12 Week Shred!0012 week training program designed to help you lose weight, build lean muscle, and create clean eating habits that will stay with you for life. It is designed to challenge your mind and body in order to create the body of your dreams. This program will be broken down into 3 Phases with 4 weeks in each phase. By the end of the 12 weeks you will have built a strong, lean, muscular, and fit body. This is only the training part of the program. The nutrition portion will be in a separate document and format.
Phase 1:
In this phase, we will begin to build muscle and start to clean up the diet. No cardio in this phase as we want to focus more on compound movements as well as some isolated movements. We will start out with 5 days a week in the gym for training. We will start with 3 sets of 10-12 reps, really focusing on working our last 2 reps to failure. That means lifting heavy and challenging yourself. If you can do your last 2 reps with ease then you are not lifting heavy enough.
Your nutrition is a very important part of this process. You will begin to eat more frequently, about every 2-3 hours. We will start cleaning up the diet by eliminating all processed foods. There will be plenty of great recipes and whole foods to choose from. Your veggie intake will be unlimited so you have the freedom to get creative. The focus is not on the amount of calories that you are consuming, but on the types of foods you are taking in and on having a good ratio of macronutrients.
You will also be adding supplements into this program. I recommend a good protein powder, BCAAS, glutamine, flax oil or fish oil, and a multivitamin.
Phase 2:
Here is where we will start to implement cardio into the program. Cardio will be done 4 days a week for 30 minutes at a medium intensity by incorporating HIIT style training. HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training and it is the most effective form of cardio in order to burn fat and speed up your metabolism. Now that you have executed proper form and have been introduced to compound movements, we are going to be lifting harder and heavier in this phase of the program. We will stay in the 8-10 rep range, making sure to workout at 85% of your maximum effort, meaning your last two reps in each set should be a struggle, but doable. Lifting heavier means that you will be resting longer between sets to give your muscles a chance to recover so that you can complete all sets and reps. The only exception will be when you perform the supersets that will be added to your routine. Here you will perform two exercises, back to back, with no rest. Also, we will be adding a training day which means 6 days a week of training instead of 5.
Nutrition will pretty much stay the same except for the fact that we will be cutting carbs in your last few meals. You are still eating just as much but we will be replacing some of your carbs with fats and proteins. A good rule of thumb would be to make sure not to eat any carbs 3 hours before bedtime.
Supplements will stay with same.
Phase 3:
This is the fat burning stage, where you will really start to see the muscle that we have been building in the first two stages. The goal here is to burn fat while maintaining all of the hard earned muscle you have been putting on. We do this by lowering the weight and increasing the reps. We will also be incorporating more supersets as well as active rest. An active rest is when you do the first exercise, and then instead of resting, perform the active-rest movement (for example, jump rope). Immediately repeat the first exercise. This phase is the most intense and challenging as you will be sweating and working in the gym like never before. We are in the home stretch so it is time work hard and show them what you are made of!
Nutrition will change a lot here and we will start to count calories and carb cycling the last 3 weeks of the phase. Carb cycling takes the macronutrients (the proteins, fats and carbs) of your meals and manipulates them to reduce body fat to very low levels, with as little muscle cannibalization as possible. Because carbs are the body's preferred source of fuel, cycling those carbs - eating lower amounts some days, higher amounts other days - confuses the body by not giving it a constant and dependable fuel source. When we reduce the intake of carbs on lower carb days, we'll replace those calories with protein and healthy fats. That way you'll have an adequate number of calories and maintain as much muscle as possible as you continue to exercise. Your high carb days will be on leg day.
This plan is guaranteed to get you shredded just in time for summer! For the next 12 weeks we will work hard and push ourselves in the gym to build muscle, gain strength, lose weight, tone up, and increase flexibility. The nutrition portion is only $50 extra and is highly recommended in order to get the summer shred that you so desire.
Certified Personal Trainer and RYT 200 Yoga Instructor
Health and fitness have always been a big part of my life. I have competed in several bodybuilding shows in the figure division. This has given me a great respect and appreciation for the human body and what it is capable of. My passion for working out and eating clean led me down the path of earning my certification through NASM to become a Certified Personal Trainer. I am also a Certified Yoga Instructor which has allowed me to help people with flexibility restraints and other physical ailments. It brings me great joy to help others transform their lives through the world of fitness.
Certified Personal Trainer and RYT 200 Yoga Instructor
Health and fitness have always been a big part of my life. I have competed in several bodybuilding shows in the figure division. This has given me a great respect and appreciation for the human body and what it is capable of. My passion for working out and eating clean led me down the path of earning my certification through NASM to become a Certified Personal Trainer. I am also a Certified Yoga Instructor which has allowed me to help people with flexibility restraints and other physical ailments. It brings me great joy to help others transform their lives through the world of fitness.
Danielle Harvey
