Fat Loss Week 1: Workout

by Dr. David Minkoff January 12, 2023 4 min read

YOUR 30-DAY CHALLENGE EXERCISE ROUTINE:

You may or may not have lifted weights before, but on this protocol you will be lifting 5 days per week.

This is key as it helps you build muscle that both tones your body, but also speeds fat-burning, cellular restructuring, and hormone rebalancing. And the more muscle you have by the end of this challenge, the easier it will be to keep excess body fat off.

As this protocol is very specific, there will only be weight lifting — no running or other forms of cardio. If you would like to take a walk, that’s fine. But adding in other forms of cardio will hamper your progress and may cause you trouble. And it’s only 30 days.

Your workouts will be very simple. So even if you know more that you could do, for this challenge just stick to the below. The protocol and amount of food you will be consuming was determined thinking with this level of activity, not more.

KEEPING IN PROPER FORM

One very important note to prevent injury — only lift the amount of weight you can lift while keeping in proper form.

Any exercise you do requires more than one muscle. It could require many muscles. And you are only as strong as your weakest muscle.

So maybe you’re lifting 50 lbs on an exercise and it requires the use of 10 different muscles. If 9 of those muscles can lift 50 lbs, but one can only support 45 lbs, this will cause the other muscles to try to compensate, throwing your form off.

And if it throws your form off, then continuing it will lead to injury.

So only lift as much weight as you can while maintaining proper form.

If your form goes off, lower the weight.

YOUR WORKOUT SCHEDULE:

You will be working out 5 days per week, with 2 rest days. Schedule your week to do 2 days of exercise, then 1 rest day, then 3 days of exercise, then 1 rest day, repeat.

Each day you will work a different muscle group: Chest, Back, Shoulders, Legs, Arms.

You will do 3-4 different exercises each day.

And you will do 3 sets for each exercise.

You will also rest 3 minutes between each set.

For each set we will be working in the 6-8 repetition range, no higher or lower.

So, if you’re lifting 50 lbs, and you can do 8 repetitions in one set, then on your next set increase the weight by approximately 5 lbs — or until you can only do 6 repetitions. Then continue to work at this new heavier weight.

As your strength builds, you will again hit 8 repetitions. So raise the weight again until you can only do 6 repetitions and carry on this way.

WARMING UP YOUR MUSCLES:

We want to warm up your muscles before we start each day to ensure they’re ready to take on heavier weights. This ensures you get the most out of each workout while also helping to prevent injury, so it’s very important.

The first exercise of each day will begin this way:

First warm-up set: Do 12 repetitions at approximately half of the weight of your 6-8 rep set. So if you are lifting 50 lbs for your 6-8 rep set, lift 25 lbs instead for this warm up set.

Rest one minute.

Second warm-up set: Use the same weight, but only do 10 repetitions. Do these slightly faster.

Rest one minute.

Third warm-up set: add 5-10 pounds on and do 4 repetitions.

Rest one minute.

Fourth warm-up set: Add more weight on until you are at about 90% of your 6-8 rep weight. Do 1 repetition.

Rest 2-3 minutes.

This warm-up is only done before the first exercise each day. Or on Arms Day, before each arms exercise.

From here you just move on into the first exercise at full weight.