The following is a guest post by the one and only, Travis Stoetzel from TravisStoetzel.com and Facebook.com/HardcoreStrength. I want you to know that 99% of Travis’ philosophy agrees with the JMax Fitness philosophy. Enjoy.
Travis uses hardcore methods to get lean and mean.
What up Kids? Travis here.
I think by now if you’re following J’s blog then you know that running on a treadmill or jumping onto an elliptical will get you nowhere.
I hated regular cardio at an early age and I guess I was just born with a natural direction towards hardcore methods of training.
I was strictly a sprinter and I hated running long distances. Maybe it was because I was short or I was naturally fast.
But who finds running over 20min at a time fun?… A different breed I suppose.
Hardcore Cardio
I want to share some of my methods I use to stay shredded and to get my athletes shredded. The good news is you won’t find any machines or exercises you do for over 20 minutes. These hardcore cardio sessions will be fast and super effective!
So get on em!
Battling Ropes
Mr. John Brookfield knows how to PUNISH people with ropes. The man is a genius! Battling Ropes are the real freaking deal.
I have a 1.5 inch rope and a 2 in rope and both are 50 footers.
Seriously, I’m just scratching the surface of what you can do with these bad boys.
I typically do 30-15 work sets (30 seconds work, 15 seconds rest) or tabatas.
Battling ropes will give you a hardcore upper body workout and crush your core as well.
(Note from Jason: He’s not lying. Your core will be on fire.)
Check out the video below for some different variations….
Hill Sprints
As you may know, sprints work well to melt body fat off the body. Well…hill sprints are sprints on steroids! (Especially when you can find a nice long hill that has about a 45 degree incline and is close to 80-100 yards long.)
That’s what the old hill at Brickyard Park back in my home town had. That will was a BRUISER!
I still remember 100 degree days running those with a few of my football teammates. We would ride our bikes there, which was about 3-3.5 miles and then do 15-20 reps of hill sprints!
Great for building speed, but even better for getting shredded.
Long Cycles with the Kettlebell
Now I’m no competitive kettlebeller but I know a great fat burning routine when I see one.
Kettlebell long cycles will TEAR you up big time. Some sets can even go on for 40-45 minutes.
That’s a lot of time under tension but it’s a great energy burner at the same time.
Grab a rather light to medium weighted bell (I use a 40lb bell) and try to see how many clean and presses you can get (with good form) in 20 minutes.
That will have you breathing for air and tearing your grip apart big time.
Bodyweight Density Sets
You know. Supersets are great, circuits are cool, but how about taking a few bodyweight exercises – say 2 to 5 – and keep hitting the circuit until time runs out?
Here’s an example:
1A) Squat Jumps x 5
2A) Plyo Push ups x 5
3A) Pull Ups x 5
4A) Jumping Lunge x 5
Repeat that set for ten minutes and get as many rounds as possible in that time.
In a week, do the same circuit in the same amount of time but increase the number of sets you get. That’s density training and you can apply it to almost anything.
I like to do it with bodyweight training especially when I go to the park or hit up outdoor workouts.
Head to the playground and hit that exact workout I have above and see how many rounds you can crank out in 10 minutes.
Core + Kettlebell Super Sets
Kettlebells alone are great for burning fat, but I like to add in core movements to make it even more effective for shredding you up.
One of my favourite supersets to do is full kettlebell swings with hanging leg raises.
Another favourite that I use for a finisher is doing Kettlebell Hand to Hand Swings and pairing that up with mountain climbers or burpees.
This will shred you up good.
Essentially you’re taking two exercises that tax the body hard and doing them back to back for high rep sets.
I typically do sets of 15 for both, rest 30 seconds and repeat that for 3-4 sets to end a workout.
It’s a great finisher style workout that will really crank up your conditioning and fat burning furnace.
There you go JMax Fitness: 5 Hardcore Cardio Methods to use for supreme conditioning.
Live Aggressive and get Strong!
Travis
Where to Go From Here
If you enjoyed this article, then you’ll love Travis’ Unbreakable Badass program (which is like Crossfit, but 100x better). You can preview it here: Unbreakable Badass 2.0
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