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One of the best ways to get into cover model shape is to perform full-body exercises. Making your muscles move as a single unit not only improves balance, coordination and power – all of which have huge transferable value to everyday life – but it is also one of the best ways to build muscle and burn fat.
Total-body workouts promote functional fitness by mimicking real-life movements, enhancing agility, balance, and coordination, which are vital for daily activities and sports performance. They’re time-efficient, too – allowing you to achieve significant results without spending excessive time at the gym.
That’s why the following four workouts include the major compound lifts, in addition to muscle-specific isolation moves, to blast your body into its best ever shape.
What to expect
There are four workouts in this section. The first is a foundation session, designed for men of all athletic abilities, so make sure you start off by following this one rather than jumping straight into one of the three main workouts.
For those of you new to this type of exercise it will build a solid base from which you can launch into the more intense workouts. And even if you are a more experienced trainer, there’s still much to gain from starting with the basics. It will help correct any muscular imbalances you may have, allow you to correct any poor form habits you may have picked up and let you master some simple movement patterns, including bodyweight moves, that you may have neglected during most of your previous training regimes.
FOUNDATION WORKOUT
This workout prepares your entire muscular system to work as a single unit so that you’ll be able to attack the later workouts with good technique right from the get-go. Training your body to function efficiently as one is vital for not just building muscle and burning fat, but also for preventing injury and muscular imbalances.
1a. FULL BURPEE
Why: This is a great move for working multiple muscle groups at once and for getting your heart rate soaring.
• Start standing with your arms fully extended above your head, then squat down
• As you reach the bottom of the squat, put your hands on the ground in front of you and kick your legs backwards until you are in a press-up position
• Perform a press-up, then bring your legs back underneath you and jump up off the ground
1b. DUMBBELL SQUAT TO PRESS
Why: It works most of your major muscle groups to promote a good growth-hormone response.
• Stand tall holding a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height
• Squat down, keeping your core braced, then stand back up and press the weights directly above your head
• Reverse the entire movement back to the start
2a. JUMP LUNGE
Why: These require explosive power to jump high enough to switch legs and land straight back into a lunge, leading to rapid muscle growth and huge transferable value to many sports.
• Start in a lunge, then jump straight up