Fitness 101: The Ultimate Five-Step Guide To Build Your Own Workout Plan

Step 4: Consider Cardio & Alternate Exercise

“Think of your workout cycle as a ferris wheel. You can add as many cars, or workouts, as you want. And you can slow them down to adapt to your schedule. But they always move in order as a calculated cycle.”

BUT BRYAN, WHAT ABOUT CARDIO!?

Relax, we’ve got it covered.

We HIGHLY recommend adding some form of cardio and/or alternative fitness (think yoga or pilates). Consider employing one or both of the routes below. It’s a smart idea for both your health and leanness. They’re also critical if you want low body fat.

• 1. CARDIO DAY: Dedicate a full day to some form of endurance cardio. Whether it’s the treadmill, elliptical, swimming, a spin class, Zumba, boxing, or an outdoor run, pick your favorite and use it to get your heart thumping.
• 2. HIIT HIIT HIIT: If you’re like us and despise distance cardio, you can go the accelerated HIIT route. We have 5 pre-made HIIT workouts to choose from, including our Stairmaster Blaster.

In practice, think of your workout cycle as a ferris wheel. You can add as many cars, or workouts, as you want. And you can slow them down. But they always move in order as a calculated cycle.

• If you’re going the CARDIO DAY route, insert it somewhere in the middle of your lifting schedule. Also, we’d highly recommend doing abs on cardio day. Abs tend to be faster moving and aerobic in nature, plus you’ll maximize your available workout time to hit other muscle groups.

• If you’re going the HIIT HIIT HIIT route, add it at the END of any of your lifting workouts. Bonus points if you do it on leg day. Because HIIT is highly intense, try to limit it to 3 days per week. Consider it as the equivalent of a dietary supplement, it’s an additive that can help accelerate leanness.

The same theory goes for yoga, pilates, barre or any other “alternative fitness” classes. We believe in balance. Feel free to add anything of interest to your schedule, turn it into a “day” in your cycle, and progress accordingly.

Just make sure you continue in order without *accidentally* skipping anything (cough…leg day…cough).

? TO-DO: Plug a cardio day into your cycle and/or add HIIT to the end of one of your workouts.