My new ARMY workout

So I have a friend of a friend who is in Afghanistan with the ARMY, and while we were instant messaging one day he offered to develop a 3-day per week exercise plan that would help me lose a few pounds and tone up. On top of that, the routines would be less than 30 minutes each and would be easy on my back. We had differing ideas of what “intermediate” means, so I absolutely could not complete his workout “as is” but I’ll put my modified version after his.

Day 1 - Upper Body

Set one, alternate exercises - on week 2, add 5 reps; week 3 & 4, add 10 reps, week 6 & 7, add no reps.

• Push Ups (10/11/12/13/14/15/14/13/12/11/10)
• Overhead arm claps (OHAC) - This is like a jumping jack without the leg part. (30/40/50/60/70/80/70/60/50/40/30)

Set two, alternate exercises - add 1 rep per week.

• Shoulder Shrugs (15/14/13/12/11/10)
• Pullups - palms facing away (5/6/7/8/9/10)

Day 2 - Lower Body

Set one, alternate exercises - on week 2, add 5 reps; week 3 & 4, add 10 reps, week 6 & 7, add no reps.

• Prone Rows (30/40/50)
• Lunges (30/40/50)

Set two, alternate exercises - on week 2, add 5 reps; week 3 & 4, add 10 reps, week 6 & 7, add no reps.

• Steam Engines (60/70/80)
• Squats (60/70/80)

Day 3 - Abs

On week 2, add 30 seconds; week 3, add 10 seconds; other weeks, add no reps.

• Plank (1min/45sec/30sec/45sec/1min/final set 2.5min)
• Push Ups (2min/90sec/60sec/90sec/2min/final set til failure)

All of these exercises use only body weight and are very simple to do, but this is NOT an easy workout. I like how these 9 moves work my whole body. So, with that, here is the modified version I did:

Day 1 - Upper Body

• Push Ups (5/6/6/7/7/8/7/6/6/5/5)
• Overhead arm claps (OHAC) - This is like a jumping jack without the leg part. (15/20/35/30/35/40/35/30/25/20/15)

• Shoulder Shrugs (8/7/6/6/6/6)
• Pullups - with one foot on a chair (2/3/4/4/5/5)

Day 2 - Lower Body

• Prone Rows (20/20/21)
• Lunges - I didn’t have to reduce these! (30/40/50)

• Steam Engines (40/45/50)
• Squats (35/35/30)

Day 3 - Abs

• Plank (30sec/25sec/15sec/25min/40sec/45sec)
• Push Ups (30sec/25sec/15sec/25min/40sec/final set til failure)

It was really hard for me to increase the reps in later sets. I’m used to decreasing with each set, or at least staying the same. As you can see, I didn’t do very well on that. Next week, we’ll see if I can improve that. BTW, I’ve exercised every single day in some way or another since two Wednesday’s ago. :D