Finding time to train can be tricky, but beginners in particular can get a lot of bang for their buck from just two trips to the gym every week. 

These sessions don’t have to take an age either. Top trainer Luka Hocevar has created a two-day workout split with just three moves per workout. With a warm-up and warm-down each one will take less than 30 minutes. 

“These exercises cover the main movement patterns that we need to build as humans and they involve using a lot of muscle,” says Hocevar, who’s also a brand partner for booking service Vagaro.

“This means they'll help you build strength and lean muscle, while also improving your movement within daily life activities."

How To Do Luka Hocevar’s Two-Day Workout Split

Do each workout below once a week, leaving at least one day between them to allow your body to recover. 

For the final exercise of each workout, Hocevar lets you choose between any variation of the lunge and single-leg Romanian deadlift. 

This gives you the flexibility to use whatever equipment is free and available. You can also incorporate different planes of motion in the first exercise by opting for a lateral/side lunge or curtsy lunge. 

Two-Day Workout Split: Day One

Click or press the exercise name for how to do each exercise.

1 Trap bar deadlift

Sets 3 Reps 5-6 Rest 2min

2 Push-up

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Rest 60sec

3 Lunge variation

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 on each side Rest 60sec

Two-Day Workout Split: Day Two

1 Goblet squat

Sets 3 Reps 5-6 Rest 2min

2 One-arm dumbbell row

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Rest 60sec

3 Single-leg Romanian deadlift variation

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 on each side Rest 60sec

How To Progress These Workouts For An Eight-Week Two-Day Workout Split

If you want to build muscle, you need to repeat workouts and make them progressively harder over time. Hocevar has also provided the optimal way to progress this two-day workout split over eight weeks. 

For the first exercise in each workout, which focuses on building strength, he recommends lifting slightly more weight each week. 

With the second and third exercises, he takes a slightly different tact. 

“Add a rep a week for four weeks, then drop back down to the number of reps you did in week one and add weight. 

“For example, if week one was eight reps, add a rep a week until you get to 11 reps in week four, then drop back down to eight reps in week five while increasing the weight.”

Why Are These The Best Exercises For A Beginner Two-Day Workout Split?

Hocevar selected these exercises because they cover most major movement patterns, but that wasn’t the only factor at play when choosing the moves.

“These exercises are not necessarily that complicated, which means that a person can learn them quickly,” says Hocevare. 

“From this starting point, the goal is to work on progressing load by using heavier weights and adding reps or sets. These are necessary building blocks for the body to adapt and begin to increase strength and build muscle. This process is called progressive overload.”

However, he recommends making sure your form is flawless (“without letting your ego get in the way”) before adding more weight. 

What Are The Limitations Of A Two-Day Workout Split? 

A two-day workout split is ideal for beginners, because it supplies enough stimulus to develop muscle while at the same time the schedule doesn’t feeling overwhelming or unsustainable. 

It can also be a great approach for athletes from other sports looking for a minimalist strength training program to supplement their favored activity—a one-stop shop for reduced injury rates and improved performance among runners and others. 

But there are some drawbacks to this training split, particularly when it contains shorter workouts. 

“Limiting oneself to just three exercises is not necessarily an ideal program,” says Hocevar. 

On top of this, a two-day split of this sort may not provide the volume, variety or frequency to stimulate further strength and muscle gains among seasoned lifters. 

One of the biggest new features that has come to wearables over the past couple of years is heart rate variability (HRV) tracking, and using this to gauge the stress on your body and how ready it is to exercise.

The Oura ring was the first device I tested to really make this “readiness” measurement useful, tracking your HRV overnight and using it, along with other factors, to give a readiness score every morning so you can judge if you should do a hard workout. It’s also used across many of the best sports watches, especially high-end models from Garmin, with its training readiness score tying together lots of activity and recovery stats, including HRV.

However, getting an Oura ring or a Garmin that gives you this data is expensive, and they might not be giving you perfect data anyway, especially since Garmin watches have a habit of overestimating time asleep.

I’m currently in the middle of a marathon training block for the London Marathon, and I’ve been testing several methods of tracking my readiness at the same time—an Oura ring (3rd generation), the training readiness score from a Garmin Epix Pro watch, and the HRV4Training app (App Store and Google Play).

With the ring and the watch I wear them overnight and they give my readiness score in the morning, using an average of my HRV measured overnight set against my baseline, which takes several weeks to establish.

You also need to set a baseline with the HRV4Training app, but the measurements are done differently—you take it in the morning using the camera on your phone (you can also link a chest strap heart rate monitor if you prefer). You hold a finger over the camera and the flash is used to take a reading of your heart rate and HRV.

This morning HRV measurement needs to be consistent to get the most useful information from the app, with the advice being to take the measurement first thing, sitting up in bed. It takes a minute as standard, but you can set the measurement to take longer, which might make for a more accurate reading. Even a minute sometimes proved a bit tricky for me if woken up by my kids, but I was able to fit it in at the same time each morning.

Along with the measurement, the app asks you to fill out a short questionnaire regarding your recent training, any muscle soreness or mental fatigue, and whether you drank alcohol the night before. You can link apps such as Strava to the HRV4Training app to pull your training in automatically.

After you finish the questionnaire you are given your HRV score and advice on whether it is within your baseline, and whether you should proceed as planned with your training that day, or limit how hard you work.

It’s a simple app to use once you get the knack of positioning your finger on the camera correctly, and I have found the readings and advice to be comparable to the data from the Oura ring. I also like the questionnaire, which makes you aware of your alcohol intake in particular, and the fact the measurement is taken in the morning makes it feel directly applicable to my upcoming training that day.

The HRV4Training app is a lot cheaper than the best watches and wearables to give readiness info, and the fact you don’t have to wear a watch or even a ring overnight will appeal to some people. It costs $9.99/£9.99 as a one-off fee, though there is a pro version that gives you access to a web platform for more insights into your measurements.

If you follow a workout plan to build muscle you’ll be familiar with progressive overload, an approach in which one training variable gradually increases in difficulty with every workout. You’ll also know all about the importance of recovering properly on rest days, which is actually when muscle growth happens.

So far, so straightforward, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you just keep increasing the difficulty of your workouts forevermore. But including a deload week, when you intentionally make your regular workouts less challenging, can be beneficial for some experienced gym-goers. 

So how does deloading work? And is it something you should incorporate into your training? To help, we asked Reid Stafford, personal trainer at Ultimate Performance, to talk us through the finer points of deloading. 

There are many effective arm exercises that isolate the biceps and triceps muscles, but when putting together the best arm workout plan you need to think about more than just your arms. The workouts below are designed to train the entire body over the course of a week, but pay special attention to the biceps and triceps so you can be sure your upper arms are going to get stronger and bigger.

It’s a tough training schedule and not for beginners, but if you’re already an experienced lifter, this progressive, four-week arm workout plan will help you continue to challenge yourself in the weights room. You will need to hit a gym to tackle the plan unless your home gym is phenomenally well equipped, because the workouts involve using heavy free-weights, cable stacks and weights machines. If you’re looking for another effective approach to training your arms, then a push-pull workout is a great option.

How To Do These Arm Workouts

Each week you’ll perform four arm workouts, ideally on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Rather than repeating the same workouts each week, the plan is divided into two-week blocks, and the weekly workouts in each block increase in intensity the second time round.

Each workout has six moves you’ll do as straight sets, sticking to the sets, reps, tempo and rest detailed. Tempo is the speed at which you lift and lower the weight in seconds, and it’s written out as a sequence of four numbers. The first number is the time you should take to lower the weight (called the eccentric phase), the second is how long you should pause at the bottom of the rep, the third refers to the lifting portion (the concentric phase), while the fourth is how long to pause at the top of the rep.

A 3010 tempo means you take three seconds to lower it and one to raise it, with no pause at the top or bottom. It sounds straightforward, but some exercises like the biceps curl begin with the lifting movement (governed by the third number), so keep your wits about you.

How To Warm Up For Arm Workouts

There’s no easing in with any of these arm workouts, because each of them starts with a big compound lift like the bench press or barbell back squat. This means that you need to prime your body for action with a thorough warm-up. This will help you perform better, especially in the early sets of your workout, and also make it less likely that you’ll injure yourself during your session.

The bulk of your warm-up needs to be specific to the workout you’re about to do, but it’s a good idea to begin with a series of dynamic stretches that hit muscles all over your body. You’ll find such a series with this weights warm-up routine, with seven moves that prime all the key muscle groups.

After performing that routine, it’s time to get specific and the easiest way to do that is to perform some of the exercises you’re about to do in the workout. Using lighter weights that you would normally, or no weight at all if appropriate, perform sets of the first two moves of each workout. Begin by doing a high-rep, low-weight set to get your muscles moving, then increase the weight and decrease the reps as you move towards starting your workout proper.

Arm Workout Block 1

Below you’ll find the four weekly arm workouts, along with the sets, reps, tempo and rest information for the first and second week of each. In the second week, you’ll do an extra set of the first two moves of each circuit and an extra two reps of moves three to six to increase your training volume.

Monday Arm Workout: Chest And Back

1 Bench press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Lie flat on a bench, holding a bar with a shoulder-width grip. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Lower the bar until it touches your chest, then press it back up powerfully.

2 Bent-over row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a barbell with a shoulder-width overhand grip. Bend forwards, hinging from your hips, but keep your chest up and your core braced. Row the bar up to your body, leading with your elbows. Pause at the top, then lower.

3 Incline dumbbell flye

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Lie back on an incline bench, holding two dumbbells directly over your chest with straight arms. Bend your elbows slightly, then lower your hands out to the sides until you feel a stretch across your chest. Squeeze your pecs to return to the start.

4 Lat pull-down

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself at the machine with a shoulder-width overhand grip on the bar. Keeping your chest up and abs braced, pull the bar down, leading with your elbows. Hold the bottom position for a second, then return to the start.

5 One-arm cable press

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 each side Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 each side Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall with your back to a cable machine, holding a D-handle in one hand. Keeping your chest up and core braced, press your hand forwards until your arm is straight. Reverse back to the start and repeat for all the reps, then switch arms.

6 Dumbbell pull-over

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 4010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 4010 Rest 60sec

Lie flat on a bench, holding a dumbbell in both hands above your chest with straight arms. Lower the weight behind your head in a slow and controlled movement, keeping your arms straight, then raise it back to the start position.

Wednesday Workout: Legs And Abs

1 Back squat

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a bar across the back of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and your whole body tight, bend your knees to squat down as low as you can but don’t let your knees roll inwards. Push through your heels to stand back up.

2 Romanian deadlift

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a barbell with an overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core braced, bend forwards, hinging at the hips, to let the bar roll down the front of your legs until you feel a good stretch in your hamstrings. Reverse the movement.

3 Leg extension

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself correctly on the machine with the padded bar against the bottom of your shins. Keeping your upper body tight, raise your feet to straighten your legs. Pause at the top with your quads engaged, then lower back to the start.

4 Hamstring curl

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Position yourself correctly on the machine with the padded bar against the backs of your lower legs. Keeping your upper body tight, push your feet down to bend your legs. Pause at the top with your hamstrings engaged, then lower back to the start.

5 Crunch

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and hands by your temples or crossed over your chest. Engage your upper abs to raise your torso, then crunch your upper body up towards your knees. Lower slowly, keeping tension on your abs throughout.

6 Plank

Week 1: Sets 3 Time 30sec Tempo N/A Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Time 45sec Tempo N/A Rest 60sec

Get into position with your elbows under your shoulders, your feet together and your hips raised with abs and glutes engaged so your body forms a straight line from head to heels. Hold this position without letting your hips drop.

Friday Workout: Biceps And Triceps

1 Underhand lat pull-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself at the machine with a shoulder-width underhand grip on the bar. Keeping your chest up and abs braced, pull the bar down, leading with your elbows. Hold the bottom position for a second, then return to the start.

2 Triceps dip

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 6-10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 6-10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Grip parallel bars with straight arms and your legs crossed behind you. Keeping your chest up and core braced, bend your elbows to lower your body until your elbows are bent at 90°. Press back up to return to the start.

3 Dumbbell biceps curl

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing forwards. Keeping your elbows tight to your sides, curl the weights up to shoulder height. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower the weights back to the start.

4 Dumbbell triceps extension

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 each side Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 each side Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a dumbbell over your head with your arm straight. Keeping your elbow pointing to the ceiling, lower the weight behind your head, then straighten your arm to return to the start. Repeat for all the reps, then switch arms.

5 Cable biceps curl

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in front of a cable machine, holding a straight-bar handle attached to the lower pulley with palms facing forwards. Keeping your chest up and elbows tight to your sides, curl your hands up to shoulder height. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower.

6 Cable triceps press-down

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in front of a cable machine, holding a straight-bar handle attached to the high pulley with palms facing down. Keeping your chest up and elbows tight to your sides, press your hands down to straighten your arms, then slowly return to the start.

Saturday Workout: Shoulders And Arms

1 Overhead press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a bar across the front of your chest with an overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core engaged, press the bar directly overhead so your arms are straight. Lower it under control to return to the start.

2 Chin-up

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 6-10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 6-10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Hold a bar with an underhand grip and hang with your body straight. Brace your abs and glutes and engage your lats, then pull up until your chin is above your hands. Pause at the top, then lower yourself back to the start under control.

3 EZ-bar upright row

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding an EZ-bar with a shoulder-width overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core braced, row the bar up to chin height, leading with your elbows. Pause at the top, then lower the bar back to the start under control.

4 Incline dumbbell biceps curl

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Sit on an incline bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing forwards and your elbows tight to your sides. Keeping your elbows there, curl the weights up to shoulder height. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower the weights.

5 Dumbbell lateral raise

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Stand tall, holding a light dumbbell in each hand by your sides with a slight bend in your elbows. Keeping your chest up and core braced, raise the weights out to shoulder height, leading with your elbows, then return slowly to the start.

6 Cable triceps press-down

Week 1: Sets 3 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in front of a cable machine, holding a straight-bar handle attached to the high pulley with palms facing down. Keeping your chest up and elbows tight to your sides, press your hands down to straighten your arms, then slowly return to the start.

Arm Workout Plan Block 2

For the second block of your four-week plan, the session structure has been changed to shift the high-volume emphasis from your arms to your chest. So in this block there are two chest workouts a week, but don’t worry about losing your newfound arm size and strength – there are still enough biceps exercises and triceps exercises to keep the gains coming.

As with the second week of the first block, you’ll add an extra set to the first two moves and an extra two reps to the remaining exercises. 

Monday Workout: Chest And Back

1 Incline bench press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Lie back on an incline bench, holding a bar with a shoulder-width grip. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Lower the bar until it touches your chest, then press it back up powerfully.

2 Wide lat pull-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Position yourself at the machine with a double shoulder-width overhand grip on the bar. Keeping your chest up and abs braced, pull the bar down, leading with your elbows. Hold the bottom position for a second, then return to the start.

3 Dumbbell bench press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Lie on a flat bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand at chest height. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Press the weights straight up so your arms are straight, then lower them under control back to the start.

4 Seated row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Sit on the machine, holding a double-grip cable attachment in both hands. Keeping your chest up, row your hands in towards your body, leading with your elbows. Pause at the top position, then return to the start.

5 One-arm cable press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 each side Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 each side Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall with your back to a cable machine, holding a D-handle in one hand. Keeping your chest up and core braced, press your hand forwards until your arm is straight. Reverse back to the start and repeat for all the reps, then switch arms.

6 Straight-arm cable pull-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall facing a cable machine, holding a straight-bar handle with both hands. Keeping your chest up, pull the bar down towards your thighs in a smooth arc. Pause at the bottom, then reverse the movement back to the start.

Wednesday Workout: Legs And Shoulders

1 Back squat

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a bar across the back of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and your whole body tight, bend your knees to squat down as low as you can but don’t let your knees roll inwards. Push through your heels to stand back up.

2 Overhead press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a bar across the front of your chest with an overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core engaged, press the bar directly overhead so your arms are straight. Lower it under control to return to the start.

3 Leg extension

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself correctly on the machine with the padded bar against the bottom of your shins. Keeping your upper body tight, raise your feet to straighten your legs. Pause at the top with your quads engaged, then lower back to the start.

4 Seated dumbbell lateral raise

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Sit on an upright bench, holding a light dumbbell in each hand by your sides with a slight bend in your elbows. Keeping your chest up and core braced, raise the weights out to shoulder height, leading with your elbows, then return slowly to the start.

5 Hamstring curl

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself correctly on the machine with the padded bar against the backs of your lower legs. Keeping your upper body tight, push your feet down to bend your legs. Pause at the top with your hamstrings engaged, then lower back to the start.

6 EZ-bar upright row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding an EZ-bar with a shoulder-width overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core braced, row the bar up to chin height, leading with your elbows. Pause at the top, then lower the bar back to the start under control.

Friday Workout: Chest And Triceps

1 Bench press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Lie on a flat bench, holding a bar with a shoulder-width grip. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Lower the bar until it touches your chest, then press it back up powerfully to the start.

2 Incline dumbbell flye

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Lie back on an incline bench, holding two dumbbells directly over your chest with straight arms. Bend your elbows slightly, then lower your hands out to the sides until you feel a stretch across your chest. Squeeze your pecs to return to the start.

3 Triceps dip

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 6-10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 8-10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Grip parallel bars with straight arms and your legs crossed behind you. Keeping your chest up and core braced, bend your elbows to lower your body until your elbows are bent at 90°. Press back up to return to the start.

4 Incline dumbbell shoulder press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Lie flat on an incline bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand at chest height. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Press the weights straight up so your arms are straight, then lower them under control.

5 Cable triceps press-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in front of a cable machine, holding a straight-bar handle attached to the high pulley with palms facing down. Keeping your chest up and elbows fixed to your sides, press your hands down to straighten your arms, then slowly return to the start.

6 Press-up

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10-15 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12-15 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Start in the press-up position – hands on the floor, shoulders, elbows and wrists aligned, and feet together. Brace your core, then bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor. Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

Saturday Workout: Back And Biceps

1 Chin-up

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 6-10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 6-10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Hold a bar with an underhand grip and hang with your body straight. Brace your abs and glutes and engage your lats, then pull up until your chin is above your hands. Pause at the top, then lower yourself back to the start under control.

2 Lat pull-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself at the machine with a shoulder-width overhand grip on the bar. Keeping your chest up and abs braced, pull the bar down, leading with your elbows. Hold the bottom position for a second, then return to the start.

3 Prone dumbbell row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Lie chest-down on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand. Keeping your chest against the bench, row the weights up, leading with your elbows. Hold the top position, then lower the weights back to the start .

4 Prone dumbbell reverse flye

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Lie chest-down on an incline bench holding a light dumbbell in each hand. Keeping your chest against the bench, raise the weights to the sides, leading with your elbows. Hold the top position, then lower the weights back to the start.

5 Dumbbell biceps curl

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing inwards. Keeping your elbows tight to your sides, curl the weights up to shoulder height. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower the weights back to the start.

6 Dumbbell hammer curl

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing each other. Keeping your elbows tight to your sides, curl the weights up to shoulder height. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower the weights back to the start.

How To Fuel This Arms Workout Plan

What you eat is as important as how you work out if you want a bigger and stronger body. You don’t need to start logging every macronutrient and counting every calorie, but following a few simple rules will help you to support your training and eat more healthily in general.

When you’re lifting weights regularly your protein intake becomes important, since this will help to build bigger and stronger muscles. Aim to consume 1.2g-2g of protein per kilo of bodyweight, which is the range recommended by dietitian Susan Short when we interviewed her about how much protein you need to build muscle. It’s advantageous to get your protein through food rather than supplements and it will be easier than you think. However, mixing protein powder into a protein shake after a workout is fine once in a while. Use our recommendations of the best protein powders to find a shake that suits your preferences.

You also need carbs to fuel your training. Aim to eat wholegrain varieties like brown rice and sweet potatoes on your rest days for their higher fibre content. You’ll also want to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. (You’re doing that already, right?) When you’re training hard it becomes even more important to provide your body with the right vitamins to build muscle, and ticking off your five-a-day every day goes a long way towards doing that.

If all the dietary advice above sounds like a lot of hard work, there is another option—healthy meal prep services. This is a more expensive option than meal planning and cooking for yourself, but getting meals tailored to your fitness goals and dietary preferences delivered to your door can make life a lot easier, especially if you’re short of time.

One last thing to consider is your alcohol intake. For some people cutting out booze is the simplest way to eliminate large numbers of calories from their daily intake. Alcohol in the evening can affect your sleep too, so taking a break from the sauce can boost your body’s ability to recover and respond to the training stimulus.

Arm Workout Plan FAQs

Why Does This Arm Workout Plan Train The Entire Body?

The best arm workout plan has to involve lifts that don’t just target your arms. For one thing, just doing arm exercises every day is going to get boring very quickly and besides, you can’t train one part of the body that often anyway because you need to give the muscles time to recover and grow.

More importantly, to keep progressing with your arm exercises you have to build strength throughout your body, because your body will always stay balanced, as Nick Mitchell, CEO and founder of Ultimate Performance, explained when we asked him for the best biceps workout.

“I was once asked by a client: ‘Nick, if I did 100 biceps curls on each arm every day, would I have massive biceps in about a month?’ Unfortunately, the human body just doesn’t work that way,” Mitchell says. “Your body will always fight to stay in balance, and it takes an extra 10-15lb of overall lean bodyweight to add an inch to the circumference of your arms.”

Adding bodyweight is one of your main goals with arm workouts then, which means bringing in a variety of compound exercises. 

“One of the most common reasons people don’t gain size in their arms is because they are underweight. Have you ever seen a 60kg guy with 17-inch arms? Probably not,” says Mitchell. “A lack of arm size is just a lack of overall growth, and so getting strong on compound lifts like the bench press, the overhead press, deadlift, chin-up and the barbell squat will help contribute to more overall muscle mass, which will help drive overall bodyweight up and so make your arms bigger.”

As an added incentive to do the rounded workouts below rather than just doing isolation arm exercises, remember that even if you could build huge arms without training the rest of your body, those arms would look pretty ridiculous hanging off a skinny frame.

The century has become cycling’s equivalent of running a marathon. The three-figure distance has become a popular goal for regular Joes and Jos to tick off in recent years, thanks in part to the growth of sportives such as RideLondon. 

Since its launch in 2013, this annual challenge has done for cycling what the London Marathon did for running. Riders of all abilities now pit themselves against an imperial century of cycling to get fit and, in most cases, raise funds for charities.

And it’s no wonder it’s used to fundraise – riding 100 miles on a bike is no mean feat. Thankfully it’s not an impossible task, even if you’re a relatively new cyclist who has only managed a small chunk of that distance in one go to date. What you need is a training plan, and Rule 5 Cycling Coaching’s Ian Jenner has put together a 12-week guide for Coach that will get you over the line in one piece and (hopefully) still smiling.

The plan is aimed at those who are time-poor and can only squeeze in the odd hour of training here and there around other commitments in the week. They should also have a relatively good base of fitness and  be able to ride for three hours or so at an easy pace. If this isn’t you, it might be best to sign up for a shorter distance or give yourself a longer training window.

Each week features three rides: two shorter, drill-focused sessions on weekdays that provide real bang for their buck and a longer ride at the weekend, as well as an additional active recovery day where you’ll do some off-bike exercises. 

The plan also incorporates easier recovery weeks on weeks four and eight, and tapers on the week before the event so you arrive at the start line fresh. For the shorter sessions, you’ll need to know your cadence, and ideally your functional threshold power (FTP) and power zones too (don’t worry, we’ll explain below). 

While these sessions can be performed on the road, you’ll find that they’re a lot more structured and accurate when completed on a turbo trainer. Don’t own a turbo? Your local gym should have a Wattbike or another type of stationary bike that you can use instead, so we recommend joining one for the duration of your training plan. Or you can browse our recommendations for the best turbo trainers and the best exercise bikes and treat yourself to one. 

It’s worth remembering that putting in the miles is only half the battle, and it’s essential to perfect your nutrition strategy ahead of the event. Your training is a great opportunity to help you find the gels, energy bars and post-ride protein powders that work for you, and fuelling properly throughout your 12-week period will help with your on-bike energy and aid recovery too. Our guide to how to fuel for a 100-mile bike ride should help.

Overview Of The 100-Mile Cycle Training Plan

Session Types Explained

Strength These big gear efforts help to build your overall cycling strength and endurance.

Climbing Although they don’t necessarily have to take place on a hill, these longer stints just under your threshold improve your legs’ ability to deal with the build-up of lactic acid you’ll experience during climbs.

Cadence If you’ve never checked on how many times your pedals rotate per minute, there’s a good chance it’s too low. Efficient cyclists sit around 90RPM, but working above and beyond this builds muscle memory for harder efforts.

Max power Improving your top end drags everything up with it, so don’t shy away from these gruelling sessions.

Sweet spot This refers to a level of intensity that sits between zone 3 (tempo) and zone 4 (threshold), or roughly between 85-95% of your FTP. Efforts are hard but can be held for a long time and repeated without causing too much fatigue – hence why it’s known as the sweet spot.

VO2 max Intervals just above your threshold help to bring up your overall aerobic fitness, meaning that you’ll use less energy for the same efforts.

Over unders Working just above and below your threshold in intervals gets your body attuned to flushing lactic acid from your legs without coming to a standstill.

Lactate threshold The limit of what your body can sustain aerobically – any harder and it’ll tip into an anaerobic effort, causing a build-up of lactic acid. A rough guide to your lactate threshold is your average heartbeat during a 10-mile sustained effort.

What Are FTP And Power Zones?

FTP

Functional threshold power (FTP) is the average wattage that you are able to sustain over an hour. No surprises, it’s worked out by riding as hard as you can for an hour (or less time and doing some maths). Most smart turbo trainers and training platforms such as Zwift offer FTP tests and will guide you through it.

Power Zones

While your FTP is a useful metric in its own right, its main purpose is to work out your power zones. Each zone’s limits are based on a percentage of your FTP, and it’s possible to work out the watts you should be targeting for each interval of a session.

You’ll need a power meter and bike computer to record and display your watts live, but if you don’t have one of those then it’s possible to simply rely on the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale, where you rank your intensity depending on how hard it feels.

Week 1

Week 1 Monday: Strength Session (1hr 5min)

1. 10min warm-up
2. 50min intervals: Cycle for five minutes in your fourth hardest gear (the big chainring on the front, just over halfway across on your rear wheel’s cassette) at a hard pace, finishing with a five-second seated sprint. All efforts should feel uncomfortable and as the efforts go on each should feel harder. Recover in power zone 1 for five minutes. Repeat five times in total.
3. 10min warm-down

Week 1 Thursday:  Climbing Intervals (1hr 15min)

This is a hard session that replicates the work of riding up a hill

• 10min warm-up
• 20min threshold (80-90% of your maximum effort)
• 5min power zone 1
• 20min threshold (80-90% of your maximum effort)
• 10min power zone 1
• Sets 3 Time 1min Effort All-out Rest 1min power zone 1
• 10min warm-down

Week 1 Friday: Core Workout (30min)

Perform these simple and effective core exercises to work on your general core strength. Follow the links for form guides. Warm up and warm down for 10 minutes either side.

1. Plank
2. Side plank (both sides) 
3. Sumo squat

Week 1 Sunday: Endurance Ride (3hr 30min)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 2hr 50min at power zone 2
3. 20min warm-down

Week 2

Week 2 Monday: Cadence/Pedalling Drills (1hr 4min)

These cadence drills will get you used to pedalling at RPMs that are above and beyond what you’d usually undertake on the bike and increase your pedalling efficiency in the process.

1. 20min warm-up
2. 12min alternating between pedalling at 90RPM and 120PM every minute
3. 10min power zone 1
4. 12min alternating between pedalling at 100RPM and 120RPM every minute
5. 20min warm-down

Week 2 Thursday: Long-Climb Strength Session (1hr 5min)

This is a hard session working on your level of effort on a sustained climb.

1. 10min warm-up
2. 10min power zone 3 at 60RPM
3. 5min power zone 2 at 90-100RPM
4. 10min power zone 3 at 55RPM
5. 5min power zone 2 at 90-100RPM
6. 10min power zone 3 at 50RPM
7. 10min warm-down

Week 2 Friday: Core Workout (30min)

Repeat the session from week 1.

Week 2 Sunday: Endurance Ride (3hr 30min)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 2hr 50min at zone 2
3. 20min warm-down

Week 3

Week 3 Monday: Max Power Efforts (1hr 12min)

This is a hard session, so fuel well beforehand and accept that your legs are going to hurt the next day!

1. 15min progressive warm-up, using easy gears and a high RPM
2. 5min threshold effort
3. 5min power zone 1
4. Sets 3 Time 15sec Effort Sprint in highest gear from almost standstill Rest 3min power zone 1
5. 10min power zone 2 in small gears
6. 1min in fourth hardest gear, flat out
7. 3min power zone 1
8. 1min in fourth hardest gear, flat out
9. 3min power zone 1
10. 1min in fourth hardest gear, flat out
11. 10min warm-down

Week 3 Thursday: Sweet Spot With Efforts (1hr 6min)

Like threshold training, sweet spot training is especially useful for time trialists, especially when targeting longer distances, and is also ideal for riders planning to tackle long alpine climbs.

1. 10min warm-up
2. 20min at sweet spot with a 5-10sec burst every four minutes
3. 10min power zone 1
4. 20min at sweet spot with a 5-10sec burst every four minutes
5. 10min warm-down

Week 3 Friday: Core Workout (30min)

Repeat the session from week 1.

Week 3 Sunday: Endurance Ride (3hr 30min)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 2hr 50min at power zone 2
3. 20min warm-down

Week 4

Week 4 Monday: Base Fitness Ride (1hr)

Ride for one hour in power zone 2.

Week 4 Thursday: Base Fitness Ride (1hr)

Ride for one hour in power zone 2.

Week 4 Friday: Core Workout (30min)

Repeat the session from week 1.

Week 4 Sunday: Endurance Ride (3hr 30min)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 2hr 50min at power zone 2
3. 20min warm-down

Week 5

Week 5 Monday: HIIT Sprints (43min)

These Tabata efforts train your body to recruit maximum muscle fibres and fire them faster, as well as raising your lactate threshold.

1. 15min warm-up
2. Sets 8 Time 20sec Effort Sprint as hard as possible Rest 10sec
3. 10min power zone 1
4. Sets 8 Time 20sec Effort Sprint as hard as possible Rest 10sec
5. 10min warm-down

Week 5 Thursday: Steady-State Climbing Repeats (1hr 10min)

1. 10min warm-up
2. Sets 4 Time 3min Effort Power zone 4 Recovery 3min
3. 4min power zone 1
4. Sets 4 Time 4min Effort Power zone 3 Recovery 3min
5. 8min warm-down

Week 5 Friday: Bodyweight Workout (55min)

Warm up for 10 minutes with light cardio, on the bike or with a light jog, then perform five rounds of the following exercises. Work for 45 seconds then rest for 15 seconds. Rest for three minutes between sets.

1. Mountain climber
2. Alternating squat and lunge
3. Crunch with bent raised legs
4. Alternating 5 reps jumping jacks and 5 reps plank jacks
5. Squat jump
6. Straight-arm plank

Week 5 Sunday: Endurance Ride (3hr 30min)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 2hr 50min at power zone 2
3. 20min warm-down

Week 6

Week 6 Monday: Strength Session (1hr 5min)

A repeat of week 1’s session. 

1. 10min warm-up
2. 50min intervals: Cycle for five minutes in your fourth hardest gear (the big chainring on the front, just over halfway across on your rear wheel’s cassette) at a hard pace, finishing with a five-second seated sprint. All efforts should feel uncomfortable and as the efforts go on each should feel harder. Recover in power zone 1 for five minutes. Repeat five times in total.
3. 10min warm-down

Week 6 Thursday: VO2 Max Session (1hr 10min)

While the temptation might be to avoid this type of effort because of how hard and painful they are, remind yourself that it’s this type of effort that wins races. Use it and see your fitness improve!

1. 10min warm-up
2. Sets 5 Time 3min Effort Power zone 5 Recovery 7min
3. 10min warm-down

Week 6 Friday: Bodyweight Workout (55min)

Repeat the session from week 5.

Week 6 Sunday: Endurance Ride (4hr)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 3hr 20 at power zone 2
3. 20min warm-down

Week 7

Week 7 Monday: FTP Workout (1hr 26min)

1. 15min warm-up
2. Sets 3 Time 15min Effort FTP Recovery 8min
3. 15min warm-down

Week 7 Thursday: Over Unders (1hr)

This is a popular workout to help your body begin to deal with the stress of accumulating higher levels of blood lactate and flushing out the by-products of hard exercise without stopping completely.

1. 10min warm-up
2. 16min alternating between 95% FTP and 105% FTP every 2min
3. 8min power zone 1
4. 16min alternating between 95% FTP and 105% FTP every 2min
5. 10min warm-down

Week 7 Friday: Gym Weights Workout (1hr)

1. Warm-up 10min
2. Bench press: Sets 5 Reps 8 Suggested weight 10kg barbell
3. Biceps curl: Sets 3 Reps 20 Suggested weight 4.5kg dumbbells
4. Single-arm dumbbell row: Sets 3 Reps 20 each side Suggested weight 4.5kg dumbbell
5. Dumbbell overhead press: Sets 3 Reps 8 Suggested weight 2.3kg dumbbells
6. Lateral raise: Sets 3 Reps 8 Suggested weight 2.3kg dumbbells
7. Sit-up: Sets 2 Reps 50
8. Plank: Sets 2 Time 60sec
9. Side plank: Time 20sec each side
10. Press-up: Sets 3 Reps 10
11. Triceps dip: Sets 3 Reps 10
12. Leg extension: Sets 3-5 Reps 20 Suggested weight 12.5kg
13. Leg curl: Sets 3-5 Reps 10 Suggested weight 12.5kg
14. Gym ball squat: Sets 2 Reps 50
15. Walking lunge: Reps 25 each side Suggested weight 4.5kg dumbbells
16. Barbell squat: Sets 3 Reps 10 Suggested weight 70-80% 1RM

Week 7 Sunday: Power Climbing (4hr)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 3hr 20min at power zone 2. Pick a route with short, sharp hills. Hit the bottom hard and stay out of the saddle until you get over the top. Don’t freewheel down the other side – keep turning your legs over to keep them fresh.
3. 20min warm-down

Week 8

Week 8 Monday: Base Fitness Ride (1hr)

Ride for one hour in power zone 2.

Week 8 Thursday: Base Fitness Ride (1hr)

Ride for one hour in power zone 2.

Week 8 Friday: Core Workout

Repeat the session from week 1.

Week 8 Sunday: Endurance Ride (4hr)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 3hr 20 at power zone 2
3. 20min warm-down

Week 9

Week 9 Monday: Tempo Efforts (1hr 10min)

The goal of this session is to develop sustainable power or race pace.

1. 10min warm-up
2. 20min power zone 3
3. 10min power zone 1
4. 20min power zone 3
5. 10min warm-down

Week 9 Thursday: Explosive Efforts (52min)

1. 10min warm-up
2. Sets 8 Time 60sec Effort Maximum Recovery 3min
3. 10min warm-down

Week 9 Friday: Gym Weights Workout (1hr)

1. Warm-up 10min
2. Bench press: Sets 5 Reps 8 Suggested weight 10kg barbell
3. Biceps curl: Sets 3 Reps 20 Suggested weight 4.5kg dumbbells
4. Single-arm dumbbell row: Sets 3 Reps 20 each side Suggested weight 4.5kg dumbbell
5. Dumbbell overhead press: Sets 3 Reps 8 Suggested weight 2.3kg dumbbells
6. Lateral raise: Sets 3 Reps 8 Suggested weight 2.3kg dumbbells
7. Sit-up: Sets 2 Reps 50
8. Plank: Sets 2 Time 60sec
9. Side plank: Time 20sec each side
10. Press-up: Sets 3 Reps 10
11. Triceps dip: Sets 3 Reps 10
12. Leg extension: Sets 3-5 Reps 20 Suggested weight 12.5kg
13. Leg curl: Sets 3-5 Reps 10 Suggested weight 12.5kg
14. Gym ball squat: Sets 2 Reps 50
15. Walking lunge: Reps 25 each side Suggested weight 4.5kg dumbbells
16. Barbell squat: Sets 3 Reps 10 Suggested weight 70-80% 1RM

Week 9 Sunday: Hilly Endurance Ride (4hr 30min)

1. 30min warm-up
2. 3hr 50min at power zone 2. Attempt 30sec all-out efforts to the summit on three climbs.
3. 10min warm-down

Week 10

Week 10 Monday: Long-Climb Strength Session (1hr 5min)

A repeat of week 2’s Thursday session.

1. 10min warm-up
2. 10min power zone 3 at 60RPM
3. 5min power zone 2 at 90-100RPM
4. 10min power zone 3 at 55RPM
5. 5min power zone 2 at 90-100RPM
6. 10min power zone 3 at 50RPM
7. 10min warm-down

Week 10 Thursday: Lactate Threshold Workout (1hr 15min)

1. 15min warm-up
2. 20min at 92-95% lactate threshold 90RPM+
3. 10min power zone 1
4. 20min at 92-95% lactate threshold 90RPM+
5. 5min warm-down

Week 10 Friday: Bodyweight Workout (55min)

Repeat the session from week 5.

Week 10 Sunday: Endurance Ride With Seated Climbing (4hr 30min)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 3hr 50min at power zone 2. Choose a route that includes long climbs of 5-8km. Stay seated throughout, and concentrate on cadence and gear selection.
3. 20min warm-down

Week 11

Week 11 Monday: Climbing Intervals (1hr 15min)

A repeat of week 1’s Thursday session. 

1. 10min warm-up
2. 20min threshold (80-90% of your maximum effort)
3. 5min power zone 1
4. 20min threshold (80-90% of your maximum effort)
5. 10min power zone 1
6. Sets 3 Time 1min Effort All-out Rest 1min power zone 1
7. 10min warm-down

Week 11 Thursday: 20min Sweet Spot With Bursts (1hr 6min)

This is a hard session working on your level of effort on a long sustained climb.

1. 40min progressive warm-up
2. Sets 4 Time 5min Effort Sweet spot, 10sec power zone 6 burst at the end of each set
3. 6min warm-down

Week 11 Friday: Bodyweight Workout (55min)

Repeat the session from week 5.

Week 11 Sunday: Endurance Ride (5hr 30min)

1. 20min warm-up
2. 4hr 50min power zone 2
3. 20min warm-down

Week 12

Week 12 Monday: Strength Endurance (1hr 10min)

This workout focuses on developing strength and endurance, and also helps to build your base fitness.

1. 20min warm-up
2. Sets 5 Time 6min Effort Power zone 3 Recovery 3min
3. 5min warm-down

Week 12 Thursday: Base Fitness Ride (1hr)

Ride for an hour in power zone 2.

Week 12 Friday: Taper (1hr)

1. 10min warm-up
2. 10min power zone 1
3. 10min power zone 2
4. 10min power zone 4
5. 10min power zone 1
6. 10min warm-down

Whatever fitness goals you have in mind, it’s important to recognise that it takes both time and commitment to achieve them. That’s true of losing weight, becoming a better runner or building muscle. This plan from trainer and fitness model Shaun Stafford requires you to commit to four workouts a week for six to eight weeks, which is no small thing, but the rewards you gain from that effort come in the form of increased strength and size all over your body.

You also get peace of mind that you’re doing the right thing in the gym, because the plan hits your whole body but works different muscle groups in a sequence that allows for the necessary recovery time to see results. Each workout contains two compound moves, followed by a tri-set and then a bonus set of one last exercise. All the info on sets, reps and recovery is provided to make it as clear as possible, although that’s not going to make actually doing the exercise any easier – this is one that’s best suited to more experienced gym-goers on the lookout for a new routine, rather than first-timers.

Before we dive into the details of the plan, here’s Stafford’s advice on how to follow it to get the results you’re looking for.

Who is this programme for and how much weight should you use?

“This programme will be effective for anyone who’s looking to increase size and strength,” says Stafford.

“In terms of weight selection, it’s trial and error at first. Always go lighter than you think you need to and build up over the first week. If you can complete the sets and reps with near perfect form, don’t be afraid to crank it up.”

How long should you follow the programme for?

“This programme should be performed for six to eight weeks for optimal results,” says Stafford. “You can add in some active recovery work to keep your cardiovascular fitness and flexibility. Lower-intensity cardio and yoga are great additional sessions if you feel up to it.”

Each workout has a “bonus” set. Are these optional or key to the session?

“The bonus sets are crucial to the workout – they often contain moves that target the little muscles that support and maintain joint health and function,” says Stafford. “Just because they are at the end does not mean you can skip them if you are tired! Finish the workout for optimal results.”

What To Eat During This Training Plan

Even if you nail every workout on this plan for eight weeks you’re not going to see the maximum benefit unless you show a similar level of commitment to your nutrition. Primarily you need to make sure your protein intake is high enough to help support your muscles as they repair and rebuild after workouts, which you should do by focusing on high-protein meals. You can use supplements like protein powders and bars in a pinch but don’t rely on them.

Outside of protein, it’s crucial to make sure you’re getting at least five portions of fruit and veg a day, and carbohydrates are needed as your main energy source for intense workouts. Wholegrain varieties are generally better to bump up your fibre intake.

There’s a lot to consider, and if you’d rather outsource most of the work to someone else then a healthy meal delivery company can help. Some of these will deliver a load of meals at once for you to store and eat when you want, while others will deliver daily, covering all your meals and snacks for that day. This convenience comes at a cost, but at least you save the time planning and preparing your meals.

Workout Structure

Steel yourself: this is a long and tough workout plan – but the results will be worth it if you stick to the prescribed structure. You’ll be doing each of the four workouts below every week for six to eight weeks in total. You should stick to the order given for the workouts, because they target different areas of the body and have been designed to let some muscle groups rest and recover while you focus on others.

Each workout is broken down into three sections. In the first you do two compound moves, targeting multiple muscle groups at once. The second section is a challenging tri-set where you’ll power through three sets of three exercises and rest only at the end of each round. Each workout then finishes off with one last exercise, just to hammer your muscles a final time before you hit the shower.

How To Warm Up

It’s important to make sure you warm up properly before each and every workout you tackle on this training plan. Not only will doing so ensure you’re primed to perform in the workout, preparing your body will also make it less likely that you’ll succumb to injuries during the training plan, because your muscles aren’t going into heavy lifts cold.

To warm up properly you need to activate the muscles you’re actually going to use in the workout, which is why spending five minutes on a cardio machine isn’t the best idea ahead of a weights session.

Instead, use this warm-up routine created by Yasmin Saadi from The Fitting Rooms gym. It starts with a series of seven stretches that mobilise the entire body. After that you should go through some workout-specific warm-ups. The easiest way to do this is to do the exercises you have lined up for your workout but with very little or no weight, because that way you’ll be using the muscles you expect to test during the session, but you can also do more stretches that target the relevant muscles.

When you’re short on time it’s always tempting to skip the warm-up in favour of spending time on the workout, but it’s better to shorten the workout itself and ensure you’re doing it properly than go in cold and knock out sloppy sets while your muscles warm up.

Workout One: Chest And Shoulders

1 Bench press

Sets 7 Reps 6 Rest 90sec

Lie on a flat bench, holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart using an overhand grip. Brace your core and press your feet into the ground, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.

2 Dumbbell overhead press

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 90sec

Stand tall holding a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height. Keeping your chest up, press the weights directly overhead until your arms are straight, then lower them back to the start.

3A Lateral raise

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 0sec

Stand with dumbbells by your sides and palms facing each other. Lean forward slightly, then raise the weights to the sides, leading with your elbows. Slowly lower them back to the start under control.

3B Front raise

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 0sec

Stand tall holding a pair of dumbbells in front of your body with straight arms. Keeping your chest up and arms straight, raise the weights in front of you to shoulder hit. Lower back to the start.

3C Reverse flye

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 90sec

Bend forwards from the hips with a light dumbbell in each hand, palms facing. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, raise the weights out to shoulder height, then lower them back to the start.

4 External cable rotation

Sets 3 Reps 15 Rest 60sec

Set the cable at a low height and, using a split stance, retract your shoulder blades. Hold your arm so that your elbow is level with your shoulder and your forearm is parallel to the ground. Pull the cable so that your elbow stays still but your forearm ends in a vertical position.

See related 

• A Four-Week Gym Workout Routine To Get Big And Lean
• The Tried-And-Tested Muscle-Building Workout
• The Best Full-Body Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer

Workout Two: Legs

1 Front squat

Sets 7 Reps 6 Rest 90sec

Stand tall holding a bar across the front of your shoulders with elbows up. Keeping your core braced, squat as low as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.

2 Glute-hamstring raise

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 90sec

Adjust the glute-ham developer (GHD) so when your feet are secured, your quads are resting on the middle of the GHD and you can lower your torso over the end. Position your body above your knees at right angles to your lower legs, with your arms folded across your chest. Brace your core and slowly lower your torso over the edge of the GHD, until your body forms a right angle at your hips. Return to the start position explosively by contracting your hamstrings.

3A Prone hamstring curl

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 0sec

Lie face down on the machine, following its instructions to position yourself correctly and safely. With the pad against the back of your lower calves, raise it by contracting your hamstrings. Return slowly to the start.

3B Hack squat

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 0sec

Lie on the machine, following its instructions to position yourself correctly and safely. Lower until your thighs are at right angles to your calves, then press back up.

3C Dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 90sec

Standing straight, hold dumbbells just in front of your thighs. Brace your core and slightly bend your knees to activate your glutes. Hinge from your hips without rounding your back until you reach the limit of the range of your hamstrings. Hold briefly, then return to the start position.

4 Seated leg extension

Sets 3 Reps 15 Rest 60sec

Sit in the leg extension machine, following its instructions to position yourself correctly and safely. With the pad on your shins, use your quads to lift the weight. Return slowly to the start.

Workout Three: Back And Biceps

1 Bent-over row

Sets 7 Reps 6 Rest 90sec

Hold a barbell using a shoulder-width overhand grip, hands just outside your legs. Bend your knees slightly, then bend forwards, hingeing from the hips and keeping your shoulder blades back. Pull the bar up towards your sternum, leading with your elbows, then lower it back to the start.

2 Neutral-grip pull-up

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 90sec

Hang from a pull-up bar or handles with palms facing each other. Brace your core, then pull yourself up until your lower chest touches the bar. Lower until your arms are straight again.

3A Preacher curl

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 0sec

Sit at a preacher bench holding an EZ-bar with an underhand grip. Curl the bar up to the top, pause and squeeze, then lower the bar slowly until your arms are fully straight.

3B Dumbbell spider curl

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 0sec

Bend down and rest your elbows on your thighs, holding a dumbbell in each hand with arms straight. Curl the weights up, squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower back to the start under control.

3C Narrow-grip EZ-bar curl

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 90sec

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Hold an EZ-bar using a narrow, underhand grip with your arms extended. Curl the bar up towards your chest, keeping your elbows in to your sides.

4 Cable face pull

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 60sec

Stand tall holding a double-rope attachment on the high pulley with straight arms. Pull the handles to either side of your head, then return to the start under control.

Workout Four: Triceps And Abs

1 Triceps dip

Sets 7 Reps 6 Rest 90sec

Grip rings or parallel bars with your arms straight. Keeping your chest up, bend your elbows to lower your body as far as your shoulders allow. Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

2 Hanging leg raise

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 90sec

Start in a dead hang, holding a pull-up bar with your legs straight and your knees and ankles touching. Keep them together as your use your lower abs to raise them, then lower back to the start under control.

3A V-sit

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 0sec

Lie on your back with your shoulders and legs raised off the floor. Keeping your arms straight, raise your torso so that your chest meets your knees at the top of the move. Lower under control.

3B Reverse crunch

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 0sec

Lie with your head and shoulders flat on a mat, your thighs vertical, knees bent at 90° and arms by your sides for support. Curl your knees towards your chest and hold. Contract your abs to lift your hips off the mat. Lower slowly to the start.

3C Russian twist

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 90sec

Start at the top of the crunch movement but with your feet off the ground. Keeping your abs braced, rotate to one side then the other to complete one rep.

4 Diamond press-up

Sets 2 Reps To failure Rest 60sec

Start in a press-up position but with your thumbs and index fingers touching to form a diamond. Keeping your hips up and core braced, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor. Push down through your hands to return to the start.

Shaun Stafford is a fitness ambassador for Optimum Nutrition

Rowing is hard, that’s why Steve Redgrave used to renounce the coxless four after seemingly every Olympics (only to inevitably knuckle down and scoop another gold medal at the next one). More specifically the 2,000m—the distance of every Olympic event emphasises endurance, power delivery and mental toughness. Rowing machine workouts are also one of the few forms of cardio that builds muscle. A 7min 30 sec 2K row is respectable and 7 min is impressive. Here’s how to achieve it.

Rowing Form

Yanking at the handle like a lawnmower? You need to work on your rowing technique. Here’s how the pros pull.

1. The Catch

Keep your arms straight, head up and upper body leaning forward from the hips. “Your shins shouldn’t go past vertical,” says David Hart of Concept2, makers of one of the best rowing machines. “And don’t overreach.”

2. The Drive

Start the drive by pressing with your legs. As you move back lean back slightly, then finally add the arm pull. “Your hands move in a straight line to and from the flywheel,” says Hart.

3. The Finish

“At the end of the stroke, your upper body should be leaning back to about 11 o’clock. Keep the handle held lightly below your ribs, and don’t ‘chicken wing’ it- keep your elbows in.”

4. The recovery

“Extend your arms until they’re straight, then lean forward from your hips. Once your hands have cleared your knees, allow your knees to bend and slide the seat forward.”

The 2K Rowing Plan

Devised by Gym Jones coach Pieter Vodden, this 2K-smashing strategy takes just 11 days to complete. Repeat the whole thing until your best reaches the “respectable” time of 7min 30sec.

Day 1: Row for 30sec with 90sec recovery. Start by aiming to go 150m per 30sec period and increase that by 1m per round. Take it up as far as you can—170 is the goal.

Day 2: Rest

Day 3: Row 10 x 500m with 1min rest. Try and hold your intended 2K split time pace—so if you’re shooting for a 7min 2K, you need to hit 1min 45 sec. On the last round go all out.

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Rest

Day 6: Warm up for 10 minutes, and then row 1,000m as fast as possible.

Day 7: Rest

Day 8: Warm up for 10 minutes, and then row 1,500m as fast as possible.

Day 9: Rest

Day 10: Rest

Day 11: Warm up for 20 minutes at a slow pace, with occasional power 10s—10 hard strokes at your target 2K pace. Then row 2,000m as fast as possible.

Want to know why we recommend this rower? Read our Concept2 RowErg review. Want more options? Head to our selection of the best rowing machines.

More Sessions On The Rower

• The Rowing Workout Plan To Build All-Round Fitness
• This Rowing HIIT Workout Will Power Up Your Entire Body
• Up The Intensity With This 20-Minute Rowing Workout

With the right approach, you can achieve a lot in a month in the gym, as this four-week workout plan for muscle gain shows. It consists of a pair of two-week training blocks containing upper-body workouts that will help you build muscle mass in rapid fashion. 

During the month you’ll be doing workouts designed to help you add mass across all the major upper-body muscle groups. The challenging workouts will also encourage fat loss to help you build a lean, muscular physique. 

In order to do that you’ll need to back up your efforts in the gym with smart choices in the kitchen. You’ll find diet tips to help you do that below, though using a healthy meal prep service for the month might be the easiest way to support your training.

The workouts on the plan require access to a gym since you’ll be using a variety of free weights, plus weights machines. It is also one for experienced gym-goers who can confidently perform serious barbell exercises with flawless form. If you’re just starting out, this gym workout for beginners or beginner weights machine workout plan is a better bet and we’re confident you’ll build plenty of muscle using it.

Workout Plan For Muscle Gain Block 1

The four weekly sessions in the first block are chest and arms, legs and shoulders, back and arms, and chest and shoulders. So you’ll train your major upper-body muscles directly or indirectly twice a week, an intensive approach that will add muscle fast.

The first four are straight sets, then the fifth and sixth exercises are done as a superset. Follow the order exactly, sticking to the sets, reps, tempo and rest shown. This will ensure you push your muscles hard with high-quality reps that keep your muscles under tension for significant periods, and the brief rest periods will keep your heart rate high.

In the second week of the first block, add an extra set to moves 3, 4, 5A and 5B. If possible, try to lift slightly heavier weights than in the previous week, especially for the first two moves, and at least the first set or two of all subsequent moves. Even a small increase, so long as your form doesn’t suffer, will make a big difference to your progress.

Block 1 Monday Workout: Chest And Back

1 Bench press

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Lie flat on a bench, holding a bar with a shoulder-width grip. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Lower the bar until it touches your chest, then press it back up powerfully.

2 Lat pull-down

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself at the machine with a shoulder-width overhand grip on the bar. Keeping your chest up and abs braced, pull the bar down, leading with your elbows. Hold the bottom position for a second, then return to the start.

3 Cable cross-over

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in the middle of a cable machine, holding a D-handle in each hand attached to the high pulley. Keeping your chest up and core braced, bring your hands down in a smooth arc to meet in front of your body. Hold for a second, then return to the start.

4 Cable straight-arm pull-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, facing the cable machine and holding a straight bar handle with both hands. Keeping your arms straight, pull the bar down towards your thighs in a smooth arc. Pause at the bottom, then reverse the movement back to the start.

5A Incline dumbbell shoulder press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Lie back on an incline bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand at chest height. Plant your feet on the floor and get your body tight. Press the weights straight up so your arms are straight, then lower them under control.

5B Prone dumbbell row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Lie chest-down on an incline bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Keeping your chest against the bench, row the weights up, leading with your elbows. Hold the top position for a second, then lower the weights back to the start .

Block 1 Wednesday Workout: Legs And Shoulders

1 Back squat

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a bar across the back of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and your whole body tight, bend your knees to squat down as low as you can but don’t let your knees roll inwards. Push through your heels to stand back up.

2 Overhead press

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a bar across the front of your chest with an overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core engaged, press the bar directly overhead so your arms are straight. Lower it under control to return to the start.

3 Leg extension

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself correctly on the machine with the padded bar against the bottom of your shins. Keeping your upper body tight, raise your feet to straighten your legs. Pause at the top with your quads engaged, then return to the start.

4 Hamstring curl

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself correctly on the machine with the padded bar against the back of your lower legs. Keeping your upper body tight, push your feet down to bend your legs. Pause at the top with your hamstrings engaged, then return to the start.

5A Seated dumbbell overhead press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Sit on an upright bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height. Keeping your chest up and core braced, press the weights directly overhead so your arms are straight. Slowly lower back to the start.

5B Seated dumbbell lateral raise

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Sit on an upright bench, holding a light dumbbell in each hand by your sides with a slight bend in your elbows. Keeping your chest up and core braced, raise the weights out to shoulder height, leading with your elbows, then return slowly to the start.

Block 1 Friday Workout: Back And Arms

1 Triceps dip

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Grip parallel bars with straight arms and your legs crossed behind you. Keeping your chest up and core braced, lower your body by bending your elbows until they’re at 90°. Press back up to return to the start.

2 Underhand lat pull-down

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself at the machine with a narrow underhand grip on the bar. Keeping your chest up and abs braced, pull the bar down, leading with your elbows. Hold the bottom position for a second, then return to the start.

3 Seated cable row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Sit on the rowing machine, holding a double-grip cable attachment in both hands. Keeping your chest up, row your hands in towards your body, leading with your elbows. Pause, then return to the start.

4 Incline dumbbell biceps curl

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Lie back on an incline bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing forwards and elbows tight to your sides. Keeping your elbows there, curl the weights up to shoulder height. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower the weights.

5A Cable biceps curl

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Stand tall facing a cable machine, holding a straight bar handle with both hands. Keeping your chest up, pull the bar down towards your thighs in a smooth arc. Pause at the bottom, then reverse the movement back to the start.

5B Cable triceps press-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in front of a cable machine, holding a double-rope handle attached to the high pulley with palms facing. Keeping your chest up and elbows tight to your sides, press your hands down to straighten your arms, then slowly return to the start.

Black 1 Saturday Workout: Chest And Shoulders

1 Incline bench press

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Lie back on an incline bench, holding a bar with a shoulder-width grip. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Lower the bar until it touches your chest, then press it back up powerfully.

2 Dumbbell pull-over

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Lie on a flat bench holding a dumbbell with both hands above your chest with straight arms. Lower the weight under control behind your head, keeping your arms straight. Then raise it back to the start position.

3 EZ-bar upright row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding an EZ-bar with a shoulder-width overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core braced, row the bar up to chin height, leading with your elbows. Pause at the top, then lower the bar back to the start under control.

4 Dumbbell lateral raise

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall holding a light dumbbell in each hand by your sides with a slight bend in your elbows. Keeping your chest up and core braced, raise the weights out to shoulder height, leading with your elbows, then return slowly to the start.

5A Incline dumbbell flye

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Lie back on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand above your chest with a slight bend in your elbows. Lower the weights out ato the sides under control, keeping that bend in your elbows, then return to the start position.

5B Press-up

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Get on all fours with your legs and arms straight, your hands under your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Engage your abs and bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor, then press back up powerfully.

Block 2

Heads up – the sessions change in block 2 to prompt faster body composition changes. The four sessions are chest and back, legs and arms, chest and back again, and shoulders and arms. More moves for each major muscle group adds up to faster progress. 

In the final week, reps are added to each exercise. Don’t worry about increasing the weight – more reps ensure progression and form comes first.

Block 2 Monday Workout: Chest And Back

1 Incline bench press

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Lie back on an incline bench, holding a bar with a shoulder-width grip. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Lower the bar until it touches your chest, then press it back up powerfully.

2 Bent-over row

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Hold a barbell with a shoulder-width grip, bending your knees slightly. Bend at the hips until you’re at roughly 45° to the floor. Pull the bar up to touch your sternum, then lower under control. If you’re moving your upper body to shift the bar, the weight’s too heavy.

3 Dumbbell bench press

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Lie on a flat bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand at chest height. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Press the weights straight up so your arms are straight, then lower them under control.

4 Dumbbell prone reverse flye

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Lie chest-down on an incline bench, holding a light dumbbell in each hand. Keeping your chest against the bench, raise the weights out to the sides, leading with your elbows. Hold the top position for a second, then lower the weights back to the start.

5A Cable cross-over

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 15 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in the middle of a cable machine, holding a D-handle in each hand attached to the high pulley. Keeping your chest up and core braced, bring your hands down in a smooth arc to meet in front of your body. Hold for a second, then return to the start.

5B Cable straight-arm pull-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 15 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, facing the cable machine and holding a straight bar handle with both hands. Keeping your arms straight, pull the bar down towards your thighs in a smooth arc. Pause at the bottom, then reverse the movement back to the start.

Block 2 Wednesday Workout: Legs And Arms

1 Back squat

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a bar across the back of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and your whole body tight, bend your knees to squat down as low as you can but don’t let your knees roll inwards. Push through your heels to stand back up.

2 Romanian deadlift

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a barbell with an overhand grip. With a slight bend in your knees, hinge forwards from the hips and lower the bar until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Reverse to the start.

3 Underhand lat pull-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself at the machine with a narrow underhand grip on the bar. Keeping your chest up and abs braced, pull the bar down, leading with your elbows. Hold the bottom position for a second, then return to the start.

4 Triceps dip

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 6-10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 8-12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Grip parallel bars with straight arms and your legs crossed behind you. Keeping your chest up and core braced, lower your body by bending your elbows until they’re at 90°. Press back up to return to the start.

5A Cable biceps curl

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 15 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Stand tall in front of a cable machine, holding a bar handle attached to the lower pulley with palms facing up. Keeping your chest up and elbows tight to your sides, curl your hands up to shoulder height. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower.

5B Cable triceps press-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 15 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in front of a cable machine, holding a bar handle attached to the high pulley with palms facing down. Keeping your chest up and elbows tight to your sides, press your hands down to straighten your arms, then slowly return to the start.

Block 2 Friday Workout: Chest And Back

1 Bench press

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Lie flat on a bench, holding a bar with a shoulder-width grip. Plant your feet on the floor and tense your muscles. Lower the bar until it touches your chest, then press it back up powerfully.

2 Wide lat pull-down

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Position yourself at the machine with a shoulder-width overhand grip on the bar. Keeping your chest up and abs braced, pull the bar down, leading with your elbows. Hold the bottom position for a second, then return to the start.

3 Incline dumbbell flye

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Lie back on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand above your chest with a slight bend in your elbows. Lower the weights out to the sides under control, keeping that bend in your elbows, then return to the start position.

4 Seated row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Sit on the machine, holding a double-grip cable attachment in both hands. Keeping your chest up, row your hands in towards your body, leading with your elbows. Pause, then return to the start.

5A Dumbbell pull-over

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 15 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Lie flat on a bench holding a dumbbell with both hands above your chest with straight arms. Lower the weight under control behind your head, keeping your arms straight, then raise it back to the start position.

5B Press-up

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 15 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Get on all fours with your legs and arms straight, your hands under your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Engage your abs and bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor, then press back up powerfully.

Block 2 Saturday Workout: Shoulders And Arms

1 Overhead press

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a bar across the front of your chest with an overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core engaged, press the bar directly overhead so your arms are straight. Lower it under control to return to the start.

2 Chin-up

Week 1: Sets 5 Reps 6-10 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 5 Reps 8-12 Tempo 3011 Rest 60sec

Hold the bar with an underhand grip and hang with your body straight. Brace your abs and glutes and engage your lats, then pull up until your chin is above your hands. Pause at the top, then lower yourself back to the start under control.

3 EZ-bar upright row

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding an EZ-bar with a shoulder-width overhand grip. Keeping your chest up and core braced, row the bar up to chin height, leading with your elbows. Pause at the top, then lower the bar back to the start under control.

4 Incline dumbbell biceps curl

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Sit on an incline bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing forwards and your elbows tight to your sides. Keeping your elbows there, curl the weights up to shoulder height. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then lower the weights.

5A Dumbbell lateral raise

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 15 Tempo 2011 Rest 30sec

Stand tall, holding a light dumbbell in each hand by your sides with a slight bend in your elbows. Keeping your chest up and core braced, raise the weights out to shoulder height, leading with your elbows, then return slowly to the start.

5B Cable triceps press-down

Week 1: Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Week 2: Sets 4 Reps 15 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in front of a cable machine, holding a bar handle attached to the high pulley with palms facing down. Keeping your chest up and elbows tight to your sides, press your hands down to straighten your arms, then slowly return to the start.

5 Diet Tips

Accelerate how quickly your body builds mean muscle mass and become more efficient at burning fat by adopting these better-eating habits

1. Break your fast

Eating protein for breakfast is one of the best things you can do when wanting to add muscle and burn fat. Protein allows for a slow and steady rise in blood sugar levels, which keeps you feeling fuller for longer so you aren’t tempted to snack on sweet treats before lunch. It also repairs the damage done to your muscles through training, to rebuild your muscles bigger and stronger after every session. A great brekkie is eggs, salmon and green leaves.

2. Load up on veg

You should be eating protein at every meal (and favouring high-quality lean sources like steak, chicken, turkey and white fish) but making up most of each meal – about half your plate in fact – should be veg. That’s because it’s high in antioxidants and essential vitamins and minerals to keep you fighting fit, and full of fibre to keep you feeling full long after eating. Vegetables are also very low in calories. Eat a wide variety of colours for variety of nutrients.

3. Time your carbs

For the duration of this four-week workout plan for muscle gain you should cut back on your carb intake, especially heavily-processed carbs such as crisps, chips, and white bread and pasta. But you still need carbs to help you recover from training, and it’s important to be fully energised for each session so you can push yourself. Stick to carbs in their natural form, such as new potatoes or wholemeal rice. Eat them around your workouts, then back off for the rest of the day.

4. Drink more water

If you’re dehydrated your body’s going to have a tough time both building new muscle mass and burning fat stores. And dehydration results in poor focus and lack of motivation, which will make it much harder to get to the gym (and train well when you’re there), as well as to make smart nutrition choices. Drink two to three litres a day, but more on training days, to stay hydrated and keep your body looking and feeling in optimal nick.

5. Eat enough protein

It’s easy to get carried away and start gulping down protein shakes several times a day when you’re trying to build muscle, but while you will need an increase in protein, you don’t need to go overboard.

“Strength athletes or those involved in high-volume, high-intensity training will require more protein than the general population at 1.2-2g protein per kilo of bodyweight per day,” says specialist dietitian Susan Short, who is a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association.

You’ll probably be able to hit those numbers comfortably just by changing your diet slightly, though supplements can also be useful.

Get help deciding on the right supplement for you with our guide to the best protein powder.

If you’ve made the decision to improve your fitness after a period of inactivity we’ve got some good news for you – you should take it easy (at first). The temptation is to smash out your first one or two workouts while your motivation is at its peak, but it’s absolutely crucial that you don’t go too hard too soon. If you do, it’s likely you’ll leave your body suffering DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) from the physical stress it’s unaccustomed to and your enthusiasm for exercise in tatters.

“An all-guns-blazing approach is more than likely to end your programme before it starts,” says Richard Scrivener, product development manager, and health and performance coach at TrainFitness. “You’ll be reminded that your fitness isn’t where you think it is, and you’ll have to wait as much as a week before the soreness subsides and you can train productively again.”

We’re not saying that starting slowly will save you from experiencing pain completely, but at least it won’t be so intense that you can’t contemplate any exercise for days. The right approach to getting back into shape is all about making sure your body can handle the work you’re doing. This might mean your improvement is a little more gradual than you’d hoped for at first, but it’s better to progress slowly and steadily over a long period than start at a furious pace and burn out quickly. (There’s a decent fable in that, we reckon.)

“You need to ensure your body is equipped for any workout you throw at it, and allow time to progress,” says Scrivener.

“Use what is known as progressive overload. So even if you can lift that extra 10kg, it’s better to split it into two 5kg increments and add these over two training sessions. This way, improvement is bite-sized and continuous, and it represents an appropriate amount of stress per workout.”

This six-week training plan from Scrivener is designed to put those principles into practice, so follow it to ensure you don’t overload yourself early on. Stick to the plan for the full six weeks and you’ll find that you improve in these four important areas.

1. Movement Control And Awareness

A crucial aspect of every workout is ensuring that you are performing the exercises correctly, which takes a little learning.

“Performing exercises with good technique – which includes effective timing, tempo and range of movement – means that it will be far easier to build muscle, strength and power in the following months,” says Scrivener.

2. Joint Mobility

“Another way to look at mobility is to view it as having access to an exercise,” says Scrivener.

“For example, if you cannot flex at the hips and sit deep enough into a squat, then you’ll never be able to tap into the full potential of that exercise.”

3. Joint Stability

Knowing the technique for an exercise is one thing, but having the ability to do it correctly requires stability in your joints, especially if you want to avoid injuries.

Follow the instructions carefully and ensure your body is in the right position to perform the moves, especially your back. If your body's not aligned as the move requires, you increase your risk of injury.

4. Aerobic Conditioning

Whatever your long-term fitness targets are, you will require stamina to achieve them, so building this in to the first weeks of a training plan is vital.

“All fitness goals depend on steadily being able to do more over time,” says Scrivener.

“Even strength and power development depend on the ability to recover quickly between sets and build volume.”

Who Is This Fitness Plan For?

This is a plan that everyone can use. Don’t worry if the names of some exercises look unnecessarily complicated (we’re looking at you, quadruped T-spine rotation). Once you read the descriptions, you’ll quickly find that even if something sounds complicated, it’s a relatively simple movement to get a handle on after a few tries. It’s a good idea to sit down with this plan in your own home and familiarise yourself with the exercises so you can step into the gym with confidence.

The plan is carefully designed to avoid any one workout knocking you out completely, meaning you can build your fitness slowly but surely over the six-week period. While your body will feel like it’s put in some serious work after the first session, it won’t be so sore that you have to cancel all your plans for the next few days while you recover.

In addition, the plan is great for beginners because it teaches you a lot about the way your body should move when performing the exercises. Form is key to long-term success in the gym, and your focus should always be on learning the correct way to do each exercise, rather than knocking out as many reps as possible no matter how sloppy your technique gets.

To put it another way, this plan is for anyone looking to get back into fitness for the long term, rather than just forcing themselves through a brutal short-term plan that will turn you against the gym for the rest of your life. The next six weeks are just the start.

Six-Week Beginner Fitness Plan

This six week plan from Scrivener involves four workouts a week – two focused on aerobic conditioning and two on resistance training. Each week you will tackle the same four workouts, but with additional reps or sets to make them more challenging as you become fitter. Even if you’re feeling great and want to do more on a particular day, stick to the guidelines to ensure you don’t put yourself out of the commission for the rest of the week.

Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of some of the exercises before, there are instructions for each and the workouts are aimed at people looking to get fit from near-enough scratch.

Do the workouts in the following pattern each week:

Monday – Resistance Training 1
Tuesday – Aerobic Conditioning 1
Wednesday – Rest
Thursday – Resistance Training 2
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Aerobic Conditioning 2
Sunday – Rest

Monday – Resistance Training 1

Before you start the workout, foam roll your calves, hip flexors and lats for 30sec each, to a maximum discomfort level of around 7/10.

1 Clock squat

Sets 1 Reps 3 on each leg

Stand on one leg and move the non-standing leg out in front of you, but don’t ground it. Squat on one leg, then move your non-standing leg out to the side, and squat again. Move your non-standing leg behind you, squat again, then – and this is the tricky one – take your non-standing leg behind your other leg to the opposite side for one last squat. That’s one rep.

Progression: Add one rep each week until you reach five reps, then add an extra set in the sixth week.

2 Lunge

Sets 2 Reps 12 each leg Rest 30sec

Standing with your feet together, step forward and lower until both your knees are bent at 90°. Push through your heels to return to the starting position.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

3 Quadruped T-spine rotation

Sets 2 Reps 12 each arm Rest 30sec

Get on your hands and knees (the “box position”) and place one hand behind your head. Rotate your torso to drop the raised elbow towards the opposite hand, and then rotate in the opposite direction to take the elbow up towards the ceiling. Your eyes should always be looking at the point of your elbow. Do all the reps on one arm, then switch.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

4 Plank with straight-arm press-up

Sets 2 Reps 12 Rest 30sec

Adopt a press-up position with your hands directly under your shoulders. Tense your glutes and abs and press hard into the floor to spread your shoulder blades apart. Keeping your elbows straight, drop your chest towards the ground so that your shoulder blades come together. Then press back up. Don’t bend your arms – it’s not a full press up.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

5 Resistance band lateral walking squat

Sets 2 Reps 12 each side Rest 30sec

Loop a resistance band around your ankles and move your feet apart so there is some tension in the band. Then take a step to one side and squat. Keep moving until you hit the number of reps on that side, then go back in the opposite direction.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

6 Pull-up

Sets 2 Reps 12 Rest 30sec

Grasp the bar with an overhand grip and drop until your arms are fully extended, then pull back up until your chin is over the bar. If you can’t hit 12 reps, and it’s a pretty big ask, then use an assisted pull-up machine or do fewer reps.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

7 One-arm one-leg deadlift

Sets 2 Reps 12 each side Rest 30sec

Select a kettlebell that’s heavy enough to challenge you but not so heavy that it distorts your posture during the exercise. Grasp it in your right hand and lift your left leg just off the floor. Bending at the hips, lower your torso towards the floor. Raise your left leg behind you as you lower the kettlebell straight towards the floor. Then return to the starting position. Do all your reps one one side, then switch to the other arm and leg.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

8 Face-down wall angel

Sets 2 Reps 12 Rest 30sec

Lie on the ground face down with your chin tucked in. Bring your arms up into the “surrender” position (hands past your head, with your elbows bent at 90°) and hold them just above the ground. Slowly extend your arms forwards until they are straight and then bring them back to the surrender position, keeping them just off the ground, without changing your body position.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

9 Plank with alternating step-in

Sets 2 Reps 12 each leg Rest 30sec

Adopt a press-up position with your hands directly under your shoulders. Bring one foot forwards so it’s next to the hand on the same side, and then raise your chest and look forwards. Lower your chest, return your foot to the starting position and then step forward on the other side. Alternate legs until all reps are done.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

10 Dead bug

Sets 2 Reps 12 each side Rest 30sec

Lie on your back and raise your legs, bending your knees to form a 90° angle, and raise your arms so they’re pointing at the ceiling. Slowly lower your right arm and left leg until they are just off the floor, then bring them back to the starting position. Then repeat that movement with the opposite arm and leg. Alternate which limbs you lower until you complete all the reps.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

See related 

• How To Get Fit Fast
• Running For Beginners: Free Couch To 5K Plan
• The Beginner’s Guide To TRX Training

Tuesday – Aerobic Conditioning 1

This session lasts around an hour in total (a third of that is rest time, though) and involves rotating between a treadmill, rowing machine and exercise bike.

Round 1

Time 4min Rest 2min Intensity Moderate (5/10)

Start with 4min on the the treadmill, then the rower, then the exercise bike, with 2min breaks in between. After you’ve done all three, take a 3min rest, then move on to round 2.

Round 2

Scale back your effort level for this round. Again hit the treadmill, then the rower, then the bike. Then take a 3min break and move on to round 3.

Round 3

Time 2min Rest 3min Intensity Hard (8/10)

One big last effort on each machine, with plenty of rest.

Progression: Record all the distances you cover in each interval, then try to add small amounts every time you do the workout.

Thursday – Resistance Training 2

Before you start the workout, foam roll your hamstrings, quads, pecs and thoracic spine (your upper and middle back) for 30sec each, to a maximum discomfort level of around 7/10.

1 Alternating active leg lowering

Sets 2 Reps 12 each side Rest 30sec

Lie on your back with both legs straight, resting your heels on a foam roller. Push down with one heel while you raise the opposite leg as high as you can without bending your knee. Return the leg to the start, then swap sides and alternate.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

2 Split kneeling wall arm circle

Sets 1 Reps 5 each arm, each direction Rest 30sec

Kneel next to a wall sideways-on so that there is only a couple of centimetres of space between your shoulder/hip and the wall. Keep your body facing forwards while you attempt to move your arm in a circle without touching the wall. Do five reps forwards and backwards on each arm.

Progression: Add one rep each week until you reach 8 reps.

3 Heel raise deep squat with tensed arms

Sets 1 Reps 12 Rest 30sec

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with your heels raised 5cm. Reach your arms straight forwards and clench your fists. Then slowly sit into a deep squat, with your knees open and your chest up. Sit for 2sec, then stand up fully.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

4 Cable Pallof press

Sets 2 Reps 12 each direction Rest 30sec

Stand side on to a cable machine. Select a weight that makes the last few reps of the set are challenging, but doesn’t ruin your form. Hold the handle attachment with both hands, elbows tucked in to the sides of your body. Brace your core, stand tall and maintain soft knees throughout. Press the handle out in front at chest height and resist the pull/rotation towards the machine. Then bring it back in to your chest.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

5 Side step-up

Sets 2 Reps 12 each leg Rest 30sec

Stand side on to a bench, then side-step up onto it. Then step back down again. Do all the reps on one leg, then switch to the other.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

6 Bear crawl and crab walk

Sets 2 Distance 10m Rest 30sec

Start by bear crawling forward, moving your right arm at the same time as your left leg, and vice versa, never letting anything but your feet and hands touch the ground. Then crab walk back by flipping over so your stomach faces the ceiling, keeping your hips raised, and walking on your hands and feet.

Progression: Reduce the rest time by 5sec per week until both sets are performed back-to-back.

7 Cable face pull

Sets 2 Reps 12 Rest 30sec

Use a rope attachment and face a cable machine. Stand tall, holding the attachment in front of you with straight arms, then pull the rope towards your neck/face. Keep your elbows up and out as you pull the rope.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

8 Gym ball kneeling roll-out

Sets 2 Reps 8 Rest 30sec

Kneel in front of a gym ball. Rest your arms on the ball and slowly roll it away from you, keeping your back straight and core braced as you go. Your knees should stay grounded throughout. Extend as far as you can without your hips dropping, then slowly roll back to the starting position.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 16 reps.

9 One-arm overhead press

Sets 2 Reps 12 each side Rest 30sec

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in one hand. Choose a weight that is a challenge but that allows you maintain correct form throughout – this move gets tiring very quickly. Hold the dumbbell by your shoulder with your elbow bent at 90°, then press it up straight above your head. Do all the reps on one side, then swap arms.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 20 reps.

10 Jump in place

Sets 2 Reps 8 Rest 30sec

Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Sink into a half squat and swing your arms back. Drive upwards into a jump and then stick the landing by pushing your hips back and flexing your knees forward to decelerate the body. Your chest should stay up and your knees should not cave in as you land.

Progression: Add two reps each week until you reach 16 reps.

Saturday – Aerobic Conditioning 2

You get to pick your poison for this 30-minute cardio session – you can run, row, cycle, use a cross-trainer or swim.

Round 1

Time 10min Intensity Easy (3/10)

Use this round as a warm-up.

Round 2

Time 1min Rest 30sec Reps 5 Intensity Hard (8/10)

Rattle through five 1min bursts of hard work, taking 30sec breaks.

Round 3

Time 10min Intensity Easy (3/10)

Warm down.

Progression: Add 10sec to the work intervals in round 2 each week until you end up working for 2min at a time in week 6. The rest periods, unfortunately, do not get any longer.

TrainFitness is a UK personal trainer course provider. For more info visit train.fitness

Belly fat is a stubborn, unsightly beast. It’s also dangerous. Even if you’re slim elsewhere, a pot belly raises your chances of being hit by a heart attack, stroke or diabetes.

There are a few ways to check if that weight around your midsection has put you in the danger zone, but the simplest is to wrap a tape measure around yourself just below your bellybutton. If you’re a man and the number’s 94cm (37in) or more, it’s time to take action.

While you’ll find plenty of tips on the internet to help you lose belly fat, they’re just that – tips. To make a change, and fast, you need to eat healthily but also be in a calorie deficit, so that you burn more calories than you take in.

The best approach to achieving that is to modify your diet and start exercising more. The latter is important because if you simply lose weight by eating less, you will be losing muscle mass as well as fat, and this can decrease your metabolic rate. Your metabolism is important for losing body fat and maintaining a healthy weight, and building muscle mass while losing weight is the best way to keep your metabolic rate at the same level or even increasing it.

If you’ve been put off exercising to reduce the size of your belly by the prospect of endless sit-ups, the good news is that there’s not a sit-up in sight on this plan – mainly because you can’t reduce fat from a certain area with specific exercises. Instead, this training plan consists of high-intensity exercise involving all major muscle groups, which will help shed the excess fat from all over your body. All you need is a pair of dumbbells, which are eminently affordable if you’d prefer to follow the workouts at home.

This plan isn’t for everyone though. It’s best suited to those with some experience in the gym who have fallen out of the habit. If you’ve never acquainted yourself with the proper form for fundamental exercises such as squats, lunges and presses, you may be better served by a gentler start. If you’re unfit or have a long-term health condition, this explainer on how to start exercising safely is a great place to start, as is this selection of weight loss exercises. If you’re heading back to the gym after a break, you can also try this gym machine plan for beginners, or this gentle four-week cross-trainer workout plan.

Now, on to your diet. We’ve got specific diet tips for shifting belly fat at the bottom of this article, but one general tip that can help you lose weight is to adopt a diet that’s relatively high in protein, especially when you’re exercising frequently and need to maintain your muscle mass while losing fat. Not only does protein help to repair and build your muscles, it raises your metabolic rate more than eating fat or carbohydrate does, so when you do eat protein more of the calories in it are dissipated as heat. Another advantage of protein is that it makes you feel fuller for longer than carbs or fats, so you’re less likely to feel the impulse to hit the snack cupboard between meals.

You don’t need to cut everything else out of your diet entirely, but if you’re aiming to reduce your calorie intake by around 500 calories a day, it’s best to cut back on carbs and fats while adjusting your meals so the proportion of protein in your diet is higher.

This exercise-friendly meal plan is a good option, and if you want to make things as easy as possible then check out our guides to healthy recipe boxes and meal delivery services, which can take all the hassle out of improving your diet.

But for many of us, perhaps the easiest and most effective change you can make to help you lose belly fat fast is to stop boozing. When a writer tried it for four weeks he experienced what he called “ridiculously good results from a relatively minor lifestyle change”.

How The Plan Works

Here’s what you need to know before you start.

1. You’ll Be Doing Circuit Workouts

Circuit training involves doing a certain exercise for a set amount of time or number of reps, then moving on to another exercise. Each week you’ll do four circuit workouts. Work through each exercise listed in turn to complete one round of the workout. Each session will require you to complete a certain number of rounds – in this plan each workout is five rounds. Circuit training is effective because you don’t rest much, which forces your muscles and your cardiovascular system to work harder, so you’ll be burning calories while building muscle.

Each round of the circuit finishes with a “supermove”, which involves doing as many reps as possible in 60 seconds – while maintaining good form, of course. This ensures you finish each round having given it your all.

2. You’re Against The Clock

In these circuit workouts you’ll complete the first four exercises working to a set amount of time, rather than reps. Try to pace yourself and complete a similar number of reps for each exercise every round. Note how many reps you completed, then aim to beat those scores when you next do the session. Working to time also helps you keep the pace high throughout the workout, and also means the sessions will suit people of all abilities, since a beginner will simply do fewer reps in the time than an experienced gym-goer but still aim to beat their score next time. You also get to pick one of three difficulty levels of the supermove to match your fitness ability.

3. It Has Weekly Progression Built In

Progression is key to the success of any good training plan, since you need to push yourself harder as you get fitter in order to get the results you want. While you’ll be doing the same four circuits each week, you’ll increase the amount of time you work in weeks three and four. Each set will last 50 seconds instead of 40, which – as you’ll discover – is a far bigger jump in difficulty than it sounds. Remember to track your rep count each week so you can progress by trying to beat that number next time around.

Week 1: Do exercises 1-4 for 40sec, then do the supermove for 60sec. Record your reps to give yourself a target for next time.

Week 2: Do exercises 1-4 for 40sec, then do the supermove for 60sec. See if you beat your previous week’s score.

Week 3: Do exercises 1-4 for 50sec, then do the supermove for 60sec. Because the time increases to 50sec per exercise, you won’t be looking to beat last week’s score.

Week 4: Do exercises 1-4 for 50sec, then do the supermove for 60sec. You should be posting your best scores yet.

See related

• 13 Expert Weight-Loss Tips
• This High-Fibre Meal Plan Is About As Healthy As It Gets
• Fat-Loss Workouts: Five Circuits To Build Muscle
• The Benefits Of A High-Protein Diet

The Best Dumbbells To Use

This training plan shows how much you can achieve with just a set of dumbbells, and it’s certainly going to be more convenient (and cheaper) to pick up a set for your home rather than heading to a gym to complete the workouts. We have an extensive round-up of the best dumbbells you can buy for your home, but there are few pairs we think are worth highlighting for this particular workout plan.

That’s because the renegade row exercise pops up in two sessions where you have to support yourself in the press-up position while holding dumbbells. Anyone who has ever done a renegade row will know that a dumbbell with a flat side makes the move far easier because it provides a more stable base than a round dumbbell. The York rubber hex dumbbells fit the bill, and give you a wide range of weights to pick from. If you’ve spent some time in the gym you’ll know what kind of weight suits you, although we’d err on the side of lighter because you’re doing 30-odd minutes of exercise with minimal rest – the final round is going to feel a lot tougher than the first. If you can afford them, selectorized dumbbells like this PowerBlock set are even better because they offer eight levels of weight from 1.8-14.5kg.

How To Warm Up Before Your Workout

In each of the circuits below you’ll be working against the clock to complete as many reps as possible exercise, and there’s no rest between sets until you get to the end of the round. It’s a demanding style of training and given the variety of exercises you’ll be doing, you need to warm up muscles all over the body to give it your best and reduce any risk of injury.

You can follow the routine in this explainer on how to warm up at the gym but, in brief, you’ll start with a series of general dynamic stretches to loosen up your muscles, then move on to warm-ups that are specific to the exercise you are about to do. This can be as simple as doing the exercises without any weight or very light weights, or stretches focusing on the muscles you are going to challenge most in your session.

It should take you no more than ten minutes to get a good warm-up that will allow you to start your workout firing on all cylinders, which is exactly what you need to do if you’re looking to shift belly fat fast.

Circuit 1

Do each move for 40sec in weeks one and two and 50sec in weeks three and four, then rest for 2min between rounds. Do 5 rounds.

1 Squat curl

How With feet shoulder-width apart, simultaneously bend at the hips and knees to lower towards the floor with your chest up and your weight on your heels. As you straighten up, curl the dumbbells up to your shoulders.

Why The squat part of the exercise works your entire lower body. Holding the dumbbells for the duration of the set works your grip strength, and the biceps curl adds an extra muscle and cardio challenge to raise your heart rate.

2 Bent-over row

How Stand tall with your chest up and core braced, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Bend forwards – hingeing at the hips, not the waist – then row the weights up to your sides, leading with your elbows. Lower back to the start.

Why Using dumbbells for this back exercise will ensure that you get equal muscle development on both sides and gives you a big range of motion so you can concentrate on squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top of the move.

3 Romanian deadlift

How Keeping your legs straight, lean forward – hingeing at the hips – and lower the weights down the fronts of your shins until you feel a good stretch in your hamstrings. Then return to the start.

Why This deadlift variation shifts the emphasis to your hamstrings. Doing it with dumbbells will ensure each arm gets to hold its share of the weight.

4 Overhead press

How Stand tall with your chest up and core braced, holding a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height with palms facing forwards. Press the weights directly overhead until your arms are straight, then return slowly to the start.

Why Following a legs exercise with a shoulder move in a circuit allows you to keep your intensity, and therefore your heart rate, high because you’re working completely separate body parts. This will maximise the calorie burn.

Supermove

Select the move for your level and do as many reps as you can in 60sec.

Beginner: Press-up

Start in the press-up position with hands directly underneath your shoulders, your core and glutes braced, and feet together. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor, then press back up powerfully to return to the start.

Intermediate: Wide press-up

Start in the normal press-up position but with your hands out wide. Bend your elbows and lower your chest down towards the floor. Once you are as low as you can comfortably go, press powerfully back up to the start.

Advanced: Diamond press-up

Start in a press-up position but with your thumbs and forefingers together to form a diamond shape. Lower your chest to the floor, keeping your elbows close to your sides, then press back up.

Circuit 2

Do each move for 40sec in weeks one and two and 50sec in weeks three and four, then rest for 2min between rounds. Do 5 rounds.

1 Lunge curl

How Holding dumbbells, take a big step forwards and lower until both knees are bent 90°, keeping your front knee over but not in front of your ankle. At the same time, curl the weights up to your shoulders. Alternate sides.

Why The lunge works every major muscle in your lower body while also providing a test of balance and co-ordination. The biceps curl element makes it an extra-challenging start to the circuit.

2 Renegade row

How Start in a press-up position, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Keeping your core braced, row one hand up, leading with your elbow, then lower it back to the floor. Alternate sides with each rep.

Why Think of this move as a brutal version of the plank – it works your back muscles while challenging your stabilisers to keep you level. Make sure you control the movement to get the maximum benefit.

3 Press-up

How Start in the press-up position with hands directly underneath your shoulders, your core and glutes braced, and feet together. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor, then press back up powerfully to return to the start.

Why Press-ups offer a safe and effective way of working your chest muscles hard, but only if you do them correctly. Concentrate on the quality of the movement, rather than bashing out lots of “junk” reps.

4 Wide overhead press

How Stand tall with the dumbbells by your shoulders. Engage your core and your glutes to give yourself a stable base and simultaneously press both weights overhead and slightly out to the sides.

Why Changing the angle of the press provides a different challenge to your shoulder muscles from a conventional overhead press. Just make sure the weights go more up than out, to avoid over-stressing your shoulders.

Supermove

Select the move for your level and do as many reps as you can in 60sec.

Beginner: Split squat

Start in a split stance, with one foot in front of the other, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Bend both legs until your trailing knee touches the floor. Straighten both legs to return to the start, then go straight into the next rep.

Intermediate: Squat

Stand with your chest up and core braced, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Bend your knees to squat down until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor, then press down through your heels to return to the start.

Advanced: Jump squat

Squat down as described above, then explode upwards, aiming to get as much height as possible. Absorb the impact of the jump as you land, sinking into the next squat and repeating the exercise.

Circuit 3

Do each move for 40sec in weeks one and two and 50sec in weeks three and four, then rest for 2min between rounds. Do 5 rounds.

1 Squat press

How Start with the weights at shoulder height and your feet shoulder width apart. Squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then straighten up while pressing the weights directly overhead.

Why This exercise provides a real cardio challenge because it takes a lot of effort to go from a deep squat to standing up with the weights overhead. Pace yourself and make sure your form is good.

2 Reverse-grip bent-over row

How Stand tall with chest up and core braced, holding a dumbbell in each hand with palms facing forwards. Bend forwards from your hips, then row the weights up to your sides, leading with your elbows. Lower back to the start.

Why Switching to a reverse grip provides a challenge to your biceps as you draw the weights in to your sides. This is useful because that muscle group isn’t targeted elsewhere in the workout.

3 One-leg Romanian deadlift

How Stand on one leg, holding dumbbells. Bend forward at the hips until you feel a strong stretch in the hamstrings in your standing leg, then straighten back up to complete the rep. Do half the given time on one leg, then switch.

Why This move challenges your balance and proprioception – your body’s sense of where its different parts are positioned – while firing up your hamstrings. To get an extra benefit, squeeze your glutes at the top of the move.

4 Lateral raise

How Stand tall with your chest up and core braced, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Raise the weights out to the sides, leading with your elbows, until they reach shoulder height. Lower them slowly to return to the start.

Why If done correctly, this is a highly effective way of adding size and width to your shoulders, putting you on the fast track to a great-looking upper body. Make sure you follow the form guide closely to maximise the benefit.

Supermove

Select the move for your level and do as many reps as you can in 60sec.

Beginner: Side to side press-up

Get in a press-up position with your hands slightly wider than normal. Lower to the bottom of the move, then shift your body to just above one hand, then over to the other. On the next rep, go to the other side first.

Intermediate: Spider-Man press-up

Get into a press-up position. As you lower to the bottom of the move, lift one foot off the floor and raise the knee to your elbow. Press back up, placing your foot back on the floor. Repeat on the other side.

Advanced: Divebomber press-up

Start in a press-up position, then raise your hips and bend your elbows. Lower your head and chest down and forwards, moving your torso in a smooth arc so you end up with you head and chest raised. Reverse the movement to return to the start position.

Circuit 4

Do each move for 40sec in weeks one and two and 50sec in weeks three and four, then rest for 2min between rounds. Do 5 rounds.

1 Lunge press

How Holding dumbbells at shoulder height, lunge forwards so that your front knee is over your front ankle. As you lunge, press the weights directly overhead, making sure they go up and not forwards. Alternate sides.

Why This move is a great co-ordination challenge and also a test of your shoulder mobility. If yours is poor, you’ll find you hunch as you press and push the weights forwards.

2 Renegade row

How Start in a press-up position, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Keeping your core braced, row your right hand up, leading with your elbow, then lower it back to the floor. Alternate sides with each rep.

Why As before, it works your back muscles while challenging your stabilisers. For an extra challenge, it’s even tougher on rounded dumbbells.

3 Press-up

How Start in the press-up position with hands directly underneath your shoulders, your core and glutes braced, and feet together. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor, then press back up powerfully to return to the start.

Why Press-ups offer a safe and effective way of working your chest muscles hard, but only if you do them correctly. Concentrate on the quality of the movement, rather than bashing out lots of “junk” reps.

4 Reverse flye

How Leaning forwards at the hips with a weight in each hand, keep your back flat and bring the weights upwards as if you were spreading your wings, aiming to bring your shoulder blades together at the top of the move.

Why This move targets your rear delts, while building stability through your shoulder region and rotator cuffs. It’s more important to focus on the quality of muscle contraction than to churn out more reps by swinging the weights around.

Supermove

Select the move for your level and do as many reps as you can in 60sec.

Beginner: Lunge

Stand with your chest up and core braced, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Take a step forward and lower until both knees are bent 90°. Push back off your front foot to return to the start. Repeat, leading with your other leg. Alternate sides.

Intermediate: Reverse lunge

Stand with your chest up and core braced, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Take a step backwards and lower until both knees are bent 90°. Push back off your back foot to return to the start. Repeat, leading with your other leg. Alternate sides.

Advanced: Lunge jump

Starting from a lunge position, drive up into a jump, switching legs in the air and landing in a lunge on the other side. Try to absorb the impact of the jump as you land and go seamlessly from one rep to another.

Diet Tips To Help You Lose Belly Fat

Here’s the reality: it doesn’t matter how hard you train in the gym if you don’t put the same time, effort and focus into what you do in the kitchen. The old saying that “you can’t out-train a bad diet” is something of a cliché, but like all clichés it’s rooted in truth. And if you want to make big changes to how you look with your shirt off – and as quickly as possible – then you need to start thinking more about mealtimes. Here’s our expert advice on how you can start to eat smarter and torch body fat faster.

1. Fuel for the day ahead

When following this training plan breakfast is the most important meal of your day because what you eat first thing helps dictate better eating habits until bedtime. A breakfast made from lean protein, healthy fats and fibre – think eggs, bacon, and yes, some green vegetables – provides a sustained release of energy, so hunger won’t hit before lunch.

2. Swap sarnies for salad

Swapping a pre-packed sandwich and crisps for a big bowl of green leaves, mixed veg and chicken, tuna or another quality protein will help shrink your belly fast. A lunch like this will provide muscle-building protein, more stomach-filling fibre to ward off cravings, and an abundance of vitamins and minerals to keep your fat-torching mission on track.

3. Refuel during dinner

Your final meal of the day needs to be high in protein, especially if you’ve just worked out to help the repair of your damaged muscles. Baked salmon, grilled steak or chicken breasts on top of a pile of grilled or roasted veg will provide all your body needs. Add avocado or home-made hummus for some healthy fats to allow your body to better absorb certain vitamins.

4. Be clever with carbs

To lose belly fat quickly you need to be smart with your carbs. A small amount of certain carbs, like sweet potato or wholegrain rice, with dinner after training can aid recovery and help you get to sleep quicker. But the sugars and processed carbs found in chocolate, cakes, biscuits and sodas should be avoided if you want to burn fat and not gain it.

5. Drink like a fish

Being hydrated is crucial to getting lean quickly because if your body is struggling with the mental and physical problems of dehydration, it doesn’t have the resources or inclination to burn fat. Aim to drink at least three litres of water a day – carry a big bottle with you and sip frequently – and drink more on training days to ensure you stay hydrated.

6. Pick the right snacks

To burn fat you need to be in a calorie deficit (expending more than you take in) so inevitably you will feel hungry at times. Nutrient-dense snacks – nuts, natural yogurt, beef jerky – will fill you up and top up your intake of protein, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. Avoid high-sugar nutrient-light snacks. If you’re craving a sweet snack, just rely on the readily available, perfectly ripe selection of fruit available nowadays: apples, oranges, grapes, cherries, we could go on for days. You’ll knock off one of your five-a-day, the fibre will help keep you full and that juicy sweetness can’t be beaten.

Powerlifting is not just for powerlifters. The sport itself involves participants attempting to lift as much weight as possible in the squat, deadlift and bench press, but even if you have no intention of targeting such an event, building your training around these three fundamental barbell exercises can benefit everyone.

Training for this trio of compound exercises involves full-body workouts that will help you to develop well-rounded, functional fitness and increase your overall muscle mass. Your core strength will improve tenfold – and given the big three lifts involve heavy weights and lots of muscle groups, you’ll get your heart pumping as well, so your cardiovascular fitness will also benefit.

Following a powerlifting programme will help you get leaner and fitter in double-quick time – just six weeks, in fact, if you follow the strength training plan below.

How to do these strength training workouts

Each strength training workout focuses on one of the lifts, starting with a relatively light exercises designed to mobilise your target muscles. You then perform the key lift before doing an “assistance move”, which will help iron out weak spots in the main lift. The final two moves focus on one of the other powerlifts so that you train that exercise twice a week.

Follow the sets, reps and rest instructions for each move to get the maximum benefit. Do each workout once a week for six weeks, aiming to increase the amount you lift each time. And make sure you make a note of how much you lift in each strength training session to keep yourself motivated.

How to warm up for these strength training workouts

This strength training plan is not for beginners, primarily because you’ll be using heavy weights throughout the workouts. That also means you need to consider your warm-up carefully, because for the best results you’ll need to be ready to lift big from the start of your workout, rather than half-arsing the first couple of sets while your body grinds into gear. In addition, those heavy weights mean the risk of injury to a cold body is all the greater.

In your warm-up, it’s crucial to target the muscles you’re actually intending to use in your workout, rather than just doing five minutes on a cardio machine getting your heart rate up. If you’re not sure what to do, start with this stretching warm-up routine, which will limber up all the key muscle groups you might be using, and then go into some workout-specific drills.

The easiest way to go about this is to run through a circuit of the workout you’re about to do using very light weights or an unweighted bar, or even no weight at all. That way you’ll be sure to prep the muscles you’re intending to test.

Workout 1: Squat

1 Kettlebell goblet squat

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 45sec

Why If you focus on touching your elbows to your knees then it’ll build the mobility you need for full-depth squatting, as well as flexibility in your groin and ankles, which makes it an ideal warm-up move.

How Hold the kettlebell with both hands in front of your chest, and squat down with your back straight and chest up. Descend until your elbows touch the insides of your knees, then put your weight on your heels as you stand back up.

2 Back squat

Sets 5 Reps 5 Rest 60-90sec

Why Squatting with big weights will build full-body muscle thanks to the huge growth hormone hit it prompts. It works not just your legs, but also your core, back and everything else below the bar.

How Hold the bar on your traps and stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart, toes pointing out slightly. Keep your back straight by looking at a spot on the floor about 2m in front of you, then sit back and down as if you’re aiming for a chair. Lower until your hip crease is below your knee. Keep your weight on your heels as you drive up.

3 Bulgarian split squat

Sets 2 Reps 8 each side Rest 60sec

Why This variation of the squat will target your quads – a key muscle group involved in heavy squats. It also works your legs independently so that you are equally strong and stable on both sides.

How Start with your back foot on a bench and your front foot approximately 60cm in front of the bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Bend at the knee to lower towards the floor, keeping your torso upright, then press back up to the start. Make sure that your knee is in line with your ankle and that your front foot is far enough forwards that your knee doesn’t travel in front of your mid-foot. Complete all the reps on one side, then switch.

4 Snatch-grip deadlift

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why Because your grip’s wider in this move, you’ll need to move the bar through a larger range of motion, increasing the growth hormone hit.

How Hold a barbell with your hands roughly double shoulder-width apart. Push through your heels and keep your chest up as you drive your hips forwards to lift the bar.

5 Kettlebell swing

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why This full-body move engages all the muscles of your posterior chain – the ones involved in a deadlift.

How Swing the kettlebell between your legs with both hands, then pop your hips forwards to drive it up to head height, keeping your arms relaxed. Let the bell swing back into the next rep and don’t bend your knees much.

Workout 2: Deadlift

1 Kettlebell sumo deadlift

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why This version of the deadlift is a good way of drilling a movement pattern where you engage your hamstrings and hinge at the hips to perform the move. You’re using a fairly light weight so it won’t fatigue your muscles before you get to the heavy deadlift sets in the next exercise.

How Taking a wider stance than in a regular deadlift, place the kettlebell between your legs. Start the move by straightening your legs without changing the angle of your torso. Once your legs are straight, push your hips through to straighten up.

2 Deadlift

Sets 5 Reps 5 Rest 60-90sec

Why The deadlift is arguably the most effective whole-body strength and muscle builder. It also focuses on your posterior chain – the muscles on the back of your body, which often end up undertrained but play a key role in promoting good posture and keeping you injury-free.

How Set up so you grip the bar with an overhand grip , hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Initiate the movement by loading your hamstrings and straightening your knees. Once the bar is past your knees you can straighten up fully.

3 Romanian deadlift

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 60-90sec

Why After your heavy deadlift sets this is an ideal way of developing the hamstring strength needed to improve your deadlift. It’s technically a lot easier than the deadlift so you’ll be able to go reasonably heavy even when your muscles are tired.

How Hold a barbell with an overhand grip just outside your thighs. Hinge at the hips to send the bar down the front of your thighs, ensuring that the bar stays close to you throughout the lift. Lower until you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings, then straighten back up, contracting your glutes at the top of the move.

4 Incline bench press

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why Setting the bench to an incline will mean you need to reduce the weight, but it’ll hit your chest from a new angle.

How Lie on a bench set at a 45˚ incline, holding a bar over your chest with your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Lower the bar until it’s touching your chest, then press it back up.

5 Press-up

Sets 3 Reps To failure Rest 60sec

Why The classic go-anywhere chest builder will also work your core, as well as teaching you to hold full-body tension.

How Get into a press-up position with your hands just wider than shoulder width. Keeping your abs braced, lower until your chest touches the floor – keeping your thighs off it – and then press back up.

Workout 3: Bench Press

1 Dumbbell bench press

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why Using dumbbells for this classic strength training chest builder emphasises your pecs more than the barbell version, because the dumbbells move slightly inwards throughout the rep and also go through a greater range of motion.

How Lie on a bench with your feet on the floor directly underneath your knees. Hold the dumbbells above you with arms straight, then lower them to your chest. Then drive your feet hard into the floor and push the dumbbells back strongly to the start position.

2 Bench press

Sets 5 Reps 5 Rest 60-90sec

Why It’s a classic for a reason: a properly executed bench press (your feet should be pressing into the floor) will tax your whole body and allow you to use heavy weights to maximise upper-body development. Ensure your form is correct to avoid injury and maximise growth.

How Grip the bar with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and squeeze your lats together to create a pressing platform before you take the bar out of the rack. Watch the ceiling, not the bar, to ensure you’re pressing in the same line each time. Lower the bar to your chest, aiming to brush your T-shirt without bouncing. Press up powerfully, pause at the top, then do your next rep.

3 Diamond press-up

Sets 3 Reps 8-10 Rest 60sec

Why This press-up variation places extra emphasis on your triceps, while slightly changing the stress on your chest to hit it from a different angle.

How Get into a press-up position, placing your hands close together so your thumbs and index fingers touch. Keeping your body in a straight line with your abs braced, lower until your chest is just above the floor, and then press back up.

4 Front squat

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why Shifting the bar in front of you moves the emphasis to your quads but also makes the move safer – you’ll be less likely to tip forwards and endanger your lower back.

How Take the bar out of the rack so it’s resting on the front of your shoulders and your palms face upwards. Squat down, keeping your chest up, then drive up through your heels to stand.

5 Dumbbell jump squat

Sets 3 Reps 5 Rest 60sec

Why This explosive strength training move will activate your fast-twitch muscle fibres, priming your nervous system so you get maximum muscle fibre recruitment. The rep count is low because this is about quality of movement rather than exhausting your target muscles.

How Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Squat down, then explode up to jump as high as you can. Land softly and go straight into the next rep.

Diet tips

Follow this six-week plan to the letter and you’ll be taxing your body hard, so it’s crucial that you help it to bounce back by following a healthy diet. That means limiting how much alcohol you drink and how many takeaways you order, as well as making sure you eat a minimum of five portions of fruit and veg a day, starting to replace refined carbs with complex carbs, and making sure you’re eating enough protein (1.4-2g of protein per kilo of bodyweight per day when training this hard). 

The good news is that it’s very easy to get enough protein through your diet rather than relying on supplements, and the additional micronutrients and other good stuff you get in food like lean meat and vegetarian proteins well help your body cope with the strain you’re putting it under. This seven-day meal plan for muscle gain can help you get started.

All this means that you need to put as much time and effort into preparing healthy meals at home as you do in the gym. If you’re new to the kitchen and could do with a helping hand while you develop your cooking ability, you can try recipe boxes or meal delivery services. You pay a premium for the convenience, but they tend to be far healthier than ready meals – and some meal delivery services offer consultations with nutritionists to design meal plans that support your efforts in the gym.

More About Strength Training

While we’ve laid out exactly what you need to do, it’s still worth familiarising yourself with these five common strength training mistakes to make sure you’re not making any unforced errors.

If you haven’t got access to a gym at the moment, find out how to start strength training at home, and for women, we have a guide to strength training for women featuring a beginner’s home workout plan. 

Although the exact details have not yet been announced by the government, it seems likely that gyms are set to be among the businesses that will be allowed to reopen in July in England, with the rest of the UK to follow before too long. If you’ve been itching to get back into the weights room, this is great news – but of course training in the gym is going to be a different experience from what it was before the lockdown.

Even if the 2m social distancing guidelines are reduced to 1m before gyms and other businesses reopen in July, it will clearly be vital to keep your distance from other people when working up a sweat.

In a glimpse into what gym-goers everywhere can expect, PureGym has revealed the major changes that will help to keep ’em separated, with every other cardio machine put out of use and limits placed on overall numbers in the gym.

Furthermore, boxes will be marked out on the floor of the gym to delineate the area you should stick to during your workout where possible.

See related 

• A Straightforward Gym Workout Routine For Beginners
• A Four-Week Gym Workout Routine To Get Big And Lean
• What The Weights Machines In Your Gym Do

Of course, keeping your distance is only part of the solution. The gyms will also have more cleaning stations installed so you can disinfect the equipment before and after you use it, and there will be hand-sanitising stations throughout the gyms. Each night the premises will be deep-cleaned with antiviral disinfectant, and teams will be cleaning all the equipment throughout the gym as well, on top of the cleaning done by the members.

The gyms will have contactless entry using a key fob or a QR code in the PureGym app, which will also show you how many people are in your local gym so you can plan your visit to avoid the busiest times.

These measures will reduce the risks of visiting the gym during the pandemic, though of course if the infection rate in the UK starts to rise again you can expect gyms to be among the first businesses to be shut down again. PureGym will contact its members once it has a reopening date for each of its gyms.

It’s all very well making a commitment to get fitter, but sometimes you need a little something else to spur you on. If that something is raising cash for a good cause while you hone your muscles by running up stairs, swimming in the sea or racing to the top of Snowdon under moonlight, then these charitable events might help you reach your fitness goals – and give you a pang of pride that you’re doing some good, too.

While it’s obviously doubtful that challenges in the next few months will take place, we’ve still included them because we can’t predict how events will unfold. Plus, we trust that you’ll check and follow public health advice and your own common sense. 

Swimathon (27th-29th March)

The late March date of this pool swimming event makes it perfect to train for if you’re dead set on kicking off a new fitness regime in January. You can swim a range of distances from 400m to 5K, and if even 5K isn’t enough for you then there’s the option of doing it three times across the event’s three days. The event raises money for Cancer Research UK and the Marie Curie charity.

Sign up

Sierra Leone Marathon (20th-25th May 2020)

This race winds through forests and villages in northern Sierra Leone and gives participants a chance to see first-hand how their fundraising is put to use, with visits to several sites operated by international development charity Street Child on the itinerary. If the full 42.2km seems too much, there are also half marathon, 10K and 5K events available.

Sign up

Uganda Marathon (24th-31st May)

The stunning race you undertake at the end of a week in Uganda is just part of what makes this trip special, with participants able to work on the projects they have raised funds for in the days leading up to the event. The race itself is tough, with an undulating route taking place at an altitude of over 1,200m that includes a particularly savage climb known as The Beast. There are 10K and half marathon options available if the full marathon seems too daunting – and if you’re on the fence about joining this trip, this nugget from the organisers might swing it: one of five participants described it as the best week of their life.

Sign up

The Broadgate Tower Run Up (5th July 2020)

There are quite a few annual tower running events in the UK now, but this one distinguishes itself in a number of ways. One is that you can run for any charity of your choice. Another is that there will be elite tower runners present, so you can see how the world’s best tackle stairs at speed. Perhaps most intriguing, however, is that you can climb the 877 stairs of the Broadgate Tower more than once if you wish. There are one-, three-, six- and 12-climb events, and participants in the last of those cover a full vertical mile, which has got to be worth some extra sponsorship. You can also enter as a team for the Sprint Challenge, in which three team members each do one climb, or the Everest Challenge, in which you aim to complete 60 climbs in total as a team of at least five.

Sign up

Glasgow To Edinburgh Trek (25th-26th July 2020)

Trek 100km through the day and night from Glasgow to Edinburgh via the Falkirk Wheel to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. You’ll be following the Union Canal for most of the 100km, and there are aid stations at regular intervals where you can grab a snack or a nap and let a medical expert patch up your feet. We did this one in 2018 and our top advice is to not take it lightly – you’ll be on your feet for more than 24 hours and won’t get much, if any, sleep. That’s good to know, though, because it’ll make you more demanding when it comes to sponsorship.

Sign up

See related 

• Seven Great UK Charity Walks For 2021
• How To Get A Charity Place For The London Marathon 2022
• What It’s Like To Run The London Marathon For A Charity
• 32 Great Outdoor Challenges

Race The Sun Lake District (5th September 2020)

You have from sunrise to sunset to get through this unique triathlon, a fundraiser for Action Medical Research For Children. That works out at roughly 14 hours of daylight to complete a 64km cycle, a 3.2km canoe on Derwentwater, and a 17.7km hike to the top of Skiddaw mountain. You’ll be going in a team of four, so recruit three pals and get training.

Sign up

BHF London to Brighton Off-Road Bike Ride (5th September 2020)

The British Heart Foundation claims its 110km city-to-coast mountain biking pedal-pusher has it all. And since Europe’s largest charity off-road cycling event includes steep forest inclines, technical descents, rocky paths and muddy single tracks, this is no exaggeration. Cough up the very reasonable £35 entry fee and raise over £100, and you not only get a marshalled route to romp over, mechanical support at all times, training tips, drinks and eats en route, and a big finishing line party, but a bloomin’ massage once you hop out of your saddle, too. They’re talking our language.

Register for notifications when entries open

SAMH Stomp (10th October)

Head to the BT Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on World Mental Health day and tackle a stair-climbing challenge to raise money for the Scottish Association for Mental Health. There are three challenges to choose between. The Classic Stomp involves climbing 4,200 stairs, covering the south, west and north lower stands, and the lower and upper east stand. If you feel like you’re selling yourself short by not covering every stair in the stadium, then opt for the Extreme Stomp, where the count rises to 7,500 stairs as you take on the Classic Stomp plus the remaining upper stands. And if 7,500 steps still seems too low then consider the Ultimate Stomp, where you do the Extreme Stomp three times over for a total of 22,500 stairs. Crivvens.

Sign up

Royal Marines’ Charity Commando Series (7th-8th November 2020)

Coming straight out of the Commando test book, this 6km or 12km test of endurance is littered with 18 of the toughest obstacles the UK’s hardiest servicemen tackle in their training. Yep, you’re right to cower in fear. There are cave crawls, mud slides and suspended river crossings to take on around Hever Castle in Kent. If you fancy going full Commando, there’s the option to make it a two-dayer thanks to an ace-sounding Bivouac Experience.

Sign up

We’re going to go right ahead and assume you’ve already downloaded the Sport Relief app in order to take part in the Billion Steps Challenge, but that’s far from the only way you can get active this March in order to raise money for the charity.

British Triathlon is hoping to mobilise everyone, not just the multi-sport community, to raise money for Sport Relief by tackling the GO TRI gym challenge. Rest assured this doesn’t involve anything like as much effort as completing a real triathlon, and certainly avoids taking a dip in an icy body of open water – in fact you don’t have to swim at all, if you don’t want to.

As you’d expect, there are three parts to the challenge – a 500m row or swim, a 7.5km ride on an indoor bike, and 1.5km run or walk on a treadmill. You can do these back-to-back in one session, or complete them over a few visits to your local gym.

See related 

• The UK’s Best Triathlons To Enter In 2021
• The Best Gym Challenges
• Nine Challenges To Take On With Your Gym Buddy

Make sure to note your times for each aspect of the challenge and then upload them to the GO TRI website. You can make your time public to see how you rank against elite athletes and celebrities who have also taken the challenge, or keep it private if you prefer. If you are hoping to appear high on the leaderboard you can prepare for the challenge using the short GO TRI exercise classes available on the Sport Relief app.

If you don’t have a gym membership you can get a free guest pass to use at DW Fitness First gyms between Monday 12th and Sunday 25th March. Head to the GO TRI Sport Relief section of the Fitness First website between those dates to get your pass. If you happen to live in Newport in Wales, you can also just rock up to The Gym Group branch and tell them you’re doing the challenge, and they’ll welcome you with open arms.

How does this raise money for Sport Relief, we hear you ask? Good question. Well, once you’ve completed your challenge, or indeed before then, or frankly even if you have no intention of ever doing the challenge, you can head to the British Triathlon fundraising page and donate to Sport Relief.

In This Series

• Build Muscle Fast With These Four-Week Workout Plans
• Four-Week Workout to Add Muscle Faster

This page: Add muscle and torch fat | Next page: Add muscle faster

Some people claim it’s impossible to burn body fat and build muscle at the same time, believing that you have to prioritise one training goal over the other. That’s not the case – but to achieve both simultaneously, you have to start training smarter.

This workout will get you doing just that because each week it combines two total-body sessions, taxing all your muscles to initiate the fat-burning process, with two upper-body muscle-building sessions, which will add lean mass across your torso. The result is that you will transform your physique by stripping away unwanted fat from across your middle while sculpting a bigger, stronger body.

Here’s how the plan works

This four-week training plan is made up of four workouts a week. Workout one is a total-body session; workout two targets your chest and back; workout three is another total-body session; and workout four hits your arms and shoulders.

This approach gives you the fat-burning benefits of two tough full-body workouts per week and the muscle-building benefits of also hitting the major muscles of your upper body with their own dedicated session.

Each workout is made up of five moves. The first two moves are big, compound lifts done in a superset for four sets of 12 reps to get your heart rate high and muscles pumped. The final three moves make up a tri-set, which means you’ll do them in order with minimal rest until you’ve completed all the reps of the third move.

Do the workouts in order, sticking to the sets, reps, tempo and rest periods detailed, and you’ll blast away your belly fat while also adding lean muscle mass to your chest, arms, shoulders and back, giving you your best ever body after just four weeks.

Tempo training

To get the full effect from these workouts, you need to stick to the four-digit tempo code for each exercise. The first digit indicates how long in seconds you take to lower the weight, the second how long you pause at the bottom of the move, the third how long you take to lift the weight, and the final digit how long you pause at the top. The accumulated time under tension increases your heart rate to burn body fat and break down muscle tissue so it’s rebuilt bigger and stronger. Keep each rep smooth and controlled so your muscles – not momentum – do the work, and move through a full range of motion.

Workout 1: Total Body

1A Squat

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Stand tall with a bar across the backs of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and core braced, squat down as deep as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.

1B Triceps dip

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Grip rings or parallel bars with your arms straight. Keeping your chest up, bend your elbows to lower your body as far as your shoulders allow. Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

2A Glute bridge

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 10sec

Lie with your upper back supported on a bench, holding a barbell across the tops of your thighs. Thrust your hips up, squeeze your glutes at the top, and then return to the start.

2B Incline dumbbell curl

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 10sec

Sit on a bench angled at 45° with dumbbells by your sides, palms facing forwards. Keeping your elbows tucked in, curl the weights up, squeezing your biceps at the top. Lower them back to the start.

2C Seated overhead press

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Sit on an upright bench with a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height. Keeping your chest up, press the weights directly overhead until your arms are straight, then lower them back to the start.

Workout 2: Chest and back

1A Bench press

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.

1B Bent-over row

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Hold a barbell with an overhand grip, hands just outside your legs. Hinge forwards from your hips, brace your core, then pull the bar up, leading with your elbows. Lower it back to the start.

2A Incline dumbbell press

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 10sec

Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand by your shoulders. Brace your core, then press the weights up until your arms are straight. Lower them back to the start.

2B Incline dumbbell flye

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 10sec

Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand above your face, with your palms facing and a slight bend in your elbows. Lower them to the sides, then bring them back to the top.

2C One-Arm row

Sets 4 Reps 12 each side Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec

Kneel on a bench with one hand on it for support, holding a dumbbell in the other hand. Keeping your chest up, row the weight up, leading with your elbow, then lower back to the start. Complete all the reps on one side, then switch.

Workout 3: Total body

1A Front squat

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Stand tall with a bar across the front of your shoulders with elbows up. Keeping your core braced, squat down as deep as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.

1B Rack pull

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Stand tall in front of a barbell resting on safety bars at knee height. Using a double overhand grip, bend down and deadlift the bar up, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top.

2A Good morning

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 10sec

Stand tall holding a light barbell across the backs of your shoulders, feet shoulder-width apart. With your core braced, bend forward slowly from the hips, as far as your hamstrings allow but not past horizontal. Return to the start.

2B Reverse flye

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 10sec

Bend forward from the hips with a light dumbbell in each hand with palms facing. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, raise the weights out to shoulder height, then lower back to the start.

2C Barbell roll-out

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec

Kneel on the floor holding a barbell with both hands. Roll the bar forward so you lower your torso, keeping your core braced. Then use your abs muscles to return to the start.

Workout 4: Arms and shoulders

1A Chin-up

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Hold a bar with an underhand grip. Brace your core, then pull yourself up until your chin is higher than the bar. Lower until your arms are straight again.

1B Overhead press

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec

Hold a barbell across the top of your chest with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Keeping your chest up and core braced, press the bar overhead until your arms are straight. Lower it back to the start.

2A Standing dumbbell biceps curl

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 10sec

Stand with dumbbells by your sides, palms facing forwards. Keeping your elbows tucked in, curl the weights up, squeezing your biceps at the top. Lower them back to the start.

2B Triceps extension

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 10sec

Stand tall holding a dumbbell over your head with both hands, arms straight. Keeping your chest up, lower the weight behind your head, then raise it back to the start.

2C Lateral raise

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec

Stand tall, holding a light dumbbell in each hand with palms facing. Keeping your chest up and a bend in your elbows, raise the weights out to shoulder height, then lower back to the start.

As the weather turns colder more and more of us exercise indoors, where the greatest challenge to overcome is boredom, rather than freezing winds and icy pavements. This November, the best way to keep boredom at bay is to sign up for one of the Gym Group’s epic challenges in aid of Movember.

All your long stints on the treadmill, exercise bike, rower or stepper can go towards completing a mammoth task like cycling from London to Paris, trekking the Inca Trail or a variety of other challenges. You can attempt these challenges solo or as part of a team, and you can also enter the Gym Group's nationwide fitness challenge – a row from the UK to Melbourne, the birthplace of Movember, and back. That’s 34 million metres, if you’re wondering, so plenty of participants are required.

To take part in the Melbourne row donate £2, row 1,000m and log it with a trainer at the gym. For all of the other challenges, sign up to take part in the Move campaign on the Movember website, join your local the Gym Group team, and get cracking.

RECOMMENDED: Nine Challenges To Take On With Your Gym Buddy

Membership at the Gym Group requires no contract and starts from £10.99 a month. Use the code MOVE4NJF to sign up with the Gym Group without paying a joining fee this Movember.

Here are some of the challenges you’ll be able to tackle with the Gym Group this Movember.

Climb Mount Everest (Or A Smaller Mountain)

Either go all out and climb up big one – that’s 9,000m (ish, it’s actually 8,848m, but all these targets are rounded up, which will probably really annoy you when you reach 8,848m – it’s not like mountaineers are rounding up when they reach Everest’s summit), 34,000 steps, or 3,000 floors – on the stepper or opt for a smaller peak. Kilimanjaro is 6,000m, 24,000 steps or 2,000 flours, while the UK’s Three Peaks challenge adds up to 3,000m, 12,000 steps or 1,000 floors.

Row The Length Of The Zambezi

You’ll need a team for this and a big team at that, because the Zambezi river is 2,574km long. Smaller rivers you can tackle instead include the Thames – which is a more reasonable 346km long.

Ride From London To Paris

Unlike the real trip, you don’t have to spend hours on a ferry for a London to Paris cycle if you ride it in the gym. The trip is 394km long, which is a hefty amount to get through solo, so you might want to buddy up for this one. If there’s a few of you, you can try to complete the 3,540km route of the Tour de France.

Run The Marathon Des Sables

Two of the toughest aspects of running the Marathon des Sables are the heat and the sandy terrain, neither of which you’ll encounter if you switch the 251km race from the Sahara Desert to your local Gym Group branch. That said, 251km is still an awful lot of running, so definitely get some team-mates involved for this.

For more info on Movember challenges available at branches of the Gym Group visit thegymgroup.com/movember

There’s nothing wrong with training for an aesthetic goal – and besides, if someone trains hard but says they don’t care how they look, the chances are they’re lying – but it would be a shame to add muscle without improving the other elements of fitness such as power, strength and agility.

These three workouts will give you an amazing all-round fitness benefit, as well as increasing the size of your biceps. The first session is a kettlebell workout designed to build explosive power. The second is a barbell workout dedicated to building strength and the third is a dynamic session that involves lots of whole-body movements that will get your heart racing and develop real-world capabilities.

How to do it

Do each workout once a week for six weeks, aiming to increase the amount you lift each time. The exception is the kettlebell moves, where you should add one rep to each set every two weeks. And make sure you note how much you lift in each session to keep yourself motivated.

Workout 1: Kettlebell

1 Swing

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 45sec

Why This full-body move engages all the muscles of your posterior chain, but also teaches the explosiveness you need to do everything from throwing a punch to jumping onto a box. Remember, it’s a swing and not a squat: you only need to bend your knees as much as you would before a big jump.

How Swing the kettlebell between your legs with both hands, and then pop your hips forwards to drive it up to head height, keeping your arms relaxed. Let the kettlebell swing back into the next rep – again, you don’t need to bend your knees much.

2 Rack squat

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 60sec

Why Holding kettlebells in the rack position in front of your chest enables you to be more self-correcting than the traditional barbell back squat does. You won’t be tempted to lean forwards, and holding the bells on your forearms will allow you to handle decent weight for moderate reps.

How Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and clean both kettlebells into the rack position, resting the bells on your forearms. Squat down as low as you can, pausing at the bottom. Drive back up through your heels.

3 Overhead press

Sets 4 Reps 8 each side Rest 60sec

Why As well as allowing your shoulder joint to rotate more naturally than a barbell press, the one-sided kettlebell version of the press brings your obliques into play, forcing them to work to stabilise your torso. Working your shoulders unilaterally should also fix any imbalances.

How From the rack position, press the kettlebell overhead, keeping the bell resting against your forearm. Lower the bell under control, pausing at the bottom of the move with the bell resting behind your shoulder. Complete all your reps on one side, then switch to the other.

4 Windmill

Sets 3 Reps 5 each side Rest 60sec

How Press the kettlebell overhead, then – keeping the leg under the bell straight and the other one slightly bent – lean your torso forwards and to one side so your free hand travels down your leg until the kettlebell is directly overhead. Keep your arm and back straight throughout. Reverse the movement to the top position.

5 Turkish get-up

Sets 3 Reps 5 each side Rest 60sec

How Lie on your back with a kettlebell in one hand. Roll slightly away from it as you press it up, using your other arm for support. Plant the foot on the kettlebell side on the floor, and let it take your weight as you sweep your other leg under you into a half-kneel. Stand up with the kettlebell overhead. Reverse the whole movement.

Workout 2: Barbell

1 Back squat

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 60-90sec

Why Squatting big weights will build full-body muscle because it prompts a huge growth hormone hit. It works not just your legs but also your core, back and everything else below the bar.

How Take the bar out of the rack so it rests on your trapezius muscles. Take two big steps back, ending with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart and toes pointing out slightly. Keep your spine in alignment by looking at a spot on the floor about two metres in front of you, then sit back and down as if you’re aiming for a chair. Descend until your hip crease is below your knee. Keep your weight on your heels as you drive back up.

2 Overhead press

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 60-90sec

Why The strict overhead press builds full-body muscle and co-ordination, bringing your abs into the equation to stabilise the weight overhead.

How With your feet shoulder-width apart, position a bar on your upper chest, gripping it with hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your abs, glutes and quads as you press the bar straight upwards. Pause at the top, then lower. You might find you can lift more weight by wrapping your thumbs around the same side as your fingers, because it keeps your forearms in a better position.

3 Bench press

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 60-90sec

Why It’s a classic for a reason: a properly executed bench press (your feet should be pressing into the floor) will tax your whole body and allow you to use heavy weights to maximise upper-body development. Ensure your form is correct to avoid injury and maximise growth.

How Grip the bar with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and squeeze your lats together to create a pressing platform before you take the bar out of the rack. Watch the ceiling, not the bar, to ensure you’re pressing in the same line each time. Lower the bar to your chest, aiming to brush your T-shirt without bouncing. Press up powerfully, pause at the top, and then go into your next rep.

4 Bent-over row

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 60-90sec

How Hold the bar with a shoulder-width grip, bending your knees slightly. Bend at the hips until you’re at roughly a 45˚ angle to the floor. Pull the bar up to touch your sternum and then lower under control. If you’re moving your upper body to shift the bar, the weight’s too heavy.

5 Roll-out

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 60-90sec

How Get on your knees with your arms extended, holding a barbell with a shoulder-width grip. Slowly roll the barbell away from your body, keeping your core braced throughout. Extend until your torso is parallel to the ground, then contract your abs to pull the bar back towards your body to return to the start.

Workout 3: Movement

1 Kettlebell walking lunge

Sets 4 Time 30sec Rest 60sec

Why The lunge is a great exercise because it works both sides of your body independently and requires you to balance your body in unstable positions. The walking version adds an extra co-ordination challenge and keeps tension on your muscles for the duration of the set.

How Hold a kettlebell in each hand then lunge forwards so that both knees are bent at 90°. Straighten up by bringing your back leg through and lunge forwards with that leg. Continue that movement for the duration of the set without resting.

2 Battle rope slam

Sets 4 Time 30sec Rest 60sec

Why Treadmills, rowers and Wattbikes are all fine for high-intensity cardio, but what if you want a high-intensity option that targets the shoulders and biceps? That’s where battle ropes come in. Because they allow you to work at an all-out pace with very little chance of over-fatigue injury, they’re ideal for short, nasty bursts of cardio.

How Hold a rope in each hand, raise both arms and then slam them down together, aiming to create a wave that travels all the way to the anchor point. For added cardio benefits, throw in a slight jump with each slam. You can also do this alternating arms.

3 Overhead carry walk

Sets 2 Time 30sec each side Rest 60sec

Why Weighted carries are great for building whole-body strength endurance and this version adds an extra shoulder stability test into the mix. You’ll also get a considerable test of your core strength because your trunk is forced to work hard to stay in a strong position.

How Press a kettlebell overhead and make sure that your shoulder is in a stable position. Walk forwards while holding the weight directly overhead. If you feel that your form is being compromised because of fatigue, stop the set, rest and go again.

4 Press-up burpee

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why No-one really likes burpees but they get your heart racing and develop explosive power in a safe way. The press-up variation adds an upper body strength element.

How From standing, drop into a crouch with your hands on the floor, then jump both legs back so that you’re in the top of a press-up position. Perform a press-up, then jump your legs forwards and spring up so that your feet leave the floor, keeping your body straight. Go straight into the next rep.

5 Powerbag Zercher carry

Sets 4 Time 30sec Rest 60sec

Why This loaded carry targets your biceps, which are held in an isometric contraction for the duration of the set. See, we told you there would be glory as well as guts in this workout.

How Hold a power bag in the crook of your arms and walk. It’s that simple. The set is over when you drop the bag or start whimpering.

Photography: Ben Knight; Model: Greg Cornthwaite

When you start working out, you learn that selecting certain set and rep ranges will help you to reach your goals faster. But that’s just the first stage in taking control of the key training variables. If you want to get bigger, stronger and leaner than ever, there are three vital workout concepts you need to understand – and know how to exploit.

Tempo

What does it mean? The speed at which you do your reps. This is often unnaturally slowly, in order to maximise muscular growth. Tempo is often recorded in a four-digit format – for instance, 4021.

The numbers refer, in order, to the time in seconds taken for the eccentric (lowering) part of the move, the pause in the bottom position, the concentric (lifting) part and the pause at the top.

Occasionally you’ll see an X, symbolising explosiveness, which simply means “as fast as possible”.

Why should you worry about it? There’s some evidence that time under tension (TUT), or how long your muscles are working during your sets, is more important than how many sets or reps you do for hypertrophy. So doing a ten-rep set that lasts for a solid 60 seconds might be more effective than grinding out 12-15 reps with the same weight but faster.

Bear in mind, though, that total TUT for each body part seems to be the defining factor – so if it’s chest day, include your dips as well as flyes and bench presses. Conversely, other studies suggest that lifting explosively can recruit otherwise hard-to-hit muscle fibres, so the odd fast concentric isn’t a bad idea.

Try this: Superset a slow set of bench presses with chin-ups, using a weight that allows you to do six reps of each, with a 4021 tempo. Rest for 90 seconds, and repeat a total of four times. If you’ve never done it before, enjoy the all-day pump.

Volume

What does it mean? The total sets and reps performed during a workout (or over a week). Ten sets of ten reps, for instance, would be considered a high-volume workout, whereas three sets of five (or, if you’re an Olympic weightlifter, eight sets of two) is fairly low-volume.

It’s often inversely correlated with intensity – ie the lower the volume, the higher the intensity should be, and vice versa.

Why should you worry about it? Studies suggest that, generally, higher volume is linked to improvement: if you’re struggling to make progress, just throwing in a few more sets or reps (or another exercise entirely) might be enough to change that.

“The tricky part is that you need to keep the work high-quality,” says trainer James Adamson. “If you’re doing six arms exercises but hardly putting in any effort on the last three, you’d be better off stripping things back and putting in more effort – or upping the weight.”

More volume also means recovery is more important.

Try this: Pump up the volume on squat day with a workout from Man Of Steel trainer Michael Blevins. Put 60% of your max on the bar and aim for a total of 100 reps over your workout, doing 20 burpee pull-ups every time you rack the bar. Don’t plan any stair-based activities afterwards.

Frequency

What does it mean? How often you train in general, or how often you train a specific body part. For instance, if you shift from a four-day legs/shoulders/chest/back split to a two-day full-body training plan, you’re actually upping the frequency of your legs training, despite going to the gym less.

Why should you worry about it? “It can be the best way to break through a plateau,” says trainer Geoff Clement of Pure Fitness gym. “If you’ve stopped making gains on your squat, or your chest won’t grow, adding another session for your lagging body part rather than piling in extra sets on one day won’t help.”

Experienced bodybuilders often use the lowest-frequency training: they’ll often smash a single body part with high-volume, low-tempo work once a week, and then allow it to recover for six days before training it again. If you’re a beginner or intermediate lifter, though, two or three sessions a week might be more beneficial.

Try this: Up your training frequency for pull-ups by doing them every day. Record your best all-out set, and do half of that four to five times throughout the day. Re-test after two weeks, and watch your max improve.

Reckon you could sit down on the floor then stand up again without using your hands? Whether you can or not, you should try to do it – and show your support for people with the muscle-wasting disease muscular dystrophy.

Launched by charity the Muscle Help Foundation (MHF) in partnership with Upbeat Drinks, the #657challenge (named for the 657 muscles in the body) aims to raise awareness and funds for the MHF, and encourage people to take care of their own muscles.

Now, we admit this version of the sit-to-rise test is not quite as simple as sitting down then standing up again. You have to do it while holding a glass full of water on your head, ideally avoiding any spillages.

Here’s a full run-down of what’s involved – just make sure you get someone to video you doing the following:

• Fill a cup of water to the brim.
• Hold the cup on top of your head, keeping both hands on it throughout.
• In a standing position, cross your legs.
• Lower until you are sitting on the floor.
• Drive back up to a standing position.

Then post your video to your favourite social media channels with the hashtag #657challenge and nominate three friends to give the challenge a go. Finally, and most importantly, text MUSC13 £5 to 70070 to donate to the MHF.

The less water you spill throughout the challenge, the better. It’s a surprisingly hard move to pull off, requiring flexibility, strength, balance and co-ordination. Check out Coach head honcho Jonathan Shannon attempting (and failing) the #657challenge.

If you take the #657challenge and are similarly alarmed at your inability to sit down and stand up without drenching yourself, then you might want to do a little work on the muscles involved.

Upbeat Drinks enlisted muscle expert Mike Aunger of Technique Physiotherapy and Sports Medicine to create a quick five-move workout designed to strengthen the muscles involved in the challenge.

1 Seated glute stretch

Sets 1 Time 30sec

Sit on a chair with your right ankle over your left knee to open up your hips. Pull your left knee into your chest to stretch your glutes, then gently press your knee down to open up your hips further. Go for 30 seconds in each direction and on both legs. Repeat daily.

2 Deep squat hold

Sets 1 Time 30-60sec

This hip stretch will dramatically boost your lower-body strength if done often enough. Lower into as deep a squat as you can manage, keeping your knees wide apart and back as flat as possible (so not hunched over). Hold a table for balance and to help you stand up again if needed. For a further stretch, push your elbows into your knees to open them up further. Repeat every other day.

3 Chair squat

Sets 3 Reps 5–6

Stand in front of and facing away from a chair and lower until seated, then drive back up using just your legs. Too easy? From standing, slowly lower until your backside is just touching the seat, then drive back up to stand. Still too easy? Try it standing on one leg, keeping the other one elevated. As you improve, use a lower seat. Repeat twice a week.

4 Ankle flex

Sets 3 Reps 10-12

Keep a band by your sofa and give this a go while watching TV for a painless way to stay stronger on your feet. Seated, with your heel on the floor and toes elevated, turn your foot outwards – it’ll strengthen the perineal muscles around your ankle and calf. Increase the resistance by doing it with an exercise band wrapped around your foot. Repeat every other day.

5 Superman

Sets 3 Reps 12-15

Strengthen your core muscles with this move. Lie on your belly with your arms outstretched in front of your head and face down to keep your neck neutral. Lift your right leg and left arm off the floor, then your left leg and right arm. Continue alternating, pausing for two seconds at the top of each lift and keeping it slow. Aim to do it two or three times a week.

There's no point spending hours in the gym when you can transform your body in less time. Try this four-week fast-results training plan to add muscle and strip away fat. Looking for the first three workouts in this series? Here's the  “I Have No Time” Muscle-Building Training Plan For December.

Workout 4: Total Body 2

1A Front squat

Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 0sec

Stand tall with a bar across the front of your shoulders with elbows up. Keeping your core braced, squat down as deep as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.

1B Rack pull

Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2111 Rest 90sec

Stand tall in front of a barbell resting on safety bars at knee height. Using a double overhand grip, bend down and deadlift the bar up, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top.

2 Glute bridge

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 30sec

Sit with your upper back supported on a bench, holding a barbell across the tops of your thighs. Thrust your hips up, squeeze your glutes at the top, and then return to the start.

3 Overhead press

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Hold a bar with your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Keeping your chest up and core braced, press the bar overhead until your arms are straight. Lower it back to the start.

4 Barbell roll-out

Sets 4 Reps 6-10 Tempo 2111 Rest 30sec

Kneel on the floor holding a barbell with both hands. Roll the bar forwards so you lower your torso, keeping your core braced. Then use your abs muscles to return to the start.

It’s that time of year where our normal schedules go out the window. Christmas parties, after-work catch-ups and general festive fun mean it’s all too easy to let your training regimen fall by the wayside.

Which is why this workout plan is designed to give you big results without you spending any longer than absolutely necessary on the gym floor.

All you need to do is get in, follow the five-move sessions (sticking to the sets, reps, tempo and rest detailed), then get out again. Try this approach and you’ll realise that building and maintaining a better body doesn’t mean slaving away for hours in the gym.

How The Plan Works

This month’s four-week workout is made up of four sessions a week, two of which (workouts 1 and 3) focus on your upper-body muscles while the other two (workouts 2 and 4) are total-body sessions. The first three workouts are below, and you can find the final workout on this page: Workout 4: Total Body 2.

The emphasis in all four workouts is on working multiple muscle groups with a hard and intense approach – think high reps and short rest periods – in order to make every move of every session as effective as possible to help you build muscle and burn body fat in less time.

All the workouts are made up of five moves. The first two moves of all four workouts are big, compound lifts done in a superset, which means you do all the reps of move 1A then go straight into all the reps of move 1B, resting only after that set is complete.

The final three moves of each session are straight sets, so you’ll do all the sets and reps of each move, then move on to the next one.

Lift as heavy as you can while maintaining perfect form. Do the workouts in order, sticking to the sets, reps, tempo and rest periods detailed, and you’ll be amazed how quickly you build lean muscle and strip away fat to transform your body.

Tempo Training

To get the full effect from these workouts, you need to stick to the four-digit tempo code for each exercise.

The first digit indicates how long in seconds you take to lower the weight, the second how long you pause at the bottom of the move, the third how long you take to lift the weight, and the final digit how long you pause at the top. X means that part of the move should be done explosively.

The accumulated time under tension increases your heart rate to burn fat and break down muscle tissue so it’s rebuilt bigger and stronger. Keep each rep smooth and controlled so your muscles – not momentum – do the work.

Workout 1: Upper Body 1

1A Bench press

Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 0sec

Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.

1B Chin-up

Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 90sec

Hold a bar with an underhand grip. Brace your core, then pull yourself up until your chin is higher than the bar. Lower until your arms are straight again.

2 Incline dumbbell flye

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand above your face, with your palms facing and a slight bend in your elbows. Lower them to the sides, then bring them back to the top.

3 Triceps extension

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Stand tall holding a dumbbell over your head with both hands, arms straight. Keeping your chest up, lower the weight behind your head, then raise it back to the start.

4 Lateral raise

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 30sec

Stand tall, holding a light dumbbell in each hand with palms facing. Keeping your chest up and a bend in your elbows, raise the weights to the sides until they reach shoulder height. Lower back to the start.

Workout 2: Total Body 1

Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 0sec

Stand tall with a bar across the back of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and core braced, squat down as deep as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.

1B Bent-over row

Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 90sec

Hold a barbell with an overhand grip, hands just outside your legs. Bend your knees slightly, brace your core, then pull the bar up, leading with your elbows. Lower it back to the start.

2 Triceps dip

Sets 4 Reps 8-12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Grip rings or parallel bars with your arms straight. Keeping your chest up, bend your elbows to lower your body as far as your shoulders allow. Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

3 Good morning

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2110 Rest 30sec

Stand tall holding a light barbell across the backs of your shoulders, feet shoulder-width apart. With your core braced, bend forwards slowly from the hips, as far as your hamstrings allow but not past horizontal. Return to the start.

4 Barbell roll-out

Sets 4 Reps 6-10 Tempo 4111 Rest 30sec

Kneel on the floor holding a barbell with both hands. Roll the bar forwards so you lower your torso, keeping your core braced. Then use your abs muscles to return to the start.

Workout 3: Upper Body 2

1A Incline bench press

Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 0sec

Lie on an incline bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.

1B Pull-up

Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 90sec

Hold a pull-up bar using an overhand grip with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then pull yourself up until your lower chest touches the bar. Lower until your arms are straight again.

2 Seated overhead press

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 30sec

Sit on an upright bench with a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height. Keeping your chest up, press the weights directly overhead until your arms are straight, then lower them back to the start.

3 Standing biceps curl

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2110 Rest 30sec

Stand with dumbbells by your sides, palms facing forwards. Keeping your elbows tucked in, curl the weights up, squeezing your biceps at the top. Lower them back to the start.

4 Reverse flye

Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 30sec

Bend forward from the hips with a light dumbbell in each hand with palms facing. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, raise the weights out to shoulder height, then lower back to the start.

NEXT: Workout 4: Total Body 2

Anyone who has ever spent time at high altitude will know that the fantastic views come with a price. The thin air will have you gasping in no time at all, and any kind of activity at altitude becomes far harder. That might make you think it’s best to avoid over-exerting yourself when miles above sea level, but there are actually a host of advantages to training in a hypoxic chamber.

Why Try Altitude Training?

Spending even 15 minutes working out at great heights is not easy, so you’ll want plenty of bang for your buck in terms of fitness benefits. Coach asked Bobby Rich, personal trainer at luxury health club Third Space, what ordinary people could expect from a couple of sessions a week in a chamber that simulates the effects of high altitude on the human body.

“One of the largest benefits from using a hypoxic chamber is the increase of red blood cells, which allows for more oxygen and nutrients to be carried in the blood straight to your muscles.

“For a professional athlete this allows them to work at a higher intensity, thereby increasing their aerobic capacity. The red blood cells also carry away waste quicker, allowing the athlete to have a higher lactate threshold and to recover faster. This is still a huge benefit for ordinary folks. Due to that increase of red blood cells, you will benefit from an improved immune system, improved blood circulation and decreased blood pressure [if high].”

Coach tried out altitude training in the rarefied air of Third Space Soho’s hypoxic chamber, taking on its “Elevation Challenge”. This consisted of a 1,000m row, a 50cal assault bike, a 1,000m run with three per cent incline, and 10 burpees – all done as quickly as possible.

It is ridiculous how much harder everything becomes once some extra height is added to the equation. Coach managed most of the row, but by the time the absurdly difficult assault bike ride was finished, everything was hurting to the point that the 1,000m run took two-and-a-half minutes longer than it would normally.

You don’t need to go all out and do a similar challenge, but you can be sure that moving any kind of workout up to mountain height will make it twice as hard in half the time.

Where to Try Altitude Training in London

Third Space, Soho

Members at the Soho branch of Third Space can “enjoy” training in the on-site hypoxic chamber, and take on the Elevation Challenge where you can win six months’ complimentary membership. From £150 monthly, 67 Brewer Street, W1F, thirdspace.london

The Altitude Centre

For one-off classes and solo workouts at altitude, head to The Altitude Centre, which hosts spinning and running sessions. From £29, Trump Street, EC2V, altitudecentre.com

How High is Too High? The Effects Of Altitude On The Body

Coach explores altitude training in a gym's hypoxic chamber. Altitude training helps increase red blood cells, which allows for more oxygen and nutrients to be delivered to your muscles.

Training at altitude was once reserved for the top 1%, the elite, affluent sportsmen and women chasing performance perfection at alpine boot camps or in high-tech sports labs. It’s now more accessible, with centres across the country – recently including Virgin Active’s London Walbrook club – bringing the mountain conditions to the masses via hypoxic chambers, with claims that they’re as useful for helping shift stubborn belly fat as they are for shaving milliseconds off your triathlon time. Here we break down how training at escalating altitudes affects the human body.

0m – sea level

The human body can perform best at sea level where the atmospheric pressure and concentration of oxygen in the air (20.9%) saturates haemoglobin, the oxygen-binding red pigment in red blood cells.

1,344m – highest altitude in UK (Ben Nevis)

With less oxygen available, you get out of breath easier and lactic acid builds up in your muscles quicker. Above 1,830m the body exhales and perspires twice as much moisture as at sea level, meaning you get dehydrated quicker.

3,000m – hypoxic chamber (Virgin Active)

3,000m – hypoxic chamber (Virgin Active)

After 2,100m the saturation of oxyhaemoglobin begins to plummet. To make up for the drop in oxygen, your heart rate and breathing rate has to increase to supply it to your muscles and expel carbon dioxide.

4,810m – highest altitude in Alps (Mont Blanc)

Pulmonary artery pressure increases in an effort to oxygenate the blood. Blood flow is prioritised to supply the brain, heart and lungs. With more blood being pumped through the arteries to the brain, headaches are common.

5,888m – highest altitude in Mount Kilimanjaro 

Exposure for very short bouts in a hypoxic chamber conditions your body for altitude pre-mountain trip and helps improve your body's ability to use oxygen for exercise, but prolongued exposure can be problematic. Non-essential bodily functions are suppressed, resulting in a decline in food digestion efficiency. Lack of blood flow to the digestive organs can cause nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite.

Piers Chen, Performance Specialist at The Altitude Centre says, “The summit of Kilimanjaro is approximately 5,888m. At 10% oxygen, you don’t want to spend much time at this level. Symptoms of this level of altitude include sleepiness, slowing of cognitive functioning, headaches and nausea. The air is so thin, each steps feels like a massive effort. Even taking a sip of water leaves you gasping for air.”

There's no chance of any adverse effects at the Altitude Centre, though. Visitors only spend a maximum of five minutes in 5,888m conditions for the final part of their passive acclimatisation (spending time at simulated altitudes, but not exercising), and they must be sitting down. “We've never had anyone pass out or vomit, and long may that last!” says spokesperson Lex Rees.

8,848m – highest altitude in the world (Everest)

Mountaineers refer to altitudes above 8,000m as the “death zone”, where no human body can acclimatise because the oxygen is too low to support life. Sleeping becomes very difficult, digesting food is near-impossible and the risk of death from fluid in the lungs and swelling of the brain increases greatly.

Starting at around 7am on Friday 30th September and Sunday 2nd October, two teams of six people will attempt to run and cycle from Buckingham Palace to Edinburgh Castle and back again within 50 hours – a feat never previously attempted. The good news for our brave men and women is that it’s very achievable, even with a mere six weeks to train. The bad? Well, there’s a quite a big if attached to that last sentence…

RECOMMENDED: The Fitbit Fifty Route

“To start this training programme, you should already be able to do a 50km ultra-distance run or a 100-mile cycle,” says coach George Anderson, a veteran of the Endure 24 race and Ironman triathlons. “If you can do either of those, you could probably struggle through the distance right now. This training plan, however, will enable you to do it more comfortably and a bit quicker.” The latter is essential, as our teams are competing against the clock.

This plan uses heart-rate training to monitor intensity – every participant will be equipped with a Fitbit Surge to track and display heartbeats per minute – and mixes tough threshold sessions designed to improve the body’s ability to recover from lactate build-up with easy paced recovery rides to allow the teams to go further and faster.

The specialised nature of the challenge – riders will tackle the bike sections in pairs, each person completing at least 50km before resting – also means specific training will achieve the best results. “There’s a big difference between doing it in stages and doing it in one go,” says Anderson. “You’re basically going to be doing a couple of hours on the bike, then take three or four hours off, so this plan contains one day a week when you’ll do a 50km loop, then rest before doing it again.”

It’s a good idea for participants to have a training partner so they can practise riding as a pair, including drafting behind one another. Most Saturdays contain a single all-out one-hour effort done close to time-trial pace, ideally with a partner. This will also mean an early start. “Practising the sleep-deprivation element of the challenge is one simple training hack that will get results without more time on the road,” says Anderson. “Getting your body used to moving around at times when it’s normally asleep is half the battle.”

RECOMMENDED: Who’s Doing the Fitbit Fifty

Below is the six-week plan that has been sent to our brave athletes. The first two weeks are designed to get them used to the distances involved; the middle two weeks consist of hard efforts; while the final fortnight ends with moderate tapering towards the event itself. The intensity of the sessions is designed to be measured by the Fitbit Surge; if you don’t have a heart-rate monitor, aim to do the cardio pace sessions at a rate that’s fairly easy and sustainable, and the peak sessions at an intensity that you can only just maintain for the time required.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

This plan was designed by running coach George Anderson and James McCallum, sports director at oneprocycling.com

You’d be excused for thinking it all comes a bit too easily for Wales rugby union captain Sam Warburton. He’s already led Wales to a World Cup semi-final and a Six Nations Grand Slam victory and captained the British and Irish Lions to their first series win since 1997. Yet, for the 1.88m, 99kg back row forward, this wasn’t always the case.

“Putting on weight and size was one of my biggest hurdles when I was coming through the academy system,” Warburton tells us, speaking about the difficulties of bulking for rugby and battling a naturally skinny ectomorph body type. “I used to take all sorts of shakes. One had 2,500 calories in it. A nutritionist said I had to eat four slices of bread with every meal, four to five times a day. I found it really difficult. When you’re young your metabolism is so high. Everything I ate would go straight through me. But as I ate and trained smarter things started to change.” Here are his five lessons for building rugby bulk.

RECOMMENDED: How To Bulk Up – The 10 Week Body Plan

1. Escalate your workout intensity

Warburton found a muscle-bulking solution with a relatively new training programme called Escalating Density Training (EDT) known for forcing your muscles to grow big quickly. “EDT is best summed up as the total amount of work completed within a set amount of time,” says Warburton. Density is measured by the amount of work done in that time, and the “escalating” part is because you’re aiming to complete more work, or density, in each successive workout. The time stays the same, but the amount of work you do steps up every session.

Each workout consists of two 15- to 20-minute time frames, usually with a five-minute rest period between the two. In each you’ll perform two exercises, making four exercises in total. Alternate the exercises until the time has elapsed and record the number of total reps performed.

2. Pick the big lifts

“For a typical 15-minute EDT workout I superset chin-ups with bench presses,” says Warburton. Because you only do four exercises in one workout there’s no use picking isolation moves like calf raises or triceps extensions. Instead opt for compound moves that work multiple muscles at once. Think squats, deadlifts, lunges, overhead presses, dips and seated rows. “For each move I pick my ten-rep maximum weight but only do five reps each time. After you get to sets five, six and seven you start to get quite badly fatigued and have to lower the weights. It’s pretty horrible but very effective.”

3. Crank up the pressure

The key is how much rest you afford yourself within the time frame. As your body begins to adapt, you’ll be able to reduce your rest periods and therefore clock up more total reps. It’s recommended that, once you can increase the total number of reps by 20% or more, you do the next workout with 5% more weight and start again from the beginning.

4. Go big in pre-season

“In the off-season you can afford to do a lot of hypertrophy because you don’t have to make sure you’re fresh to play," says Warburton. If you’re not a pro, this might not apply, but it’s worth saving this type of training for a time when you’re not playing a lot of other sports because you’ll need all the rest you can get between sessions to recover. “Over the summer I sometimes do double days,” Warburton adds. “In the past with Cardiff Blues I’ve done strength on my chest in the morning and hypertrophy on my chest in the afternoon to pack on size without losing strength.”

5. Bulk up your diet

To match this Herculean training effort, Warburton has to put in a shift in the kitchen. “I aim to get 200-300g of protein in everyday but I have to be diligent about what I eat,” he says. “I try to eat a lot of carbohydrates but the right ones at the right time and look to get at least 40g of protein into every meal.” On average Warburton has five proper meals a day, each containing 40g of protein plus three protein shakes.

“Typically breakfast is a three- or four-egg omelette with tomatoes and peppers, and I love to have chicken and chorizo in there,” says Warburton. “Chorizo is a bit naughty but it adds a lot of flavour and I get away with it because I need to eat more to put weight on. Once that’s gone down I usually follow it up with a bowl of oat porridge with milk and a banana.”

RECOMMENDED: Does the Anabolic Bulking Diet Work?

Sample Bulking Diet Plan

Warburton aims to pack in 200-300g of protein every day, prioritising getting the bulk of his macros (protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats) through whole food sources. The less processed the food, the more nutrients it will have and the better his body will be able to use it to support his tough exercise regime and build strong muscle. Plenty of dark-green leafy vegetables and pulses, and a bit of fruit, are also vital to maintain health and boosting the amount of nutritious calories in his body so his muscles don’t break down because of a calorie deficit. On training days he’ll replace lost calories after a workout by taking a protein shake with extra carbs in it at a ration of 1:3. Alternatively, this is when it’s fine to eat relatively high-GI carbs such as white rice, pasta or potato that will spike insulin levels and help drive protein to muscles, aiding quick recovery.

Feed 1: Breakfast four-egg and potato frittata with spinach, onion, cheddar and bacon

Feed 2: Brunch banana milkshake with whey protein, whole milk and cinnamon

Feed 3: Lunch tuna and avocado jacket potato with salad and extra virgin olive oil

Feed 3: Snack Greek yogurt with berries and a separate handful of mixed unsalted nuts

Feed 5: Dinner ribeye steak with sweet potato wedges, broccoli, tomatoes and mushrooms

Feed 6: Pre-bed casein protein shake with whole milk

RECOMMENDED: 27 High-Protein Foods

If you can stomach all that and push yourself to your limits in the gym, you’ll quickly see dramatic changes to your body shape and impressive gains in muscle mass as Warburton did. Of course, the relationship between diet and training is a delicate balance and you have to train hard to turn those nutrients into rippling muscle. But with commitment in the gym and careful planning in the kitchen the rewards can be worth your while.

RECOMMENDED: The Best High-Protein Diets

Sample Bulking Workout

This sample EDT targets your back, chest and arms, then your lower body, all while giving your core muscles a blast. EDT workouts are punishing, so limit yourself to two a week and make sure you get plenty of quality food and rest to help you recover and rebuild bigger.

Work out your ten-rep max for each move and start with that weight, alternating five reps of each and resting as little as you can manage. Count up the number of sets you can hit in that 15-minute window, rest five minutes, then do the same for the second EDT. Keep track of the weights you use and sets you clock up so you can aim to beat it next session.

EDT 1 (15min)
1. Chin-up
2. Bench press

Rest 5min

EDT 2 (15min)
3. Front squat
4. Romanian deadlift

RECOMMENDED: Rugby Workout to Get Back in Shape for the Pack

Matt Damon and his trainer Jason Walsh reveal what it took to get the 45-year-old actor in shape for the latest Bourne movie. We've also got a Jason Bourne-inspired workout for you, below, so you can train like Matt Damon.

How Matt Damon got in shape for Bourne

If you’ve seen The Bourne Supremacy, the sequel to Matt Damon’s first turn as an all-out action-man, there’s one scene you probably remember. While his girlfriend rifles through his diaries looking for clues about his CIA-wetwork past, Jason Bourne, still battling flashbacks, is working out his frustrations with a run along the beach that quickly turns into an all-out sprint. It’s a dash that would shame Tom Cruise – a sweat-soaked, arm-flexing reminder that Bourne is twice as fast as James Bond and several times the ass-kicker.

“Yeah, Matt could probably do that in real life,” says Jason Walsh, Damon’s long-time trainer and no stranger to cardio himself. “When we were in Tenerife, training for the new Bourne, we did a lot of running up some pretty damn steep hills – a lot of the cyclists train for mountain climbing around there, and we were running up the same hills they cycle. Matt is a surprisingly good runner.”

And now he’s back. This summer sees the release of Jason Bourne, which sees the amnesiac assassin still searching for answers about his past, and hunted again by the government agents. It’s easy to forget how the first Bourne movies fundamentally reinvented the spy flick, ramping the grittiness up to 11 (and forcing Bond and Mission: Impossible to do the same or look cartoonish by comparison) – especially since this is Damon’s first appearance in the franchise in nearly a decade after he sat out 2012’s The Bourne Legacy, which featured Jeremy Renner as rogue agent Aaron Cross. For a while, it looked like Damon was out for good – but fans of the franchise didn’t see it that way.

“Every airport I’m in, or every time I’m walking down the street and somebody stops me, that’s the first question – ‘When are you going to do another one of those Bourne movies?’” says Damon. “I don’t mind being followed around by Jason Bourne. I like Jason Bourne.”

Besides, he can handle it. After adding more action roles to his Bourne movies, he’s looking enviably unlike a man in his mid-40s. A large part of that, of course, is down to Walsh.

“Matt and I have trained together for a while,” says Walsh, who’s also trained aspiring American footballers for the NFL Combine, a week-long test of their physical attributes. “In The Martian he was a scientist but he was also an astronaut, and they have rigorous training, so he had to look like he was ready to withstand the pressures of space travel. He was in great shape for that movie – we got him super-strong.”

When Damon was ready to return to Bourne shape, time was short. “Matt worked on two movies [before Jason Bourne], so we had one or two weeks, tops, between the movies,” Walsh says. “It was difficult to make sure it didn’t detract from his other roles. My main goal was just to keep him healthy, because those roles were pretty physical, and… well, I don’t know a lot of actors who work as hard as Matt does. So my primary focus was to make sure he was resilient and strong, to make it through them without getting injured, so we could get to Bourne and really ramp things up.”

And ramp it up they did. “For the first Bourne movie I was 29 and I thought that was hard work getting into shape,” Damon told the BBC in an interview. “Now I’m 45 and it’s just brutal. We shot this bare-knuckle fighting scene on my 45th birthday and it was a lot of work to get there. I was on a very strict diet and spent a lot of time in the gym just making myself miserable.”

RECOMMENDED: 12 Physical Challenges Everyone in Their 40s Should Be Able To Do

The new Bourne is an older, wiser man, certainly, but he hasn’t lost a step on the new generation of secret agents – the 21st-century Bond included. While Daniel Craig’s first shirt-off scene as Bond was a beachfront homage to Ursula Andress in Dr No, Damon’s, as a bare-knuckle brawler, owes more to Tyler Durden by way of Rambo III. “We’ve worked a lot on keeping his flexibility and mobility – the last thing you want to do is lose them when you’re doing strength training, because you’ll get injured a lot faster,” says Walsh. “Matt’s a multi-million-dollar actor, and if he gets hurt because of training… it’s a lot of pressure. People don’t think about that, they think, ‘Oh, you get to train Matt Damon!’ but these things have to be carefully thought out and implemented.”

It isn’t just about size or strength, says Walsh. “We do a lot of strength training, but I want people to move well, and then I want them to get strong. So we reinforce those movement patterns, and then solidify that with strength training. And then we can exploit the body to do things and make it look the way we want it to look. If you’re strong, you can do anything you want and you don’t have to worry about getting injured.”

With Damon’s safety in mind, Walsh doesn’t do all the classic strength-builders. “I probably wouldn’t pick doing deadlifts from the floor, for instance – because even though you can do them for years without a problem, you can get the same results without the risk through other moves. Pull-ups, for instance, will make your back look great with less risk – I’ve seen Matt do them with 70lb [32kg] of added weight around his waist.” And the results are no less impressive. “At one point, he got so damn strong and lean and light he could do 30 full-length pull-ups. We’re talking about a guy who probably couldn’t do one real pull-up when I first met him.”

Not surprisingly for a film about a man on the run, there’s also a lot of legwork. “Yeah, much to [Matt’s] dismay he had to do lots of single-leg stuff, lots of pushing heavy sleds and Bulgarian split squats,” says Walsh. They also used the Versaclimber, Walsh’s preferred conditioning equipment. The climbing simulator with the sliding hand-and-foot pegs isn’t as fashionable as a ski-erg or curved treadmill but it provides a full-body workout that – according to rehab therapists – mimics natural human movement with almost no risk of injury.

“It works all the major muscle groups at once, and burns a lot of calories compared with the bike or running,” says Walsh, whose spinning-style Versaclimber class, Rise Nation, is already popular in the US and likely to hit the UK this year. “It puts a lot more demand on the metabolic systems – I use them for full-body sprints, racing 100 feet [30.5m] for time, which you’ll always feel. But it’s also the only cardio equipment I’ll use for rehab, because it has zero joint impact. Even when I wasn’t working with him, Matt would do Rise Nation classes.”

Although Damon’s upcoming roles take him away from action – The Great Wall, a historical mystery, will be followed by comedy-dramas from the Coen brothers and Alexander Payne – both series director Paul Greengrass and Damon himself have already dropped hints about more Bournes. “Maybe for the next one Jason Bourne will be fat and happy and old,” Damon told the BBC – but don’t bet on it. Whatever happens, the combo of Damon, Greengrass and Bourne’s all-new body means the 2016 instalment will be one to remember.

The Bourne-Inspired Workout: Train Like Matt Damon

Build functional strength and size with trainer Jason Walsh’s Bourne-approved workouts. Do them each once a week, with sprint drills on Friday.

Workout 1

1 Farmer’s walk

Sets 4 Distance 50m

Grab a weight in each hand, then walk with your head high and shoulders back. And go heavy. “We’d go up to around 1.25 x bodyweight in each hand,” says Walsh.

2A Bulgarian split squat

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 0sec

Rest one foot on a bench behind you, instep down, and squat until your trailing knee brushes the floor. “Do a three-count down to the bottom, hold for one, and come up.”

2B Gym ball curl

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 90sec

Superset this with the split squat. Lie on your back, shoulder blades on the floor, with your feet on a ball. Pull it in with your heels until your hips raise off the ground, hold and lower.

3 Pull-up

Reps 50

You know the drill: straight arms at the bottom, chin over the bar at the top. Do these in as few sets as possible. “We started with 50,” says Walsh. “Then I’d go, ‘OK, today it’s 55’. I think we eventually got up to 100.”

Workout 2

1 TRX TYI

Sets 2 Reps 4 each letter

“Matt did a lot of shoulder stability work,” says Walsh. For this one, hold the straps and lean back, then pull your arms out into a T, squeezing your shoulder blades and keeping your body stiff. Repeat for a Y shape, then an I.

2 Sled push/pull

Sets 4 Distance 20m each way

Push a weighted sled one way, getting low and driving like an NFL linebacker. Pull it back to bring your quads into the movement. No sled? Use two heavy bags or plates on a mat.

3A Landmine squat

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 0sec

Jam a barbell into a weight plate, corner or T-row attachment. Load up the other end, then hold it as you squat down and drive back up through your heels.

3B Landmine press

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 90sec

Superset this with the squat: keep hold of the barbell and press it overhead, hold, then lower. Rest after each set of presses. Wobble to the shower.

Versaclimber Workouts

Hit new cardio heights with the best bit of kit you’re not using

Endurance

To build strength for distance running, use active recovery intervals: one minute of high-intensity climbing and three minutes of rest, repeated six times. Keep your hips stable, as if you’re standing out of the saddle to pedal in a spinning class.

Fat loss

The classic Tabata workout is too tough, so use the reverse Tabata: ten seconds’ all-out sprinting, followed by 20 seconds of active rest – for eight intervals – is a brutal four-minute fat-burner.

Speed

For top-end sprint speed, short and nasty is the prescription. Do five seconds of full-strength sprinting, followed by five seconds of recovery. Repeat ten times, rest for a minute, and do the whole thing again.

Find one at versaclimber.co.uk

There are extreme endurance challenges, and then there’s the Fitbit Fifty.

Between Friday 30th September and Sunday 2nd October, two teams of six people will attempt to run and cycle from Buckingham Palace to Edinburgh Castle and back, within 50 hours – a feat never previously attempted. And you could be a part of it. Read on below, and apply before Monday 8th August.

Fitbit and Coach are offering amateur athletes across Britain an all-expenses paid place in the inaugural edition of this groundbreaking event, organised by event experts Human Race.

The challenge starts with a 10K run from Buckingham Palace to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The teams will then tackle the cycling legs in a two-up time trial format, with pairs of riders swapping every hour as they journey north through the English countryside.

There’s a break from the saddle near Doncaster for the second 10K run, then it’s back on the bikes all the way to Edinburgh, passing through the Yorkshire Dales, the Pennines and Northumberland fells. Teams travel the final 5km to Edinburgh Castle on foot, before retracing the route back to Buckingham Palace.

As you’ve probably worked out, this is no small challenge, demanding 50km of running and up to 16 hours’ cycling per person. It’s ideally suited to men and women with Ironman, ultra-running or long-distance sportive experience and with the drive to test themselves in a challenge unlike any other.

It’s tough, but Fitbit and Coach will help you every step up of the way. Those selected to take part will receive:

1. A Fitbit Surge sports watch (£200) with built-in GPS
2. A set of Fitbit Aria WiFi-enabled smart scales (£100)
3. Branded racing kit
4. Accommodation in London, travel and meals - nutritionally tailored for performance
5. Exclusive training plans and advice from experts including former Olympian and sports scientist Greg Whyte
6. Exclusive place in the team (12 participants)

Total prize valued at £2,200. Enter below and pass selection, and all this is yours for FREE!

Are you game? Then tell us about yourself below by Monday 8th August. We’ll contact the shortlisted entrants that week. Good luck!

“Humans are extraordinary at compensating," says US mobility guru and coach Dr Kelly Starrett, when comparing fitness levels between 20- and 40-somethings. It's what allowed us to adapt and outlive the dodo. “We learn how to paper over cracks in our bodies,” he says. “But it’s this short-cutting habit that also risks leaving our bodies riddled with weak spots that can be painfully revealed as we hit middle age.”

Sure, you can run diversion tactics by splurging on a Harley-Davidson, getting a huge tattoo or running away with your work wife, but you'll eventually break down. Alternatively, you could repair those cracks in your armour before they lead to your demise. We’ve pooled 12 tests of your physical ability from experts in strength, cardio, mobility and old-age exercise to help you spot and address any issues before it’s too late.

With over 25 years of experience coaching Olympic athletes, beginners and everyone in between, Saucony ambassador Nick Anderson is an expert in covering the ground on two feet. Feel free to ask him any running-related questions on Twitter @nickandersonrun

1. Run a 5K as Fast as You Could in Your 20s

Tests: running efficiency, training intelligence

Getting older is all about getting wiser. Your physical peak might have long expired but your ability to problem solve and exercise smarter is your greatest strength – one that’ll let you keep up with your 20-year-old self back when your joints didn’t creak and your organs fully functioned. “The key is to allow yourself to recover completely,” says Anderson, who used to run 100-mile routes in his 20s but now substitutes the occasional road run for low-impact workouts on the cross-trainer or bike. “It now takes me two to four days to recover from a hard run,” he says. If it takes you much longer, a vitamin deficiency could be the root cause. For really tough runs, Anderson recommends using a sports drinks that include the key minerals sodium, magnesium and potassium to keep up with your younger self.

2. Power up the Everest-like Escalator at Angel Tube Station

Tests: leg strength, cardio

At 27 metres high and 60 metres long, Angel is London’s biggest escalator and the real-life answer to Gladiators’ travelator (were you to take it on in reverse – but don’t, you’re in your 40s). You need to be equipped with serious strength and stamina to scale it. Practise your politest “excuse me, please” to get people mistakenly hugging the left side out of your damn way, then start climbing. Bonus marks if you’re carrying luggage or a small dog.

3. Dispatch 18 Holes Before Lunch Without a Golf Cart or Caddy

Tests: strength endurance

Your handicap might drop as you get older but that doesn’t mean your physical strength should follow. If you neglect it and let vehicles and caddies do all the hard work on the golf course, though, it probably will. “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” explains Anderson. To help you make it to the 18th hole, Anderson prescribes a healthy dose of squats and power cleans. “They’re tremendous full-body lifts that strengthen all your lower body and core muscles,” he says. For squat strength, aim to lift close to your five-rep maximum for five sets. For clean power, go relatively light and lift dynamically for five sets of five.

At 72, Eddy Diget of DW Fitness in Oxford is the UK’s oldest personal trainer and former champion bodybuilder who can probably still lift you under the table – so to speak.

4. Sit Down Without Wheezing/Groaning/Sighing/Swearing

Tests: eccentric leg muscle strength, flexibility

Research suggests grunting and shouting can help you lift heavy in the weights room. It doesn’t, sadly, aid the daily chore of sinking into your seat. If you’re constantly groaning when you slump on your chair, it’s probably because you’ve got weak eccentric strength in your hamstrings and glutes. Improve this with slow box squats. Stand by a box or bench (or your couch) and lower for five seconds until you’re sitting. Pause, then drive up powerfully to stand. Start without weight, then add weight by holding a kettlebell or a barbell across your shoulders. Shoot for three sets of ten for effortless sitting technique.

5. See Your Penis Without the Use of a Mirror

Tests: waist size, healthy body fat

You’ve entered your 40s and your DiCaprio-rivalling dad bod is taking shape nicely. That’s fine, so long as under that belly-putty exterior is a machine firing on all cylinders. It’s not so fine if you can’t see your manhood anymore thanks to dangerous levels of visceral and subcutaneous fat ballooning your midriff to alarming proportions. Your BMI can be misleading and scales inaccurate, so to see if you’re reaching the danger zone, measure your waist size instead. NHS Choices deems you to have a high risk of health problems if your waist size is more than 94cm (37 inches) if you’re a man or more than 80cm (31.5 inches) if you’re a woman. To measure your waist, find the bottom of your ribs and the top of your hips. Breathe out naturally and wrap a tape measure around your waist midway between these points to find your measurement. Waist size can fluctuate if you’re bloated after eating, so measure before meals.

6. Get Busy at Least Once a Week

Tests: sexually active life expectancy, libido

It’s not the size of your boat, it’s the health of your seamen. That’s what matters, according (in slightly different words) to a paper in the British Medical Journal examining “sexually active life expectancy”. The study found men (and to a slightly lesser degree, women) in good health were more than twice as sexually active as those with poor or fair health and that you can extend your sexually active life by five to seven years from the age of 55 by simply being healthy. It also found 30% of healthy people aged 65-74 still enjoy sex at least once a week. It might not be as regular and vigorous as in your glory days, but you should at least be able to keep up with the pensioners. Don’t have the stamina – or libido? Cut back on booze and smoking to give your little general a fighting chance.

When not putting The Body Coach Joe Wicks through his paces as an S&C coach for Technogym or whipping the rugby players at London Irish RFC into shape, Tom Eastham is correcting office chair posture abuse at London’s W10 Performance.

7. Have the Co-ordination to Strike a Penalty Without Embarrassing Your Son

Tests: co-ordination, balance

Come on now. We're a nation of World Cup winners. OK, so you weren't born back in 1966, but the least you could do is pay Sir Alf's heroes the respect of never doing a Diana Ross. If you do, your kids will be put off football for life – like we suspect America was after her penalty debacle at the 1994 World Cup opening ceremony. If your foot-eye co-ordination and balance are off, fix them with Bosu ball toe taps to avoid tripping on your run-up. Stand on one foot on the soft side of the Bosu and tap the other foot forwards, backwards and either side on the floor without falling three times, then switch feet.

8. Carry Your Partner Over the Threshold (Heavy Breathing: Acceptable)

Tests: core strength, romantic inclination

Be a romantic and carry your loved one to bed at least once a month. Technique, as much as might, is important here. Bend your knees, keep your bum low and back straight and drive from your glutes. Once you’ve scooped your paramour into your arms, keep your core rock-solid so you don’t tip forward, and beware knocking their head against tight door frames. The Zercher carry, where you walk with a barbell in the crook of your arms, is the perfect acid test.

9. Deadlift Your Bodyweight

Tests: full-body power, core strength

If you can shift your own weight, lifting that of your partner’s should be a doddle. Aim to lift your own weight for five perfect-form reps. Here’s Eastham’s breakdown on the different options, from easiest to hardest.

• Raised box deadlift – reduces range of motion
• Sumo deadlift – takes pressure off lower back
• Switch-grip deadlift – increases grip strength
• Romanian deadlift – targets hamstrings
• Snatch-grip deadlift – challenges back muscle

Kelly Starrett is a physical therapist, coach and the author of Deskbound: Standing Up To A Sitting World and has revolutionised how everyday humans approach performance and their realisation of athletic potential. Here’s how he defines being in shape.

10. Touch Your Toes – or at Least Your Shins

Tests: flexibility, range of motion

“In your 20s you can get away with murder,” says Starrett. “Your engine runs a little bit hotter. In your 40s you need to be a little more conscientious.” That means you need to perform regular MOTs on your bodywork to keep your engine ticking. The minimum is to touch your toes, or at least your shins, without bending your legs. Next is to hold a ViPR tube in the front squat position and squat while keeping your heels down. Then it’s to press the ViPR overhead to full extension so your head is in front of your arms. Last is to drop into an overhead squat with the ViPR raised and your heels down. Use this as your regular warm-up to maintain your range of motion and mobility.

11. Do 30 Minutes of Activity Every Day

Tests: energy

“The biggest mistake people make is boxing off fitness into time at the gym,” says Starrett, highlighting that physical inactivity is a bigger risk factor in mortality than obesity. “Staying fit and active is a 24/7 pursuit. It’s all the little bits of effort that add up to the whole package.” Consistency is everything – and the easiest way to achieve this is by swapping four wheels for two for your commute. You don’t have to go full-kit Lycra brigade, but working activity into your daily routine means exercise doesn’t have to compete with your work and social life for attention.

12. Drop into a Pistol Squat

Tests: mobility, joint integrity

Pistol squats aren’t easy, whatever your age. But with this test you don’t need to drive back up – just sink into the bottom of one cleanly on either leg. It’s a basic movement pattern for your ankles, knees and hips, similar to the action of stepping up on a high box, and one you should keep working at even if you’re not trying to impress your gym crush anymore. It’s like keeping your muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons thinking – sudoku for your skeleton – that’ll help delay physical senility setting in early.

RECOMMENDED: 14 Physical Challenges Everyone in Their 30s Should Be Able to Do

In This Series

• 14 Physical Challenges Everyone in Their 30s Should Be Able to Do
• How Many Can You Do? Take Our Quiz, Tell the World!
  

In the most basic of nutshells, physical fitness can be measured by how quickly you get out of breath, how strong you are and your flexibility. With this in mind, we got hold of some experts in the fields of man-beasting and joint-bending to find out what the average guy should be capable of if he’s deemed to be in decent shape.

Alex Backhouse (alexbackhouse.com), trainer of UFC athletes, musicians, and solicitors alike reckons all 30-somethings should be able to pull these off.

1. Sprint up Three Flights of Stairs Without Feeling Like You’re Going to Puke

Tests: cardiovascular endurance, leg power

Leg it up 70 stairs as fast as possible. If you feel OK, congratulations, you’re not a complete spud. A brutally truthful measure of both leg and heart power, it doesn’t get much more embarrassing than having to catch your breath at the top of a few stairs in front of people.

RECOMMENDED: Take the Stairs

2. Bust out at Least 30 Press-ups in a Single Minute

Tests: power (generating your maximum strength in explosive movements), endurance

Still feel young and trendy, exploring the world of Instagram #fitspo? Well, you’re not too young and trendy to take it back to the old school. The press-up test is the exercise equivalent of the militant 70-year-old PE teacher: unforgiving.

Here’s Backhouse’s press-up standards:

• Less than 10: your mother would disown you
• 10-20: piss-poor
• 20-30: needs work
• 30-50: not too shabby
• 50-70: athletic
• More than 70: are you sure you’re doing them properly?

3. Complete at Least Half a Pistol Squat Without Looking Like You’re About to Fall off a Tightrope

Tests: leg strength, balance

Definitely as intense as it sounds. Most will get about halfway down before they have to return to standing. The elite among us will touch their arse to their heel, then smoothly pump themselves back up without wobbling everywhere. Just hitting 70% of the full squat takes a ton of control and leg strength, which you clearly have in abundance... right?

RECOMMENDED: Improve Your Balance

4. Get up from a Sitting Position and Immediately Sprint 50 Metres in Under 10 Seconds

Tests: speed, reaction time

Don't pretend you didn't watch Taken and think “Yeah, I could definitely save my daughter if need be”. Sorry to be the bringer of bad news but unless you could chase down a bunch of highly motivated human traffickers at a moment’s notice, you’re deluding yourself. While the adrenaline will power you through any injuries in real life, make sure you have a good dynamic warm up before trying this. Even Liam Neeson can’t hunt down nasty types with a torn quad.

The guys at our sister title Men’s Fitness spend most of their day in the office and the rest of it hanging out with the world’s coolest fitness experts in the world’s coolest gyms. Here are their musings based on their half-sedentary/half-superfit daily routine.

5. Hold a Chair L-sit for Five Seconds Without Soiling Yourself

Tests: core strength, core endurance

Hold this for more than five seconds and you know you have a core to be proud of – or at least not be ashamed of. Once you can hold it for 12 seconds then you can really start bragging; 30 seconds and you’re probably our best hope for gymnastic gold at Rio 2016. – Sam Rider, fitness editor

6. Complete a Lazy Vault in Order to Save Yourself Countless Hours of Searching for Gates

Tests: co-ordination, agility

Did you know 80% of men in their 30s spend at least two hours a week walking around a fence trying to find a gate? Obviously that’s a completely made-up stat but you should still be able to hop a fence because it looks cool, if nothing else. The ability to pull off this staple parkour technique, starting from touching distance from the fence, indicates acceptable co-ordination and agility. Hitting it from further away and from different angles is where the real test begins. – Sam Razvi, online writer

Miad Najafi is a registered osteopath, holding both a degree in physiology and the rank of black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu, which means he knows a thing or two about human movement. According to him, these are good indicators of your flexibility.

7. Stand up from a Cross-Legged Sitting Position Without Using Your Hands

Tests: knee flexibility, core power, leg power

You don’t need to play an entire five-a-side game to find out if your knees are slacking – simply give this a go. If you can do it, happy days. If not, work on some squats to start generating some leg power and to stabilise those dodgy leg hinges of yours. If you have debilitatingly painful knees, get them checked out before doing any further exercise.

RECOMMENDED: 30 Day Squat Challenge

8. Straighten Your Legs at Least Halfway while Touching Your Chest to Your Thighs

Tests: flexibility

This test will give a truthful indication about the state of your hammies, and let’s face it, you should be able to easily bend down in your 30s. Most with healthy hams will get about as far as the guy in the gif, but if you can fully straighten your knees while keeping your chest tight to your thighs… well, you’re basically Superman.

Having trained over 2,000 clients from all walks of life, Chris Hall of Hall Training Systems (personaltraineroxford.com) has seen the lot. He’s adamant these are the moves all men need to nail if they want to call themselves fit.

9. Flawlessly Raise a Small Child onto Your Shoulders

Tests: co-ordination, power, speed

You may have started raising kids by your 30s (as in rearing the ones you’ve spawned, not just lifting up random children), and should be able to carry them with ease. Even if you don’t have any of your own yet, this is a great way to show your worthiness to procreate.

10. Fireman’s Carry Your Drunk Mate to a Taxi

Tests: strength, balance, cardiovascular endurance (heart efficiency), core strength, core endurance

No, your pal shouldn’t have got so hammered he can barely walk, but he’s your problem now and the least you can do is ferry him to safe transit home. If you can easily perform this move with your own bodyweight and then comfortably walk 20 metres and back, nice one. If not, head to the nearest rack and get on those deep, pause squats.

11. Carry the Week’s Food Shopping in One Trip

Tests: grip strength, muscular endurance

We don’t care how much there is, you should be able to carry it all in one go. OK, two trips are acceptable. Three or more means you need to get on those farmer’s walks in the gym.

12. The Loft Ladder Climb

Tests: balance, core strength

One of the best things about your 30s is that you’re more likely to live in a house, which means you’re more likely to have a loft. And with this great power comes great responsibility, because now it’s your job to clamber up a ladder to safely store stuff in said loft. Exciting times. You should have no problem carrying an awkward heavy box up there – if you can’t, well, maybe you don't even deserve a loft. Hit the Turkish get-up to train your body to deal with heavy loads and awkward movement.

13. Push-Start Your Car When the Battery (and All Hope) Dies

Tests: power

No-one should ever call the AA unless they’ve legitimately tried fixing the car. Even if you had no idea what problem you are looking for, at least pretend you do for five minutes. It’s the rules. This includes manually push-starting the damn thing. A seriously strong bloke will be able to push a small three-door 1.1-litre on his own or at least with one other guy (assuming the handbrake is off of course).

14. Crawl Under Your Bed to Get that Spider that Your Partner Swears Is Actually Massive

Tests: flexibility

Most 30-somethings will have spent at least a decade slugging away at a particular career. Whether that’s sitting on a chair most of the day or bending down to lay brick, our work forces our bodies into repetitive and potentially spine-stiffening routines. But a healthy guy should have no problem mobilising his whole body in one movement in order to save his partner, or himself, from a lurking arachnid.

His compelling performance as Superman in Man Of Steel established Henry Cavill as an A-lister, cementing his spot in this year’s upcoming blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, in which he squares off against Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight. But Cavill’s heroic physique, which he had to work phenomenally hard to attain, played just as big a role.

It’s no secret that the physical demands on modern leading men in Hollywood go far beyond the experiences of actors from generations ago, or even from ten years ago. In fact, today’s A-list nutrition and exercise regimens have more in common with endurance athletes and professional bodybuilders than with classical thespians.

In terms of fitness, the process is simple. There’s a period of gaining mass, when you eat vast amounts of fats, carbs and protein, combined with a heavy lifting regime. That’s followed by a cutting phase, when your calorie intake is drastically lowered and the fat melts away to reveal solid muscle. For 2013’s Man Of Steel, Cavill worked with elite trainer Mark Twight – founder of Gym Jones – to maintain his condition for a shoot of more than 120 days. (On the next page, Twight reveals exactly how he helped Cavill build his physique for the movie.)

“The mass build is the fun part,” says Cavill. “You get to eat a lot, and you’re lifting heavy weights. You feel really good because you’ve got big numbers going on the plates. But you’re always aware that you’ll have to eat less and start breathing more in order to show the muscles and the striations. It creeps up on you. That’s the less fun part.”

Cavill’s programme for Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice comprised four phases: preparation, bulking, leaning out and maintenance. The bulking phase, demonstrated here, centres on Olympic weightlifting movements – complex but hugely effective lifts that build muscle, strength and power. When done in circuit fashion, they’re also very demanding on the heart, which in turn boosts endurance.

“There’s a misconception that cardio negatively impacts muscle,” says Cavill’s coach Michael Blevins (gritandteeth.com). “A larger work capacity can allow you to train harder and longer. Building muscle without conditioning is akin to having an impressive engine without a gas tank – it’s worthless. This conditioning helped later when trimming fat.”

Superman Workout: Bulking Phase

Perform the workout once per week. Exercises 2A-2E are done as a complex, with a heavy barbell. Do one set of 2A, then without releasing the bar go on to do one set of 2B, and so on for all the moves in the group. Rest, then repeat the sequence for a total of four sets.

1 Hang clean and jerk

Sets As many as needed Reps Work up to one heavy rep

Stand with feet hip-width apart holding the bar in front of your thighs with hands at shoulder-width. Bend your hips and knees so the bar lowers to just above your knees. Now explosively extend your hips as if jumping while at the same time shrugging your shoulders and pulling the bar straight up in front of you. As the bar reaches chest level, bend your elbows so your palms face the ceiling and catch the bar at shoulder level with your upper arms parallel to the floor. That’s the hang clean. From there, dip your knees and extend them again to power the bar overhead. As it rises, jump one foot in front of you and one foot behind, as in a lunge, to finish the lift in a staggered stance with the bar locked out overhead. Perform as many warm-up sets as you need, gradually building to the heaviest load you can handle for one rep with good form.

2A Clean pull

Sets 4 Reps 1

Stand with feet hip-width apart and bend down to grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width apart. Keep your lower back flat, chest up and eyes looking forward. Pull the bar off the floor, keeping your weight on your heels and your shoulders directly over the bar as it rises. When the bar reaches the top of your thighs, explosively extend your hips, shrug the bar and come up onto your toes. Control the bar back to the floor.

2B Power clean

via GIPHY

Sets 4 Reps 1

Begin as you did with the clean pull, but when you come to the explosive shrug and hip extension, continue pulling the bar up to shoulder level as described in the hang clean and jerk. Catch the bar at your shoulders and immediately begin the front squat.

2C Front squat

Sets 4 Reps 1

From the top of the power clean, bend your hips back and lower your body into a squat, keeping your lower back in its natural arch and your elbows raised so your upper arms are parallel to the floor. Extend your hips to come out of the squat.

2D Push press

Sets 4 Reps 1

Standing tall, dip your knees and quickly extend them, using the momentum to press the bar straight overhead. Then return the bar to your shoulders.

2E Split jerk

Sets 4 Reps 1

Holding the bar at your shoulders, dip your knees and press the bar up again while splitting your stance, as in the hang clean and jerk. Lock the weight out as your feet land.

3 Front squat

Sets As many as needed Reps Work up to one heavy rep

Perform the front squat as described in 2C, taking as many warm-up sets as needed to reach a load that allows you only one rep with good form. Do no more than ten total reps to reach your max to conserve energy. For example, do two reps each at about 50% and 70% of your max, and then several single-rep sets as you close in on the right load.

4 Front/back squat combo

Sets 3 Reps 7 front, 13 back

Now that you know your max front squat, use 70–75% of it and alternate sets of front and back squats. So if your max front squat was 100kg, use 75kg. Do seven reps of the front squat, then rack the bar. As soon as possible, do 13 reps of back squats. That’s one set.

To perform a back squat (pictured), squeeze your shoulder blades together and nudge the bar out of the rack. Step back and stand with feet shoulder-width apart, toes turned out slightly. Take a deep breath, bend your hips back, then bend your knees to lower your body as far as you can without losing the arch in your lower back.

The Superhero Training Plan: Henry Cavill's Six-Month Man Of Steel Training Programme

Trainer Mark Twight reveals how he helped Henry Cavill build his physique for the movie Man Of Steel, building muscle and conditioning before stripping away fat for a leaner, muscular body.

Mark Twight got the cast of 300 into such impressive Spartan shape that Zak Snyder turned to him again when he needed Henry Cavill ready to play the man who's faster than a speeding bullet and lifts trains like they're feathers. Here, Twight explains exactly how he built Cavill a physique that got tabloid papers into a frenzy and shares the full workout plan. 

The task for that project was simple: “make an average man look like a superhero and then keep him that way for six months”. Simple, not easy. Peaking for a few days is easy. Sustaining the same capability and appearance for half a year is an entirely different problem. If we know anything from our experience as professional athletes and from training others it is that fitness acquired quickly is unstable. Stability requires a broad, solid foundation and that takes many months to build.

There were several training objectives for this plan. Obviously, appearance is foremost. There has never been a superhero who didn’t have broad shoulders and a narrow waist. The second part has to do with confidence. Fitness is strength and conditioning but also strength of character. Self-discipline in training and diet and recovery, added to consistent confrontation with physical and psychological challenges, produces self-confidence and overall hardness that cannot be achieved any other way. The way you carry yourself changes as physical capability and mental resilience increase. When you can do 100 front squats at bodyweight and deadlift more than two times your bodyweight you will walk and talk differently – tall and proud.

One final beneficial effect of doing these compound, three-dimensional movements is injury-proofing: using the muscles together instead of isolating them in specific exercises improves core-to-limb integrity and overall joint and connective tissue health. Staying free of injury allows you to train more frequently and increases your athletic longevity. If you’re smart, training isn’t a short-term thing – you want to do it for the rest of your life. If you train intelligently you should be able to do just that.

Planning ahead

Because one cannot simply jump into unfamiliar, high-intensity training and do it five days a week without adequate preparation, the first phase of the Superhero Training Plan focuses on general conditioning. You will spend the first two months getting in shape to train in a meaningful way and tweaking your diet to match.   

Once you are fit enough to train – and recover properly – you can start the lifting. The three-month hypertrophy phase requires you to train five days a week. Achieving the objective isn’t possible on three days of training a week. These workouts feature a lot of volume with moderate loads, punctuated by one or two weekly sessions of higher intensity (heavier weight). During this period, if you want to recover quickly and add some muscle you will have to eat a lot – so much, in fact, that you have less-than-ideal body fat levels. This is because to do the work and recover from it, and to build on top of it, the body needs huge reserves of energy.

The final four-week leaning phase will strip away the fat to expose a lean, strong-looking body. This is a cardio-respiratory power-endurance programme using light weights and/or standard cardio machines that, when combined with calorie restriction, literally melts the fat away. But you can only hit the proper intensity if you are already fit.

If you follow the six-month programme, you will certainly see physical changes. But also, by doing physically difficult things, by changing your body through your own will, and by living a physical lifestyle 24/7 you will change your attitude and your bearing. Next time you take your shirt off there won't be any need to suck in your gut. Your muscles and posture will do it for you.

This six month-long training plan is just the beginning. Achieving these gains isn’t easy, and neither is maintaining them. But if you’re dedicated, the programme should help you develop the good habits and mindset you need to stay in shape long into the future.

The Workouts

Although we recorded every single workout Henry Cavill did, this plan is not exactly that. His individual programme was adapted to his starting condition and specific needs, and you should do the same.

Conditioning phase – sample workout

Rest between each rung of the ladder for as long as it would take someone else to do the same number of reps

Static hold in forward leaning rest position (plank on hands): Time 5min - split the work as needed – 10x30sec, 5x60sec etc.

Press-ups: Any rep structure you want as long as you do 100

Treadmill drill 

Do 6x 45-second intervals.

Warm down by walking it off, rowing or spinning on the AirDyne.

Hypertrophy phase – sample workout

Clean ball into goblet position, squat with it, and throw. Continue moving forward until you have thrown the ball a total of 30m.

Leaning phase – sample workout

Dumbbell complex

Press-up with one-arm row: 6 reps

Move continuously through each complex without setting the dumbbells down

Man-maker with 2x12kg dumbbells.

Go as fast as possible through the reps

Cardio pyramid: Set the treadmill at its steepest incline or the spin bike on high resistance
Go as fast as possible through the reps

Warm down

1 Limber up

‘Static stretching doesn’t work by itself,’ says mobility expert Dr Kelly Starrett, author of Becoming a Supple Leopard. ‘It doesn’t address your motor skills or your ability to get into good positions.’ Here’s your new warm-up.

Couch stretch

Put your shin against the front of a sofa, knee on the floor, and plant your other foot. Drive your hips towards the floor and hold for 30 seconds each side. This helps with hip and knee mobility.

Calf smash

Sit on the floor with something cylindrical – a foam roller is ideal – under your calves. Raise yourself on your hands and roll back and forth ten times. This reduces the stress on your Achilles tendon, your knee and your foot’s plantar fascia.

2 Food dash

Fuel your run (and the rest of your day) properly by eating the right breakfast. Glenn Higgins (glennhigginsfitness.com) suggests blending a frozen banana, 2tbsp peanut butter, 240ml almond milk, 120ml water, chia seeds, oats, 1tsp Greek yogurt and a few ice cubes. ‘Add a scoop of your favourite chocolate or vanilla whey protein for an extra muscle-building boost,’ says Higgins. Don’t drink it the second before you head out of the door though – you’ll need at least 30 minutes to digest it, so prepare it as soon as you get up.

Want more options? Try this pre-workout trail mix shake

3 Pack your bags

Don’t want to turn up to work looking as if you’ve never heard of the concept of ironing? Pick up a Suit25 bag from Slicks (slicks.com). This 25-litre backpack has a system for transporting your suit into work with minimal wrinkles. For a pack designed to keep a laptop safe along with everything else you need, there’s the 32-litre Giga Office (deuter.com).

4 Map it out

Now that you’re free from the shackles of the bus route, you can mix up your journey into work. Download My Tracks from the Google Play Store, which uses your phone’s GPS to record your speed, distance and elevation when you run (or cycle). You can use the app to find different routes or, if you find a route you like, shave seconds off your time.

Our list of the best health and fitness apps

5 Pick up speed

A slow jog each morning isn’t enough to get the heart going. Add sprint intervals to turn your commute into a workout. ‘Sprint for 20 seconds, then drop off to a slow jog for 40 seconds to get your breath back,’ says Higgins. ‘Repeat this ten to 15 times. This powerful sprint interval session is ideal for a commute as it’s not overly complicated and suits any terrain.’

6 Beat the traffic

Don’t stand twiddling your thumbs when you get stopped at a pedestrian crossing – but don’t make a mad dash through the traffic either. Instead, take advantage of wearing a backpack and perform this circuit from Higgins each time you stop.

Jump squat: Reps 20

Squat, holding the backpack in front of you. Jump off the ground and then land back in the squat.

Lat stretch: Time 15sec

Hold on to the traffic light pole, feeling the stretch in your lats.

Upright row: Reps 15

Perform an upright row holding the handle.

Lunge rotation: Reps 20

Lunge forwards, holding your backpack out in front of you with both hands, arms parallel to the floor. Rotate to the same side as your forward leg. Alternate sides.

7 Take a running jump

Fences and walls needn't mean a lengthy detour. The step vault, a common parkour move, combines safety and speed to let you clear waist-high obstacles with control. Approach the obstacle and put one hand on it, putting your weight through your shoulder and down your arm. Lift your opposite leg (the outer one) to place the ball of your foot on the obstacle. You should momentarily be balanced on the obstacle between one hand and the opposite leg, with both the palm and foot as flat as possible. Now just step through and continue running. ‘You land precisely on the other side while still gripping the obstacle,’ says ultrarunner and parkour fan Christopher McDougall, author of Born To Run. ‘So you land under control and can decide your next move.’

You don’t have to be big to be tough. It’s true of most featherweight boxers and it definitely applies to this empty barbell complex. Pick up a barbell using a snatch grip and do all six moves back to back before setting it down.

“The weight might not look challenging but the moves are,” says trainer Natalie Morley (phoenix-strength.co.uk), who devised this plan. “Even with a light weight, you’ll torch calories, and the moves will develop your skill and mobility for the most technical of Olympic lifts: the snatch.”

The Plan

“Don’t underestimate the intensity of this barbell complex,” says Morley. “Keep the weight light enough to allow you to do all the moves with good form for the best results.”

Use the four-week plan above, doing this complex two or three times a week as a finisher to burn off belly fat and enhance your functional fitness.

The Workout

Bent-over row

Grasp the bar with hands double shoulder-width apart. Hinge forwards at your hips, keep your core braced and raise the bar towards your sternum.

Pro-tip: “Focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together,” says Morley

Deadlift

Squat to lower the bar to shin height, keeping your chest up and your back straight. Then drive your hips forwards to stand tall. Reverse the move back to the start.

Pro-tip: “Pull your shoulders back and down to maintain a flat, neutral spine.”

High pull

From standing, move your hips back and lower the bar to mid-thigh height, then drive your hips forwards powerfully and quickly raise the bar up to mid-chest height, leading with your elbows so they stay above the bar.

Pro-tip: “Keep the bar close to your body and in contact with your hips as you drive them forwards to generate power.”

See related

• Raise The Bar With This Five-Move Barbell Workout Routine
• Build Functional Fitness With This 20-Minute Barbell Workout
• 7 Essential Barbell Exercises To Get Stronger

Muscle snatch

In the same way as with the high pull, drive your hips forwards and raise the bar quickly but bring it all the way up, keeping it close to your body, until your arms are locked out above you.

Pro-tip: “As the bar reaches shoulder height, rotate your hands around it and punch it overhead.”

Klokov press

On the final muscle snatch, lower the bar to rest on your upper back and shoulders. Bend your legs to lower into a quarter squat, then drive up powerfully, using the momentum to press the bar overhead.

Pro-tip: “Keep looking straight ahead and avoid craning your neck forwards.”

Back squat

Lower the bar back onto your upper back and shoulders and sink into a deep squat, keeping your weight on your heels and your chest up. Then drive your hips forwards as you return to standing.

Pro tip: “To help keep your chest up, pull down on the bar as if you’re trying to break it in half across your back.”

The studies are unanimous: exercising with a partner boosts motivation and performance, increases your chances of sticking to new workout regimes and helps you form positive habits. But there’s more: by hitting the gym (or the road) together, you’ll also prime your relationship for success… if you do it right. 

Make a plan

‘Help your partner set goals, like deadlifting her own bodyweight or doing her first pull-up,’ says personal trainer Jessica Wolny (jessicawolny.com). ‘And let her know that by hitting them, she’ll improve her body composition. Also, tell her that you’re impressed when she does what she sets out to do.’

Focus on body fat percentage, not total weight loss, otherwise she may be disheartened when an increase in muscle makes the scale go the wrong way. Get her a notebook or app to track progress, and if she hits a milestone in the gym without you, show enthusiasm, ask questions and relive the experience. According to a study in the Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, couples that celebrated their successes according to those three principles reported feeling happier and less stressed.

If it’s not her first time in the gym, switch off being the leader. If one person is constantly in charge it may lead to problems, become each others personal trainers and then switch.  

Talk science

Is she worried about getting too big? ‘Remind her that muscle distribution is different for men and women, so it’s difficult for women to get excessively bulky upper bodies,’ says Wolny. ‘And mention that apart from female bodybuilders taking, ah, “specialist supplements”, women don’t have the testosterone to get huge.’ If she’s still worried, stick to low-rep workouts: studies show that the one-to-three rep range is ideal for adding strength without hypertrophy, so pink dumbbells are out and big plates are in. And if all else fails, go for the nuclear option. ‘Remind her how many guys in the gym are trying to get huge,’ suggests Wolny. ‘And then point out how few of them are actually managing it.’ Ouch.

Aim for strength

It isn’t the tough sell it was a few years ago – strong is the new skinny. ‘I’ve seen a huge shift where women now associate weights with strong women who can still slip into that little black dress and feel confident not only in how they train but in how they carry themselves outside the gym,’ says GymBox trainer Kerry Tanner. Introduce her to big, basic moves such as the squat and deadlift – as well as the secret weapon for impressive glutes, the barbell hip thruster: she lies with her shoulders on a bench and a barbell across her hips, and bridges up.

Be a cheerleader

Not everyone’s motivated by piling more plates on. ‘A lot of women are driven by the feeling of being strong in the mind and body, not just looking pretty in front of the mirror,’ says Tanner. ‘Avoid physical comparisons to other ladies, even if you’re framing them in a positive way. But do encourage your partner to watch what other women are doing in the gym – women are often more motivated by watching other women than men. And remember to praise her when she does well.’ According to psychologist and marriage expert John Gottman, couples who stay together for the long term have five positive interactions for every single negative one. So keep it positive.

Think negatives

We know we just said keep it positive… but this is different. ‘Because of their muscle distribution, a lot of women will have trouble with even unweighted press-ups and pull-ups,’ says Wolny. ‘Instead of bands or kneeling press-ups, get her to use “negatives”. For example, jump to the top of a pull-up and lower slowly. Aim to do five lowering for three seconds, then build up the time – once she can manage a ten-second eccentric, a strict pull-up isn’t far away.’

Focus on form

‘For a lot of ladies, the feeling of owning their mind and body as they walk into the free weights area – what used to be the “male” zone – is like nothing else,’ says Tanner. ‘It’s about breaking boundaries, discovering new levels of mental strength, building courage and self-esteem.’ Knowing what to do helps, so go over the finer points of form on basic moves including the squat, deadlift and bench press. When one of you is having a bad day in the gym – carb crash, anyone? – try to use humour to defuse the situation. And never roll your eyes – studies suggest that’s a common relationship-breaker.

…And ditch the elliptical

Her new rules for cardio? Short and horrible. ‘Long periods on the treadmill or Stairmaster will increase levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can lead to excess stored belly fat,’ says Wolny. ‘Keep it quick and hard. Grab a couple of exercise bikes together, and go for 15 seconds of all-out sprinting followed by 45 seconds of active recovery, repeated ten times. You’ll both burn fat all day.’ The alternative is to go for a long walk – it’ll burn calories without building stress and let you chat.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the last decade’s worth of action films, it’s that age is no barrier to kicking arse on the silver screen. From Liam Neeson’s box office-smashing Taken trilogy to Sly Stallone’s juggernaut Expendables franchise, Hollywood hard men have been rolling back the years to prove that they can still run, jump, punch and kick harder than most men half their age.

The latest elder statesmen to throw his hat into the bullet-case strewn ring is former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, who stars as a ruthless assassin known as ‘The Watchmaker’ in terrorist thriller Survivor. Starring opposite Milla Jovovich, the 62-year-old Irish actor proves that he hasn’t lost a step since handing over his tux and Walther PPK to Daniel Craig, thanks in part to his training regime.

Watch the trailer below, then read on to find a full training plan designed by fitness expert and Mindful Chef co-founder Myles Hopper, designed to help you build functional Hollywood fitness – however old you are.

Stamina

‘In order to film the chase scenes, Pierce needed to be able to run over a long period of time and not give in to the demands of physical and mental fatigue,’ says Hopper. ‘In order to improve your stamina, focus on improving your aerobic capacity and make your body more efficient at using oxygen to aid its performance. Regular aerobic exercise has also been proven to help delay the ageing process in your arteries.
‘High-intensity work has been proven to be more effective than steady-state aerobic training. A great activity to improve stamina is hill sprints. Find a hill with a decent incline, sprint to the top as fast as you can and use the walk down as your rest period. Repeat this for 30 minutes once a week to improve your stamina.’

Conditioning

‘If stamina allows you to keep going over a prolonged period, conditioning will give you short, sharp bursts of energy, which are needed during fight sequences,’ says Hopper. ‘It will also help you shed body fat and increase lean muscle mass. Try any of the below for a fat-burning finisher to your session.’

Battle ropes
Time 20sec
Rest 20sec
Sets 5

Kettlebell swings 1
Time 30sec
Rest 30sec
Sets 5

Kettlebell swings 2
Reps 20
Rest N/A
Sets 10

Burpees
Time 60sec
Rest N/A
Sets 10

Legs

‘Every assassin should have strong legs. You never know when you're going to need to outrun, out-jump or out-climb your enemy,’ says Hopper. ‘To build powerful legs while burning lots of fat give post-activation potentiation a go. You pair a compound exercise using a heavy weight with an explosive movement for a set period of time.

‘The idea is the explosive movement will help you recruit and stimulate more muscle fibres in a short period of time and help induce higher central nervous system stimulation. This will then allow you to subsequently lift a heavier weight in your compound exercises for the following sets.

‘The explosive movement also allows for a large metabolic reaction thus adding some extra fat burning potential.’

Barbell squat
Reps 10
Rest N/A
Sets 5

Jump squat
Time 30sec
Rest 90sec
Sets 5

‘If you are slightly older and worried about the stress jumping may put on your joints, tweak the exercises slightly – perform wall sits for 30 seconds instead of jump squats.’

Upper body

‘Assassins need upper-body strength to be able to get themselves out of dangerous situations,’ says Hopper. ‘Bodyweight exercises such as press-ups and pull-ups are great for improving upper-body strength, which in turn will help reduce the muscle loss that tends to occur naturally in men over the age of 50.’

Perform four pull-ups followed by four press-ups, three pull-ups followed by three press-ups and so on until you reach one. Rest for 60 seconds and repeat for a total of three rounds.

‘If you struggle with pull-ups, try an inverted row using either a bar or a suspension trainer such as a TRX,’ says Hopper.

Abs

‘The core works on a reflex basis, which means it is engaged by reflexes in response to your actions and reactions,’ says Hopper. ‘Think about this in relation to an assassin who is constantly having to adapt to his or her environment and deal with ever-changing scenarios. Give this exercise a go not only to build a strong core but also increase your shoulder stability/mobility and strength.’

Press-up plank with single leg flexion to extension
‘In a press-up position keep your head and neck in a neutral position with your bum flat and in line with your shoulder joints. Lift one foot off of the floor and very slowly for a count of five seconds bring that knee towards your chest. Then extend the leg at the same tempo to full range without placing it on the floor. Do five reps either side for three sets. Rest for 60 seconds between sets.’

Survivor is out in cinemas nationwide now.

An excellent workout regime is only fully effective if you fuel your body with healthy food. Mindful Chef provides customers with lean meal kits, delivered to your door.

Follow Myles @myleshopperMHT

What are unilateral moves?

Simply put, a unilateral exercise uses one arm or leg rather than both to move a resistance from point A to point B. One of the most popular unilateral moves is the single-arm dumbbell biceps curl. Exercises that require the use of both arms or legs are called bilateral lifts.

Why should I do them?

There are many benefits to using unilateral moves. One of the main ones is the improved isolation of a target muscle – with a unilateral exercise you’re able to focus more on the specific area of your physique that you are trying to stimulate. Your range of movement also often increases, which can allow for a better overall muscle contraction, especially during the eccentric (lowering) phase of the repetition. 

Are there any other benefits?

Unilateral moves will help to build a six-pack. When you take position to perform an exercise, your core will probably be recruited to some extent to hold that position. During unilateral exercises, the core will often have to fix certain muscles in place more than if you were doing the bilateral equivalent. Such moves are also great for eliminating any strength bias on one side of your body. 

Are some unilateral moves better than others?

Some exercises do lend themselves better to unilateral versions than others. For example, a flat dumbbell press performed unilaterally is very hard to stabilise, especially with a heavy weight. This makes it a poor choice of exercise. In contrast, a single-arm dumbbell row is a fantastic exercise because the body position is more stable. 

When deciding whether to perform an exercise unilaterally, always consider whether the body is in a stable position – if it isn’t, the emphasis is immediately diverted from the target muscle group, which takes away some of the tension on that muscle.

Should I use free weights, bodyweight or machines to perform unilateral moves?

This is almost totally dependent on your goals. There aren’t many bodyweight exercises the average person could do unilaterally: a single-leg bodyweight squat is probably the easiest but I wouldn’t recommend it unless there’s a specific reason for it. 

There are some fantastic machine exercises, such as the unilateral leg press and certain variations of the row. There are also many great free-weights exercises. Using a combination of free weights and machines for unilateral exercises is best.

Can unilateral moves build muscle and burn fat?

Of course, in the same way a bilateral movement can. It’s the application of training overall rather than a specific form of exercise that’s responsible for building muscle or burning fat – and make no mistake, it’s always a good idea to include unilateral exercises in a workout if you want to achieve these goals. 

I’ve helped athletes in a variety of sports and at all stages in their careers – from promising newcomers to ageing stars – achieve their highest levels of performance. Some people are happy to coast through their training, never really improving. As an expert in biomechanics and strength development, I find that seriously frustrating, especially since I know that by making only a couple of tweaks to your approach you can get much more out of your time at the gym. Each piece of advice here is easy to put into practice, so the only person standing between you and a more efficient way of training is you.

Get stretching right

Stretching helps to prepare your muscles before a workout, ensuring that you don’t pick up any injuries, and to soothe them afterwards, aiding speedy recovery. Many people ignore this vital part of exercise or get it wrong, but it isn’t complicated. Before training, do some foam rolling followed by dynamic flexibility work such as core rotations, arm swings and knee raises. Then do static stretches after your workout. 

Choose weights

I’m often surprised by the fact that the cardio areas in just about every gym are busier than the weight training sections. If you have to pick one or the other, you should go with weight training 99% of the time because it helps you build muscle and improves your cardio fitness if done at a high intensity. Unfortunately, this isn’t reflected in most gym-goers’ priorities.

Coach yourself

Technology such as Coach’s Eye has made it possible to video yourself with the aim of studying and improving your form without the need for a full-time PT. However, doing this properly depends on you being a strong visual learner. If you’re in doubt, ask someone who works at the gym to give you some pointers. You shouldn’t need to shell out for PT sessions just for a few pieces of advice.

Tweak your programme

The ideal scenario is to do workouts designed specifically for you, but of course not everyone can afford to have their programme tailor-made. Don’t let that put you off. Get your expertise from trusted sources such as this magazine. Find a programme that reflects your own goals and follow the first few suggested workouts to the letter, but don’t be afraid to adjust it later to suit your strengths and weaknesses. 

Be resilient

The best athletes know they won’t be perfect every time. Chalk up your poor performances as experiences that can teach you how to stop them happening again. Don’t allow one bad training session to snowball. If something isn’t going to plan, stop and assess what’s going wrong. Do this by filming yourself or asking a friend to take a look. If you don’t have the resiliency to critique yourself it’s easy to get stuck in a downward spiral.

Get on the deload

One of the most common training mistakes I see is people failing to include ‘deloads’ in their programmes. It’s easy to get excited about training and to want to hit the gym hard every time, but if you do that your body never has a chance to recharge. Temporary periods of reduced training are essential to let your body recover and get stronger while also reducing the risk of overuse injuries.

Be your best

Waste no time at the gym with Cressey’s top tips for maximising your gains

Switch off

Too many people are heavily distracted when they start training. The best thing you can do to get into the right mindset before exercise is to turn off your mobile phone 30-45 minutes before you start your warm-up. 

Be traditional

If you only use one bit of kit in your training, make it a barbell. There’s a reason why it’s been the most popular resistance-training implement for the past century – it’s very versatile and you’re almost guaranteed to pack on muscle.

Use the best

If you want to work with a PT, don’t just settle for the first one you meet. If a PT is sloppy in the way they present themselves, for example, chances are they’ll be sloppy in the way they train their clients. Do some taster sessions with four or five PTs before you make your decision.

Half marathons are the perfect distance for your first running event, and a realistic goal to aim for at the Red Bull Wings For Life World Run. “Don’t be daunted by the distance. It’s an achievable goal for an amateur runner to work towards,” says training plan creator Martin Yelling. “It’s an opportunity to run further than you ever have before. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you'll be able to keep up the pace you'll need to outrun the 'catcher car' for 21km if you don't put in the training.”

This plan is for people who have a fair bit of running experience, but have never gone the full distance of a half marathon before. When starting the plan you should be able to run 15km continuously without collapsing in a fleshy heap!

Your Five-Week Training Plan

Effort Levels Explained

• 0-3 = Easy, up to a gentle pace 
• 4-5 = Able to hold a conversation 
• 6-7 = Getting out of breath 
• 8-9 = Can’t talk, uncomfortable 
• 10  = Flat-out sprint

Week 1

Monday Rest
Tuesday Run 10min at level 4, 6x2min at level 8 with 2min recovery at level 3, 10min at level 4
Wednesday Rest
Thursday Tempo run 50min at level 5
Friday Rest
Saturday Run 10min at level 4, 3x7min at level 8 with 5min recovery at level 3, 10min at level 4
Sunday Long run 16km at level 6

Week 2

Monday Rest
Tuesday Run 10min at level 4, 8x90sec at level 9 with 90sec recovery at level 3, 10min at level 4
Wednesday Rest
Thursday Run 10min at level 4, 30min at level 8, 10min at level 4
Friday Rest
Saturday Run 10min at level 4, 3x7min at level 8 with 5min recovery at level 3, 10min at level 4
Sunday Pace run 5K at slower than target half marathon pace, 6km at target pace, 5K at slower pace

Week 3

Monday Rest
Tuesday Run 10min at level 4, 12x60sec at level 9 with 60sec recovery at level 3, 10min at level 4
Wednesday Rest
Thursday Run 10min at level 5, 2x15min at level 8 with 5min recovery at level 3, 10min at level 5
Friday Rest
Saturday Rest
Sunday Pace run 5K at slower than target half marathon pace, 5K at target pace, 5K at slower pace, 5K at target pace

Week 4

Monday Rest
Tuesday Run 40min at level 5
Wednesday Rest
Thursday Run 10min at level 5, 6x3min at level 8 with 2min recovery at level 3, 10min at level 5
Friday Rest
Saturday Run 30min at level 5
Sunday Distance run 13km at level 5

Week 5

Monday Rest
Tuesday Run 10min at level 5, 5x1min at level 8 with 2min recovery at level 3, 10min at level 5
Wednesday Rest
Thursday Run 20min at level 5
Friday Rest
Saturday Run 10min at level 5
Sunday Red Bull Wings For Life World Run

Effort levels explained

Martin Yelling (PhD) is the founder and host of Marathon Talk, a former international runner and the director of sports coaching consultancy Yelling Performance.

Interval training is any exercise session that involves a series of low- to high-intensity exercise workouts interspersed with periods of rest. The periods of intensity are typically at or close to anaerobic exercise, while the recovery periods involve activity of lower intensity. The main aim is to improve speed and cardiovascular fitness. However, it’s high-intensity interval training (HIIT) that's associated with the most health benefits, including improved fat-burning and cardiovascular endurance.

Stop start

‘High-intensity interval training involves alternating between very intense bouts of exercise and low intensity exercise,’ says fitness expert Marc Perry (builtlean.com). ‘For example, sprinting for 30 seconds, then walking for 60 seconds is a type of high-intensity interval training.’

A typical HIIT session can range from a few minutes to half-an-hour comprising a variety of exercises and equipment, for example: sprinting, cycling, box-jumps and rope-jumping. The period of effort and rest can vary. Athletics coach Peter Coe set his son, double Olympic gold medallist Seb Coe, training sessions of 200m runs with just 30 seconds rest in-between. In stark contrast Jamie Timmons, professor of systems biology at the University of Loughborough, suggests doing three sets of two minutes of gentle pedalling on an exercise bike followed by 20 seconds of flat-out sprint cycling.

Steady does it?

A common thought among fitness beginners is that the more endurance cardio you do, the more weight you will shed. However, if you subject your body to regular 30 minute runs then you’ll quickly reach a plateau ensuring you’re not gaining the maximum benefits possible from your cardio training.

HIIT produces improvements in fat burning, fitness levels and resting metabolic rates compared to lower-intensity steady cardio training, judging by the results of a study carried out by Jeffrey W. King of East Tennessee State University,

A study carried out at Bowling Green State University, the University of Alabama and the University of South Carolina revealed that HIIT is optimised at a 2:1 work-to-rest ratio of training at your maximum speed for a minute, with 30 seconds of rest in between the next one-minute burst. Over a ten-minute period this would bring about improved results than endurance training, according to a study by the American College of Sports Medicine which highlighted that two weeks of HIIT would amount to the same as six to eight weeks of traditional endurance workouts.

As an additional bonus, HIIT stimulates your production of human growth hormone (HGH) by up to 450%, which encourages your body to build more muscle. So, if you want to lose weight and get ripped there's no denying that short, intense sessions  are more beneficial than longer ones that stay within your comfort zone. Just make sure to build up the intensity of your sessions gradually to avoid injury.

Get fit and build up the total-body strength you need to tackle the trickier features of an off-road race.

With terrain including trails, hills, log piles, deep puddles, cargo nets and even bogs, they’re a perfect antidote to unimaginative road races and less painful than obstacle races with their icy water and electric shocks. 

"Off-road events are brilliant fun, allowing you to embrace your inner child by tearing through the forest and splashing around in puddles," says John Gladwin, organiser of the Grim Challenge, a 13km off-road run across an army vehicle testing track in Hampshire. "They’re also a great way of improving your fitness because the mixed terrain forces your body to use a wide variety of muscles."    

An ex-international middle-distance runner, Gladwin knows a thing or two about training and has created this plan to ensure you make it to the finish line. "When training for a running event, the most important element is to run," says Gladwin. "But following my plan will also help you to avoid injury and build up the total-body strength you need to tackle the trickier features."

Effort Level

Easy, up to a gentle pace: 0-3 

Able to hold a conversation: 4-5

Getting out of breath: 6-7

Can't talk, uncomfortable: 8-9

Flat-out sprint: 10

The Gym Circuit

‘To replicate the full-on nature of race day, do this at maximum intensity,’ says Gladwin. ‘Do as many reps as you can of each exercise for 3sec, with 30sec rest between each. Every week from week 3, add five seconds to the time you spend doing each exercise, so by week 8 you’ll be doing one minute of exercise. 

‘Repeat the moves for a total of three circuits, with three minutes’ rest between circuits. If you’re feeling comfortable after week 3, add an extra circuit, and again after week 6. For the barbell moves, use the heaviest weight that you can complete all the moves with using perfect form.’

Squat thrust 

Start in a press-up position, with your legs out straight behind you and your hands 1½ shoulder-width apart. 

Explosively pull your legs forwards until they’re tucked under you, then kick them out behind you.

Keep your hands on the floor throughout the move.

Press-up  

Start with your hands 1½ shoulder-width apart and body straight from head to heels.

Lower yourself until your elbows reach 90˚, then press back up explosively.

Jump squat

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, then squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor.

Push your feet into the ground and jump.

Good morning

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Rest a barbell across the back of your shoulders, not your neck, and grasp it overhand with your hands just outside your shoulders.

Bend forwards from the hips, not the waist, and bend your knees slightly.  

Lean forwards until you feel a good stretch in your hamstrings, but don’t go beyond horizontal.

Keep a natural arch in your lower back and push your hips back to maintain balance.

Burpee

Get into a press-up position.

Bring your legs in, stand and jump.  

Crouch back down and kick your legs back to return to the start. 

Overhead press

With feet shoulder-width apart, hold a bar on your upper chest, gripping it overhand with hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. 

Keep your chest upright and your core muscles braced.

Press the bar straight overhead until your arms are fully extended.

During the lifting phase, keep your core braced and don’t tilt your hips forwards.

Lower the bar back down to your chest and repeat. 

As most people who have visited Thailand will confirm, although Rama IX sits on the country’s throne it’s really disorganisation that’s king. The lack of structure evident in most things extends to the Fairtex gym in Pattaya, which – despite producing some of Muay Thai boxing’s most celebrated fighters and boasting arguably the best training facilities in Thailand – laughs in the face of quaint notions such as punctuality. There are two scheduled training sessions a day, one from 7-10am and the other from 2-5pm. I arrive for my first at 7am and am not entirely surprised to find I’m the only person there.

I wait long enough to start wondering if I’ve come at the right time, or even to the back in the ring to hit some pads and I promptly manage to forget everything he has just taught me.

Despairing at my ineptitude, Chang continues barking, ‘Left, right, left, left, right, left.’ After most punches he gets me to repeat the action and grabs my arm to correct my form. When I forget to return my hands to the guard position in front of my face, he wags his finger. The fourth time I’m punished with a swift blow to the head. It has the desired effect and after a couple more whacks my hands instinctively return to protect my face.

The heat is on

At Fairtex, each private session with a trainer lasts five four-minute rounds, with traditional Thai boxing pads (long pads that protect the trainer’s forearms) used for the first four rounds and focus pads (smaller hand pads) for the last one. With the conditions hot and humid, fans blow a fine mist of water over the rings. It’s impossible to imagine training without this, and it provides welcome coolness during the breaks between rounds, which still end all too quickly. My cardiovascular fitness is good, but what saves me from exhaustion by the last round is the constant pausing to have my form corrected.

If you’re a fairly experienced Muay Thai fighter thinking of training in Thailand, it’s worth working on your overall fitness before you go to ensure you get the most from your sessions in the heat. If, however, you have no Muay Thai experience, have classes first to familiarise yourself with basic techniques. I’m the only person training at Fairtex with no knowledge of Muay Thai and while everyone makes me feel welcome, some trainers speak little English and struggle to teach technique from the ground up as a result. Although I haven’t really mastered punches, Chang and I move on to kicks, knees and elbows – none of which I truly get the hang of.

Kick off

For the afternoon session I return to the matted area and try to put what I’ve learned into practice on the bags. Chang is doing padwork with someone else and again I feel a bit clueless about what I should be doing. One of the trainers who doesn’t speak much English gestures for me to kick a large padded column, simply saying, ‘Better than bag’ with a slightly manic grin.

I step to the left to open my stance and, lifting my right leg, swing from my hip to connect with my shin. It turns out the padding isn’t very thick and a dull pain shoots across my lower leg. I look back at the grinning trainer who responds with a shouted order, ‘Fifty – each side!’ Not wanting to be a whining foreigner, I do what he says, but with each blow the pain grows and the occasional misplaced kick instantly bruises the top of my foot.

I’ve heard of young Thai boys repeatedly kicking solid objects to condition their shins to feel little pain, but I’m not sure it’s something you can just jump into at the age of 27. Especially since the next day I can barely move myself out of bed. Each step is a chore and I find myself making a weird grunt of effort every time I change position. Conscious that I only have five days of training, I make the difficult decision to sit out my second day.

As a novice, my main conclusions on training at Fairtex are ‘difficult, painful and hot’, so I talk to other foreigners training there to get their perspectives. The universal response is that it’s everything they hoped for. Training with professionals who’ve competed in the fierce bouts that take place in the sport’s homeland offers an opportunity to learn from some of Thailand’s best fighters. Most of the men and women I speak to are even hoping to enter their first proper fights at the local stadium.

One piece of advice they all give me is the Fairtex trainers don’t care about ability, only that you’re keen. If you don’t want to train, they won’t want to train you. With this – and the echoes of a local fighter kicking pads so hard it sounds like a series of sonic booms – in my mind, I leave the gym for a swim in the hotel pool and get an early night in preparation for another day’s training.

Real deal

The next day I feel even more sore than before but force myself to hobble down for the morning session. By the time it kicks off around 7.20am I’ve been doing bagwork for almost an hour, in which time my stiff legs have regained full mobility. The trainer who got me to kick the column two days ago sees me and asks if I want to do some padwork. Five rounds later, despite my awkward stance and poor technique, I feel I’ve won his respect just by coming back. But perhaps my style has genuinely improved, because when I go back to work with Chang he keeps smiling and saying, ‘You a real fighter now.’

If you go to Fairtex Pattaya expecting organised group training sessions with strict time slots, you’ll be disappointed. But go with the aim of working hard and the trainers will respond to that. I wouldn’t recommend going if you want to learn Muay Thai from scratch, owing to the language barrier, but if you have some experience and want to refine your technique with some of the best kickboxers in Thailand, Fairtex Pattaya has to be on your travel bucket list.

For more information visit fairtex-muaythai.com

'People who start training before Christmas for a marathon next spring will do better than those starting after,' says running coach Richard Coates of Full Potential. 'You'll have more miles in your legs, reduce chance of injury and have had more time to mentally prepare for the challenge.' So don't wait until the new year to start your marathon training - the sooner you start the better. Here's how you can break your preparation into phases so you're ready for whatever those 42.1km has to throw at you.

Six months from start: Make a plan

‘Life has to rule your training, not the other way around. So only design a programme you can fit around your plans. If your training dominates your life you’ll lose motivation.’

Tip: Don’t get fixated on miles. Time and effort level are better ways to plan your training so set times rather than distances to run for.

Five months from start: Build strength

‘Build leg strength in the gym. This will ensure you use the proper muscles when you run and improve your efficiency. Plus stronger muscles won’t fatigue as quickly, your cardio will improve and you won’t need as much oxygen.’

Tip: Most people are quad-dominant and don’t make full use of their hamstrings and glute muscles when running. Fix this with posterior-chain strengthening glute-ham raises.

Four months from start: Vary your pace

‘You won’t become faster by running at the same pace. Runs at “threshold pace” – a speed that will cause lactic acid to build up in your muscles – will really get you fit. Equally, for long runs out of your comfort zone alternating running with walking will get you used to being on your feet for long stretches.’

Tip: Train in blocks of three weeks hard, with the fourth at a reduced intensity. This gives your body time to adapt and recover.

Three months from start: Practise racing

‘Recreate the atmosphere of race conditions to prepare you for the real thing. This will build your confidence and get you thinking about race strategy. Start with a short distance of 5K or 10K and build up to a half marathon.’
Tip: Register for free short distance timed runs at parkrun UK. The Reading Half Marathon on 2 March 2014 is a good test ahead of the London Marathon.

Two months from start: Keep it fresh

‘Not all training has to be in running shoes. It can include strength sessions in the gym, fitness classes or yoga and pilates. These will all aid your preparation for the race and keep your training fresh.’

Tip: Avoid running for longer than three hours in one go. Long runs take too much out of you. Even experienced runners won’t go beyond the three-hour mark ahead of a race.

One month from start: Taper intensity

‘Include three rest days in your final week. The day before go for a 20 minute easy recovery run to shake off tension and get rid of nervous energy.’

Tip: Experiment with breakfast choices and energy gels before and during a longer run so you know what works for the race.

Full Potential is the training partner for the 2014 Mizuno Reading Half Marathon.

Loosely based on the entry requirements for the Soviet special forces, the Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) is a one-day, three-event test of strength and cardio that you’ll need to be in top shape to do well in.
 
CHALLENGE 1
Deadlift
 
The test
The first lift is the biggest. Simply hauling a heavy bar off the floor is a classic test of strength and a superb all-round muscle-builder. It’s also works your grip, core, legs and lower back.

How to do it
Load up the bar and lift it – no straps allowed. For safety reasons, attempts only count if the bar moves upwards in one continuous motion. In competition you’re only allowed three attempts to find your best, but in the gym you’re likely to be worn out after that anyway.

CHALLENGE 2
Pull-up

The test
Being hefty can help with the deadlift, but it’s a disadvantage in the pull-up test. Here, the aim is to be as strong as possible at the lowest bodyweight.

How to do it
Start from a dead hang, palms facing away from you. Pull up until your chest or neck touches the bar, then lower. That’s one rep. You can hang from the bar to recover, but as soon as you fall off the test is over. No swinging, by the way.

CHALLENGE 3
Kettlebell snatch

The test
The TSC’s final challenge is also its toughest. High-rep kettlebell snatches demand technique, strength and sheer will – but in return for your dedication, you’ll build power, explosiveness and an enviable six-pack.
 
How to do it
You’ve got five minutes to do as many kettlebell snatches as possible. That means swinging it from between your legs to directly overhead, standing up straight with your arm locked out. If it touches your shoulder or you use your free arm the rep doesn’t count, but you can change hands as often as you like.

To find out what your score says about your fitness, get the June 2013 issue of Men's Fitness.

Jason Calder-McLaren is a 41-year-old ex-semi-professional footballer whose career was cut short by injury. Since then, in a story familiar to many men, he’s put on some excess weight. Come 2012 he decided enough was enough and pledged to take on the Maximuscle 30-Day New Body Challenge in an attempt to stop the slide and get back in shape. Here’s how he got on… 

I’ve been at this challenge for around six weeks rather than the 30 days originally planned, but with all the interruptions I thought I should carry on for an extra couple of weeks to get more out of it. A lot of fitness plans end up not being completed because of missed session, but I was determined to get to the end of this. And even though it's been a bit broken up, it's been a massive success.

I've been training more regularly than I have at any time in the past ten years - and with people who've really pushed me to go harder than ever. Thanks to this, combined with my new diet, I've managed to shed 3kg and pack on muscle across my shoulders, arms and chest. 

The only place I've really struggled to lose fat is around my midsection but the MF experts have assured me that this is normal and that if I keep eating and training the way I have, it'll quickly go. 

This started out as a month-long challenge but I'm so impressed with the results and am so determined to see the six-pack I had in my 30s, I'm adopting it as a way of life.

For more exercise, weight-loss and diet tips, get the magazine. Subscribe now and we'll give you five issues for £5.

Jason Calder-McLaren is a 41-year-old ex-semi-professional footballer whose career was cut short by injury. Since then, in a story familiar to many men, he’s put on some excess weight. Come 2012 he decided enough was enough and pledged to take on the Maximuscle 30-Day New Body Challenge in an attempt to stop the slide and get back in shape. Here’s how he’s getting on…
 
This week I have only managed to hit the gym twice because my cold has come back with a vengeance. I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems the healthier I get the more susceptible to colds I become – it's a right pain in the arse! 

It's not all bad though. For the first time in ten years, I’ve managed to play two full 90-minute games of football in one weekend. I ache all over but before starting this plan I'd never have got through that. I’m also now doing 50 press-ups every morning, in two sets of 25. In short, I'm fitter than I've been in a long, long time.
 
In terms of weight loss, I’ve managed to lose about 2kg so far. I'm fairly pleased with that but I feel I could have done better had I not been hampered by all these cursed bugs. I've got one week left of the challenge – OK so it should be ending this week but because of all the sickness I'm bolting on an etra week.
 
Given how intermittent my training has been, my diet has been my saving grace in this battle against the cursed middle-age spread. Here's what I'm eating every day:
 
7am – Maximuscle Thermobol supplement then poached eggs, salmon and brown toast or porridge
11am – Maximuscle Promax diet shake
1pm - Chicken and broccoli or a jacket potato with mince and veg
3pm - Thermobol again
8pm - Brown rice and tuna or chicken

For more exercise, weight-loss and diet tips, get the magazine. Subscribe now and we'll give you five issues for £5.

Jason Calder-McLaren is a 41-year-old ex-semi-professional footballer whose career was cut short by injury. Since then, in a story familiar to many men, he’s put on some excess weight. Come 2012 he decided enough was enough and pledged to take on the Maximuscle 30-Day New Body Challenge in an attempt to stop the slide and get back in shape. Here’s how he’s getting on…

Week four
You might have noticed that we've jumped straight from week two to four – that's because I was struck down with flu in week three and didn't do any training. Re-motivating yourself after a week of illness is normally a tricky task but I’ve not found it that tough because I've got training partners who seriously beast me in the gym. Nothing like a shouty friend to get you back on it!
 
On Monday I managed to bench press 60kg, a new personal best for me, and I'm confident I'll break more PBs over the coming fortnight. Gorilla pull-ups aren’t getting any easier, especially since my weight is still at 90kg but once I've got that down I'll give King Kong a run for his money! 
 
For more exercise, weight-loss and diet tips, get the magazine. Subscribe now and we'll give you five issues for £5.