Month 5-7: High Intensity Cardio, not a treadmill in sight!

Playtime is over, the time to burn is nigh!

The next three months will burn, Veggiesaurs.

A lot.

Despite my frequenting the cardio circuit, I shall admit that I am far from its number one fan. Especially monotonous cardio such as treadmill or the elliptical machine. After the vast changing of schedules between my squash buddies and myself, I had been reduced to the aforementioned for some time, droning away for 15-25 minutes on a machine whilst blasting some Phil Collins (what?).

But, as with all things, I have mastered a way to sap away the mundane and bring some fire back into the gym.

I have mentioned in a previous post how I would oftentimes replace a one minute breather with a ten second one, leaving a clean fifty seconds for ab blasting goodness.

But there comes a time when dedicating between 10-15 minutes to abs does not suffice, and it requires its own day. This is currently the case with myself, as I can safely wash clothes off of this board of etched stone.

 So, as opposed to working on abs during my minute break in between sets, I now do a 60-second set of random, high intensity cardio (examples below). Where I choose one random exercise to stick with for one exercise of my days schedule, stick with it for  the number of sets I'm doing, then do a different exercise when I move on to the next exercise of my original workout.

Example: If it's leg day, my first exercise would be squats, in between each set of squats, I will do 60 seconds of mountain climbers only. My next exercise would be hamstring curls, in between each set of those, I will skip rope. Successively changing my choice of cardio for each exercise.

Ideally, your choice of high intensity cardio should stimulate the days target body part. But this is far from essential, as for intermediates, consistently targeting a specific body part with no rest may burn you out fairly fast. So to start, we'll be doing high intensity cardio that does not wear one out too badly, serving as a breather for the target muscle, and stimulation for your cardiovasculars (I know that isn't a word).

Veggiesaur Top Ten High Intensities and In Betweens

• Pushups and all their variations: Width of grip depends on your experience with pushups, if you feel yourself failing, use your knees for support.
• Hanging half chest dip:Hold the halfway position for 20 seconds, drop down, then start up again, rinse and repeat three times
• Burpees: Time yourself, sixty seconds of burpees are far different than sixty reps, I ask you for the former. Keep form, the more fluid and consecutive, the better.
• Mountain Climbers: Time yourself, sixty seconds, not reps. Back arched, the more fluid and consecutive, the better.
• Skip rope, jumping jacks: The former being more advanced than the latter, skipping rope is an art to be mastered, don't rush it, practice on your off days or at home. Do not dillydally at the gym.
• Jumping Squats: When it comes to weightless squats, I follow a very strict "Ass to grass" policy, where I dip my money maker as deep as possible. Gravity makes this process far easier, dip as low as you can after a jump, bracing yourself for the next one. Sixty seconds, not reps.
• Jumping Lunges: Maximal effect is making proper air time when you push yourself off the ground, landing firmly and in form with your back straight. Jumping lunges are difficult and take time to master, do not get frustrated if you fall over or lose balance. Your patience will pay off.
• High Knees: This is your run of the mill "Running in place" exercise, only here, our backs are straight, and our knees are brought up as high as possible, at level with, or just above the belly button.
• Hops: Before you get your HOPS up, no, we won't be making BEER. Here, we're looking to hop on one foot for twenty seconds, hope on the alternate foot for another twenty, then do high jumps, with our knees going straight up as high as possible. Enjoy.
• Box jumps: Very simple, deathly painful when well fitted and executed during a complimenting exercise. Jump onto a higher platform (Box, or step) landing as you would on a squat jump, then jump backwards off. The amount of times I have tripped and face planted while attempting these was made completely worthwhile with the development of Adonis-like buns.

Your next three months

• For the first month, give yourself five minutes of a brisk jog and stretches before beginning, there'll be plenty of cardio to come.
• The days can be spread apart to your liking so long as they fall within the span of one week.
• You are allowed a single rest day to stock up on calories and protein.
• For those not seeking to build, the schedule below can be made into a regressive training regimen, explained here.
• Day 6 will be combination of high intensity cardio, and five abdominal exercises of your choosing, yes, I can link you a list.

Day 1: Chest

Flat Bench Press (Dumbbell or Bar)	4x15
Chest Flies (Dumbbell or Cable)	3x15
Decline Bench Press (Dumbbell or Bar)	3x15
Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell or Bar)	3x15
Bench Pullover	3x15

Day 2: Back

Front Cable Pulldown	4x15
Bent over row (Single dumbbell for intermediates, straight bar for adanced)	3x15
Seated high back row	3x15
Deadlifts (Dumbbell or Bar)	3x15
Pull ups (Final burnout exercise, high intensity is exempt from those who will brave the pull up bar.)	To failure

Day 3: Arms

Seated preacher curl/Lightweight standing single curl superset (Bar/dumbbell, respectively)	4x15/20
Incline Bench Alternate Dumbbell curl	3x15
Standing Straight Bar Curl	3x15
Triceps Pull-Down/ Single Dumbbell Kickbacks	4x12/20
Dumbbell Overhead Extensions (Or flat skullcrushers, whichever makes you burn. I wouldn’t HATE a superset)	3x15 If superset 3x12/20
Triceps dip	3x12

Day 4: Shoulders

Barbell Military Press	4x15
Dumbbell Side Raises	3x15
Weight Plate Front Raise (Advanced: With every lift, torque the plate once left, and once right, as you would a steering wheel)	3x15
Bent over Flies	3x15
Shrugs (Dumbbell for the intermediates, barbell for the advanced)	4x15

 

Day 5: Legs

Barbell Squat	4x15
Seated Leg Raises	3x15
Walking Lunges (Barbell over shoulder for advanced, dumbbell at your sides for intermediate)	Ten steps to and fro, where each lunge is counted as a single rep
Hamstring Curls	3x15
The King in the North (A lightweight lunge/squat combination, you will perform a left and right lunge, followed by a squat, this is one rep.)	2x10

There you have it, Saurs, the coming months will be painful, be through it you will be vastly condition to withstand massive amounts of punishment.

If you have any inquiries or notes, I'd love to hear them, not implement them, but hear them.

Contact me:

Hakeem.Jomah@gmail.com

Twitter: @HakeemJomah

And Godspeed, Veggiesaurs. It is good to be back!

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An Age Reborn

Gentlemen!

Ladies!

Arise and rejoice! After over a year of an unfortunately necessitated hiatus, your time, nay, OUR time, has come again!

To recap, in the intended year long Veggiesaur program, we delved into the deep, scientific underbelly of the gym, diet, exercise, and all the science in between. However, due to unforeseen circumstance, we had only managed to breech the five month mark of Ramadan. Those loyal to the cause followed up with me privately, continuing their varied and separate journeys of  building mass, burning fat, and chiseling abs.

But what of the droves? The voiceless loyal? Indeed, I have led you all astray, in the thundering maelstrom of graduating medical school, pursuing a career and all that it entailed, I had fallen off the radar.

No longer! For now, the dawn comes anew, and with it, we shall conquer the remaining eight months of our journey. Later this week, I shall post the regimen for months six through eight.

I implore those who were once loyal to me, to rally under my banner. We shall once again dominate the health circuit.

My results speak truth, nay, the sword of tried and tested science speaks truth, and it shall glisten again with the sweat of thine brow!

WE are the weight watchers on the wall, a wall that has long impeded the dark armies of fat, sloth, procrastination and demotivation.

Brothers and sisters in arms, harken to me!

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Month 5: On Ramadan

(Generic politically correct note: For those that do not practice fasting in Ramadan. The routine mentioned below essentially follows basics similar to intermittent fasting. So both disciplines apply, happy burning!)

What it means, what it should mean

To most, Ramadan marks a one month break from the gym due to horrendous misunderstanding that it's about sleeping through the day until Maghrib sounds, eating, eat some more, over eat later, go to bed, rinse-bloody-repeat.

As Veggiesaurs, we value the spiritual aspect and embrace the true meaning of Ramadan, feeling for those less fortunate whilst growing within, in our case, both figuratively and very much literally.

Ramadan has been coinciding with summer, a match made in heaven to suit our cause; pre-breakfast workouts mean there's only one source of energy for your body to munch on, thine own fat reserves, making it ideal for the stubborner areas to be blasted unmerciful, bringing out the abs and obliques, as well as handsomely carving at the rest of your hopefully solidified foundations.

Exercise is the Yin to your diets Yang, there can be no balance if one lacks the other, Ramadan is perfect for the practice of this mantra, a light breakfast of soup and salad, an even lighter dinner of mostly protein, such as fish, or fava beans for the more reserved vegetarians amongst you, will see us through this month with minimal gain.

The How

I workout on an empty stomach before breakfast during Ramadan, though, I do not focus on weight training as much, here's my formula:

• I start the workout with 30-40 minutes of high intensity cardiovascular, my preference being Squash.
• I will perform two random, high intensity abdominal exercises.
• I will perform two, high intensity mass builders that coincide with the respective muscle group of that day, which go a little something like: 

• I will perform two random, high intensity abdominal exercises.

And that's all there is to it, rinse, repeat, love; the latter being subjective.

Godspeed, Veggiesaurs, and Happy Ramadan!

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Less breather, more abs

Salutations, Veggiesaurs!

As June comes to a dehydrated end, we look to the future, and what it means for you.

The future means more abdominal workouts, but first, some science for your face.

Working out stimulates a chemical regulation system that works to keep your body in check, amongst these chemicals is the lovely GH, or Growth Hormone, which works towards muscle repair to eventually increase strength and endurance, GH will go wherever it is needed, at any given time during the muscle repair cycle, it is THIS characteristic that I have chosen to abuse for the next portion of your workout.

As opposed to taking a one minute breather in between each exercise set for whatever muscle I am working out, I now take a ten second breather as I traverse across the astral gym planes towards a fun open space in which to perform one set of a rigorous abdominal workout, this abdominal workout changes with every exercise, not every set.

The science behind this explains itself, whilst working out a much larger muscle than the abdomen, like your back, chest, or quads, the GH release is immense, so why not use some of that on some freshly blasted abs as well?

You can utilize any workout previously mentioned on the blog, pyramidal, dehydration, or general, whilst implementing abs in between each set as explained.

To get you going, here is a link to the cornucopia of ab workouts provided by BodyBuilding.com

Godspeed, Veggiesaurs!

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Month 4: Day 5: Back and Abs

Pleasantries skipped, get to it!

Exercise	Reps
Lateral Pulldown	3x 15 12 10
Two Dumbbell Row	3x 15 12 10
Deadlifts	3x 15 12 10
Abdominal Super Set	4x
Dumbbell Side Bend	4x 30
Cardiovascular (Stairs and/or Elliptical)	35 minutes

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Month 4: Day 4: Legs

Leg day is key to an effective work, as previously mentioned, the largest amount of growth hormone is secreted during this time to compensate for massive muscle repair and strengthening.

It is for this reason why I put it smack in the middle of the work week, so it can aide in the reparations of your ailing fibres from previous days, as well as keep a hefty supple of the good stuff for the remaining couple of days for maximal effectiveness.

Saurs, legs, do it:

Exercise	Reps
Bodyweight Squats	1x 40   (between every exercise to follow)
Seated Leg Curl	2x 12 10
Seated Calf raises	2x 12 10
Dumbbell Lunges	4x 40
Gluteal/Hamstring Raise	4x 25 (Can be done holding a weight plate for added intensity with reduced, slow reps)
Cardiovascular (Stairs and/or Elliptical)	35/45 minutes

You will note I have assigned squats in between each exercise without weight, this is only to capitalize on the sore and pumped state of the remaining leg muscles, creating micro tears that promote protein synthesis and extra buildup.

Godspeed, Veggiesaurs, stay hydrated!

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