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[WOTM, 05/2016] Ignite Your Muscles & Build Your Leanest Body Ever With The Hardcore HIIT Workout Program

Posted by on May 17, 2016 in Biceps & Triceps Workout Plans, Chest Workout Plans, Featured Article, Legs & Butt Workout Plans, Muscle It UP, Shoulder Workout Plans, Workout Of The Month, Workout Plans | 17 comments

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Workout C — Chest + HIIT

 

1. [SUPERSET] Incline Bench Press + Push Ups

How To:

Protocol: 4 sets — 12 reps + 15 reps

Target Muscle(s): Upper Chest, Triceps

  • (1) Do 12 reps of the Incline Barbell Bench Press. Squeeze your chest together at the top for 1 second.
  • (2) Immediately hit the floor and do 15 Push Ups.

 

2. [DROP SET] Dumbbell Chest Press 

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Image: Bodybuilding.com

How To:

Protocol: 4 drop sets — 12 reps + 12 reps (50% weight)

Target Muscle(s): Chest, Triceps

  • (1) Complete 12 reps of the Dumbbell Chest Press with your normal weight. Lower the weight all the way down to your chest, hold for 1 second, and explode up to top.
  • (2) Immediately drop the weight by HALF and do 12 additional reps.

If you use 70 pound dumbbells for set 1, use 35 pound dumbbells for set 2.

We’re doing FOUR total drop sets.

 

3. [SUPERSET] Cable Crossovers

How To:

Protocol: 4 sets — 12 reps MIDDLE + 12 reps HIGH

Target Muscle(s): Chest

  • (1) Set up two cables so they’re roughly at chest height.
  • (2) Place a slight bend in your arms, lean forward, retract your shoulder blades, and powerfully pull the cables in towards each other. The cables should come in right towards your LOWER chest. Squeeze the contraction and release back up to start.
  • (3) Do 12 reps at that height.
  • (4) Immediately do another 12 reps, except that you’ll bring the cables in towards your UPPER chest.

 

4. Machine Chest Press

How To:

Protocol: 4 sets — to failure

Target Muscle(s): Chest, Triceps

  • (1) Load up a Machine Chest Press with a HEAVY weight. Pump out as many reps as possible until failure. Compelte 4 total sets.

Using a heavy weight is absolutely KEY, it should be strenuous and produce a massive contraction across your chest and triceps. Make sure to lower the weight to a full extension at the bottom of each rep — SQUEEZE at the top.

 

5. [SUPERSET] Dips + Push Ups

How To:

Protocol: 3 sets — to failure + to failure

Target Muscle(s): Triceps, Chest

  • (1) Do as many Dips as possible (to failure).
  • (2) Immediately hit the floor and do as many Push Ups as possible (to failure).

Rest and repeat 2 more supersets.

 

6. HIIT Cardio — Speed Boxing

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How To:

Protocol: 3 bouts — 5 minutes

Find a double end punching bag and set-up a timer for 5 minutes.

Get into fighting stance, dance on your toes, and continue to alternate hooks and jabs. Swing from left to right as the bag moves around. Box as if you’re in a real fight — keep your hands up, toes bouncing, and punch according to where the bag moves. Twist through your core, punch vigorously, and rip off combos as you become more proficient.

  • If you MISS the bag at any point hit the floor and do 1 push up. If the bag hits you in the face, do 2 push ups. If the bag stops at any point, do 1 push up. These are all no-nos.
  • Continue to alternate hooks and jabs until the 5 minute bout is up.

Rest 1-2 minutes and repeat for 2 more bouts.

As you become more proficient—your hand-eye coordination and punching ability will improve with time—work on more advanced combos.

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Bryan DiSanto

Bryan DiSanto

Founder & Editor-in-Chief at Lean It UP
ELLO ELLO I'm Bryan DiSanto. I'm the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Lean It UP, a CPT/CSN/Fitness Coach, Chef trained at Le Cordon Bleu – Paris, NYU graduate, ex-fat kid, and all-around fitness junkie.

I also contribute to Men's Health Magazine.

When I'm not working on my abs (or somebody else’s), whipping up avocado roses and avocado toast, or running a Tough Mudder, I'm probably yelling at a Carolina Panthers game somewhere.

Come be friends with me on Snapchat (BRYDISANTO).
Bryan DiSanto

Latest posts by Bryan DiSanto (see all)

  • Jodi Elliott

    Excited to start this one! Just wondering about a suggestion to replace the 5 mins of HIIT boxing? My gym doesn’t have the equipment for this :(.

    • BUMMER! No worries though — replace it with 15 minutes of treadmill incline intervals.

      - 10-15% incline.
      - Alternate 30 seconds at 3 MPH // 8-10 MPH for a total of 15 minutes.

  • Corey Thacker

    Thanks for this, Bryan. I’m finishing up with your 4-day muscle-thrashing workout-program and have had some of the best results of my gym “career”. Plan on taking a week to rest/recover, but this seems like the next logical step. Would you say 8 weeks is a good timeframe for this one before changing things up again down the road?

    • Hey Corey, that’s amazing, so glad you’ve gotten killer results. CRUSHING IT!

      This is definitely a more rigorous and more advanced plan, I’d definitely recommend it after following the 4-day split for a while. I’d typically follow it for at least 8 weeks and then switch things up (back to the 4-day split works).

      But honestly, assess as you go. Don’t change what’s working. If you’re still seeing strong results and gains 10, 12, 14, 16 weeks in, keep it going.

      This plan definitely will be more METABOLICALLY focused than the 4-day split, which makes it a little but more ideal for staying lean and adding muscle gradually. Let me know how it goes!

      -BD

  • T Balzano

    Hi Bryan! Would you recommend battle ropes as a substitution for the speed boxing in gyms that don’t have boxing equipment?

    • Totally! Great idea. Love battle ropes for HIIT, especially on shoulder and arm days (mwahahahaha).

  • TheArlenefelicia

    This looks soo good!! It gets me all excited to train again!

  • Nicole

    Can you convert the stair mill levels to steps per minute? I have to manually enter spm instead of levels 🙁

    • Of course, here’s the conversion:

      Level 1 is 24 SPM and then each level adds another 8 SPM. So that’s 24 + (8*level-1) in equation form.

      Level 3 = 40 SPM
      Level 7 = 72 SPM
      Level 12 = 112 SPM

      • Nicole

        Thank you!!

  • James

    Hey Bryan, love your stuff! Been following since you since 2013! Thanks for everything. Got a quick question on work-out splits. Going to do 6 work-outs a week split up like this: Day 1 (chest/shoulders/HIIT), Day 2 (back/biceps/triceps/HIIT), Day 3 (legs/abs/long cardio) all twice a week. I know it’s slightly different than the above, but are there any problems with those workout splits instead? Don’t want to be wasting my time or not allowing my muscles the time to heal so would love to hear your thoughts

    • Hey James — thanks for the love! Totally fine with that split and doing everything twice/week. Organization makes sense and you’ll give each muscle group enough time to rest.

      Jake sure your eating and hydration are on point, recovery will be super important with a rigorous split like that.

      Keep up the work!

  • Abhi

    Hey Bryan! Gotta say love everything your doing! Ive been following you for more than a few years now and love your workouts! Keep on keeping on! Im a 5’8 165lb 20 year old chilling at about 19.5% body fat and my goal by the end of the summer is to bring that down to around 12% and put on a few pounds of lean muscle. I love your hiit workout. With the way my work schedule is I get in the gym prob 3-5times/week. Obviously, what I eat is even more important. In terms of how I am eating
    for meals not after working out i do this: http://draxe.com/measuring-fat-why-bmi-is-inaccurate-and-weight-scales-don%E2%80%99t-cut-it/
    and http://lifeloveandthyme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Fat-Loss-Plate-Collage.jpg
    for after workouts i do this: http://www.crossfitmilescity.com/recovery-series-part-2-nutrient-timing
    Am I on the right path? Granted that I started about 2 weeks ago. If theres anything else i should add/not do, any insight would be much appreciated brotha!
    Cheers, Abhi

    • Hey Abhi,

      Thanks for the love dude, much appreciated! It sounds like you’re already at pretty healthy weight, but looking to crank up the intensity and really lean out. That goal is definitely doable, but realize, as your body fat starts to get lower you’ll have to be more and more disciplined with your eating and consciously push the intensity/difficulty of your workouts.

      Do both of those and you’ll see continuous results.

      As for eating, I’m okay with that guide. Really focus on eating a lot of protein, vegetables, healthy fats, and slow digesting carbs. Try cutting out processed crap and eliminate sugar whenever possible. Drink a ton of water.

      Give this guide a read — it’ll help break everything down in more depth: https://www.leanit-up.com/lean-clean-eating-manifesto-17-nutrition-tactics-eat-cleaner-live-leaner-build-ultimate-body/

      As for your workouts, I can’t see any workouts at the link you sent, but you’re at a point where the 1-2 combo of resistance training—especially res training that’s more metabolic in nature (i.e. shorter rest, more vigorous movements, supersets, etc.)—and HIIT really makes a difference.

      Focus heavily on adding weight and reps to your lifts, and gradually increasing your strength. The results will come naturally.

      -BD

      • Abhi

        Thanks a ton man! I love that you actually take the time to respond to my question!

        I deff understand what youre saying. The fast digesting carbs that I eat are usually white rice and whole wheat bread. In terms of processed crap and sugars I only eat during my cheat meals (Friday and Saturday nights…party time ya know) but during the rest of the week I follow the guides religiously. In terms of workouts, I follow the hiit workouts you have with a few tweeks for more supersets and heavier weights (as i find this duo works best for me). Ive given the guide you posted a read before. With respect to calories, I used the link for the calorie counter you had and ive found with my work schedule and stuff I usually hit under the amount of calories…most time by 200-700 calories. In terms of reducing body fat and putting on some lean muscle while roughly maintaining the same body weight: is it more important to hit my necessary calories and workout or keep on with what I am doing? I just need some clarity with respect to this.

        Abhi

        • You got it Abhi. It sounds like your eating is solid. The cheat meals are fine, but they’ll definitely slow your progress if you’re doing it multiple times/week. That’s life though (and how it goes with partying), just be aware of it.

          Especially when you’re drinking try to keep it lean — subbing out sugary drinks and massive amounts of beer for leaner options makes a HUGE difference.

          If you want a gradual increase in muscle mass and decrease in body fat, keep your calories right around maintenance (the zone that you’re in right now), make sure you’re eating clean foods, and focus HEAVILY on your workouts and HIIT.

          Clean eating around maintenance + quality workouts with heavy weights and gradual improvement + HIIT = success.

          Keep working hard.

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