This unusual workout will help you lose weight in no time

Generally speaking, the more muscles you move, the more calories you burn, so if weight loss is your goal, try doing more compound exercises, like deadlifts and squats.

The workout we are going to discuss here uses your body only as resistance. It also relies on endurance more than counting sets and reps. In fact, you won’t even need to count reps; the only thing you might want to check is the time.

So let’s talk about the ultimate fitness test and how you can benefit from getting ready for it, even if you aren’t planning on competing in olympics. The test requires you to do as many reps as you can in the set time interval and therefore is perfect to build muscles and endurance  as well as torching fat.

What is the ultimate fitness test?

As part of the test, you will need to perform five different exercises within a set amount of time. The requirements are as follows:

  • Swim 400 metres under 12 minutes
  • Do 20 pushups in 2 minutes
  • Do 20 situps in 2 minutes
  • Do 10 pull-ups
  • Run 2 km in under 10 minutes

What is great about this test that it measures the fitness levels of your whole body. You’ll need a strong back and shoulders for the swim, monster pecs and triceps for the pushups, rock hard abs and core for situps, godly lats and biceps for the pullups and swift quads, calves and glutes for the run.

Another good aspect of the test is that it’s time limited and bodyweight only: you won’t have to count weights and volume here, just do as many reps as you can within the set time. Doesn’t get less complicated than that.

Due to the high rep count, working out using this method is not all that dissimilar to doing CrossFit, for example, and builds endurance as well.

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Eat right to gain right

If you want to build muscles and lose fat, you will need to eat right, no question about it. Even if your aim is to lose weight doing this exercise, you will need to get a better understanding of what you eat and most importantly, how much carbs, fats and protein do you consume a day.

If it sounds daunting and a lot of hassle to count macros, it really isn’t. There are free apps that literally tells you what’s in the food you eat by scanning the barcode of the product, such as MyFitnessPal. Once you know what’s in it, you can decide whether you need that last slice of large Dominos pepperoni pizza (you don’t).

Either you are trying to lose fat or want to build muscle, eating more protein is beneficial for you. If you fall in the former category, try swapping some bad fats and carbs – most of the processed food falls into this category – to protein snacks, let them be protein bars or just a small portion of high-carb nuts.

If you are trying to gain muscle mass and are naturally skinny, try adding some high protein mass gainers.

Drinking more water also helps, so fill up your gym water bottle and drink that water!

Warm up and cool down

Although this workout uses plenty of cardio elements, you want to get ready even for those. Light jogging and stretching helps priming the muscles and your body for the upcoming exercises.

Stretching and relaxing tense muscles after the workout is also very beneficial. Use a foam roller and/or resistance bands, both of which can relieve muscle tension and

IMPORTANT: if you have any medical condition or experiencing pain of any sort – especially back pain – please consult a medical professional before you start working out. Some of the below exercises put a lot of stress on your lower back and if you are ever unsure how to perform them, get a PT or a trained athlete to show you the correct form.

1 Swimming

Muscles worked: delts, lats, traps, triceps, biceps, abd, hams, glutes (all of them, really)

Time: swim continuously for half an hour

This exercise will most likely be performed separately from the rest of the exercises for practical reasons, but it’s all for the better since adding a swim day to your workout calendar will introduce variety to your strength training.

Not only that, but swimming is good for your overall cardivascular health, is a joint-friendly sport and will make your body strong overall as well as more robust. Doing freestyle swimming will work your shoulders and lats and will give you that V-back you always wanted.

Make sure you warm up for your swims with some shoulder exercises, like rolling shoulder circles and arm circles. especially if you haven’t swam for a while, you will feel your shoulders quite prominently in the upcoming days after the exercise if you don’t warm up. Probably even if you do, but at least with warmup you can avoid injuries.

2. Pushups

Muscles worked: pecs, triceps, core

Time: do as many as you can in two minutes/do 50 pushups in the least amount of sets possible

3. Situps

Muscles worked: abs, obliques, core, lats

Time: do as many as you can in two minutes/ do 75 in the least amount of sets possible.

Don’t try to do sit ups without leg support, that’ll put way too much pressure on your back. You can get an under door crunch bar if you are working out at home or a sit up bench (or a multi-functional weights bench).

Also – and I can’t tress this enough – don’t have your hands behind your neck or head. Most people try to cheat doing sit ups by pulling their head with their arms. The only thing you’ll achieve with that is spine injury and neck pain.

Keep you hands either on the side of your head or crossed in front of your chest. The former is better if your abs are not that strong just yet and you want a bit of momentum before your engage your core.

Either way, engage your core all the way through the movement and keep your back straight. By engaging your core and not using your hands/arms to help, you can avoid potential back injuries.

4. Pullups

Muscles worked:  lats, traps, biceps

Sets/Reps: do as many as you can in one go

If you are exercising at home and unfamiliar with pullups, get one a door pull up bar and start doing pullups your legs resting on a chair. Please, please, make sure the bar is fitted properly and that it can support your bodyweight before you start hanging off it.

If you are frequenting the gym, you can use a pull up assist machine first. Same thing as doing a regular pull up, but you do it kneeling on a weighted pad.

Bodyweight pull ups are the next step up from supported leg pullups. If you really want concentrate on your lats, use a wide overhand grip. Chin ups use your arms muscles more (they are excellent nevertheless).

 

5. Running

Muscles worked: quads, hams, glutes, calves

Time: run for half an hour