The workout is made up of 4, 5 minute rounds with each round having 4 exercises in it. The aim is to move continuously between exercises completing 5 reps of each one. Once you have completed al the exercises you then work your way back through them and keep this going for the full 5 minutes. So for example for round 1 you start with squats before moving straight onto bench hops. After the hops, drop down into press ups before rolling onto your back for 5 crunches. As soon as you have finished the crunches you go back to the press ups then the hops and finally the squats. Keep repeating this for the 5 minute round.

Below are the 4 rounds along with a video clip showing each one in action.

Round 1:

Squats

Bench hops

Press ups

Crunch with legs up

1. : 

Round 2:

Burpees off step (Place hands on floor instead of step for a harder version)

Box jumps (Perform step ups for an easier version)

Bench dips

Pup and down plank with close hand press up combo (Perform without the press up for an easier version)

1. : 

Round 3:

Side lunge right

Lateral jumps on and off step (Perform step over’s for an easier version)

Side lunge left

Russian twists

1. : 

Round 4:

Single leg squat right

Ice skater onto step box

Single leg squat left

V-ups

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At the end of the circuit you get to rest but again you can score yourself some more points. You can decide to rest for between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. Take only a 30 second rest and score 30 points, 1 minute will get you 20 points, 1 minute 30 will score you 10 or you could take a full 2 minutes and score 0 points. So again if you complete all the reps in 9 and a half minutes and only rest for 30 seconds you would have scored 320 points (260+ 30 + 30). After your rest start the 2^nd circuit following the same rules as above. Again after the 2^nd circuit rest for as long as you need up to 2 minutes and then start your final circuit. At the end of this cool down and add up all your points to give you your ultimate 10 score.

Example:

Circuit 1: All of the reps completed in 9.45 and with only a 30 second rest scores 305 points.

Circuit 2: All of the reps completed in 9.55 with a 1 minute rest scores 285 points.

Circuit 3: All of the reps completed in 10.15 will score you 260 points.

Challenge score: 760

Ultimate 10 Circuit:

Press up x20

Barbell clean and press (Women 5kg per side using a Bodypump bar, men 10kg per side) x20

Burpees with a jump x20

Recline row x20

Medicine ball v-ups (Women 2kg ball, men 3kg) x20

Side jumps (For this I used a kick shield stood on its side to jump over) x20

Wall squat (Stand with your back against a solid surface and squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Hold this position for a maximum of 60 seconds)

Dumbbell curl to press (Women 5kg, men 10kg) x20

Plank with weight plate side (Start in a plank position with a weight plate by your right arm. Grab the weight with your right hand and slide it over to your left hand. Use your left hand to slide the weight to the left side of your body. Reverse the movement and bring the weight back to its start position. This counts as 1 rep. Women 2.5 kg weight, men 5kg weight) x10

Double leg squat thrust x50

Aims:

Your first target should be to complete all of the reps for each of the 3 circuits which would give you a score of 780. Once you have achieved this then try to increase your score with time bonuses and reduced rest periods.

Basic press-up:

The most common version of the press up involves placing your hands slightly wider than your shoulders and whilst on your toes in a prone position lower your body towards the floor by bending the elbows. If you find this difficult to do to begin with, then start of with a kneeling press-up where you do the same thing but with your knees resting on the floor. The closer your knees are to your hands the easier the exercise becomes. Another easier variation involves placing your hands on a wall and pushing yourself away. The further the feet are from the wall the harder it becomes.

Below I have listed some variations of the basic press-up that will work you in different ways and have also included a video showing them all in action.

Staggered: By placing one hand slightly further forward than the other this will result in more work placed on your core as well as placing slightly more load onto one arm.

Spiderman: As you perform a press-up bring one knee up towards your elbow. Again this will help to place more emphasise onto your core.

Close hand: By placing your hands shoulder width or closer this will place more emphasise onto your triceps.

Walk over: Start with both hands on the step and then take one off and onto the floor and perform a press-up before returning to the other side and repeating. This exercise can be performed explosively as well which can help in improving your body’s explosive strength and power as well as having some aerobic benefits. This exercise can also be done with a medicine ball for a harder variation which will place more emphasise onto your core and stabilising muscles around the shoulders.

Drop press up: Starting with each hand on a low step placed slightly wider than shoulder width. Drop your hands off and onto the floor before rebounding back up and onto the step. Again this is an explosive exercise that can have great benefits in improving power.

Explosive: As the name suggests this is another plyometric exercise to help with explosive strength and power. Start with your hands either side of a low step and lower your chest down towards it. From here explode back up jumping your hands off the floor and landing onto the step.

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I use fitness challenges with my clients as one way of monitoring progress and as a way for them to see firsthand the improvements they are making. Once a client has completed a challenge then their score will be recorded and then 4-6 weeks later they will attempt to improve on it. I have found the challenges a great way to get people to push themselves to their very limits. We all have a slightly competitive edge, whether it is trying to beat our own score or that off a training partner or fellow gym goer. The challenges help to bring that out in people often resulting in very intense and extremely effective sessions.

Challenges you will find in this book range from short 5 minute ones, through to ones that will take up an entire training session

While most of the challenges can be tailored to meet all levels of fitness some of them are very intense and not for the faint hearted! For each one I have included a part that recommends what level of fitness the challenge is best suited. Whether that is beginner, intermediate or advanced. I have also included targets for each of the challenges to give you something to aim towards; these are from both personal experience (I like to put myself through all the challenges to see what my clients are experiencing!) and from what my clients have scored.

I have included the first part of this e book below. If you would like to receive the entire book for FREE then simply contact me at resultspt@hotmail.com and I will forward it over to you. Enjoy!

Contents:

1. Introduction

. Rate your fitness level

. Challenge selection

. When to do a challenge

1. Bodyweight

#1 THE BIG 3

#2 BURPEE HELL

#3 10X10

#4 BODYWEIGHT BLASTER

1. Powerbag

#5 POWERBAG

#6 POWERBAG 2

#7 POWERPLAY

1. Barbell

#8 CLEAN AND PRESS

#9 300

#10 3 ROUNDS

#11 FOURWAY FUN

1. Kettlebell

#12 KETTLEBELL 660

#13 3 WAY PLAY

#14 SNATCH TEST

1. MMA Conditioning

#15 GROUND AND POUND GAUNLET

#16 SPRAWL AND BRAWL

#17 JUMP TO IT

#18 PUNCH OUT

#19 TABATA PRESS UPS

#20 TABATA BURPEES

1.  Other

#21 WEIGHT PLATE WORKOUT

#22 SATURDAY MORNING CIRCUITS

#23 CRAZY 8

#24 KILLER KICK SHIELD

#25 TOTAL SET

#26 TRX 40/40

#27 5X5

#28 DUMBBELL 9

#29 GYM TRIATHLON

#30 CARDIO CRAZY

1. 1.      INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to my Results Conditioning “Big book of challenges”. In here you will find a whole host of fitness challenges that will test your aerobic and anaerobic fitness, muscular endurance and stamina as well as pushing you to your very limits.

I use fitness challenges with my clients as one way of monitoring progress and as a way for them to see firsthand the improvements they are making. Once a client has completed a challenge then their score will be recorded and then 4-6 weeks later they will attempt to improve on it. I have found the challenges a great way to get people to push themselves to their very limits. We all have a slightly competitive edge, whether it is trying to beat our own score or that off a training partner or fellow gym goer. The challenges help to bring that out in people often resulting in very intense and extremely effective sessions.

Challenges you will find in this book range from short 5 minute ones, through to ones that will take up an entire training session. I have split the challenges down into sections; you will find ones that use just your bodyweight while others will use equipment such as Powerbags, kettlebells and barbells.

While most of the challenges can be tailored to meet all levels of fitness some of them are very intense and not for the faint hearted! For each one I have included a part that recommends what level of fitness the challenge is best suited. Whether that is beginner, intermediate or advanced. I have also included targets for each of the challenges to give you something to aim towards; these are from both personal experience (I like to put myself through all the challenges to see what my clients are experiencing!) and from what my clients have scored.

Many of these challenges you will find already on my website at www.resultsconditioning.com under the Results blog. Here you will also see short video clips showing the challenge in action. For those who visit my site regularly will find many more challenges in this book to enjoy that are not yet on the site.

RATE YOUR FITNESS LEVEL:

For each of the challenges you will see they have been rated beginner, intermediate, advanced or a combination of the 3. If you are not sure which of these you fall under then use the chart or workout below to help you decide.

The chart below is just a rough guide as there are many different variables in terms of rating somebody’s fitness level such as past exercise history, injuries, age, weight etc.

Beginner: I would normally class a beginner as someone who I have been training for up to 6 months and who has been doing some form of training at least 3 times per week.

Intermediate: For this I would class anyone who has over 6 months worth of training behind them.

Advanced: I would normally start using advanced challenges with clients who have at least 12 months of regular training behind them.

If you want another way of rating your fitness level then try this simple challenge below. Perform all the exercises listed with a 30 second rest in between each one. At the end check your score on the chart to see where you rate. The challenge is designed to test your upper and lower body strength as well as your core strength and cardio fitness.  

Press up: Perform as many repetitions as you can of a full press up. Take 2 seconds to lower yourself and 2 seconds to push back up to the start position. Once you reach fatigue and cannot perform any more reps with perfect technique then record your score.

Plank: Lie on your front and support yourself on your elbows and toes. Maintain a flat back and keep your abdominals tight and hold this position for as long as you can up to a maximum of 60 seconds. The length of time you hold it for is your score for this exercise so if you hold it for 30 seconds then give yourself 30 points.

Wall squat: Stand with your back against a solid surface with your feet hip width apart. From here lower yourself into a squat position so your bottom is parallel to the floor and your knees are over your ankles. Hold this position for as long as you can up to 60 seconds maximum. Again turn your time into points.

Burpee: Bend down and place your hands onto the floor then jump your legs back so your body forms a straight line. From this position jump your legs back in and stand back up.  Perform as many of these as you can within 1 minute and record your score.

Crunch: Lie on your back with your knees bent and rest your hands behind your head with your elbows out to the side. Crunch up so your shoulder blades leave the floor. Return to the start position and repeat, completing as many reps as you can within 1 minute.

Jumping jacks: Stand with your feet together and your hands by the side of your body. From here jump your legs out to the side and raise your arms to shoulder height. Return to the start position and repeat, completing as many reps as you can within 1 minute.

Once you have completed all 6 exercises add up your scores and see how you rate on the chart below.

Beginner: 140 points or below

Intermediate: 141-264 points

Advanced: 265 Points or more

Challenge selection:

When it comes to choosing a challenge make sure you pick ones that uses exercises that you can perform safely and correctly. For example I would only use Ketlebell challenges with people who have been training with this piece of kit for a good few months regardless of fitness levels, and had perfected the techniques of all the exercises used within that challenge. Another point concerning technique is to make sure you perform all exercises with proper form throughout the entire challenge. Even though in many of the challenges you are trying to complete as many reps as you can or perform a certain amount in your quickest time make sure you do not lose form whilst doing so.

When to do a challenge?

Since the idea of a challenge is to get the participant to work at their maximum intensity you do not want to be doing them every week as this can lead to burn out, injuries and diminished results. Normally once a client has completed a challenge then they will not do this one again for at least 4 weeks although normally it is closer to 8 weeks. In between they may do a different challenge but they will usually have at least 2 weeks off from doing any kind of fitness challenge.

When it comes to structuring a challenge into a clients session this will depend largely on what the rest of the session is going to involve and the length of time of the challenge. Some of the shorter challenges that take only 5-10 minutes may be done either at the start or end of a session. If the challenge is mainly cardio based then I may do it at the end of a resistance workout. For any challenge that will take longer than around 25 minutes are normally done by themselves. For all challenges make sure you spend 5-10 minutes warming up beforehand and around 5 minutes cooling down and stretching at the end.

As always spend 5-10 minutes warming up before the workout and 5 minutes cooling down and stretching at the end of the session.

Overhead medicine ball slams: Hold a ball at arm’s length above your head. From here drive the ball as hard as you can into the floor. Catch it on the rebound or squat down to pick it up if you are using a ball that does not bounce. 20 reps.

TRX Jump squats: Hold a TRX suspension trainer with both hands and perform a basic squat. As you stand up explode into the air. As you land, bend your knees and immediately drop into your next squat and repeat. 20 reps

Lateral jumps: Place 2 objects on the floor such as powerbags, low step boxes, low hurdles etc. Make sure there is space between them for you to jump into. Start on one side and perform a 2 footed side jump over the first object. Land soft and then immediately jump over the 2^nd object. Return to the start position by jumping back over the objects. 10 reps

Split jumps: Stand with your feet around hip width apart and place 2 low steps either side of you (make sure they are both the same size). Jump up and out so you land softly on the steps. Jump back off and repeat. 20 reps

Dumbbell burpees with shoulder press: Hold a pair of dumbbells and squat down and place them onto the floor. Keep your hands on the handles and jump your legs back. Bring your legs back in and stand back up, as you do lift the weights to your shoulders and then press them above your head. 10 reps

Basic Burpee:

This is one of the easiest versions of the burpee but is still a tough exercise particularly on the legs and heart and lungs.

: Begin in a standing position

; Squat down and place your hands on the floor

: From here jump your legs out behind you to full extension

: Jump your legs back in and stand up back to your start position.

Burpee with press up:

This exercise will also work the muscles of the chest, shoulders and back of your arms. Perform the exercise as above but this time as you jump your legs behind you perform a press up. As you push yourself back up from the press up jump your legs back in and immediately stand back up to the start position.

Burpee with press up and vertical jump:

This version is very demanding as it adds another explosive movement at the end of the exercise. Perform it as above but this time rather than standing back up, jump into the air has high as possible.

Other variations:

Easier option: Squat down and place your hands onto a step box in front of you and perform the burpee from here without the press up or jump. The higher the box the easier it becomes.

Harder options:

Burpee to pull up. Perform a full burpee under a pull up bar. As you jump up grab the bar and do one pull up before dropping back to the floor and repeating.

TRX Burpee. Perform the exercise with one foot in both the foot straps of a TRX suspension trainer. This will test your balance and stabilisation and work your core harder than a normal version.

Single leg. Stand on one leg and perform a full burpee keeping the other leg off the ground throughout the entire movement including the press up and jump. Again this will test your core and balance more than a normal one.

Sample workout:

Here is a bodyweight circuit that uses the burpee. Complete 10 reps of each exercise and at the end of the circuit rest for 1-2 minutes and then repeat.

Burpee

Single leg squats (10 per leg)

Wide hand press up

Double leg squat thrusts

Lunge (10 per leg)

V-ups

Squat jumps

Superman’s

Burpee Hell challenge:

Once you have mastered the burpee then why not give this simple but very tough challenge ago. All you need to do is complete 100 burpees in your fastest time. If you can perform 100 full burpees complete with press ups and jumps in less than 10 minutes then you really are a fitness challenge warrior!!

: Increased speed and power

: Increased muscular coordination so that the body works more efficiently

: Improved balance

: Improved agility

: Increased cardio fitness

: Can help with sports specific training

Exercise 1: Straddle jumps onto low step.

Start with feet either side of a low step and squat down so the ball rests on the step. Jump onto the step and reach up with the ball at the same time. Jump back off and bring the ball back down to touch the step.

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Warm up:

For this session we started off with some S.A.Q (speed, agility and quickness) using a mixture of cone drills,

1 In: Jog through the cones placing 1 foot in each gap

Lateral jogging: Jog sideways through the cones placing both feet in each gap

2 In: Jog through the cones placing 2 feet in each gap

Weaving: Weave in and out through the cones

2 Footed diagonal hops: Start on the right hand side of the first cone and jump forward 2 footed to the next cone landing on the left hand side. Continue jumping diagonally from cone to cone landing soft each time by bending the knees on impact.

Side crawls: From a press-up position crawl sideways through the cones by moving the same hand and same leg. Aim to maintain a flat back throughout.

Each exercise was completed for 30 seconds and the circuit was performed twice through for a total of 5 minutes. In between rounds there was a 1 minute rest.

Round 1 Upper body:

Recline rows

Sledgehammer strikes onto tyre

Medicine ball strikes onto bag (Standing at arms length from a punch bag. Hold a heavy med ball in both hands and rapidly tap the bag. After each strike against the bag bring the ball back and tap your stomach. This exercise will help to improve the stamina in your forearms, which can benefit a fighter when it comes to grappling and clinching. It also gives your abdominals some impact training).

Walk over press-ups on low step 

Dumbbell punches

Round 2 Lower body:

Medicine ball jump squats

Knee strikes onto prone bag (place one knee onto a punch bag on the floor with the other leg extended back. Drive your free leg into the bag striking it with your knee. Then switch legs placing your striking knee onto the bag and throwing the strike with opposite side).

Box jumps

Powerbag alternating leg front lunge

Jump lunges

Round 3 cardio:

For this round we performed 3 exercises and completed 3 circuits. The first exercise we did a different version on each circuit.

Version 1: 3 punch combo with sprawl

We threw a jab; cross and lead hook onto the focus pads followed by 1 sprawl.

Version 2: 3 punch combo with shoot

Same punch combo and then the guys would shoot in for a takedown and grab me around the legs and lift me off the ground before stepping back and repeating.

Version 3: Alternate between sprawls and shoots

Throw the 3-punch combo and alternate between a sprawl and a shoot after the punches.

Resistance band ground and pound: From the mount position they threw continuous punches while holding a heavy-duty resistance band that was hung from the wall. 

Lateral jumps over kick-shield: Stand next to a kick-shield that’s stood on it’s side and perform a 2 footed side jump over it aiming to land soft by bending the knees on impact.

At the end of the 3 rounds we finished with a punch out drill.

Punch out drill:

We stood an upright Powerbag against the punch bag so that it hung at a slight angle. The aim then was for each guy to perform 20 seconds of continuous jab, crosses to keep the punch bag from touching the Powerbag. Any time the 2 bags touched then rather than having the 20-second rest period they had to perform 5 burpees with a press-up at the bottom and a vertical jump as they stood up.

At the end of this we cooled down and stretched.

All you need to do this workout is a barbell and a step box. The aim is to complete 45 seconds on each of the resistance exercises completing as many repetitions as you can, use a quick tempo whilst maintaining a full range of motion and a strict technique. For the plyometric exercises spend 30 seconds on each. Once you have completed a full circuit rest for 1 minute and then repeat, aim to perform 3 circuits.

Perform a 5-10 minute warm up before starting this session.

Push press

Bench hops

Bent over rows

Burpee to step jump

Squats

Straddle jumps

Press-ups

Explosive step ups 

Tips:

: Use the same weight for each of the barbell exercises. Start light since the workout is designed more for muscular endurance rather than strength. Only increase the weight when you can do a full 45 seconds on each exercise over all 3 sets.

Below are some regressions for the plyometric exercises.

Bench hops: Use a lower step.

Burpee to step jump: Perform the burpee with your hands on the step. Rather than a step jump do a basic step up instead.

Straddle jumps: Perform step-ups from a straddle position or do a straddle jump onto the step and then step down.

Explosive step jumps: Use basic step ups instead for a lower impact variation.

: When I did this session with one of my clients it took around 40 minutes to complete including warm up. We finished the session with an abdominal superset of medicine ball wood chops and medicine ball crunch with alternating leg lifts.

Tips:

: Make sure you fully warm up before starting this challenge.

: Start with a lightweight on the clean and press and then work up until you are using your normal weight for 10 reps.

: For the plyometric press-up use a low step or Powerbag to jump your hands onto.

: If you can’t complete plyometric press-ups with a good technique then begin with the basic version and work up to this.