Hot Zone Workout

My favorite personal trainer, Craig Ballantyne shares his secret how to lose fat and gain muscle by targeting hot zones in the body.

Warmup

This is the August 2008 Hot Zone Workout. The 4 hot zones of the body are the pressing muscles and the chest, the torso/abdominal area, the back of the legs and the upper back area. If you train and exercise for one of those areas, everything else will get trained and boost your metabolism. Those are the 4 hot zone areas were going to be going after in each workout (A, B & C) and even the warmup workout.

This is the bodyweight warmup for the Hot Zone Workout. We’re going to start with 4 exercises and make sure we hit the chest, abdominals, the back of the legs and the upper back.

Start with a Y-Squat. Put your hands up in the Y position and keep your shoulder blades back. This will work the upper back and the back of the legs.

Next is elevated pushups which will work the upper chest and abdominals. Place one hand on a dumbbell or something about 4-6 inches off the floor. Do all reps on one side and then switch to the other side.

1-Leg Romanian Deadlifts are next. This is one of my favourite exercises to really get my hamstrings warmed up for squats. Stand on one leg, keeping a slight bend to it. Push the other leg straight back and feel a nice strong stretch in your hamstring and come back up. You will also use your glute when you come back up. You can use the wall for balance if you need to. Do 8-10 reps on each side.

Your next warmup exercise is a Stick-Up. Keep your heels about 6-inches from the wall and press your back, butt, shoulder blades, elbows, wrists, hands and head against the wall the entire movement. Tuck your elbows down into your sides and raise your hands into a stick-up position. Keep all of those points against the wall the entire movement.

Go through these 4 exercises, rest for 30 seconds and repeat this circuit one more time and this will get you ready for the Hot Zone Workout A.

Workout A

This is Turbulence Training Hot Zone Workout A. You are going to do 4 exercises that are mandatory and one additional superset that is optional.

The first superset will start with a dumbbell split squat. Get into your split squat stance and drop your hips straight down and drive off your lead leg to come back up. This is really going to work your glute, hamstring and quadricep of your lead leg. This will work your lower body hot zone and a little bit of your upper back as well. Do all reps on one side and immediately switch to the other side.

Move immediately into a pushup with your hands on a stability ball. This will work your pressing muscles in your chest, but also your abdominals to keep you in a straight line.

Rest 1 minute and repeat that superset 2 more times.

In this second superset, we’re going to work our upper back and our abdominals directly. The first exercise is a dumbbell chest supported row on the bench. Put the bench in an incline position and lean with your chest on the bench. Grab your dumbbells and row them up, making sure you are squeezing your shoulder blades together. This will really isolate your upper back.

The next exercise is a cross body mountain climber. Get into a pushup position and pull your knee up into your opposite elbow while keeping your abs braced, alternating sides. These are very similar to a regular mountain climber, but you will get some diagonal movements which will really target your obliques.

Rest 1 minute and repeat this superset 2 more times.

In this workout, these 2 supersets are the only mandatory ones. This is all you need for the strength training portion of the workout because you have hit your 4 hot zones. It’s a really efficient program.

If you have time, you can move onto the optional superset.

We’re going to go a little outside the hot zone muscle groups for the first exercise. This is a 1-arm dumbbell standing shoulder press. This really works your abdominals and your shoulder as well. Place your hand at your side to brace your abs and press up with your other arm. Finish all reps and repeat on the other side.

Move immediately into a stability ball jackknife plank on the bench. You arent going to be doing any movement here; you will just hold the plank position with your elbows on the bench and your feet on the ball. If you want to make this harder, position your feet so only your toes are on the ball. If you need to make it easier, position your feet so the laces of your shoes are on the ball. Brace your abs and hold this for 1 minute. If you can’t hold the full minute, just go as long as you comfortably and safely can.

Rest 1 minute and repeat this superset 2 more times if you have enough time. You can finish this off with interval training.

Workout B

Craig Ballantyne from Turbulence Training and TTMembers shows us how to lose fat and gain muscle by targeting hot zones in the body.

Workout C

This is workout C of the TT Hot Zone program. This last workout in the program is a very efficient workout in which you are only doing two supersets, but you’re still going to get a very effective workout that targets all the hot burning fat zones of the body.

The first exercise is the Pull-up with Knee-up. Now, some of you may not be able to do this exercise because of strength levels or lack of equipment so I will suggest some alternative exercises for you as well.

Okay, so for the first exercise in the first superset, you are going to take the bar by an overhand grip (slightly wider than shoulder width apart). Next, you are going to perform a regular pull-up, but as you come up, bring your knees up to your chest, and then slowly lower your knees and body down.

This eccentric movement (as you lower yourself) is a really powerful way of strengthening your lower abdominal area. Alternatively, this can also be performed using a chin-up hand grip.

Once you’ve completed that exercise you will move immediately into Stability Ball Leg Curls for 20 repetitions. In this exercise you will target the back of your legs, another hot zone of the body.

So, laying on the ground with your heels up on the ball, bridge your hips up and youre your body in a straight line while using your glutes and hamstrings to curl the ball in and out.

Now that’s a pretty challenging superset to start out the workout. However, if you are unable to do the Pull-ups with Knee-ups, then you can easily substitute that exercise with Dumbbell Rows and Stability Ball Mountain Climbers.

For DB Rows, you will place one knee and one arm on the bench (slight bend at the elbow), while keeping your back flat and a slight bend in the knee of the foot positioned on the floor. Now with DB at arm’s length, row the DB up to your chest and then slowly lower back down. Do all reps for one side and then switch sides.

To replace the Knee-up portion of that exercise you will do SB Mountain Climbers. So, with your hands on the ball and your body in a straight line, bring your knee up to your chest and back out, alternating sides. Be sure to keep your abs braced.

The second superset will pair a powerful Dumbbell Forward Lunge with the Spiderman Push-up or regular push-up.

For the lunge you will be working a little bit of your upper back, but primarily the back of your legs. To start, grab a set of dumbbells and place at your sides. Next, you want to step forward, drop straight down, and then drive back up. Be sure that when you step forward you really want to ensure you stop your forward movement first, and then drop down. Do all reps for one side and then switch sides.

For the Spiderman Push-up you will get in the regular push-up position but as you drop your chest to the floor your knee will come up to your elbow and then back out. Alternate sides.

With just two supersets in workout C you are getting a highly efficient strength training workout in just a short amount of time. Finish off the workout with 20 minutes of high intensity cardio.