Alright, if you’ve already gone through our “Weight Loss” section, you should know a couple of things about losing weight.
- The most important thing during a weight loss phase is your NUTRITION.
- During this phase, our workouts change from intense to DENSE workouts. This means that the weights used are lower, the reps are higher and the rest times between sets are also decreased. Our main goal with this type of training is to keep and shape up the muscle we have.
- You DON’T really need cardio if your diet is on point, but it can still help you out on the way to a higher “Total daily energy expenditure”. (Yes, really, even if you’re obese- It’s all about calories in and calories out.)
If you haven’t yet understood how the process of weight loss works, make sure to read our “weight loss” section, before doing these workouts. Losing weight is not just doing cardio and eating salads, there’s science behind it and you should know it, for the sole purpose of making the process enjoyable and easier!
Keep in mind, these workouts, ARE NOT made for people who are looking to compete (competition weight loss requires a more specialized approach, which we will cover later on in this section. If you are someone with competitive goals, go to the ‘Competitive Season’ article).
These workouts can be used by regular trainees, who have gotten out of shape during their “off-season” (aka muscle building period), or even overweight/obese people, who have no idea of the workouts they should be doing.
Again, it’s NOT the workout that makes you lose weight, it’s the CALORIES (Diet)! The workouts just help you retain and shape up that precious muscle.
Now let’s move on to the actual workouts.
Goals with the workouts
- Achieve higher density of the workload
- Retain muscle as much as possible
- Achieve greater detail and shape of the musculature
Principles and methods applied
Warm up before every workout:
5-10 minutes of stretching & 10-15 minutes light cardio (Light jog, rope jumps)
Rest times between sets (Don’t forget this, as it is one of the more important things in your weight loss workout):
Using the quality principle, the rest times between sets are no longer than 40 seconds.
Make sure to use full range of motion for each exercise. Focus as much as possible and feel your muscles working, instead of just going through the motion.
Full body split
(Suited mostly for beginners and/or people who do not have serious goals, but rather prefer to maintain an overall shape).
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full body | Rest, Cardio | Full body | Rest | Full body | Rest, Cardio | Full body |
The workouts are done every other day- One day on, one day off. Cardio is done twice a week on rest days.
For each muscle group, you have one exercise with 4 working sets of 10 or more repetitions.
| Full Body Workout | ||
|---|---|---|
| Body Part | Exercise | Repetitions |
| Chest | Flat dumbbell bench press | Two warm up sets of 15 and 12 repetitions, using a light weight |
| 4 working sets of 10 repetitions, using a significantly higher weight | ||
| Back | Lat pull-downs | Two warm up sets of 15 and 12 repetitions, using a light weight |
| 4 working sets of 12 repetitions | ||
| Shoulders | Dumbbell shoulder presses | 4 sets of 12 repetitions |
| Biceps | Straight bar curls | 4 sets of 12 repetitions |
| Triceps | Bench dips (Additional weight can be used if your strength allows it) | 3 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Legs | Body-weight squats | 5 sets of 15 |
| Leg presses | 3 sets of 12 | |
| Standing calf raises | 3 sets of 15 | |
| Seated calf raises | 3 sets of 20 | |
| Lower back hyper-extensions | 3 sets of 15 | |
Typical split
(Suited for intermediate and advanced athletes)
| DAY 1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Body Part | Exercise | Repetitions |
| Chest | Incline barbell bench press | Warm up sets- 15,12 repetitions |
| Working sets- 3 sets of 10 repetitions | ||
| Flat dumbbell bench press | 3 sets of 12 repetitions | |
| Cable crossovers (Isolation) | 3 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| Biceps | Straight bar curls | 2 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Dumbbell preacher curls (Isolation) | 3 sets of 12 repetitions per arm | |
| Incline bench dumbbell curls | 3 sets of 12 repetitions | |
| Dumbbell hammer curls | 2 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| DAY 2 | ||
| Body Part | Exercise | Repetitions |
| Back | Pull ups | 3 sets until failure |
| Cable rows | 3 sets of 12 repetitions | |
| Narrow grip lat pulldowns (Using the V pulley from the cable row machine) | 3 Sets of 12 repetitions | |
| Dumbbell pullovers | 2 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| Triceps | Weighted bench dips | 4 sets of 12 repetitions |
| Overhead dumbbell triceps extension (two arms) | 2 sets of 12 repetitions | |
| Rope push-downs | 2 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| DAY 3 | ||
| Lower Body & Shoulders | ||
| Body Part | Exercise | Repetitions |
| Quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes | Body-weight squats | 3 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Barbell squats | 4 sets of 12-15 repetitions | |
| Hack squats | 3 sets of 10 repetitions | |
| Leg presses | 3 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| Leg extensions | 2 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| Romanian dead-lift | 3 sets of 10 repetitions | |
| Calf & Ham super-sets | Standing calf raises + Laying hamstring curls | 3 sets of 12 repetitions |
| Seated calf raises + standing hamstring curls | 2 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| Lower back hyper-extensions | 3 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| Shoulders | Dumbbell shoulder presses | 3 sets of 12 repetitions |
| Dumbbell lateral raises (each arm done separately) | 4 sets of 12 repetitions per side | |
| Dumbbell front raises | 2 sets of 15 repetitions per side | |
Upper-lower super-set based split
(Suited for advanced athletes)
The workouts are done in a “2 days on 1 day off” fashion.
Cardio is done 2 times a week on rest days.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper body | Lower body | Rest, cardio | Upper body | Lower body | Rest, cardio | Repeat |
| Upper Body | ||
|---|---|---|
| Body Part | Exercise | Repetitions |
| Chest & back super-sets | Incline barbell bench press + Lat pull-downs | First two sets- 15 and 12 repetitions |
| Last 3 sets- 10-12 repetitions | ||
| Flat dumbbell bench press + Cable rows | 5 sets of 12 repetitions | |
| Stretching exercise for the chest and back | Dumbbell pullovers | 2-3 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Biceps & triceps super-sets | Straight bar curls + Machine triceps dips | 3 sets of 10 |
| Machine preacher curls + Overhead dumbbell triceps extensions | 4 sets of 12 | |
| Dumbbell hammer curls + triceps kickbacks | 2 sets of 15 | |
| Shoulders | Dumbbell shoulder presses | 2 sets of 12 |
| Lateral raises with a dumbbell (done with both arms simultaneously) | 4 sets of 12 | |
| Front raises with a disk | 2 sets of 15 | |
| Lower Body | ||
|---|---|---|
| Body Part | Exercise | Repetitions |
| Quadricpes, hamstrings and glutes | Body-weight squats | 3 sets of 15 |
| Barbell squats | 4 sets of 12 | |
| Walking dumbbell lunges | 2 sets of 15 per leg | |
| Quad & ham super-sets | Leg presses + Dumbbell Romanian dead-lifts | 4 sets of 15 and 12 for each exercise respectively |
| Leg extensions + Hamstring curls | 4 sets of 15 | |
| Standing calf raises with a barbell | 3 sets of 12 | |
| Seated calf raises | 4 sets of 15 | |
| Abs & lower back super-sets | Hanging leg raises + lower back hyper-extensions | 5 sets of 15 |
Cardio
f you’ve stumbled upon this article and have no idea how to do your cardio workouts, DO checkout our article on “Cardio for beginners“.
Posing
If you haven’t yet found out about the massive benefits of doing isometric contractions (Flexing your muscles through bodybuilding poses) make sure to read our article on ‘Posing‘.
Important notes
- During your fat loss phase, you are supposed to use relatively LIGHTER weights without reaching failure.
- Keep full range of motion and proper exercise form
- Keep your NUTRITION in check, as the workouts won’t cut it! You can’t expect to see results, if you have a half decent nutrition plan and your workouts suck. Gaining muscle, losing weight or just maintaining your shape (Whatever your goal is) is 100% nutrition and 100% training. It’s never 70% nutrition and 30% workouts as you might hear from a lot of the “Fitness gurus” out there.
- Progress takes TIME. You don’t suddenly get results after 6 months of training and eating right. You make small improvements with each day of consistency, the thing is- that progress stacks up, leading to a significant, visible result!
If you have troubles with your workouts and stop seeing significant progress, analyze your nutrition and your training cycle to eliminate the possible mistakes you might be making. If you cannot do that yourself, we are always here to help you.
In case you need INDIVIDUAL approach and guidance, make sure to e-mail us via our ‘Individual coaching’ section.
