Warm-up

How to pick the exercises.

1. Exercises should always work multiple muscle groups.
2. Exercises should be done standing, whenever possible.
3. Exercises should be effective for fat loss even if only the bodyweight version is used (i.e. squats).
4. The hardest (most intense) exercises should always be first in your workout.

Now before I explain the rules in detail, let's cover your warm-up.

Start with a general bodyweight exercise warm-up. The purpose of the warm-up is to specifically prepare your muscles for action. Walking on a treadmill for 5 minutes does little in
terms of preparing your body for resistance training.

These hot zones are:

a) Back of Legs
b) Upper Back
c) Chest
d) Abdominals/Torso

Why do I only worry about the back of legs? Because almost all multi-joint movements that train the back of the legs will also stress the quadriceps, even if only in a static contraction.

So use this Hot Zone warm-up in place of the treadmill:

A) Y-Squat (put hands over your head in a "Y" formation) - 15 reps
B) Close-grip Push-ups (kneeling or advanced) - 8 reps
C) Stick-up - 8 reps

Ok, now we are ready to move on to the main workout.

As stated in the workout rules, we must pick our hardest, most intense exercises first, and perform them in sets of low reps.

1A) Split Squat (8 reps) [Advanced: Use the Bulgarian Split Squat]
1B) Elevated Push-up (8 reps per side) [Beginner: Use kneeling push-ups)
2A) Step-up (12 reps)
2B) Bodyweight Row (8 reps) (Beginners do with knees bent)
3A) Stability Ball Jackknife (15 reps) (Beginners do Mountain Climbers)
3B) Back Extension (15 reps) (Replace with DB row if necessary)

Each superset (i.e. 1A & 1B) is done 3 times with no rest between exercises A and B, but with a 30-60 second rest after B, and then you repeat the superset.

As you can see, each exercise uses multiple muscle groups, so that more calories will be burned during and after exercise.

That means you should be able to perform the two exercises back to back with minimal fatiguing effects from the prior exercise. You have to pair exercises that don't use the same muscle groups.

The rules of exercise selection and exercise order will allow you to get lean, boost your metabolism, and to train with a high-intensity throughout the entire workout.