you defeat the purpose of maximizing your muscular recruitment. Instead, stick to our game plans as outlined here. These programs feature the proper balance of exercises to get your heart rate up while chiseling away at stubborn blubber. These workouts are short, but dont let that fool you. Even the beginner program, at just more than 12 minutes (including active rest), promises to kick you between your kettlebells. Once you become more familiar with the rigors of these routines, feel free to swap out exercises within the same group. (For instance, its okay to replace the weight plate woodchop with the plank.) We recommend performing one of these workouts 23 times a week on days when youre not training regularly. Heres a sample split:
Day Routine

No assisted pull-up machine? Simply secure one end of a heavy resistance band to the top of a pull-up bar and the other to your ankles and perform as written.

1 Chest, back, abs 2 Ironclad Cardio 3 Legs, shoulders 4 Ironclad Cardio 5 Arms, abs 6 Ironclad Cardio 7 Rest

To really spike your metabolism, occasionally perform an Ironclad Cardio workout after your normal weight-training routine. Each program hassomeguidelinesforprogression,but as a general rule youll aim to perform more reps, use more weight or increase the intensity of every exercise to continue making gains. The programs listed here offer different levels of work, but you can also implement the suggested intensity markers to make your routine more difficult. Once you can complete a workout in relative comfort, its time to up the ante. M&F

START Grasp the bar at an assisted pull-up station with an overhand, widerthan-shoulder-width grip. Place your knees (or feet) on the pad and hang from the bar with your arms fully extended. Hold your chest high while exaggerating the arch in your lower back. EXECUTION Pull yourself up by squeezing your shoulder blades together and contracting your lats until your chin passes the level of the bar, then return to the start. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written Intermediate: Perform kipping pull-ups, in which you use momentum to complete reps for the full minute without additional assistance Advanced: Perform deliberate, dead-hang pull-ups on a regular pull-up bar

ASSISTED PULL-UP

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START Pick up a medicine ball and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Hold the ball in front of your thighs with your arms extended. EXECUTION Descend into a shallow squat and explode upward, throwing the ball as high as you can. Catch the ball and return to the start position, absorbing the motion with your legs. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written Intermediate: Perform holding the medicine ball at the top of your chest and pressing it overhead with each rep, or increase the weight of the ball Advanced: Explode upward out of the bottom position, leaving the floor as you throw the ball as high as you can. Land softly, catch the ball and repeat

MEDICINE-BALL THROW

START Hold a pair of dumbbells at your sides and stand with your feet together. Keep your head facing forward and maintain the arch in your lower back. EXECUTION Step forward with one foot, leading with your heel, and lunge toward the floor, slowly descending until the knee of your back leg almost touches down. Lift yourself toward your lead foot by pushing off your back foot and pulling with your lead leg. Come to a standing position with both feet together, then repeat the motion starting with the opposite leg. Alternate legs with each rep. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform using your bodyweight Intermediate: Perform as written or with a barbell Advanced: Lunge with the weights pressed to full overhead extension

WALKING LUNGE

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START Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and your arms extended by your sides. Maintain the natural arch in your lower back and keep your head directed forward. EXECUTION Bend your knees and hips, letting your glutes track backward to descend into a squat. At the point where your thighs go past parallel to the floor, reverse direction, driving up explosively through your heels and the balls of your feet to lift your body off the floor as high as possible. Land with soft knees and immediately descend into the next rep. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written Intermediate: Perform holding a medicine ball against your chest Advanced: Perform using a weighted vest

SQUAT JUMP

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extend your hips and knees so your knees are slightly bent. After a pause, extend your knees and hips force fully as you explosively press the bar straight overhead. You can keep your feet stationary or split your legs as you lift the bar, driving one foot forward and the other behind you. If you do split your legs, bring them together while keeping your arms extended overhead. Slowly return to the start position. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform using an empty bar Intermediate: Do only the top half of the motion (hang clean and jerk) with a moderate weight Advanced: Perform as written, using progressively heavier weights each workout

START Stand holding the handles of a jump rope, the rope just touching the floor behind your heels. EXECUTION Keeping your eyes focused ahead, initiate the forward revolution with your wrists, jumping with both feet just before the rope touches the floor in front of you. Work yourself into a rhythm for the remainder of the minute. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written Intermediate: Perform your skips one foot at a time, alternating feet each time Advanced: Perform double-unders (making two passes of the rope for each jump) or bring your knees as high as possible when alternating skips

JUMP ROPE

START Squat down to grasp a bar with an overhand grip. Space your feet and hands about shoulder-width apart. Lean forward at a 45-degree angle over the bar with your arms tensed and pulling on the bar. EXECUTION Pull your abs in tight and tense your entire body, then drive explosively through your heels to straighten your knees and bring your hips forward until the bar is at hip height. Smoothly pull the bar up, squatting a little to catch it on your shoulders as you whip your arms around so your elbows point forward. Next,

CLEAN AND JERK

DumbBELL SWING
START Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart with a dumbbell (or a kettlebell) on the floor between your feet. Squat down to grasp the weight with a two-hand pronated (palms-down) grip. Lean forward about 45 degrees, your arms tensed and pulling on the dumbbell, and your thighs slightly above parallel to the floor. EXECUTION With one smooth motion, forcefully extend your hips and knees as you swing the dumbbell forward and up in a wide arc until its directly overhead. Immediately squat back down to the start position, allowing the weight to swing down along the same arc to return to the start. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written Intermediate: Perform as written using a heavier dumbbell Advanced: Perform one arm at a time, alternating arms with each rep

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START Stand and hold a barbell or weighted bar at shoulder level as though you were about to perform a shoulder press. Keep your lower back arched, feet just outside shoulder-width apart and toes pointed slightly outward. EXECUTION Descend into the bottom position of a squat. Pause for a count when your thighs come parallel to the floor, then drive back up to the start. When your knees are almost fully extended, press the bar overhead to just short of elbow lockout. Slowly lower the bar back to shoulder level and descend into the next rep. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written using an empty bar Intermediate: Increase the weight or trade the barbell for dumbbells Advanced: Alternate foot spacing on your stance to recruit your muscles differently

THRUSTER

START Lie facedown on the floor, supporting yourself on your toes and forearms. EXECUTION Pull your abs in tight and contract your entire musculature to maintain this rigid position for the full minute. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written Intermediate: Have a partner place a weight plate on your back Advanced: Perform a two-point plank by supporting yourself on one arm and the toes of the opposite leg

PLANK

START Stand with your knees slightly bent, holding a weight plate in both hands just outside and above your right shoulder. EXECUTION Slowly rotate your torso as you lower the plate diagonally across your body until its beside your left hip. Reverse direction to return to the start. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written Intermediate: Use a heavier plate or swap it out for a dumbbell Advanced: Perform in the same fashion using a high-pulley cable

Weight Plate WOODCHOP

START Stand holding a light pair of dumbbells (25 pounds) with an athletic stance feet just outside shoulder width and staggered slightly. EXECUTION Bring the dumbbells up to a guard position with your hands facing each other near your cheeks. Punch outward with your lead hand first. Retract the arm immediately and throw a punch with your trailing arm. Alternate hands for speed. INTENSITY Beginner: Perform as written Intermediate: Stretch out your punches for power, pivoting slightly on your lead foot when punching with your lead hand and pivoting on your rear foot when you throw punches with your trailing hand Advanced: Use heavier dumbbells and throw various punches from different angles, all for power (Note: As an alternative, you can do this workout using a heavy bag.)

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