The summer of 2007 was a crazy time for me.  I was motivated to start Shah Training, become a Marketing Consultant, and finish up my Full-length Script. All my accomplishments so far are all a cause of one singular event.

But out of all those accomplishments, nothing is as great as losing the 15 lbs I did during that summer. Most people end up gaining an incredible amount of weight during the summer times. I lost weight. Looking back, I did a lot of things that I probably wouldn’t do now. Some of my ideas about weight loss have changed. I think there’s a better way. But when you’re 170lbs at 25% bodyfat, almost anything will work wonders on you.

Looking back, my weight loss can pretty much be split up into 2 large phases. I will illustrate these phases into a 12-week program which combines what I did to lose the weight and also a few tricks that I’ve learnt in the past four months since the weight loss.

Phase One: Weeks 1-6

What I did: I began running almost every morning, building my up to a 3-mile run that took me about 40 minutes.

What I would do now: Do a 2-mile run every other morning, focusing on speed. Greater emphasis on diet, and high-intensity workouts.

Phase Two: Weeks 6-12

What I did: Switched gears to intensify workouts and placed greater emphasis on diet.

What I would do now: Workouts would already be intense, and diet would already be clean, so just take it to the next level by dieting 6 days a week as opposed to 5 and increasing the frequency of intense weight training while decreasing the amount of steady state cardio performed.

There you have it. I’ve just created a rough out line of a really good weight loss program for people to follow. I think I might start this in mid-march or earlier, when the whether gets warm and I can run. Or maybe I can start this now by doing another form of cardio instead of running. We’ll see what happens.

But if you’re looking for a well-structured program which takes advantage of high intensity cardio and strength training, then I suggest you try Turbulence Training. Turbulence Training is the original fitness program for anyone who wants to lose weight fast in the comfort of their own home.

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There’s a brand new show about to be launched in December on Discovery Health titled, “Could You Survive?” The show takes ordinary participants and puts them through a real-life disaster situation. Once the participants have “woken up” to the fact that their fitness levels are not enough to survive a natural disaster, they undergo a grueling 4-week diet and training program to help them get into “survival” shape.

This show has an interesting concept to it, and something I’ve written about before. On the Discovery Health website, they have already given a synopsis on the first four episodes. I thought it would be fun to guess what kind of recommendations I would give to getting someone in shape for that particular situation:

“Episode 1: Could You Survive a Car Accident in a Remote Area?

Car accidents are violent and unpredictable, injuring millions of Americans every year. On Could You Survive?, a lonely stretch of road becomes a proving ground for three average people when their passenger is seriously injured in a frightening accident. Help is only a mile a way, but for these three people, getting there fast enough may be more than their over weight and poorly conditioned bodies can handle. Do they have the mental toughness and physical endurance to save a loved one?”

First thing that comes to mind here is endurance training. I would see how long it takes a contestant to run a mile (or if they can even run a mile). Assuming that the contestant is able to run a mile, now lets assume it takes them 15 minutes to complete it.

The goal is go get that person running as fast as possible within 4 weeks. So, we’re going to be doing a lot of interval sprints and high intensity workouts targeting the lower body. An overall reduction in bodyweight would also help in improving the speed and endurance of an individual.

Interval training alone would help with mental toughness. But in order to really focus on mental toughness and simulate a worst-case scenario, you want to perform some sort of exhausting exercise before your regular workout. For example, perform burpees all out for 2 minutes before starting your workout, and see how much mental strength it takes you to finish now.

“Episode 2: Could You Survive an Accident on the Water?

A disaster can occur any time, anywhere.  On Could You Survive?, a day at the lake turns terrifying when ordinary people are faced with a critical life and death situation.  In this hypothetical scenario, someone they love is in trouble.  They’re in the water, hurt, struggling and rapidly losing consciousness.  Without help, it’s only a matter of minutes before they will drown.  All three challengers are still young, but already overweight and unhealthy.  Can they get to their loved one in time to save a life?   To find out, they will be competing against the toughest opponent possible – their unfit bodies and their own worst fears.”

Well, I can’t swim, so I’d probably drown. Well, I can swim, but for some reason I can only swim underwater. And it’s been years. I’m sure muscle memory would kick in, but we can’t rely on that, can we? At the very least, I know how to float and paddle.

You don’t need to be a world class swimmer in the situation, but being a decent swimmer would help. Some sort of familiarity with the water is always a good thing. On top of that, swimming itself is great exercise. However, unlike sprint intervals, I would suggest learning to swim on your own.

Get yourself an instructor or personal trainer that can help you with both learning how to swim and intense swimming workouts.

“Episode 3: Could You Survive a Wildfire?

A wind whipped wildfire can be deadly and unpredictable. On Could You Survive?, a leisurely hike in an urban park will become a potential deathtrap for two average couples. Faced with a wall of flames racing in their direction, they will have to run up a steep hillside and tackle several obstacles as they try to save their own lives. Can they overcome their lack of fitness and work together as a team to make it to safety?”

Not only does this challenge involve endurance, but also strength endurance. You’re pulling your own bodyweight up steep cliffs. And you better make it, or else you die. For this challenge, you’d need lots of upper body strength. Lots of pullups just to hold an pull your own bodyweight.

On top of that, rock climbing also involves using your lower body. Hence, lots of squatting. Pullups and squats are going to be your friends. And the thing here is that you can’t stop and rest, at any point. So interval training is out. You’re going to have to perform high repetition workouts for time.

I’ve never done any rock climbing, but I have done some wall climbing. Climbing a wall with spotters and safety equipment is hard enough, so I can imagine how rock climbing without spotters, safety equipment, or formal training of any kind could be absolutely frightening.

“Episode 4: Could You Survive an Earthquake?

When an earthquake strikes, an old theater becomes a potential deathtrap.  On Could You Survive?, three typical Americans – over weight and out of shape – struggle to find their way through a deadly obstacle course of stairs, props, scenery, ladders and dangling power lines.  They have less than four minutes to make it out before a gas leak blows the building sky high.  Do they have the strength, agility and stamina to save their own lives? “

This scenario calls to mind a few workouts I used to do with my friends. They were like obstacle courses, and the goal was perform them as fast as possible. If you want to improve your strength, agility, and stamina, design a set of physical challenges and see how long it takes you to perform them.

For example, you can start off at the bottom of a staircase. Run up stairs, do 10 pushups, then run back down and do 20 squats. Run around the house or block, come back and do 10 pullups. You can add in other physical challenges such as jumping over objects, carrying heavy boxes across distance or up stairs.

We did a lot of sprinting and odd object carrying. If you have the equipment, you can try holding a dumbbell over your head while walking really fast. Or try holding something heavy close to your body to simulate carrying somebody. Or, you can literally carry someone.

Overall, I’m impressed with the overall variety of the scenarios this show has come up with. I’m going to be extremely excited to check this out! It’s going to start in December, Thursday Nights at 9pm ET.

A few years ago, I bought a book about the Navy Seals and how they worked out. There were four main parts to the Navy Seals program: upper body training, core training, stretching, and cardio.

Click here to Learn How to Perform Super Unique, Fat Burning Bodyweight Exercises in the Comfort of Your own Home

They pretty much do cardio everyday and all day. They’re always on the move. So what can you learn from them? Well, one of the biggest aspects to their is that they are in a large group. You don’t need to start some workout club, but running, swimming, or biking with a friend will help you get your extra cardio in.

When I was in Karate, I performed my best when I was fighting or competing against someone who was able to push me hard. My friend Dominic and I were of equal strengths and techniques. So when we fought, there was war. But it was fun, and we both burned off a ton of calories during the workout.

Putting it All Together: Military Style Workouts you can Do at Home

Well, if your goal is to get started with some basic military training, then you should take the following steps:

1. Stick to the basics: pushups, pullups, situps, and squats.
2. Get a friend to workout with. Make sure you push each other.
3. Train first thing in the morning.
4. Make sure you train on a consistent schedule. Don’t let yourself make any excuses.
5. Find a fun activity to perform. This is the best cardio.

The last step is to actually get yourself a very basic bodyweight program you can do at home.

If you’re ready to incorporate bodyweight training as part of your fitness plan, then you should check out Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss. Coaches Ryan Murdock and Adam Steer show you how to use bodyweight movements to lose fat, build muscle, increase strength, improve athletic fitness, and enhance longevity.

Click here to For More Information

Image by MobiGates

I’ve gone through dozens of intense bodyweight routines in the past. A few of them have made onto the YouTube. I wanted to showcase some of my most interesting workouts in one single post. Here they are:

Density Training

This workout was very recent and was a simple experiment in Density Training. Density training is where you steadily increase the number of repetitions performed per set, while decreasing the number of sets. The idea is to perform the same number of repetitions per workout using a lower number of sets, thus accomplishing those total repetitions in a shorter amount of time. Check out the video:

Ideas for progression:

You can attempt 200 pushups and 100 chinups in your first workout, but trust me you’ll be sore for at least 3 days afterwards. If you’ve never performed more than 30 or 40 pushups per workout, then you’d better start off with conservative numbers such as 50 pushups and 25 chinups. Once you’re comfortable with these numbers, you can shoot for higher total repetitions.

Click here for more Intense Bodyweight Workouts

9- minute Bodyweight Routine

The 9-minute Bodyweight Routine was my attempt to develop a 10-minute intense workout. The truth is, it wasn’t really that intense for me at all. I found it to be quite easy, and perhaps a great warmup routine for me. However, I can see this routine being useful for beginner/intermediate trainees. Here it is:

Ideas for progression:

The routine is simple enough, so moving forward I would suggest replacing some of the exercises with more difficult ones. For example, after incline pushups, you can try hindu pushups or dive bombers. Crunches can be replaces by full situps or hanging knee raises. Finally, boot strappers should be replaced by parallel or full bodyweight squats.

Click here for more Intense Bodyweight Workouts

10 Sets of Hell

I showcased this workout here before, but never presented a video. This video is somewhat embarrassing because this workout did kick my but. The original workout was posted on bodyweightculture.com by EvilOne. In this video, I replace the Pull Up with the Bent Over Row, simply because I didn’t have anything to hang on outdoors. But when you do the workout, replace the Bent Over Row with the Pull up. I actually attempted this workout again in my garage and put a belt over the top to do a pullup. The workout gets even harder that way. I suggest you look this guy up because his workouts are definitely “Evil.” Here’s my futile attempt at his workout:

Ideas for progression:

So yes, the full goal of this workout is to be able to perform 10 rounds in 20 minutes. I’m not sure how many people have actually accomplished that feet. I think it was the fear of failure that prevented me from going all out with this workout. I will definitely be going after this workout again, once the whether gets better and I have some training partners to push me.

Click here for more Intense Bodyweight Workouts

Tabata Pushups/Sprints

When I designed this workout, I thought it was going to be one of the easier ones. But Tabata did kick our buts. This workout was performed by both myself and D-raj, but for some reason I only footage of D-Raj performing the workout. Here it is:

Ideas for progression:

Change up the exercises or add more rounds. Or just try to sprint faster.

Click here for more Intense Bodyweight Workouts

Rainy Day Workout

This was just one of those “what do we do today?” workouts that I came up with on the spot. Oh yeah, it did start to rain so we had to work in a small space. Three guys, small space, there’s really only one thing you can do:

Ideas for progression:

The main thing here I guess is to try to get up to doing 10 rounds of this. Five rounds itself is pretty tough, I can only image how tough 5 rounds would be. For beginners, start off with basic jump roping drills and alternate with bodyweight squats. The basic progression here would actually be bodyweight squats, then squat jumps, then squat thrust, and finally burpees.

Click here for more Intense Bodyweight Workouts

Insanity Workout

This is by far the most intense workout ever devised! Just watch the video:

Ideas for progression:

We did try this workout one more time, performing just 3 rounds straight through. Yes, it was easier, with my time being around 13 minutes. I think I can probably hit 5 rounds pretty easily now, perhaps around 20 minutes or less. For beginners, start off with doing just 3 rounds of pushups and leg pullins. Steadily add in the other two exercises. Once you’re fully comfortable with three rounds, then add in more rounds.

Well, there you have it. Six great bodyweight routines to help you get and stay in shape. Now tell me….who needs the gym?

For more great bodyweight training information, check out Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss:

Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss is a complete bodyweight manual written by Coach’s Ryan Murdock and Adam Steer which shows you unique bodyweight exercises you can perform in the comfort of your own home. The manual also 3 bodwyeight programs specifically for fat loss, along with many other features.

Click here for more information

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In years gone by I have hit the road countless times just running for 30-45 minutes, although I found this fun I was always naturally inclined to throw in things like sprints and pushups but wouldn’t as I had been brainwashed into ‘Jogging’ which is slow monotonous and simply painful. As time went by I discovered the joys of what I like to call a “Playful Run.”How to Run PlayfullyI go about my playful runs by simply putting on my Nike Free’s/Shorts/ T-shirt grabbing my iPod and hitting the road. I run at varying paces and throw in all kinds of things which make the whole process a 20-30 minute workout of varying difficulty dependent on how I feel that day; Some days I will throw in more sprints and pushups, other-days I will do more running and lunges. It all depends on how sore I am and how energetic I am feeling…Favorite things to do while Running1- Sprint Combinations: I love to throw in a few sets of sprints while running I usually go for 100-200 meters and then throw in a set of either explosive pushups or jumping squats. This combination of exercise has been shown to elicit a great HGH response.
2- Lunges to Burn: This is something to throw in at the end of a run, simply lunge until you feel your legs really burn, this will normally be 10-15 reps for each leg. It’s a great way to finish off a run and get a good burn in your quads.
3- Agility Training: This basically means doing things like sidesteps, running backwards, doing some long jumps and weaving between objects. It’s a great way to work on your balance and agility. Preparing you for a sport and it really works your mind-body connection.
4- Drop and Give me 20: This is quite simply stopping your run and either doing 20 pushups, 20 body-weight squats or Burpees. It’s a great way to change the rhythm of running and allow you to get a full body workout.
5- Hill Running: I am lucky to have a nice uneven hill near my house, which I can do, sprints up. These are especially challenging, as the surface is uneven and your running at an incline. If you don’t have access to a hill try and find an uneven surface to run on like grass or gravel.

Give it a Try

Hit the road and improvise, just keep things intense and keep the time under 30 minutes. If you throw in a combination of the above techniques you will achieve a great full-body workout with no equipment and it will allow you to get in touch with nature, try and improvise even further if you see a solid tree branch do some pull- ups, the beauty of a playful run is that it allows for so much creativity and randomness allowing your mind and body to be free….

I personally love doing these workouts first thing in the morning and there is no better way to start a day!

Photo Credit: ansbachers

About the Author

Chris writes on his blog, Zen To Fitness, to pass on things he has learned through life about fitness and lifestyle.

A while back at Tastefully Driven, I wrote a post where I claimed that all you need to get into great shape is running, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. Well, I’m going to back that claim up and design three intense workouts using only those four exercises. Each workout builds on the one before it. My suggestion is to try each workout once per week and cycle through them. For example, Workout A can be performed on week one, then Workout B on week two, and finally Workout C on week three. Week four you would perform Workout A again and try to beat your time.


Workout A
3 rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
20 Sit-ups

Workout B
For time:
30 Sit-ups
20 Push-ups
10 Pull-ups
Run 800 meters
10 Pull-ups
20 Push-ups
30 Sit-ups

Workout C
For time:
1 mile Run
50 Sit-ups
35 Push-ups
20 Pull-ups
800 meter Run
30 Sit-ups
20 Push-ups
10 Pull-ups
400 Meter Run
15 Sit-ups
10 Push-ups
5 Pull-ups

A tip on how to set these workouts up:

It will be difficult to find a track with a playground nearby where you can perform pull-ups. What we have done in the past is run around the block (355 meters according to Google Earth), then run up the stairs to my second floor room, perform the pull-ups on the bar, then run back down and complete the rest of the workout. This adds another extra element of stair running.

Other options u can do is to replace the pull-ups with body weight squats if you are unable to find a bar nearby. I can also foresee issues with the sit-ups,as it may be uncomfortable (and potentially harmful to your spine and lower back) to be performing sit-ups on the ground. The best solution is to purchase a mat. Another option is to replace the sit-up with a kettlebell or dumbbell option such as windmills, where you are hitting the same muscle group. Sometimes we have thrown in the kettlebell swings to replace the sit-ups, and Hindu push-ups to replace regular push-ups.

The options are endless. Take the format of these workouts and make them your own. You may need to replace exercises or reduce/increase reps to fit your fitness level.

I am actually quite surprised when people ask me how one can get in shape using just calisthenic exercises. But I guess if people didn’t ask that question, then I’d be out of a job. So now I’m going to do something that will surprise people. I’m going to reveal to you guys a source of information concerning bodyweight training that will open up your eyes and ears: the military. Read More.