The "30 Minute Physique" New Year Kick Start Challenge

This challenge lasts 31 days (January 1st – January 31th). It has 4 components: 

1. Nutrition

2. 30 Minute Lifting Program 

3. Daily 30 Minute Walk

4. Morning Recharge Routine

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Whole30 Nutrition Challenge

This is basically a Paleo diet except both white potatoes AND sweet potatoes are allowed. Low sugar, anti-inflammatory foods, etc. It's an elimination diet. Afterwards, you're meant to reintroduce other foods slowly and see if/what you may be sensitive to eating. It's only intended, for this purpose, to be 31 days, but I feel like it's probably a pretty solid nutrition plan – from a maximizing health and general fitness standpoint – for most people. Join the experiment with me and let's find out for ourselves. 

Here's a full breakdown of Whole30:

Whole30 is a 30-day strict elimination diet focusing on whole foods (meat, veggies, fruit, fats) while cutting out sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, dairy, and processed additives for 30 days, aiming to reset habits by eliminating "problem" foods and then slowly reintroducing them to identify sensitivities, without calorie counting or weighing food. 

Eat This (Whole Foods)

Protein: meat, poultry, fish, eggs.

Veggies & Fruit: Lots of them, any kind (including white and sweet potatoes!)

Healthy Fats: Avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil.

Herbs & Spices: Fresh or dried. 

Don't Eat This (The "No" List)

Sugar: All added sugars (honey, maple syrup, stevia, etc.).

Alcohol: Any kind, even for cooking.

Grains: Wheat, rice, corn, quinoa, oats, etc..

Legumes: Beans, lentils, peanuts, soy (soy sauce, tofu).

Dairy: Milk, cheese, yogurt, etc..

Processed Stuff: Carrageenan, MSG, sulfites, baked goods, junk food, "treats" without approved ingredients. 

Don't try to gamify this too much by using a bunch of technical replacement foods to trick yourself into thinking you're eating something that you usually would eat, but temporarily cannot eat on Whole30. It's supposed to be challenging. The entire nutritional strategy of Whole30 is to limit the amount of foods you're eating and focus on single ingredient, natural, whole foods. It's 30 days. Just embrace the challenge, simplify the diet, and test your mettle. The food is supposed to taste bland. 

We're trying to retrain our taste buds away from craving excess sugar to focusing on whole, single ingredient, minimally processed, highly nutritious foods! I know your favorite competitive bodybuilder intentionally spikes his/her glucose levels and floods their glycogen stores (to look a tiny bit more swole), but these bodybuilders are not health experts. They're doing everything they can to optimize the appearance of their muscles by every minutiae percentage possible. They're probably disproportionately using these explanations as justifications to their followers for eating sugary cereal like children. They're also taking hormones and steroids. Obviously they don't care about their digestive system and gut health. 

You don't need processed, fast digesting sugars to maximize muscle growth, performance, or energy. Nature gives us that via fruit. Eat a banana, grapefruit, pineapple, watermelon, or apple instead.

After the 30 days, add back in some healthy foods you enjoy that are not compliant with the Whole30 diet challenge (for me that's going to be milk, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, sourdough bread, honey, and jasmine rice). But keep the lessons you learned during the 30 day challenge and make adjustments based on what you noticed worked well for you.

For example: If I notice I feel better without dairy (I don't want this to be the case because I love dairy), I'll have to take note of that and adjust my day to day nutrition – specifically my dairy intake – going forward.

Here's my plan for eating Whole30 style (yes, it'll be an adjustment for me, too, because I typically eat lots of dairy – Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, milk – and consume lots of sourdough bread, along with somewhat frequently consuming honey, jasmine rice, and oats. All of these foods are NOT allowed):

Foods I'll be prioritizing during my Whole30 experiment:

Eggs (cooked many different ways. I usually eat 3-6 eggs per day, but I'm planning on increasing this to replace lost calories during these 30 days. I'll probably aim for 10-12 eggs per day)

Meat & fish (turkey, chicken, ground beef, steak, any fish)

Potatoes (red and russet. I'll be preparing them many different ways. Starchy veggies – specifically potatoes – ARE allowed, so this will be a big carb source for me).

Frozen veggies (I like carrots and peas but I'll get more variety).

Lots of fruits (I always eat quite a bit of fruit, but I'll probably increase that since I won't have as many other snack options. Snacks will be boiled eggs, nuts, and fruit).

Cashews, pistachios, and walnuts ( most nuts – excluding peanuts – are allowed, so I'll probably get a big bag of my 3 favorite nuts and eat them throughout the day or for desserts and stuff).

100% orange juice (I usually get this at my local grocery store).

Herbal teas (I already drink herbal tea about once per day most days. It's a good distraction from food and sweets for me and I enjoy hot liquids).

Black coffee (again, this is the only way I drink coffee and the only way we're allowed to drink coffee on whole30, so no problem there).

If you don't like black coffee, I recommend replacing your doctored-up coffees with green tea or black tea for the 30 days. I sometimes dabble in these beverages if I want something caffeinated later in the day (after my cups of coffee are consumed), but don't need as much caffeine as coffee provides. Basically, if after 2-3 coffees in the morning I still find myself hankering for a hot, caffeinated beverage, I go with some black or green tea – both of which are a lower caffeine dose then coffee. Although, I am also definitely NOT above drinking decaf coffee either. 

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30 minute (or less) lifting program: PPL 4X

4 exercises per session

3-6 workouts per week. I usually aim for 2 or 3 days of lifting, followed by 1 day off with this program. But I find even just 3 days per week – hitting every session once a week – works well, too. Find a frequency that works for you, allow some flexibility within it, but always lift at least 3 days per week so that you're hitting each muscle every week.

If training more than 3 days per week (I recommend you do so) just alternate between Pull, Push, Leg sessions in succession. Don't over complicate this. Push always follows Pull. Legs always follow Push. Pull always follows Legs. It doesn't matter how many days you train per week. Do the sessions in that order and pick up the order next week where you left off this week. 

Warm up before each session with:

1-2 sets of a core exercise of choice

1-2 sets of glute bridges OR clam shells

1-2 sets of band pull aparts OR kettlebell haloes

Pull Day 

Ex 1: pullups (or lat pulldowns)-2x5-10

Ex 2: single arm rows-2x8-15

Ex 3: incline dumbbell curls or concentration curls or spider curls (or whatever other curl you like)-2x6-12

Ex 4: hammer curls-2x6-12

Push Day

Ex 1: clean & press or overhead press variation-2x5-10

Ex 2: incline or flat dumbbell bench press (single arm or 2 arm)-2x6-12 or pushup variations for 2 x amrap (as many reps as possible)

Ex 3: cable/band pushdowns or cable/band overhead extensions or dumbbell/kettlebell Skull Crushers or rolling tricep extensions or dumbbell kick backs or diamond pushups-2x10-15/amrap

Ex 4: lateral raise variation-2x10-15

Legs

Ex 1: Bulgarian split squats or standard split squats-2x8-15

Ex 2: single leg RDL or kettlebell swings or single leg glute bridges-2x10-15

Ex 3: box step ups or reverse lunges or box step ups to reverse lunges or heel elevated goblet squats-2x10-15

Ex 4: calf raise variation-2x10-20

We're doing just 2 sets per exercise. Make those sets worth it. Meaning: work hard on those 2 working sets for each exercise. I emphasize "working sets" because we don't count our warm up sets toward the "2 sets." You'll likely need 1 warm up set with a lighter weight for each of the compound exercises (exercise 1 & 2 each day). 

These sessions should feel good, you should get a good pump each workout, and you should gain some strength over the course of the next 30 days (and hopefully beyond). But, these are brief workouts that should only take 20-30 minutes per session. Some sessions may be completed even faster than 20 minutes if you limit rest periods. It doesn't matter if it takes 15 or 30 minutes, as long as you're working hard and progressing reps and weight on each of your exercises, you'll make gains. 

Rest as little as possible but as much as needed. That basically means for most of you: rest anywhere from 1-3 minutes between each set.

Short workouts reduce friction to workout, which means you should have NO PROBLEM completing at least 3 sessions per week! You definitely have 20-30 minutes free most days. I don't care if you're tired —  commit to 3 or more PPL sessions per week! 20-30 minutes is always doable and even if you feel terrible all day – I guarantee you'll feel better after you do each workout. 

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Walking Schedule

At least 1x30 minute (or longer, of course) walk per day. This is straight forward. Get outside and take at least 1 walk for at least 30 minutes every single day.

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Daily Morning Recharge 

Morning Recharge practice: every morning within 30 minutes of waking up do:

1. 5-10 reps bodyweight squat variation (chair squats, Hindu squats, air squats, split squats, etc).

2. 5-10 reps bodyweight glute bridges 

3. 5-10 reps of any ab exercise (crunch, leg raise, dead bugs, frog situps, etc)

4. 5-10 reps of any pushup variation (focus on form! That means do kneeling pushups if your form isn't perfect). If you are starting at square zero, do 15 seconds of pushup plank holds. 

^These 4 daily morning exercises are not meant to wear you out. They're meant to get you in the habit of doing some general, light resistance training AND 2-5 minutes of movement first thing in the morning! Focus on quality reps and just getting them done, waking up the mind and body in the process.

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That's all it is. Join the 30 day challenge. Commit to completing the 4 components each day and each week.

To review:

1. Eat within Whole30 diet standards each day.

2. Use the 20-30 minute PPL lifting program, doing at least 1 Pull, Push, and Leg sessions each week.

3. Take a 30 minute walk every day.

4. Do the quick, 3-5 minute morning recharge workout within 30 minutes of waking every morning.

It's a challenge, so accept the fact that you may feel uncomfortable and want to throw in the towel some days. 

The key is, you don't throw in the towel. 

After 30 days, do what you want. I hope you maintain at least the 3+ 20-30 minute lifting sessions each week along with a 30 minute daily walk and 3-5 minute daily morning recharge routine beyond the 30 days. 

Hopefully you take some of the nutrition lessons learned, as well, and embrace eating simple (bland, even), mostly single ingredient, whole foods while cooking basic, nutritious meals at home, daily. 

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If you'd like to download/print out a copy of this kick start routine, you may do so for free by clicking the following link: https://garagegymbro.gumroad.com/l/hvakns

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Let's have an awesome, successful 30 days and kick start our new year with some serious health and body composition gains!