The 3-Month Program
The 3-Month Program
| Peak Points * You want fast fitness? We''ll give you fast fitness. But it means serious exercise, at least five days a week. You prepared for that? * First, build your aerobic base by working your heart and lungs five or six days a week. Second, build more muscle by weight lifting three days a week. * Don''t kill yourself. Don''t even injure yourself. After it''s over, start over. Fitness is a lifetime thing. |
You know you should be working year-round on fitness, but real life isn''t always about how things ought to be. That''s why you''re where you are right now—a few months away from the big event you promised to get in shape for last year.
Maybe it''s a high school reunion, and you want to burn off the gut you built after your wild years ended. Or maybe your fitter-than-thou colleague down the hall roped you into some corporate challenge triathlon, and there''s no backing out. Either way, you need to power up and slim down, and you only have a handful of weeks to do it. Don''t waste time going to the gym and blindly trying to pump as much iron as you can in the time you have left.
"You can''t just go in and lift and lift and hope for the best. That''s how guys injure themselves," says Doug Lentz, Pennsylvania state director of the National Strength and Conditioning Association and owner of the Chambersburg Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center in Pennsylvania. "You have to go in with a game plan."
With the help of Lentz and other exercise experts, we''ve mapped out that 12-week plan. Like the most effective training programs, it focuses on building powerful aerobic benefits for your heart and lungs as well as offering routines for building calorie-burning muscle to help you look and perform great. Be warned: We''re asking for a serious time commitment here. If you want to get in good trim in a relatively short span of time, you''re going to have to do a lot of something towards your goal every day.
Ninety Days to Fitness
"You''ll want to space out your weight training, do it every other day. That gives your muscles a chance to recover," says John Porcari, Ph.D., executive director of the LaCrosse Exercise and Health Program and professor of exercise and sport science at the University of Wisconsin in LaCrosse. As Dr. Porcari explains, it''s during the resting phase, not the actual lifting, that your body builds more muscle.
Meanwhile, you can do aerobic exercise almost every day. "I''d try to do something aerobic five or six days a week. It''s important to have that strong cardiovascular base," says Dr. Porcari. Plus, five days of aerobic exercise means five days that your body will be working extra hard to burn off some of the excess fat you''ve been accumulating.
If you haven''t followed a regular exercise routine in a while, you may find this program rather grueling. If it''s been a few years since you''ve exercised seriously, or if you''ve had medical problems, you should get an okay from your doctor before embarking on an exercise program as serious as this one, states Lentz. In addition, if you find this program leaves you too sore to do the exercises effectively, or you just can''t seem to get your body to operate at this level of intensity, there''s no shame in admitting it.
"Everyone''s different. Your recovery time might be longer than someone else''s; you may not be able to do as many reps at the suggested intensity level. That''s okay. Don''t get discouraged," says Lentz. If Wednesday finds you still sore from Monday''s workout, feel free to take an extra day to recover, or lift weights at a slightly lower intensity. Keep in mind that sore muscles mean the muscle tissue is rebuilding, coming back even bigger and stronger than before.
Don''t focus so much on trying to do the exact number of sets and reps we recommend, Lentz says, but try to adhere to the basic principles we established in our Weight Lifting chapter. If we recommend two to three sets of 12 to 15 reps of light weights, and you can only stay at the low end of that range, that''s fine—so long as you''re still doing lots of reps of a light weight. Whatever you do, try to stick to your routine in some fashion—and don''t give up.
As you''ll see, in the first two months this intensive program focuses on getting your aerobic fitness to a high performance level while building significant muscle. The last month of the program is designed to help you take your strength to a new level. If you''re working toward a more aerobic goal or you''re planning to compete in an endurance sport, like a race, follow the first two months of the plan as shown. In the last month, spend just one day a week in the gym doing muscle-maintenance; the rest of the time, focus on preparing for the event. The sport-specific chapters in this part of the book will provide you with dozens of workout options you can use in that final month of preparation.
But first, you have to start your three-month program. Follow it faithfully and you''ll find yourself fit and firm fast. That''s our 90-day guarantee.
The Do''s and Don''ts of Diet Your three months of diligent aerobic and weight training won''t do you a lick of good if you don''t modify your eating habits over the same period of time. "First and foremost, cut out the fats," says Peter Lemon, Ph.D., professor of applied physiology at Kent State University in Ohio. "Although the American Heart Association says we should be getting no more than 30 percent of our calories from fat, you should try to shoot for an even lower percentage—20 to 25 percent." The way to do that, he suggests, is to first set yourself a fat budget—for most men, that will be between 40 and 50 grams of fat per day. Second, substitute your fat-laden favorites—steaks, doughnuts or deep-dish pepperoni pizza—for lower-fat fare that''s just as filling—pasta, bagels or thin-crust pizza with low-fat cheese, mushrooms, peppers and onions. Whatever you do, don''t try to go on a crash diet to drop weight over your three-month training period. "You''ll just undermine your workout goals," says Dr. Lemon. When you deprive yourself of food, your body will start burning some of its own stored fuels, but fat won''t be the first fuel source—muscle tissue will be. "You might lose weight, but it will be muscle mass. And that''s completely opposite of what you want to do," says Dr. Lemon. Instead, focus on aerobic exercise to burn the fat you have, and weight training to build muscle mass. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn, and the less you''ll need to diet. Finally, if you''ve been able to switch to a low-fat diet during your three-month program, do your body a favor and stick with it for the next three months. And the next. And the next. "You want to avoid a mentality where, after three months, it''s okay to go back to old eating habits," says Dr. Lemon. "So many people do it and end up putting on more weight than when they began." |
The First Month
Goals
Build a strong cardiovascular base by getting your aerobic capacity up to 30 minutes a day. Get right into a weight-training regimen. Lentz recommends using light weights and doing high reps, with roughly a minute''s rest between sets.
Exercises
For your first month''s weight training, Dr. Porcari suggests focusing on your chest, shoulders and calves. "These muscles take longer to build than most others, so start right away on them," he says. We factored that into your first-month workout. Do all exercises in the order listed. * Legs: Leg press page95
* Legs: Leg curls page100
* Legs: Standing heel raises page100
* Chest: Wide-grip bench press page70
* Chest: Dumbbell flies page71
* Back: Bent-over rows page 88
* Back: Back extensions page 85
* Shoulders: Shrugs page 64
* Shoulders: Military press page 66
* Arms: Barbell curls page 48
* Arms: Overhead triceps extensions page 51
* Abs: Crunches page 77
* Abs: Oblique crunches page 83
Week 1
Start off with 10 to 15 minutes of aerobic exercise at about 65 percent of your maximum heart rate—this is the low end of your aerobic training zone.
Determining how much weight to lift takes a little guesswork at the beginning, Lentz explains. Experiment to find out how much weight you can lift with good form and still stay within the numbers of sets and reps required for your workout. The logic is a little circular, but a light weight is one that you can lift for 12 to 15 reps, a moderate weight, one you can lift for 8 to 10 reps, and a heavy weight, one you can lift for 3 to 5 reps. If you can do more than the highest number of reps, the weight is too light. Increase the weight by the smallest increment possible to get back into your zone. If you can''t manage the lowest number of reps, cut back on the weight until you are back in your zone. You have the right amount of weight if you can complete the required sets and reps and still feel challenged.
In the first week, start with light weights. Do two to three sets of each exercise listed, lifting 12 to 15 reps per set.
Week 2
Add another five minutes to your aerobic workout—15 to 20 minutes—at 65 to 70 percent of your max. Increase your weight-training sets so you''re now rising to the high end of the same range as week one: two to three sets of light weights, 12 to 15 reps per set.
Week 3
Move your aerobic workout up to 20 to 25 minutes, continuing at the same intensity as last week. As for weight lifting, this week increase the number of sets. Do three to four sets, 12 to 15 reps of light weights per set. You should start out at the low end of this scale—don''t try to do four sets of 15 reps from the beginning.
Week 4
Thanks to your five-minute-a-week plan, you should have doubled your aerobic workout by now—exercising for 25 to 30 minutes at about 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Continue to lift light weights, but now you should move your weight training to the higher end of the three- to four-set, 12- to 15-rep range.
The Second Month
Goals
This month, you''ll want to add ten minutes to your aerobic workout. Keep building strength by lifting heavier weights—you should be noticing some definite physical improvement this month. To avoid injuring yourself as you move to progressively heavier weights, increase your rest from one to two minutes between sets.
Exercises
Here''s a new batch of exercises for the month. You can alternate them with last month''s exercise list. Varying the exercises you do will help keep you from getting bored and dropping out of your routine, says Anthony D. Mahon, Ph.D., associate professor of exercise physiology in the Human Performance Lab at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
| * Legs: Dumbbell step-ups |
| and step-downs | page | 97 |
| * Legs: Squats | page | 96 |
| * Chest: Decline bench press | page | 73 |
| * Chest: Alternating dumbbell press | page | 71 |
| * Back: Rumanian dead lifts | page | 86 |
| * Back: Lat pull-downs | page | 128 |
| * Shoulders: Upright rows | page | 64 |
| * Shoulders: Side lateral raises | page | 65 |
| * Arms: Hammer curls | page | 49 |
| * Arms: Seated triceps press | page | 51 |
| * Abs: Crossover crunches | page | 78 |
| * Abs: Oblique twists | page | 82 |
Week 5
Your aerobic workout time will level off this week, but up the intensity—do 30 minutes at 75 percent of your max. When you hit the weights, do three to five sets of eight to ten reps of moderate weights.
Week 6
Keep your aerobic exercise to 30 minutes, 75 percent of your max. For the weights, keep doing three to five sets of eight to ten reps of moderate weights.
Week 7
Add five minutes to your aerobic exercise, and keep up the heart rate. Meanwhile, consistently continue to do three to five sets of eight to ten reps of moderate weights. Remember: Increase your weight level one notch when you are able to surpass both the maximum set and rep counts.
Week 8
Move your aerobic exercise up to a full 40 minutes per session at the same intensity as last week. Meanwhile, keep doing moderate lifting—shoot for three to five sets of eight to ten reps.
The Third Month
Goals
You''re in the homestretch now. If you''re working toward a specific goal or event, now''s the time to focus on that. Spend most of your workout time doing the activity you''ll be doing in the event—running, cycling, whatever you choose. Do get to the gym at least one day a week for weight training, and stick to lifting moderate weights, roughly three to five sets of eight to ten reps.
But if you want to stay with the general program, here''s the plan for your final four weeks. First, get your aerobic workout up to 45 minutes. Second, start maximizing your strength by lifting short sets of heavy weights. You''ll be resting two to three minutes between sets.
Exercises
The same routine: Mix in these new exercises to keep your workout interesting.
* Legs: Barbell step-ups and step-downs page 98
* Legs: Dumbbell lunges page 96
* Chest: Inclined bench press page 70
* Chest: Decline push-ups page 74
* Back: Good-morning exercises page 86
* Back: Bent-over rows page 88
* Shoulders: Alternating front lateral raises page 65
* Shoulders: Alternating press with dumbbells page 66
* Arms: Concentration curls page 50
* Arms: One-arm triceps pull-downs page 52
* Abs: Hanging single-knee raises page 79
* Abs: Sidebends with dumbbells page 83
Week 9
Your aerobic routine is the same as last week—40 minutes at 75 percent intensity. Weight-wise, lift three to five sets of heavy weights, three to five reps per set.
Week 10
Keep your aerobic workout between 40 and 45 minutes at 75 percent intensity. Repeat your weight-training routine of three to five sets of three to five reps of heavy weights.
Week 11
Your aerobic workout is the same as last week, and keep doing three to five sets of three to five reps of heavy weights, increasing your weight levels when you can surpass those levels.
Week 12
For your last week, do all five or six days of aerobic exercise at 45 minutes per session, 75 percent intensity. Your weight-lifting routine remains the same as the previous three weeks. You should be fit enough for any reunion or sporting event. You look great; you feel great. Why lose your momentum? On Monday, get back to the gym.
