30-Minute Massacre

As many of you know, recently my first child was born. On February 15, 2011, Dashiell graced us with his presence, and my life has been forever changed. Since that day, fitness and nutrition have taken on a new life, and it looks totally different than what it used to look like. Rather than hit 6 workouts a week at 1 hour a day, I now work towards a goal of 3 to 4 workouts per week at 30 minutes a day. So I thought to myself, is 30 minutes enough? I know many lifters who promote intermediate lifting a few days a week using compound movements to make the most of a workout and the most of one’s time.

I really loved hearing about this and decided to explore it. So I came up with the 30-Minute Massacre. I spend 3 days per week working out for 30 minutes, and in typical INSANITY fashion I am working out as hard as I can for that 30 minutes.

Highlights:

• 30 minute time limit (excluding warm-up and stretch)
• Very little rest
• Weight work: lift heavy with low reps
• Bodyweight work: max reps with explosive movement
• Absolutely no cardio

The name of the game here is strength, and with a Clean Daily Diet, my calories are all going into rebuilding my body as I tear it apart rather than fuel for cardio. I’m no longer looking to burn fat or lose weight…

Now, with that framework in mind, I’ve taken things I’ve learned from my past two years of working out to craft routines that I know will yield results, just in a shorter time limit. And I work hard to eat enough for my body to recovery and rebuild to the best of it’s ability. Having a newborn son gives me a drastically reduced sleep schedule, so while that suffers I do all I can do ensure that both my fitness and my nutrition are being given their best attention.

For the past month, I’ve been doing a compressed version of P90X’s Phase 1. Doing Chest & Back, Shoulders & Arms and 1-on-1′s Killer Abs. The results have been fantastic. I see physical growth, weight gain, strength increase and rep numbers rise consistently. This week is my recovery week.

So, what’s so important about Recovery Week?

Well, I’m glad you asked. Every 4 weeks, it’s good to deviate from your regimen and focus on recovery. Recovery is a multi-faceted idea. It includes genuine rest, some lighter workout routines that have lower impact on the body and some altogether unique routines that access your primary (read: sore) muscles in a different way and also focus on all the supporting muscles to help massage the central nervous system. My Recovery Week will consist of some Yoga, some running and some Core Synergistic.

I love the Core Synergistic routine from P90X. It hits all areas of your core – that band that goes from your chest to your knees all the way around your body. “Core” is such a hot topic work these days, but it’s foundational in that a strong, solid core equals a healthier fitness life and greatly reduced chance of injury. “Synergistics” isn’t a very common word in fitness, but it simply refers to the idea that in this workout, each move works more than one muscle at a time. It attempts to affect the whole core throughout.

So, last night was my Core Syn. day and I took a look at P90X’s exercise list and tweaked it to match the 30-Minute Massacre criteria. Here’s what it looked like.

1. Stacked Foot/Staggered Hands Push-Ups (Feet on a Fitness Ball)
2. Banana Rolls
3. Leaning Crescent Lunges
4. Squat Run
5. Low Plank Oblique Crunch (slow / fast)
6. Bow-to-Boats (5 sets)
7. Low Lateral Skaters
8. Lunge & Reaches (#15)
9. Prison Cell Push-Ups
10. Side Hip Raises
11. Squat X-Presses (#15)
12. High/Low Plank Hip Tucks (4 sets)
13. Superman Bananas
14. [can't remember the move I placed here]
15. Reach High & Under Push-Ups
16. Standing Oblique Crunch
17. Dreya Rolls
18. Plank to Chaturanga Isos
19. Warrior Bow
20. Table Dip Leg Raises

Working quickly, taking 1:00 minute’s rest every 8 moves left a few minutes of good stretching right around the 30-Minute Mark. I was wiped, drenched with sweat and loving what I just accomplished with 30 minutes of my day.

UPDATE: Having 12+ hours since the routine, let me tell you, I’m sore. Working super hard in a short amount on these moves really fired up all my supporting muscle. Good times!

So, alright, kids, any thoughts? Comment? Questions? I’m all ears. If you end up giving my routine a whirl, let me know!

~Nathan

Tags: 30-minute massacre, abs, back, chest, core, core synergistics, insanity, legs, p90x, recovery, synergistics, the balanced, thebalanced

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Abs/Core, Body Weight, Fitness, Workouts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.