This week kick’s-off your Training Camp. For the next 12 weeks you follow the same weekly rhythm.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays you’ll engage in strength training sessions. The emphasis of training is on quality over quantity. By applying the Focus Intensity Training® System, the how, (Strength for Life, Chapter 11) your strength training is brief, intense and challenging. Check out the 2 minute video Can Focus Create Joy? (YouTube Video)

Tuesdays and Fridays, I suggest brief (20 minute) High Intensity-Interval Training (HIIT) cardio-sessions. Arguably the most efficient cardio-training you can do, HIIT will kick you into another gear in less time than it takes most people to break a sweat during their slow, plodding cardio routines. You also train your Abs on these two days, a perfect complement to HIIT.

On Saturdays, enjoy a day of training unlike any other—the Full-Body FIT workout (pdf). In this full-body session, you strengthen your muscles, improve your stamina and increase your flexibility while enhancing recovery. The Full-Body FIT engages your muscles, heart, lungs and mind.

Sundays: you rest.

Here’s a look at your Strength for Life weekly plan:

Trackers:
All Week (Download pdf)
Monday – PUSH (Download pdf)
Tuesday – HITT/ABS (Download pdf)
Wednesday – LEGS (Download pdf)
Thursday – PULL (Download pdf)
Friday – HITT/ABS (Download pdf)
Saturday – FIT CIRCUIT (Download pdf)

Nutrition and Awareness Practice (Download pdf)

Strength Training’s For Women Too: Muscles Shape You Smaller
I can understand the fears some women have that strength training will develop big, showy muscles.  But I ask you to allow the period of Transformation—the next 12 weeks—to reshape and energize you as you lose inches where you don’t want them and tone your body. The lean muscle you build will actually translate to the tone and shape you desire. Go beyond the marathon reps and add some weight and intensity to your training. Check out the video: Baseballs vs Cantaloupes (YouTube Video).

Nutrition: If You Bite It, Write It!
For the next two weeks track the foods you eat (and anything you drink) and how you feel following each meal (Nutrition Tracker). Why? The more you nourish your body with life-enhancing foods, the more you’ll condition yourself to choose the foods that energize your body and elevate your mind. You’re not counting calories here…the real key is in tracking your mental and energy states (in addition to the physical) for one, two three and beyond hours after eating.

Eventually, you will become so accustomed to running on high-grade fuels that nothing less will satisfy.

Beware of those empty calories found in fancy coffee drinks and “energy drinks.”
Feel free to continue this practice for all 12 weeks, as I encourage my readers in Strength for Life.

Feed Your Strength After Training:
It’s a common misconception that strength training leads to fuller, stronger muscles.  While it’s true training is the stimulus for growth, it’s the recovery and proper nourishment immediately following your training that fuel your muscles, energy and strength.

Intense training leaves your muscles screaming for vital nutrients necessary for rebuilding your body stronger. Yet, you don’t experience this post-workout hunger for it’s on a cellular level. In fact, you may not feel hungry at all after working out. Even worse you may intentionally avoid eating as a weight loss strategy; thinking to yourself, “why eat, I just worked out and burned off all those calories?”

Regardless of how you feel immediately following your training, this is the right time to infuse your muscles with high-quality proteins, carbohydrates and other essential nutrients. As soon as your workout is over the clock starts ticking—the sooner you shuttle in optimal nutrition, the better. Most experts agree that the first 30 to 45 minutes following your training are the most critical to capture the full benefits of your hard work.

In Training,

Shawn

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