Brett Stewart - Gym-Free Journal: Bodyweight Workouts for Getting Ripped

Text Copyright 2014 Brett Stewart. Design and concept 2014 Ulysses Press and its licensors. Photographs copyright 2014 Rapt Productions except as noted below. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the Internet) without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Published in the United States by

Ulysses Press

P.O. Box 3440

Berkeley, CA 94703

www.ulyssespress.com

ISBN: 978-1-61243-312-7

Library of Congress Control Number 2013947495

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acquisitions Editor: Katherine Furman

Managing Editor: Claire Chun

Editor: Lauren Harrison

Proofreader: Lily Chou

Index: Sayre Van Young

Cover design:

Interior design: Jake Flaherty

Cover photographs: woman Maksim Shmeljov/shutterstock.com; man Standret/shutterstock.com

Models: Evan Clontz, Lewis Elliot, Brett Stewart

Interior photographs: Rapt Productions except

PLEASE NOTE: This book has been written and published strictly for informational purposes, and in no way should be used as a substitute for consultation with health care professionals. You should not consider educational material herein to be the practice of medicine or to replace consultation with a physician or other medical practitioner. The author and publisher are providing you with information in this work so that you can have the knowledge and can choose, at your own risk, to act on that knowledge. The author and publisher also urge all readers to be aware of their health status and to consult health care professionals before beginning any health program.

CONTENTS

So, you want to get ripped (or shredded, jacked, buff, toned, built, cut and any number of cute little terms to depict a chiseled, Adonis-like physique)? Well, maybe not. How about losing weight, getting healthier and being fit? How about FIT, or Function in Trainingwhere youll use a myriad of bodyweight exercises that simulate real-world (functional) movements to strengthen, shape and tone your entire body. These functional movements are simple to learn, remember and replicate from day to day and workout to workout. The goal of The Gym-Free Journal is very simple: Well use FIT to get you fit!

Lets say your goal is to get in shapereally in shapeand develop the physique that guys and gals alike want to attain. How do you do it? Where do you start? If you watch any commercial for weight-loss pills or crazy fitness contraptions, youll see some dude with six-pack abs, bulging arms and a chiseled chest posing next to a babe with amazing legs, a flat tummy and all the right assets. They smile at the camera and tell you that its fast, fun and easy to get ripped in just weeks with some incredible diet pill or the BellyRipper2000. You know theyre pulling your leg, right? Usually, these models have never even seen the product theyre pitching before the video shoot.

So, who do you believe? Should you trust the companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on infomercials? Should you put all your faith in a miracle fat-burning pill? Are you only going to get results if you pay hundreds of dollars a month to a personal trainer? You know the real answerits been there all along and is even easier than you think. Trust your body. Get active, eat healthily and get rippedthats it.

To most people, building a workout routine is a mystery. Should you do heavy weights and low reps or light weights and high reps? Should you work in supersets or target muscles? Upper body or lower body? Kettlebells, sprints, squats, stairs, pyramids, yadda yadda yadda?

There are more ways to work out than you can count, and they all have their benefits. If you pick up any fitness magazine youll learn about different must do exercises that sometimes conflict with other routines in that same issue! How on earth can you make sense of the information overload and develop an efficient way to get the ripped results you want? Since youre reading this, you no longer have to.

Heres some good news: You can get in the best shape of your life more quickly than you ever thought possible by following a simple program of easy-to-do bodyweight exercises and equally simple nutritional guidelines. The even better news is that you dont need any expensive gadgets, a gym membership or even a personal trainer. Youre holding in your hands a book devoted to taking the mystery out of getting ripped and showing you step by step how to attain the body you want. With easy-to-follow and simple-to-remember programs that average 20 minutes a day, you can seamlessly adapt to a fit lifestyle and reap all the benefits of being in shape: playing with your kids, beating your older brother at hoops, conquering a Spartan Race or even enjoying the pursuit of fitness itselfa walk, jog or activity that you can do all by yourself or with friends of family.

Your Roadmap

I have one of the best jobs in the world: I write books about fitness and train with some of the coolest professional, amateur and beginner athletes in the world. My books have taken me to some amazing places all over the United States, from racing a Spartan Race in the middle of the Arizona desert to running a marathon in the mountains of Montana. Ive spent countless hours with professional triathletes, runners and obstacle racers to get the inside scoop on training, nutrition and motivation to compete at the highest levels.

Without question, the most rewarding experiences Ive had come from working with beginners. Whether theyre first-timers running in a 5K, triathlon, marathon or mud run, these athletes are always the most fun to work with, teach and learn from as they progress through their fitness journeys. Why? Well, all the energy in the form of excitement and nerves that they bring to each workout, for one thing. Each new step on their expedition from out-of-shape individual to fit athlete (and yes, thats a relative term) is met with initial trepidation and eventually completed with a resounding aha! when they realize that they have the ability and drive to reach their goals. Newbies (beginners) have the most ground to gain on their quest, more distance to cover step by step to reach their goals. I personally love being along for the ride and am thrilled to provide this book as your roadmap to point you in the right direction, give you a little kick in the butt to get you going, and give as many tips as I can to keep you on track along the way.

Do you need a roadmap on your fitness journey? Absolutely. My favorite Yogi Berra quote is, If you dont know where youre going, you may end up somewhere else. Well, fitness is the same way. Too often we all (me included!) develop workout ADD where we jump from one program to the next without taking the time to develop consistency and see results in a particular one first. While all exercise is good for your physique, deviating from a plan and just doing the exercises you feel like doing will yield marginal results. Even worse, doing the same exercises at the same weight on the same day will lead to plateaus where your body adapts to the stimulus (the workout) and stops getting stronger. Once you get to that stage, youre sufficiently bored and end up quitting exercise altogether instead of continuing with the same old, same old. Even if you do up the intensity of these exercises, youre still cruisin for a bruisin by potentially overtraining the same muscles, resulting in plateaus, burnouts and injury!