OVERVIEW

Your exercise guide · Power · Fat Loss · Advanced

Overview

Your body type and your goal: what is happening, how your body type reacts, and its pros and cons. Tap a section to open it.

Welcome to this month’s programme. Your goal is fat loss. You are a Power body type training at advanced level, so everything here is set around how your body works best. Text in this colour explains why: the reason behind an instruction. Technical words are explained in the shaded “In simple terms” boxes.

Body type: Power
Goal: Fat loss
Level: Advanced
Your exact plan: Exercises, reps, sets, rest and tempo are in your programme and concept video

1. Your Body Type: Power

Your body is built for strength: a wide frame, heavy bones and mostly fast-twitch muscle fibres, the most powerful kind. You carry the most muscle and the largest fuel stores, and you hold on to muscle best of all. You also have the fewest mitochondria, the slowest metabolism and the least insulin-sensitive muscles, so you store fat most easily. Your fibres tire fastest in long sets and recover slowest between them, but your nervous system is the calmest and copes with the longest sessions.

In simple terms: Muscle fibre typesMuscles are made of different fibres. Slow-twitch (Type I) fibres are built for endurance: efficient, slow to tire, and slower to grow than fast-twitch fibres, though they do grow with the right training. Fast-twitch fibres (Type IIa, and the most powerful, Type IIx) produce more force and grow more easily, but tire quickly. Your genetics largely set your mix, and it differs between body types.

In simple terms: MitochondriaTiny “power stations” inside your cells where fat and carbohydrate are burned with oxygen to make energy. More mitochondria means more capacity to burn fat.

In simple terms: MetabolismYour metabolism is the total amount of energy (calories) your body uses each day to stay alive, move and recover. Muscle is “expensive” tissue to run, so the more muscle you carry, the more calories you burn, even at rest.

Your strengths

The highest strength potential
Builds and keeps muscle readily
The largest fuel stores
Usually sociable and patient

Your weaker points

Stores fat most easily
The least tolerant of carbohydrate
Tires fastest in long sets
High-impact cardio loads the joints

2. Fat Loss: What Is Happening

Losing fat means your body uses more energy than it takes in, so it draws on its fat stores to cover the gap. Exercise helps in three ways: it uses energy; cardio builds more mitochondria, the “power stations” in your muscles where fat is burned; and weight training tells your body to keep its muscle while you are eating less.

The challenge is that when you eat less, your body is tempted to use muscle for fuel as well as fat. Keeping muscle matters, because muscle keeps your metabolism up and gives your body its shape once the fat has gone. So fat loss is really two jobs at once: losing fat, and keeping muscle.

Movement also opens “doors” in your muscles that let sugar in without needing much insulin. Lower insulin lets fat be released from your fat cells to be used as fuel.

In simple terms: GLUT4A “door” (transporter) that lets sugar from the blood into your muscle cells. Insulin moves GLUT4 doors to the surface of the cell; exercise does the same thing on its own, without needing insulin. The more GLUT4 doors your muscles have, the better you handle carbohydrate.

3. How Your Body Type Responds to Fat Loss

You are a Power body type trying to lose fat. You hold on to muscle better than any other type, so you can lose fat without losing strength or size. But you have the fewest mitochondria and the least insulin-sensitive muscles, so fat is stored most easily and released most slowly. Short, explosive efforts and heavy lifting suit your fibres and build exactly what your body type lacks.

The pros for your body type

You keep muscle best of all while eating less.
You have the biggest fuel stores.
Your heavy lifts use a lot of energy.

The cons: what to watch

You store fat most easily.
You have the fewest mitochondria and the least insulin-sensitive muscles.
Your joints take more load in high-impact exercise.

KEY POINTS

+ Read more× Close

Your exercise guide · Power · Fat Loss · Advanced

Key points

The most important things to do, each with the reason why. Tap a section to open it.

1. Your Programme This Month

How to lift

Effort: take every working set to the point where another good rep is not possible.
Weights: keep them heavy and challenging. Heavy, hard work gives the right hormonal and metabolic response for fat loss.
Circuits: do the 8 exercises back to back, 15 reps each, with minimal rest between exercises. That is one set. Rest for 2 minutes, then go again: 5 sets in total.
Technique: before your first session, read the technique advice for the big exercises.

Your week

You have 2 workouts this month, Workout One and Workout Two, both full-body circuits. Each week has 2 or 3 resistance workouts, 3 or 4 cardio sessions and 1 rest day. Your schedule shows which one to do each day. Keep the workouts in order, even if you have to take a day off.

If anything hurts, as opposed to feeling hard, stop and tell us.

2. In Your Workouts

Watch your concept video before you start each new month. It shows you every exercise and the technique for each one, so every rep is done right from your first session.
Work to failure, or within a rep of it. The last hard reps are where your muscle gets the strongest signal to change.
Push the quality of every set. An experienced body needs a bigger challenge to keep changing.
Lift heavy and with intent. Your large muscles use the most energy per heavy set of any body type, and you keep that muscle best of all.
Stay active outside the gym. Everyday movement keeps your muscles responsive to insulin: the area your body type needs most help with.
Find the enjoyment and keep the momentum. Your body type responds best to steady, consistent work over weeks and months, and enjoyment and support are what keep you consistent.
Aim to beat your last session: one more rep, or a little more weight. Your body only keeps changing while the challenge keeps rising.

In simple terms: Training conceptThe overall way your workouts are performed that month: the exercises, how they are grouped and the style of session. Changing it each month gives your body a fresh challenge so it keeps adapting.

In simple terms: Training to failureFailure is the point in a set where you cannot complete another rep with good form. Taking a set to failure means working right up to that point; stopping “two reps short of failure” means finishing when you could still have done two more good reps. How close you go depends on your body type, goal and level.

In simple terms: Progressive overloadGradually making training harder over time: a little more weight, an extra rep or an extra set. Your body only keeps adapting while the challenge keeps rising.

3. Your Cardio

Go all out in every interval: short and explosive. Very short, explosive, all-out efforts suit your fast-twitch fibres and build fat-burning capacity fastest.
Work at the best steady pace you can hold for the whole lactic acid removal phase. It should not feel easy, but you should be able to keep the pace to the end. Hard, steady work keeps blood flowing fast through your muscles, so lactic acid is cleared and burned as fuel while you keep building fitness, and your second block of intervals is as good as your first.

In simple terms: Lactic acidWhen you work very hard, your muscles break down sugar faster than oxygen can be used to burn it, producing lactate and acid (hydrogen ions). The acid is what causes the burning feeling and makes muscles tire. Lactate itself is not waste: steady, hard work keeps blood flowing and carries it to your heart, liver and slow-twitch fibres, which use it as fuel, while the acid is neutralised. That clearing process is the lactic acid removal phase.

4. Outside the Gym

Recover as hard as you train: take your rest days and make sleep a priority. Muscle repairs and gets stronger between workouts, not during them. Your personalised sleep and water recommendations are on your 9 Pillars Lifestyle page.
Eat around your training as set out in your Nutrition Guide. What you eat before and after training decides your fuel and your recovery.
Keep a training log, and tell your coach if your performance drops two sessions in a row or anything hurts. Your programme can then be adjusted before small problems become big ones.

5. Before You Start

Anyone new to exercise, returning after a long break, pregnant, or living with a medical condition or injury should be cleared by their doctor before starting.
Check with your GP before starting if you have high blood pressure, a heart condition, diabetes, a current injury, are pregnant or have recently given birth, or are returning after illness.
Stop and seek advice if you feel chest pain or tightness, unusual breathlessness, dizziness or faintness, or sharp joint pain during exercise.
Tell your coach about any injuries or health conditions so your exercise choices and intensity can be adjusted.

MONTHLY WORKOUT SCHEDULE

Below is our recommended order and number of workouts. Try to stick as close to this as possible. Always keep the order of the workouts the same even if you have to take days off. Ideally do not have more than one day off in a row.

Your Day 1

Cardio Workout One Workout Two Rest

Dates are not showing because the page script is not running. If you are logged in to Squarespace, open this page in a private or incognito window. If it still shows, your Squarespace plan does not run JavaScript in code blocks.

Day	Session	Day	Session
Day 1	Cardio	Day 15	Cardio
Day 2	Workout One	Day 16	Cardio
Day 3	Cardio	Day 17	Workout Two
Day 4	Cardio	Day 18	Cardio
Day 5	Workout Two	Day 19	Workout One
Day 6	Cardio	Day 20	Cardio
Day 7	Rest	Day 21	Rest
Day 8	Workout One	Day 22	Cardio
Day 9	Cardio	Day 23	Workout Two
Day 10	Cardio	Day 24	Cardio
Day 11	Workout Two	Day 25	Workout One
Day 12	Cardio	Day 26	Cardio
Day 13	Workout One	Day 27	Cardio
Day 14	Rest	Day 28	Rest

DYNAMIC WARM-UP

The warm-up is to mobilise and prime your body, it should be specific to the exercise you are about to perform. We recommend 5 mins of gentle cardio to increase body temperature and blood flow to the muscles. Follow this with movements that mimic your exercises but at a slower pace with reduced intensity.
Try our basic warm-up or advanced version with a medicine ball.

RESISTANCE WORKOUT ONE

Workout One Full body

1 circuit of 8 exercises · 15 reps each · 5 sets · every working set to failure · 2 min rest between sets

Block 1 Circuit

5 sets · 8 exercises back to back with minimal rest · 2 min rest between sets

1A Lunge — Swiss Ball / Dumbbells · 15 reps
1B Aerobic: breakdance · 15 reps
1C Press-up — Swiss Ball · 15 reps
1D Quad squats — Dumbbells · 15 reps
1E Plank — Kettlebell · 15 reps
1F Row — Band · 15 reps
1G Lunge — Dumbbells · 15 reps
1H Aerobic: frog jumps · 15 reps

How the block types work

Circuit: Several exercises done back to back with minimal rest between them. One round of all the exercises is one set; then rest.

Keep the weights heavy and challenging to get the right hormonal and metabolic response. The videos for each exercise are below.

Before commencing your workout click here for technique advice on some of the big exercises.

Block 1: Circuit · 8 exercises, 15 reps each · 5 sets, 2 min rest

LUNGE — Swiss Ball / Dumbbells

Stand on 1 leg with the opposite foot placed onto a swiss ball behind you with the knee flexed and hold dumbbells to your side. Bend the supporting leg and extend the back leg allowing the ball to roll backwards. Lean the torso forward over the front leg and maintain ankle and knee alignment. Roll the ball inwards as you extend the front leg bringing the body upright.

AEROBIC / BREAKDANCE

Begin on all 4s with the knees raised just off the floor. Take your weight onto 1 hand and the opposite foot and simultaneously twist the body and pass the free leg under the body. Straighten the leg then return to centre and repeat side to side. Keep the movement continuous.

PRESS-UP — Swiss Ball

Begin in a press-up position, feet balanced on a swiss ball, hands just wider than shoulder width and arms extended. Engage your core and keep your body straight. Bend the arms, elbows flared to the side slightly and lower your chest towards the floor. Extend the arms.

QUAD SQUATS — Dumbbells

Stand with your feet close together and heels raised onto a plate. Hold dumbbells to your shoulders and lower into a squat. Take the squat as deep as possible keeping your chest lifted. Allow the knees to come slightly forward of the toes.

PLANK — Kettlebell

Begin in a plank position with your core engaged. Alternately reach a hand forward to touch a kettlebell (or any object). Maintain your position, do not allow the hips to drop or twist.

ROW — Band

Stand with the opposite leg forward to working arm. Hold a band in 1 hand with the other end attached at chest height. Pull the band towards you keeping the elbow flared to the side. Rotate the torso as you pull.

LUNGE — Dumbbells

Stand feet hip width apart and hold dumbbells to your side. Lunge forwards until the back knee is just off the floor and both knees are at right angles. Keep the pelvis slightly tucked under and the body upright. Step together and repeat with the same leg.

AEROBIC / FROG JUMPS

Squat in a frog position, feet and knees turned out and your hands on the floor between your legs. Reach forward with your arms and take your weight onto your hand. Jump the legs forward and reach your arms up to shoulder height. Reverse the movement jumping backwards.

RESISTANCE WORKOUT TWO

Workout Two Full body

1 circuit of 8 exercises · 15 reps each · 5 sets · every working set to failure · 2 min rest between sets

Block 1 Circuit

5 sets · 8 exercises back to back with minimal rest · 2 min rest between sets

1A Chest press — Swiss Ball / Dumbbells · 15 reps
1B Leg raises — Swiss Ball / Dumbbell · 15 reps
1C Squat — Dumbbells · 15 reps
1D Deadlift — Kettlebell · 15 reps
1E Lateral flexion — Wall / Swiss Ball / Weight · 15 reps
1F Burpee · 15 reps
1G Press-up — Medicine Ball · 15 reps
1H Aerobic: tuck jumps · 15 reps

How the block types work

Circuit: Several exercises done back to back with minimal rest between them. One round of all the exercises is one set; then rest.

Same concept as Workout One. The videos for each exercise are below.

Block 1: Circuit · 8 exercises, 15 reps each · 5 sets, 2 min rest

CHEST PRESS — Swiss Ball / Dumbbells

Support your upper back on a swiss ball and lower your hips towards the floor. Hold dumbbells above you with your arms fully extended. Inhale as you bend your arms bringing the hands towards the shoulders with your elbows flared to the side and exhale as you extend.

LEG RAISES — Swiss Ball / Dumbbell

Lie with your back over a swiss ball, legs raised above you with slight knee flexion and a dumbbell held between the feet. Hold onto a stable surface behind you. Engage your core, inhale and lower the legs towards the floor whilst maintaining neutral spine. Exhale and raise the legs.

SQUAT — Dumbbells

Stand feet shoulder width apart and hold dumbbells to your shoulders. Bend the knees into a deep squat, push the bottom backwards and maintain neutral spine. As you straighten the legs, press the dumbbells overhead. Make sure your knees track inline with your toes.

DEADLIFT — Kettlebell

Stand feet shoulder width apart, bend the knees, hinge from the hips and take hold of the kettlebell in both hands. Perform a deadlift by pressing the feet into the ground and straightening the legs. Do not let the lower back round, maintain neutral spine. Lower under control.

LATERAL FLEXION — Wall / Swiss Ball / Weight

Lie laterally with your hip supported on top of a swiss ball and your feet wedged against a wall to maintain balance. Hold a weight to your chest, engage your core then lower and raise your body over the ball.

BURPEE

Stand with your feet hip width apart and jump as high as possible. As you land, place your hands on the floor and jump your legs back into a plank position with your body extended. Perform a press-up. Jump your feet back towards your hands and begin again. Keep the movement as fluid as possible.

PRESS-UP — Medicine Ball

Begin in a press-up position, feet balanced on a medicine ball, hands just wider than shoulder width and arms extended. Engage your core and keep your body straight. Bend the arms, elbows flared to the side slightly and lower your chest towards the floor. Extend the arms.

AEROBIC / TUCK JUMPS

Begin standing with your feet hip width apart, bend the knees and jump as high as possible bringing your knees up to your chest. Land then prepare again.

CARDIO WORKOUT

SPRINT PHASE

This video shows examples of cardio exercises to use when performing the sprint phase of your interval training. Choose one that suits your level.

REST PHASE

This is the recovery phase. Choose from marching on the spot, an easy jog or a combination of the two.

Your cardio

You have 3 or 4 cardio sessions a week, on their own days, not on your weights days.

Each session has three parts. First, 12 intervals: sprint for 30 s at 100%, the highest intensity possible, then recover for 20 s at a low intensity. Then 18 minutes of continuous movement, as hard as you can keep up for the whole time: this helps clear the lactic acid built up by the hard intervals. Then the same 12 intervals again. About 38 minutes in total.

Use any cardio equipment: cross trainer, treadmill, rower, bike or skipping rope. You can combine equipment rather than doing the whole session on one machine. Training at home? Use the sprint phase video below to choose your exercises.

Your cardio session
Sessions per week	3 or 4
Whole session	38 mins
Intervals	12 × 30 s
Interval effort	100%: the highest intensity possible
Recovery after each interval	20 s, low intensity: march on the spot or jog easily
Lactic acid removal	18 mins, as hard as you can keep up for the whole time
Then	Same intervals again
Equipment	Cross trainer, treadmill, rower, bike or skipping rope

STRETCHES

Hold each position for 1 minute and increase the length of time on particularly tight muscles.

GLUTES & BACK

Lie on your back with your arms stretched out wide, take one knee across your body and apply gentle pressure drawing the knee towards the floor.

GLUTES

Lie on your back and place your foot onto the opposite knee. Press the top knee outwards as you clasp the underneath leg and draw it towards you.

BACK

Sit back onto your heels and simultaneously reach your hands forward with your forehead resting on the floor.

ABDOMINALS

Lie prone (on your front) and place your hands beneath your shoulders. Press into the floor, straighten your arms and raise your body.

HIP FLEXOR

In a half kneeling position tuck your pelvis under, squeeze your glutes and press your hips forward.

QUADS

Draw your foot towards your bottom. Squeeze your glutes, tuck your pelvis under and keep your knees together.

HAMSTRINGS & CALF

Raise your foot onto a surface and lean your body forward. Flex the foot bringing the toe towards you.

CALF

Lean into a wall, extend the back knee and press the heel into the floor. Ensure both feet are in a parallel position.

LATERAL

Place one foot behind the other and reach the same arm (as back leg) overhead. To increase the stretch lean laterally.

UPPER BACK

Place your hands together and reach forward. Drop your head between your arms and curve your upper back.

CHEST

Place your hand flat on a wall with your arm raised just above shoulder height and the elbow slightly bent. Turn your chest and body away from the wall until you feel a stretch across the front of your chest and shoulder.

TRICEPS

Take one arm overhead and bend at the elbow. Apply pressure with the opposite hand and keep the head raised.

ALTERNATIVE EXERCISES

Use this section to replace specific exercises in your programme which do not work for you. This may be due to not having the correct equipment, the exercise being too challenging / not challenging enough, or possibly due to an injury. Click on the links below to find alternative exercises for the same body part or movement.

EXERCISE SCIENCE FOR THE CURIOUS

+ Read more× Close

For the curious: the science behind your training, in more detail, for those who want to know exactly what is happening inside the body. Tap any topic to read more.

How fat loss worksStep by step, inside your bodyRead moreYour muscle fibresBuilt for force and speedRead moreYour fuel and energyBig fuel stores, slow fat burningRead moreHormones and signalsWhy you hold on to muscleRead moreYour body type and fat lossWhy fat is stored easily, and what helpsRead moreCardio and lactic acidWhat the removal phase doesRead moreRecoveryLonger recovery, and joint careRead moreWords used in your programmeReps, sets, tempo and moreRead more

Words used in your programme

Reps, sets, tempo and more

The terms you will see in your programme and concept video, explained.

Term	What it means
Repetition (rep)	One complete movement of an exercise, down and up. Ten squats in a row are ten reps.
Set	A group of reps done back to back without stopping. “3 sets of 12” means 12 reps, a rest, 12 more, a rest, then a final 12.
Rest between sets	The pause after one set before the next begins. Short rests keep the heart rate up and add a fitness challenge; long rests let the muscle refill its fastest energy store (phosphocreatine) so the next set can be just as heavy.
Rest between workouts	How many hours pass before the same muscles are trained again, and how many full days off there are each week. Muscle repairs and grows stronger during this time, not during the workout itself.
To failure	How close each set goes to failure, the point where no more good reps are possible. Written as “to failure”, or as the number of reps short of failure: “2 reps short of failure” means stopping when two more good reps could still have been done.
Tempo	The speed of each rep in seconds: lowering, pause at the bottom, lifting, pause at the top. 3-0-1-0 means lower for three seconds, no pause, lift in one second, no pause. An X means lift as fast as possible while staying in control.
Time under tension	How many seconds the muscle is working during one set: the number of reps multiplied by the seconds each rep takes. Twenty reps at a 3-0-2-0 tempo is 20 × 5 = 100 seconds; six reps at 1-0-X-0 is about 10 seconds.
Exercises per set	How many different exercises are done back to back before resting. One is a straight set, two a superset, three a tri-set, four a quad-set (a four-exercise circuit). The rest is taken after the last exercise in the group.
Same body part grouping	Every exercise in the group works the same area, usually starting with the biggest movement and finishing with the smallest. For legs: squat, lunge, leg curl, calf raise. In a full-body workout this means one group for the lower body and one for the upper body.
Opposing body part grouping	The exercises in the group work muscles on opposite sides of a joint or of the body, such as chest then back, front of thigh then back of thigh, or biceps then triceps. Each muscle rests while its opposite works.
Steady cardio	Cardio at one even pace: the best pace you can hold for the full time. It should feel hard but sustainable, not easy. This is the pace of the lactic acid removal phase.
Interval cardio	All-out efforts (the fastest pace you can hold for the length of the interval) separated by recovery periods and repeated. Intervals last from 10 to 90 seconds. Every cardio session is intervals, then a lactic acid removal phase at the best steady pace you can hold, then the same intervals again.