Show Time Training Overview

Welcome to my Show Time Program, a meticulously designed combination of heavy weight, light weight, low reps, high reps, intensity-boosting lifting techniques and HIIT cardio – the sum of which will maximize fat-burning and conditioning while also packing on muscle mass in the span of four weeks. At that point, it will definitely be "Show Time" for your physique!

Show Time Program Overview

The gist of the program is that all exercises are done as supersets, with one exercise done with very heavy weight for low reps and the other with light weight for high reps. Typically, the first superset exercise pair of the workout for each muscle group orders the exercises with the heavy one done first and the light one second. The second superset pair, and often the third as well, are done in the reverse order, with the light one going first and the heavy one second.

For many muscle groups, the second exercise pair is done as a pre-exhaust superset with a single-joint (isolation) exercise being performed first with lighter weight and a multijoint exercise being done next with heavy weight. Not only will this setup allow you to build muscle and strength while you drop body fat, but it's all based on cutting-edge research that shows the best ways to burn fat while in the gym.

The use of supersets are supported by research from the College of New Jersey, which showed that resting just 30 seconds between sets burned over 50% more calories during a bench press workout as compared to resting 3 minutes between sets. While supersets theoritcally call for no rest between exercises, it typically takes a good 10-30 seconds to move from one exercise to the next. This will guarantee you're burning at least 50% more calories than you normally would when using traditional straight sets.

Show Time Rep Ranges – Highs and Lows

The reason I included high-rep sets was to instigate more calorie burning during the workout. The same study mentioned above also found that doing 10-rep sets burned more calories during the workout than did 5-rep sets. This makes sense, as you perform more work when doing more reps. And this is why I jacked the reps all the way up to 30 on some exercises in the final week, which will keep you burning fat through every single workout. This "more work" effect is also the reason why I bumped up the total number of sets performed per workout – to keep you burning more calories each and every week while following Show Time.

While burning calories during the workout is important, even more critical for dropping fat is the number of calories you burn after the workout and how long this post-workout burn lasts. This is known scientifically as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). EPOC refers to the fact that after workouts, you take in more oxygen to burn more calories, which is used for recovery purposes. The higher the EPOC, the more calories you're burning. That's one problem with doing only high-rep sets – they don't keep your calorie burning up after the workout as high, or for as long, as low-rep sets do. That's why I balanced the high-rep exercises with low-rep ones.

Research from the Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education (Oslo) reported that subjects training their legs with their 6-rep max burned significantly more calories for up to 48 hours after the workout as compared to those using their 12-rep max. The researchers from the College of New Jersey also found that when the subjects used 5 reps per set on the bench press they burned significantly more calories after the workout was over – while the subjects were just sitting around on their glutes! – than when they did 10-rep sets. In addition, they reported that 30-second rest periods between sets also led to a significantly greater increase in EPOC than the three-minute rest periods did.

Each week the Show Time Program progresses, the heavy exercises get heavier (and done for fewer reps) and the light exercises get lighter (performed for more reps). This will not only help you get bigger and stronger, but also leaner, as this will further boost the calories burned during the workout as well as after.

What you have here are two forms of periodization occuring at the same time: linear periodization on heavy exercises, and reverse linear periodization on the light exercises. 

Each week the number of sets performed per exercise or the number of exercises you perform increases. As discussed above, this increase in training volume will help bump up calorie- and fat-burning every week.

Show Time Reps, Week to Week

Here are the rep ranges for the vast majority of supersets (certain instances with smaller muscle groups being the exception), showing how the "heavy" and "light" exercises progress in linear and reverse linear fashion every week.

Show Time Rest Periods

When you're supersetting exercises, no rest is taken between the two exercises. However, after the second exercise of each superset, feel free to take 1-2 minutes rest before repeating the next superset. If you're in excellent shape and/or want to keep your workout moving along faster, limit rest periods to 30-60 seconds between supersets.

Show Time Training Split

You'll be training six days a week on this program using a three-day split, hitting each major muscle group twice weekly. Here's what your training schedule will look like on the Show Time plan:

Show Time HIIT Cardio

Last but not least, in regards to training, there's one more trick I have up my sleeves to really help you shed any excess body fat: cardio, specifically HIIT (high-intensity interval training). This form of cardio involves intervals of high-intensity (such as running at 90% of you max heart rate) followed by intervals of low-intensity (walking at a moderate pace) or rest. This is in sharp contrast to the typical continuous steady-state cardio most people do at a moderate intensity, such as walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes at 60%-70% of their max heart rate.

For more on the science of why HIIT works so well, read my HIIT vs. Steady State article in my Complete Cardio series.

The real trick to the HIIT workout in the Show Time Program is the fact that it's jammed in between bodypart training. For example, on Mondays and Thursdays when you train chest, shoulders, and triceps, you'll perform short HIIT workouts (7-11 minutes) in between chest and shoulders, then again between shoulders and triceps, and yet again at the very end of the workout. This method allows you to put more into each short bout than you would if you combined all three bouts into one continuous 20-30-minute cardio session.

In fact, a 2003 study from the University of Missouri (Columbia) reported that when subjects performed either a 30-minute treadmill run or three 10-minute bouts of running at the same intensity, separated by 20-minute rest periods, the intermittent cardio was much easier for the subjects and they even burned a little more fat than in the continuous workout. Intermittent cardio has also been shown to raise EPOC higher than the same amount of cardio done continuously. Researchers from the University of Kansas (Lawrence) found that two 15-minute cardio sessions raised EPOC 40% higher than one 30-minute session. Furthermore, Northeastern Illinois University researchers reported that two 25-minute cardio sessions raised EPOC by 120% more than one 50-minute session.

The cardio workouts will be done at a 2-to-1 ratio of work to rest (high intensity to low intensity). For example, in the first week of the program you''ll do one minute of high-intensity exercise, followed by 30 seconds of low-intensity exercise (or rest), followed by 1 minute of high-intensity exercise – and cycling in this fashion until you've completed 7 minutes total. In week 2, you'll follow this same pattern until you've completed 10 minutes total.

In week 3, the intervals jump up to 90 seconds of high-intensity exercise interspersed with 45 seconds of low-intensity or rest for a total of 10½ minutes. Then, in the final week (week 4), the intervals consist of 2 minutes of high-intensity alternated with 1 minute of low intensity or rest for a total of 11 minutes.

These HIIT cardio workouts can be done on any standard piece of cardio equipment such as a treadmill, stationary cycle, stair-stepper, elliptical, Versaclimber or any other equipment you have access to. You can also do your HIIT with jumping rope, hitting/kicking a heavy bag, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, bench step-ups and any number of other intense bodyweight and calistenic exercises. For more HIIT exercise ideas, check out the list of moves at the end of my Cardioacceleration article . Even though these HIIT workouts are different than cardioacceleration, it's a very similar premise.

Show Time HIIT Workouts

Below are the HIIT cardio workouts you'll follow for the next four weeks. You'll do three HIIT bouts per workout, each done between bodyparts. For the high-intensity (work) intervals, the difficulty of the exercise should be in the 6-9 range (on a scale of 1-10) and for the low-intensity/rest intervals the difficulty should be 0-2. See the RPE scale below for a better understanding of how to rate your intensity level.

Week 1: 7-minute HIIT Workout

Week 2: 10-minute HIIT Workout

Week 3: 10½-minute HIIT Workout

Week 4: 11-minute HIIT Workout

Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale

The following scale helps you better understand how to implement the HIIT program, described above. Use the following numbers with their exertion descriptions to make certain that you're working at the prescribed level of effort.

Show Time Diet

My Show Time training program has its own nutrition plan to go along with it: the Show Time Diet . Click on that link to learn about it and see the sample meal plans. 

Because I designed Show Time to maximize fat loss, the Show Time Diet has more of a fat-burning emphasis. If you'd prefer to focus more on muscle-building while following the Show Time training program, that's fine. Just pick a different nutrition plan, like my Muscle-Building Rules . And of course, for fat loss Dieting 101 is always a great nutrition plan, regardless of what program you're doing. 

Show Time Workouts

Download Show Time Workouts Here

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

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