Challenge Workouts

But burpees can be painful.

I’m all for pain, but it has to be the RIGHT kind of pain.

I want to ensure that you’re doing burpees in a way to keep your wrists and back safe.

Lots of people shy away from burpees because they feel they are too hard.

You can easily modify a burpee so that you can work up to the full on burpee (and beyond) by doing a full body extension or burpee walk out to start.

Make sure to keep a flat back and tight abs to ensure you don’t strain your back when you go into the plank position.

As well, if you have any wrist pain, neutralize the wrist by doing your burpees on a dumb bell.

You can get your hands on fun Challenge Burpee workouts and you’ll find all kinds of great ways to modify and vary the already awesome burpee. Here’s a video explaining how to do burpees safely with my pal Rick Kaselj:

If you suffer from ANY type of shoulder pain or knee pain, you need to check out my pal Rick’s  programs. He sure has helped me out with my aches and pains here and here and here.

Check out his ‘Fix my Shoulder Pain‘ program.

Also, you’ll find a great video on proper squatting technique here. Rick’s ‘Fix My Knee Pain‘ program is really great to help you keep active if you have any of knee issues.

I’m looking forward to his ‘fix my back pain’ program coming out in October (stay tuned for that).

Imagine 105 lbs of butter. Now pack that on your body.

Now imagine trying to move with that extra weight.

Try running around a track, imagine how long you’d last without giving up in despair.

That’s the story behind Mikey Whitfield. In his former desk jockey life, he ate a ton of food and ballooned up to quite a size. This is no secret. You can actually see how big he was here.

He was determined to drop the weight. He tried pretty much everything out there but could not get rid of those last pounds of stubborn fat.

Then he discovered metabolic stacking. It was his answer to training LESS and getting MORE results.

And it can be your answer for dropping those last pounds, especially if you’ve hit a plateau.

An Australian study reported that those that followed high intensity bouts of exercise with extremely short rest periods (just 12 seconds) lost 6 times more body fat than the group that followed a 40-minute cardio program.

The secret behind this finishers approach is density.

When you perform metabolic density training (MDT) using a variety of set and rep schemes that are “out of the box”, your body burns more calories to return to a normal state.

Mike takes me through a cool workout finisher that hits the upper body, lower body, core and gets my metabolism jacked.

I love workout finishers because they burn fat fast and eliminate the need for long slow boring cardio.

This is a cool triple threat workout:
3 per leg jumping lunges
3 triple stop push ups
3 per leg lateral lunges
3 cross body mountain climbers

Do this AMRAP style (as many rounds as possible).

Mike has an amazing program that you can check out here.

 If you’re unconvinced about WHY this program works, check out this study:

Canadian researchers at Queen’s University tested a workout using workout “finishers” style of training against long cardio.

(Reference: Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2012 Sep 20.)

– 22 college-aged women did 4 workouts per week for 4 weeks in one of three
groups.

Group A: did 30 minutes of treadmill running at 85% max heart rate

Group B: did 8 rounds of 20 seconds of a single exercise (burpees, jumping
jacks, mountain climbers, or squat thrusts) with 10 seconds of rest between
rounds.

Group C: did nothing (they were the non-training control group).

Results: Both training groups increased their aerobic fitness levels by the SAME
amount (about 7-8%).

That’s right, these short workout finishers (of ONLY 4 minutes) worked just as well as 30 minutes of cardio! 

Shocking? Yes, but that’s not all.

ONLY Group B, the workout finishers style training, also increased muscular endurance in common exercises like chest presses, leg extensions, sit-ups, and push-ups.

And finally, this intense but brief training method used by Group B also resulted in greater overall workout enjoyment.

Make sure you read that last sentence one more time so it sinks in please…

Enjoyment is obviously a key to consistency when it comes to exercise otherwise you’ll never follow through. 

The Canadian Scientists concluded that “extremely low volume bodyweight interval-style training” will boost cardiovascular fitness just as well as cardio while giving you BETTER improvements in muscle endurance.

All in only 4 minutes.

So, what was the EXACT protocol that helped these people get shocking results in just 4 minutes?

It’s the aforementioned METABOLIC STACKING from Mikey  who’s lost 105 POUNDS using this brand new scientific approach.

It’s all part of Mike’s brand new Workout Finishers 2.0 System … if you’re motivated to make changes to your physique, use science and short, intense workouts to transform your life like Mike did.

PPS. Make sure to email me your receipt and I’ll send you this:

3 Challenging Finisher Variations

Mike Whitfield, CTT

Creator of the Workout Finishers 2.0 Follow-Along System

Shawna’s Challenge Workouts and Mikey’s Finishers go together like pancakes and sizzurp.

What a fantastic sentence to start out with.

You are in for a treat as I’m going to show you 3 unique “twists” to using finishers after your workouts. But first, what’s the point of using finishers? Well, if you’re stuck on a plateau, want to speed up fat loss or improve your conditioning and overall fitness, then finishers can make a big difference.

You simply “plug in” a finisher after any Challenge Workout. They take 10 minutes or less.

And if you have a hard time believing you can get great results in just 10 minutes or less, check out this study…

Participants performed a high intensity circuit (as found with finishers) with very brief rest periods using compound movements for only 4 minutes. The participants burned an average of 13.5 calories per minute (some participants burned even more!) and doubling their metabolic rate for at least 30 minutes AFTER.

“This particular style of interval training has profound effects even on short-term post-exercise metabolism”, says lead researcher Michelle Olson, Ph.D., principle researcher at the Auburn University Montgomery Kinesiology Laboratory. It would take five times the amount of typical cardio exercise to shed the same amount of calories.” 

So, now that you are convinced at the power of finishers, let’s talk about just 3 variations that rock.

Finisher Approach # 1 – Density

There’s even a variety of approaches within this approach! First, there’s timed sets. This is when you’ll do an exercise for a certain amount of time and you’ll do as many reps as possible.

Another approach using density is when you do a certain number of rounds (supersets or circuits) in a given time frame. The set and rep schemes can be really crazy.

For the Density approach, let’s do the “”Big Switch” Finisher.

“The Big Switch” Finisher

Do the following circuit as many times as possible in 5 minutes, resting only when needed. If your form gets sloppy, you must stop and rest.

Goblet Switch Lunge (3/side)

1-Arm Switch Pushup (3/side)

Skater Hops (3/side)

Don’t worry, you don’t have to complete the madness on your own. Here’s a follow-along video of me coaching Brian through it (plus you’ll get some substitution exercises):

Finisher Approach # 2 – Gauntlets

 Inspired by Craig’s original TT Gauntlet program, this is when you assign an exercise as the “gauntlet” within a circuit. So you’ll perform the gauntlet exercise, followed by a new exercise, then back to the gauntlet exercise, etc. That means you’ll do something like this:

Alternating Javelin Reverse Lunge

Close-Grip Pushups

Alternating Javelin Reverse Lunge

X-Body Mountain Climbers

Etc, etc.

See how the Alternating Javelin Reverse Lunge is the “gauntlet” exercise?

By the way, here is how the crazy Javelin Reverse Lunge Works…

Javelin Reverse Lunge

• Stand with your feet just outside shoulder width apart holding a pair of dumbbells.
• Take a big step backwards with one leg and lower your body until your thigh is parallel to the ground. Keep your torso upright.
• At the same time press the dumbbell up by extending the arm of the same side you step back with.
• Return to the top by contracting the quadriceps, groin and hip extensors of the lead leg and bring the dumbbell back down under control.

Finisher Approach #3 – Ladders

These can trick you. This is when you do a certain number of reps of each exercise, then in the next round, you do one less rep, etc. Now you can even combine the density approach with a ladder, too. But that’s a post for another day…

For now, let’s do this simple, but effective superset ladder.

“Declined to Gobble” Finisher

Do the following superset resting as little as possible. In the first superset, you’ll complete 8 reps of each exercise. In the next superset, you’ll complete 7 reps of each. Continue in this fashion until you complete 1 rep of each exercise.

Goblet Bulgarian Squat (8/side…1/side)

Decline Pushups (8…1)

Here’s how to rock the Goblet Bulgarian Squat…

Goblet Bulgarian Split Squat

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in front of you at chest height.
• Place the instep of one foot on a bench. Step forward with the other foot, taking a slightly larger than normal step.
• Contract your glutes, brace your abs and keep your spine in a neutral position.
• Lower your body until your front thigh is parallel to the ground.
• Keep your upper body upright and your lower back flat.
• Push up to the upright position. Stay in a split-squat stance.
• Perform all reps for one leg and then switch.

Now that’s how you finish ANY workout with an all day energy rush (and lose fat faster).

Mike Whitfield, CTT

Creator, Workout Finishers 2.0 Follow-Along Video System

Get 51 Follow-Along Workout Finisher Videos and bonuses here

Mike Whitfield, CTT, has lost 105 pounds propelling his passion into the fitness industry. His unique approach of using workout finishers has helped thousands of people lose fat with his online and offline programs. He is known across the fitness industry for his effective “workout finishers” and humor. His workouts have been seen in Men’s Health, Turbulence Training, AJC and more.