If this little dude can get in shape without a gym, what’s your excuse?

Most gyms these days are loaded with chumps, meatheads, pushy salesmen, and people who suck at working out.  (If you DO go to a gym, make sure you DON’T suck at it).  Luckily, you can burn fat, build muscle, and get a great workout using just your body weight.  Most of you saw the Beginner Bodyweight Workout I posted last week.  If you didn’t, I’d recommend starting there before moving onto this routine, because this is uber-advanced and designed for nerds looking for a brutally difficult challenge.

Are you ready for this?

NF Advanced Body Weight Workout

Warning: this workout that will have you sweating like a pig and leave you sore all over the next day. If you’re just moving beyond the beginner body weight workout for the first time, this workout might seem ridiculously difficult.  That’s because it IS ridiculously difficult – the first time I did this routine, taught to me by fitness guru and mentor Mike Rickett, I wanted to throw up afterwards and couldn’t walk straight for two days.  You’ve been warned!

Obviously, if this routine is too tough, there are quite a few variations you can make to lessen the difficulty and then build your way up to the real deal. Remember, it’s important to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, but safely.  Don’t try to do too much or you’ll just end up hurting yourself.

NOTE: I do use a pull up bar in this routine. If you don’t have one at your home, you can head to a park and use their pull up bar, or substitute inverted body weight rows until you are strong enough to do pull ups and chin ups.  I include a video of how to do these inverted rows in your home at the end of this post.

Before you start, WARM UP - Never ever ever ever forget to warm up.  If you’re strapped for time, cut short your workout, not your warm up.  You can run in place, jump rope, do a few push ups, pedal on a stationary bike, jog up and down your stairs, etc. 

Here’s the NF Advanced Body Weight Workout:

Nerd Fitness TV – Advanced Body Weight Workout

If you want to write down everything, here it is:

• 10 one legged squats – each side [warning super-difficult, only attempt if you in good enough shape]
• 20 body weight squats
• 20 walking lunges (10 each leg)
• 20 jump step-ups (10 each leg)
  
• 10 pull ups [or inverted body weight rows using your kitchen table]
• 10 dips – bar stools
• 10 chin ups [or inverted body weight rows with underhand grip]
• 10 push ups
• 30 second plank

That’s one complete rotation.  If you’re up for it, try to do 3 complete circuits.  Stop when you need to, get water when necessary, but try to finish it as quickly as possible while still practicing PERFECT FORM.  The first time I went through this routine it took me right around 18 minutes.  What is it with me and 18 minutes of hell?

You can cut short the number of repetitions, but never half-ass a rep.  If you can only do five or six pull ups, bring a chair over to the bar, hop up above the bar and lower yourself down.  If you can’t do a plank for 30 sec, hold it for 15, and work your way up to 30.  If 20 body weight lunges is too many, only do 10 and work your way up to 20.  Challenge yourself safely and within reason.

Can’t Do Pull Ups? Do These Instead

I’m going to guess that the most difficult exercise for most people in this routine will be the pull ups and the chin ups. If you don’t have a pull up bar, or if you’re not strong enough to do pull ups yet, here is a video on how to do Inverted Body Weight Rows using just your kitchen table.  Most importantly, make sure your table is strong enough or you’re going to snap it in half.  It isn’t optimal, but it’s better than nothing, and a good step up from the dumbbell rows in the Beginner Body Weight Circuit.  Inverted body weight rows are certainly tough, but not as tough as pull ups and chin ups.  Attempt these at your own risk!

Nerd Fitness TV – Inverted Body Weight Rows

How to Scale Your Routine

As I said earlier, this whole routine is scalable based on your ability. For example, here is a sample routine for somebody who has conquered the beginner workout but can’t do the full routine above:

• 10 Body Weight Squats
• 10 Walking Lunges
• 15 Jump Ups
• 3 Pull Ups (or 6 inverted body weight rows – overhand grip on table)
• 8 dips (or 10 decline push ups if these are too tough)
• 3 Chin ups (or 6 inverted body weight rows – underhand grip on table)
• 10 push ups
• 30 second plank
• 30 jumping jacks

Whatever your fitness level, find a way to push yourself a litter harder, get better, be faster, and grow stronger (thanks Daft Punk!) Keep track of your exact routine, how long it took you, which exercises wore you out, exactly how many reps you did, etc.

Then, the next time you do this routine (make sure you wait at least 48 hours before attempting it again), try to do the whole routine with one or two more repetitions or with less down time between exercises.

Your thoughts?

There you have it guys.  I would love to hear what you think! I got a lot of great comments on the Beginner Body Weight video, and hopefully those of you who are looking for more of a challenge are getting it here.

Do you want to see more routine-based videos? More videos like the Inverted Body Weight Row videos showing you how to do specific exercises? Let me know what you want to see, and I’ll make it happen.

-Steve

PS – For any of you who plan on doing this routine during the next few days, I apologize in advance for how your whole body will feel the next morning!

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photo: eyeliam