Published by:

Optimal Vitality and Wellness, LLC

Mountain House, California 95391

Copyright 2014 by Dr. Brenda Vanta

First Edition, 2014
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 without the prior
written permission of the authors, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is published. Modication of this
design does not void the copyright.
The author does not intend anything in this book to be construed as medical
advice or treatment. Neither the author nor publisher of this book assumes any
liability for undesired outcomes that may occur as a result of following the
suggestions and procedures described herein. Please consult your physician
before beginning this or any other exercise and nutrition program. You should
always warm up for a few minutes before beginning any workout. Not all
exercises are suitable for everyone, and this or any exercise program may result
in injury. To reduce the risk of injury, never force or strain during exercise. If at
any time you feel you are exercising beyond your tness abilities or you feel
discomfort, light-headed or nauseous, you should immediately discontinue
exercising.

Fitness Model: Amy Lucas

http://www.AmyLucasOcial.com

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................... 1
Chapter I: overview of the 20-Second Workout .......................................... 9
Chapter II: I Want to Lose Weight, But Do I Have to Work out? .......... 11
Chapter III: other Health Benets of Working out....................................15
Chapter IV: The superwoman (or superman) eect ................................ 23
Chapter V: Why HIIt is the Best Workout Approach ............................ 29
Chapter VI: 20sWThe Best of the Best!

................................................. 36

Chapter VII: The 5 secret Keys to success................................................... 40

Chapter VIII: The 20-Second WorkoutComplete Program!

.................. 60

Exercise Charts
Exercise Instructions & Images
Appendix I - Action steps: stay Motivated!
Appendix II -target Heart Rates (by Age)

.............................................. 91

................................................. 92

Appendix III - 20-Second Workout Planning tools

.................................... 93

Appendix III Video Demonstrations of the

20-Second Workdout exercises......................................................... 95

Resources ................................................................................................................ 97

Introduction

f you asked a hundred medical doctors what

they consider the fundamental factors in good
health, chances are you would get some fairly
diverse answers. But the one thing that is certain is
that each doctors list would include two commonly
accepted factors: eating a balanced, nutrient-rich
diet and getting enough exercise to maintain
physical tness. And in light of the fact that health
care professionals are seeing increasingly high levels
of stress-related illnesses and sleep disorders, its
likely that the need for adequate, restful sleep would
also appear near the top of those lists.

Brenda Vanta, M.D.

In fact, the advice doctors dispense to patients most often is to eat well,
sleep enough, and get (and stay) t. And no one doubts that this is solid,
good advice rooted in sheer common sense. If we are malnourished, sleep
deprived, or out of shape, it will be extremely dicult to summon up the
energy, stamina, and mental acuity we need to navigate through our busy
lives easily. So, as a fresh new graduate from medical school I joined in
dispensing exactly this same advice to my patients. The reason was simple:
I was eager to help them achieve a high level of overall health.
But to be honest, I found it very dicultand even painfulto watch
my patients try to follow my advice, and end up with only limited, and often
very short-lived, success. What could I say to someone who I knew had put
so much time, energy, and eort into a tness plan, and found it almost
impossible to maintain an optimal level of tness? Just try harder didnt
seem to be an appropriate response, and I often felt at a complete loss as to
how to help them.
I could certainly empathize with my patients not only because being
out of shape can have serious health consequences, but also because they
often encountered enormous social pressure to be t. Without question,
1

North American culture places an extremely strongand not very subtle

emphasis on the ideal of tness. It is virtually impossible to read an entire
magazine, watch an hour of TV, or even drive along a highway without
seeing advertisements and billboards for the latest and greatest new
tness program. Not to mention walking through your neighbourhood
bookstore, where it sometimes seems that half the shelf space is devoted
to ingenious new ways to get t. In fact, Id be willing to bet that the number
of tness plans on the market today far outstrips the number of diet plans,
and thats truly saying something!
Because of the strong emphasis on attaining physical tness, it seems
that more and more people are trying to do just that. For instance, in data
released in 2013, it appears that physical activity levels for adult Americans
are on the rise. In fact, the report indicates that the majority of adults (51.3%
of women, and 57.8% of men) received sucient exercise on a weekly basis.
But paradoxically, the obesity rates continue to skyrocket. And as a medical
professional, I cant help but be seriously concerned when I hear about the
dramatic rise in Type 2 diabetes (formerly called adult onset diabetes) in
children as young as pre-school age.
The nagging question in my mind was When the number of people
making a concerted eort to get sucient exercise is increasing, why havent
obesity rates fallen, or at least stabilized? Or to put it another way, why
hasnt the increase in physical activity across the nation led to a decrease in
the health risks associated with obesity?
So over the years, I reviewed countless dierent tness programs in
search of the ideal one. Or failing that, I at least wanted to nd out why so
many of these programs dont lead to permanent success. And although a
large part of what motivated me in this search was the desire to help
patients, another factor was my own personal frustration at trying to stay
t myself. My own history with various forms of exercise includes 6 years of
skating, and what often felt like the majority of my life working out at the
gym with Pilates, aerobic exercises, step, and swimming. And when I wasnt
engaged in one of these, I was often at home doing crunches. I suspect Ive
done well over a million crunches in my free time. I wish that were an
2

exaggeration, but at about 250 crunches a day over the course of 17 years,
Ive probably actually underestimated the total! In addition, I practiced a
form of high intensity interval training (katas) as part of my martial arts
practice for several years in the 1990s, so my involvement with some form
or other or high intensity interval training dates back quite a while! During
my 20s and 30s, all of this physical activity did help keep my weight in check
and my abdomen fairly at. But as the years passed, even though I was
working out just as frequently and just as hard, my exercise routine started
to become less and less eective. I was particularly frustrated that my
previously at abdomen was starting to seem like a thing of the past. No
matter what I did, I simply couldnt keep extra inches from accumulating
around my waistline. Even worse, I started experiencing signicant pain from
sports injuries to my knees, lower back, and shoulder.
Based on my own experience, and also that of many people I knew who
put in just as muchor even moreeort trying to stay t, and still couldnt
quite achieve their tness goals, I had grave doubts that the problem could
be explained as a simple lack of motivation on the part of individuals. But if
it wasnt a matter of individual motivation, where did the blame lie? I began
to suspect that the problem might lie with the tness programs themselves.
Now I am convinced that one of the reasons that we are constantly
bombarded by new tness crazes, each making more extravagant promises
than the last, is that most of them ultimately do not deliver on their promises
in the long term. And what Ive discovered through my extensive research
into just about every workout plan on the market is that there are several
dierent kinds of reasons that tness programs fail.
For one thing, they often require hours and hours at the gym, which is
a signicant time commitment that many people simply cannot aord.
Granted, most people are willing to make some sacrices to achieve tness.
But there is a touch of irony in programs of this type, when you consider
that one of the main reasons we pursue tness is as a way of enhancing our
lives. But when our tness programs absorb so much of our free time that
we have to give up other things (spending time with friends and family,
opting out of leisure activities we enjoy), it is dicult not to wonder if were
3

actually experiencing a net loss with respect to just how much our lives
are really being enriched.
Another, related reason that many programs fail is that they usually
require a considerable nancial investment to cover gym fees, equipment,
clothing, personal trainers and the like. Not everyone has the luxury of being
able to easily aord these costs, so participating may well represent a
nancial sacrice on their part.
Another frustrating aspect of many tness programs is that they are
slow to bear fruit, so that results may not manifest for six months or more.
It can be extremely discouraging and demotivating to put considerable
eort and energy into tness without seeing any real improvement for
months on end, with only a vague vision of future improvement to hold on
to.
Then again, some tness plans are so poorly designed that they are
impossible to maintain because they may not only cause strains and various
kinds or pain, but also may lead to serious injuries. Knowing that the tness
routine you are about to perform could potentially hurt you is, perhaps, the
least incentivizing and counterproductive situation of all.
Of course, there are the programs that are just incredibly boring, so that
they become a test of endurance and patience. Invariably, in order to get
through them we naturally seek out a diversionreading a magazine,
watching TV, or chatting with gym matesjust to kill the time until we can,
in good conscience, nish up. If tness for life is your goal, how motivated
would you feel facing decades and decades of regular bouts of tedious
monotony several days of each and every week?
As I considered the results of the research Id accumulated, no one
common thread jumped out at me that might help explain why so many
programs simply dont work in the long term. I simply couldnt identify a
common denominator that all these programs shared. But after thinking
about the matter a little more, I realized that Id been looking in the wrong
place. Id been looking for some factor designed in to all of these programs
that could account for their failure. But it wasnt about a universal
4

characteristic that they all included, but about characteristics that each of
them lacked. In the end, I was able to identify three critical components that
all these programs lacked in one way or another.
The rst is sustainability. In truth, many programs do actually workfor
a while. The problem is that in order to maintain tness at a health-giving
level, we need to be willing (and able) to continue to perform our workouts
throughout our lives. When the cost of doing so is burdensome in one way
or another (too expensive, too time-consuming, too mind-numbingly
boring, too slow, or too painful) the program itself becomes unsustainable
for most people over the long term.
The second shared aspect of the programs I researched is that they are
not holistic. In other words, they focus almost entirely on tness as the end
goal, and give very little attention (if any) to other aspects integral to good
health, such as nutritious diet and adequate sleep. However, as I explain
later, both diet and sleep patterns can have enormous impact on how well
a tness routine works, and indeed, whether it works at all. In fact, lacking
balance in these areas can not only hinder your tness progress, but could
actually derail it altogether. By contrast, a holistic tness program is one
which not only takes into account the dynamics between nutrition, exercise,
and sleep, but also shows you how to give your body the support it needs
to ensure that each of these components is at their optimal level for overall
health.
And nally, as you may already have started to sense, the third common
factor of most programs that fail is that they seem to be at odds with human
nature in various ways. In other words, they work against our natural human
tendencies, rather than with them. For instance, we are naturally inclined to
avoid pain, look for diversion in the face of boredom, and seek to repeat
experiences we enjoy rather than grit our teeth and endure ones we dont.
For a workout routine to be of genuine benet in the long run, it has to be
not just physically satisfying, but also emotionally and psychologically
fullling. Or to put it another way, it has to be in harmony with how we as
humans think, feel, and behave in order to help us remain motivated and
engaged.
5

Needless to say, no matter how hard I looked, I couldnt nd a single

tness program that integrated these three factors of sustainability, holism,
and our natural human tendencies anywhere. So I decided to create one!
This book is the end result of my eorts.
In 2010 I began working out with a modied version of what would
eventually become the 20-Second Workout program. After a process of
continuously evaluating my success and rening the components of the
program itself, by mid-2013 the 20-Second Workout had evolved to its
present form. Since then, I have lost a combined 8 in circumference, and
am back to the dress size I wore 20 years ago. And, yes, my at abdomen is
back! So I know it works! And best of all, the changes in my body were so
noticeable that several friends decided to do the 20-Second Workout too. In
the end, all eight of us were able to achieve extremely high levels of tness,
and better yet, weve all been able to stick with it because it is so enjoyable.
In fact, we sometimes joke that weve all become 20-Second Workout
addicts because we enjoy it so much. And also, of course, because weve
all seenand lovethe results!
I am convinced that this program succeeds where so many others have
failed because it is an entirely new and dierent approach to tness. You
wont need a fat wallet to follow the program because it isnt just
inexpensive, it is 100% free! Unlike most other programs that require you to
invest in expensive equipment, the 20-Second Workout uses only body
resistance to achieve results. In fact, the only piece of equipment you will
require is weights, but you dont even need to buy those, because later Ill
show you how to make your own from objects you already have at home,
either for free or for only pennies.
And you dont need the patience of Job, because you wont be waiting
(and waiting, and waiting) for results. In fact, youll begin to see improvement so quickly that you may be taken by surprise. The 20-Second Workout
is also a complete tness plan because it includes all the critical components
needed for overall tness: strength training, super-cardio, exibility, balance,
and stability training. While many other programs pay attention to each of
these core components, they are targeted through separate exercises. That
6

means you are required to perform a huge number and variety of dierent
exercises in order to achieve a full body workout. And unfortunately, many
of the required exercises included in these programs are not especially
eective. So you end up doing a lengthy, strenuous, complicated workout
without reaping anything close to stellar benets. Not so with the 20-Second
Workout. In designing this program Ive included only the very best and most
eective exercises (proven by EMG in research studies) and organized them
into an uncomplicated workout that targets all of the core components of
overall tness in each simple-to-do session.
Best of all, the 20-Second Workout doesnt require that we have superhero motivation and determination in order to succeed. Lets face it; no
matter how dedicated we are to our personal tness goals, were only
human. And its all-too-easy to give in to the temptation to skip our workout
just for today. But the 20-Second Workout takes a miniscule amount of time.
In fact, in about the same amount of time as it would take to convince
yourself that you have a good reason for skipping it (too tired; too stressed;
too busy) your workout will already be nished!
And of course, the 20-Second Workout is a holistic approach that is
ecologically focused. By that I mean that it takes a holistic, whole person
view of what true tness means, rather than focusing solely on exercise. To
that end, the program takes into account not only the natural physiology of
the human body, but also many other components that are necessary for
overall health and tness in the broader sense of the term. For instance,
many programs rely on various machines to provide the element of
resistance needed to eectively tone and sculpt muscles. But they eectively
ignore the fact that our bodies are perfectly capable of providing this
resistance themselves. As mentioned earlier, The 20-Second Workout is
designed to make use of your bodys natural ability to provide this resistance
in the form of your own body weight. Because it doesnt depend on
complicated machines and equipment to help our bodies do the work they
can do on their own, the 20-Second Workout is much more closely aligned
with our natural physiology.

In addition, the 20-Second Workout incorporates other critical lifestyle

habits that are necessary to achieve whole-body tness and maintain it on
a permanent basis. If these factors are not taken into account, they can
eectively work against your exercise program so that no matter how hard
you work out, the likelihood of attaining optimal tness is slim. These factors,
which receive scant attention from most tness regimes, are pivotal because
they work in combination with your exercise program to help you achieve
a higher level of tness than youve ever imagined possibleand numerous
benets to your overall health as well.

Chapter I

oVeRVIeW of tHe
20-SECOND WORKOUT

his chapter may be the shortest one youll ever

nd in a tness-focused book. Why? Well,
because when most people decide to embark on a
tness program, theyre eager to jump right in and
get started. In other words, they want to get to the
crux of the matter immediately, by getting the
answers to a few important questions; What kinds
of exercises will I be doing? How much time will I
need to spend working out, and how often? Can this
program help me lose weight?
So here, in a nutshell, are the answers to these
all-important questions.
The 20-Second Workout (20SW) is a vastly improved version of high intensity interval training
(HIIT). In essence, HIIT simply means that you will
Brenda Vanta, M.D.
perform short bursts of intensive activity followed
by short recovery times, which allows you to burn the maximum number of
calories in the shortest amount of time. So yes, you absolutely will lose body
fat, and youll also be simultaneously toning your body in record-fast time.
How fast? Well, you be the judge. Heres the 20SW formula:

Three times a week:

14 specically targeted exercises performed for
20 seconds each, followed by 10 seconds of recovery
(time: 30 seconds X 14 = 7 minutes)

That adds up to a total time investment of 21 minutes a week! To put

that in perspective, thats about the amount of time most people spend
brewing up and drinking a single cup of their favorite caeinated beverage.
This book will not only show you how to get into the best shape of your
life, it will also show you why doing so is absolutely the best gift you can
give yourself. Within these pages youll nd all the best scientic evidence
that explains why a high intensity interval training regime like the 20-Second
Workout can help you achieve a toned, lean body, and improve your overall
health and wellbeing at the same time. Youll also learn how adopting a few
simple strategies in other areas of your life will help you optimize your tness
success.
Of course, if youre super-eager to learn more about the exercises themselves, feel free to jump ahead to page 60 for all the details. But please dont
forget to come back and read the rest of the book soon. I promise it will be
well worth your while!

10

Chapter II

I WAnt to Lose
WeIgHt, But Do I
HAVE to WoRK out?

here are as many reasons for paying attention to your health as there
are people. Some want to improve their overall tness, strength and
stamina, of course. Others are seeking longevity by strengthening their
immune systems so that they are more resistant to illness. And some simply
want to feel better in their own skin. But by far one of the most common
health issues that people worry about is excess weight. And thats understandable. You would practically have to be a hermit living on a mountaintop not to know that obesity is now considered one of the greatest health
risks facing North Americans. Thats because obesity is linked with a
signicant array of serious illnesses, such as heart disease, stress-related
disorders, diabetes, and cancer.
But even so, its not unusual for health care professionals to hear patients
ask Do I really have to work out? The short answer, of course, is No. You
dont have to do anything you dont want to do. But if your goal is to lose
weight, then the answer isnt quite so simple. Any diet plan will likely cause
you to drop a few poundsor even many pounds. But the problem is that
as soon as you stop eating a very low calorie diet, its almost inevitable that
those lost pounds will quickly reappear.

Why Diet Alone Isnt Enough for Long-Term Weight Loss

If you are serious about losing weight, and then maintaining it at a
healthy level throughout your lifetime, there are a few key things that you
should know. The diet industry is a multi-billion dollar a year enterprise, but
many of the diet plans youve likely encounteredand maybe triedare
often based on myths and half-truths. Of course, most diet plans require
that you limit caloric intake. But what they wont tell you is how your body
responds. In essence, severely limiting your calories means that your body
is not receiving enough of the food fuel it needs to meet its energy needs.
11

When that happens, it must nd additional sources of energy elsewhere. In

theory, low calorie diets are based on the belief that the body will then turn
to your fat stores to make up the dierence. However, what actually happens
is something quite dierent.
Initially, restricted diets will cause you to lose pounds. But those pounds
will not only be from a loss of fat, but also from a loss of water and muscle
mass as well. When the scale tells us that, for instance, weve lost ve pounds
many people assume that theyve lost ve pounds of fat, as depicted by the
gure on the right. But what theyve actually lost will be something that
looks more like the gure on the left; a tiny bit of fat, a considerable amount
of water, and a fairly signicant amount of muscle.
Weight Loss

Fat Loss

(Fat Loss + muscle loss

+ water loss)

(Fat Loss only)

If your goal in trying to lose weight is to look better, then the news with
respect to diet alone is equally bad. In this case, the old adage that a picture
is worth a thousand words is very true, as the images below demonstrate.
Believe it or not, both images are of the same 24 year old 5 tall woman. In
the image on the left, the woman weighs 148 pounds, wears a size 12 dress,
and has a waist circumference of 34 inches. On the right is the same woman
after having lost a mere 9 pounds; at 139 pounds, she now wears a size 8,
and her waist circumference is 29 inches. Lest you think that the 9 pounds
of weight loss alone is responsible for the dierence, consider that typically
a weight loss of 4-5 pounds (without exercising) would equate to a decrease
in waist circumference of only 1 inch. So a weight loss of 10 pounds would
12

mean a decrease in waist measurements of 2 inches. But because this

woman was following an exercise program that burned fat and built toned
muscles, the amount of decrease in her waist size relative to her weight loss
was two and a half times more than it would have been otherwise!
These photos demonstrate better than
any words ever could just how dramatic a
dierence the right workout plan can make.
By combining 20SW with a healthy, balanced
diet that feeds your body properly, you will
drop signicant amounts of fat while preserving, building and toning your all-important
muscle mass. In other words, inches will
simply melt o your waist, hips, and thighs
even if your scale tells you that your weight
has barely changed.
Women sometimes worry that working out will give them too much
muscle mass, so that they will end up looking bulky Instead of toned. But
there are a few reasons why this concern is unfounded. Firstly, women have
10 times less testosterone in the body than men of the same age do, and it
is this hormone that is instrumental in building huge, bulging muscles. In
fact, estrogen inhibits excess muscle growth, while the human growth
hormone contributes to building lean muscles in womenrather than
bulkas we exercise.
The 20SW is perfect for women, because it allows you to burn fat and
improve muscle tone at the same time. Toned muscles are clearly dened
and rm; and getting them is a 2-step process that involves getting rid of
subcutaneous fat (that fat layer just under the skin) through a combination
of diet and exercise, and then developing and shaping your muscles with
the appropriate workout strategy.
Now that you understand just how much of a boost working out can
give your weight loss eorts, I hope youll also see why, if you want to lose
fat and keep it o for good, working out is one of your best allies in doing
so.
13

In addition, there are numerous other aspects of attaining overall tness

that diets focused on weight loss alone neglect to mention, such as the
importance of sleeping well, drinking enough water, ensuring that your
vitamin and mineral intake (especially vitamin D) is adequate, and
maintaining the mental outlook that will help you succeed. Well discuss
those in more detail later, so you will know exactly how to give yourself the
proper support while you are losing weight.
And of course, the benets of working out extend far beyond toned
muscles and happier news at the scales. In the next chapter, youll learn
some of the other amazing ways that the 20SW can protect your health, and
keep you looking and feeling great.

14

Chapter III

otHeR HeALtH BenefIts

of WoRKIng out

s I mentioned, one of the most common reasons that people start a

workout program is to lose weight. But what they may not know is
that by doing so, theyre also helping to protect themselves from illness and
disease in myriad ways. To my way of thinking, thats a pretty big payo for
spending only a few minutes a day doing your 20SW!

Forever Young! HIIT is Your Perfect Anti-Aging Weapon

We often associate working out with feeling
more limber, exible and attractive. In other
words, we just feel lighter and younger when
we work out regularly. And thats no accident.
Although glowing skin, toned muscles, and a
lean physique are the outward signs of health
that accompany working out, there are so many
more positive eects going on inside your body.
Thats because working out has a very powerful
anti-aging eect that can protect you from
many of the unpleasant side-eects of getting
older.
One of the ways that HIIT helps slow down
aging is by naturally increasing the amount of
Human Growth Hormone (HGH) in our bodies.
Brenda Vanta, M.D.
Attention to HGH exploded into the diet and
exercise world in the late 1990s, after a research study showed that
participants who received injections with HGH suddenly lost a signicant
amount of body fat and gained lean muscles. Suddenly, HGH was being
promoted as the new miracle pill for losing weight and building muscle
with very little eort.

15

In essence, HGH is a naturally occurring hormone in our bodies, and one

of its key roles is to stimulate growth in children and teens. But it also plays
an important role in protecting our muscles from being depleted during
fasting or when our bodies are thrust into starvation mode. It does so by
promoting the breakdown of adipose fat tissue. In other words, HGH
protects us from losing precious muscle mass during these times by
encouraging the body to use fat as its energy source, rather than muscle. In
addition, HGH contributes to cell reproduction and regeneration, which is
a necessary part of keeping our bodies from aging too quickly.
Our bodies usually continue to produce HGH throughout our lives,
although progressively less after the age of 30. A true HGH deciency can
occur, but it is extremely rare (less than 1 in 4000), and can lead to an
increase of fat, wasting of muscles, and feelings of low energy and fatigue.
In such cases, HGH replacement therapy is considered appropriate. Not
surprisingly, when these people receive additional HGH supplementation,
they experience a number of positive improvements, including an increase
in lean muscle and bone density, and improved lipid proles. HGH
supplementation has also proved eective in slowing down the musclewasting associated with HIV/AIDS, for instance.
There are a few natural ways to increase our HGH that are both better
and more long lasting than any drug, and HIIT is one of them. HIIT raises
your HGH levels by up to 450%and these levels remain elevated after your
workout. A study in 2002 (Stokes et al) showed that even a single high
intensity exercise performed for only 6 seconds increases HGH signicantly,
while a 30-second workout resulted in the highest HGH levels. What this
means is that your body is ooded with the very hormone it needs to renew
and regenerate your cells. And best of all, HIIT accomplishes this in a way
that is both safe and natural. Besides HIIT, fasting and high protein diets also
promote an increase in HGH.

Your Mitochondria Will Love HIIT

Another way that HIIT may help you slow down the aging process has
to do with its impact on your mitochondria and its ability to protect your
cells. An essential part of every one of your cells, mitochondria is responsible
16

for generating most of the cellular energy your body needs. In addition,
mitochondria are an integral part of many cellular functions, such as
signaling (between cells), cell dierentiation, cell growth, and cell death. All
of which explains why it is often referred to as the power house of your
cellular structure.
Mitochondria become less ecient as we age, in part due to the toxins
and chemicals we are exposed to every day, and in part due to stress.
Oxidative stress also plays an important part in impairing mitochondrial
function. When your mitochondria begin to function less eectively, you
become prone to weight gain, insulin resistance, and a host of other
changes that are associated with aging.
Stimulating your mitochondria may lead to an increase in energy at the
cellular level, and HIIT does exactly that. Granted, this alone wont keep you
looking and feeling like you are 21 forever. But it denitely cant hurt!

A Young State of Mind

When people think about getting older, often what rst comes to mind
is the physical toll that aging can take on our bodies. They associate aging
with a loss of mobility, exibility, and the get up and go that they had in
their younger days. But paradoxically, one of the things that most frightens
these same people about growing old is the possibility that they may
develop a degenerative disease of the brain, such as Alzheimers disease or
Parkinsons.
Although there are many factors involved in degenerative brain
diseases, there are steps we can take to keep our brains in great shape.
Because our brains are in constant communication with every part of our
bodies, including our muscles, it will probably be no surprise to you that I
recommend HIIT as an essential part of maintaining brain health as we age.
This recommendation if, of course, based on solid scientic evidence. For
instance, it is well established that our brain size shrinks as a natural part of
the aging process. But researchers have found that older adults who
maintain their tness levels and regularly exercise have greater brain
volumes than those who dont (Erickson, 2013).
17

But why wait until youre older? From my perspective, it just makes
sense to start taking steps to protect your precious brain as early in your life
as possible. Research (Blumenthal et al, 2003) shows that those who exercise
have an overall improvement in cognitive function related to the frontal and
prefrontal regions of the brain. This means that they develop higher mental
processes with respect to planning, organization and the ability to work on
dierent intellectual task simultaneously; overall improvement in cognitive
function related to the frontal and prefrontal regions of the brain. Other
studies (Erikson et al, 2013) show that brain areas involved in the learning
process (i.e. prefrontal and hippocampal) are signicantly inuenced by
exercise. In animal studies, it was observed that high intensity exercises lead
to an increase in the number of brain cells (Salk et al, 1998), as well as
improvement in the brains neuroplasticity, which is linked with the ability
to create new neural pathways, reorganize older ones, and regenerate. What
all this suggests is that the old saying Youre only as old as you think you
are may have more truth to it than we used to suspect.
Slowing down aging clearly has a multitude of benets in terms of both
our physical health and our emotional wellbeing. After all, who wouldnt
love the boost of condence that comes from being mistaken for someone
10, 20, or even 30 years younger?
But thats not all HIIT can do for you. Attaining an optimal level of tness
has also been widely shown to help decrease your risks of many serious
illnesses and diseases, including heart disease. But before we get into that,
I want to remind you that this book is written for a very general audience.
In that respect, it cant begin to cover every aspect of your individual health.
So Id like to strongly suggest that before you start on this or any other
tness program, please consult with your doctor, who will be familiar with
your health status and history. I cannot stress enough how important it is
that you do so, whether you have an existing medical condition or not.
Also, while I mentioned earlier that the 20SW program does not require
you to buy any equipment, the one exception that you may want to consider
is a heart monitor watch. Although this is optional, people are sometimes
concerned that they may overdo it when they exercise, and a heart monitor

18

watch can give you the peace of mind of knowing that youre exercising at
a safe intensity for you. If you know or suspect that you have any heart
issues, however, (and have received your physicians OK to do the 20SW) I
would recommend that you purchase a heart monitor watch so that you
can check your heart rate during your workout.

Heart Disease
No matter how often it happens (and it happens a lot!) Im always a bit
shocked when I hear a patient express concern about heart disease, then
say in the next breath that they arent really interested in exercising. It may
be that they have a family history of heart disease, or that theyve recently
had a high cholesterol reading and are wondering if they should be worried.
Or it may even be that theyve already begun to experience cardiac
problems. But they simply dont consider exercise to be a necessary part of
their health regime.
Granted, its not all their fault, because patients at risk for cardiac disease
are often advised to eat healthily and stay t, but arent given the
information they need to follow the second half of that equation. Yet is never
fails to surprise me that the only thing they think of as a necessary must
use daily recommendation is taking the prescription medicines theyve
been given.
Personally, I believe that every treatment plan for anyone with heart
disease, or at high risk of developing it, should include exercise as a
necessary and non-negotiable component. Fitness training is the appropriate type of exercise because it helps strengthen our musclesand the
heart is a muscle, after all.
For instance, a 2013 study (Rakobowchuk et al) involved formerly
untrained participants who performed high and moderately high interval
training. Over the course of 6 weeks, the study found that in participants
using HIIT, the arteries become less sti and heart dynamics improved. This
is very encouraging news for anyone worried about heart disease, as are
earlier studies that demonstrated that HIIT can promote heart health by
improving high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (Musa et al, 2009), as well as
triglyceride and total cholesterol readings (Racil et al, 2013).
19

Many heart patients are aware of the advice to follow a low or moderate
intensity exercise plan, so when they hear about HIIT they wonder if it is too
intensive for them. But more and more research is emerging that indicates
that HIIT is quite appropriate for these people.
For instance, a 2013 study featured in the Journal of Science and Medicine
in Sport reported impressively positive results. The goal of the study was to
assess whether HIIT could improve the ratio of V02max to V02 peak (the
marker of aerobic tness that correlates with cardiovascular health) in 112
patients with coronary heart disease. Researchers reported no adverse
reactions during the training, and a marked improvement in the V02 peak
of an average of 11.9%. In addition, those who did more intense training (so
that they sustained more than 92% of their maximum heart rate) had more
improvement than those who exercised at 88% of their maximum heart rate.
But what about patients with heart failure? Can HIIT be feasible for
them? The answer is Yes, according to a 2014 study (Koufaki et al) in which
all participants had been diagnosed with heart failure. The study, conducted
in a hospital rehab gym, involved having participants perform either HIIT or
a continuous (no recovery period in between exercises) training regime at
a lower intensity. In those performing HIIT, the researchers found that V02
peak (peak oxygen uptake) improved, as did their performance in sit-tostand exercises and in gait speed.

Blood Pressure
A well-controlled blood pressure is important for good health, while a
blood pressure reading that is too high (or low) can be one of the rst signs
of impending trouble. Thats the reason that every time you visit your doctor,
he or she is almost guaranteed to check your reading.
A new study conducted in 2014 (Brito Ade et al) suggests that HIIT can
help control blood pressure. The study, which evaluated patients aged 62
and over, measured the eects of HIIT on post-exercise hypotension (PEH),
which is associated with many heart health benets. In particular, the study
measured forearm vascular resistance (FVR), because a high FVR measurement is believed to play a key role in the development of high blood
20

pressure. Researchers found that HIIT signicantly decreased FVR, which

suggests that it can be very benecial in normalizing blood pressure.
Combining HIIT with properly balanced nutrition is even more eective than
simply eating more healthily.

Diabetes
With so much attention paid to the virtual explosion of diabetes rates
in North America over the past few decades, most people are at least somewhat aware that diet and exercise are powerful tools in both preventing and
managing diabetes.
A study undertaken in 2012 (Gregg et al) highlights this fact quite
dramatically and concretely, showing that after one year of following a
nutritionally optimal diet in combination with a properly designed exercise
program, 11.5% of the diabetic subjects no longer needed medication to
control diabetes (vs. 2% in the placebo group).
The reason that HIIT programs are especially benecial in treating
diabetes is that it is so closely aligned with obesity. This means that controlling diabetes necessarily means decreasing the bodys excess fat, especially
abdominal fat. HIIT is extremely eective in doing so. Just as importantly,
the number 1 cause of death in diabetics is heart disease, and weve seen
already how HIIT can benet heart health. And nally, HIIT can help control
insulin sensitivity, which is another crucial aspect of managing diabetes.

And Theres Even More

Researchers working in many dierent areas of health have also
provided us with multiple studies that support the value of HIIT for
improving an incredibly diverse range of health issues and concerns. For
instance, HIIT has been shown to have benecial eects for overweight
adolescents (Tjona et al, 2009), older adults (Wislo et al, 2007), and
paraplegics (Tordi et al, 2001). A study in 2005 (Slordahl et al) also showed
that HIIT can improve symptoms of claudication (limping, pain, tiredness or
a level of discomfort in the legs, hips, feet, or buttocks while walking).
Further studies have found that HIIT can help improve lung function in those

21

suering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (Coppoolse

et al, 1999), as well as in healthy, but sedentary individuals (Khaled et al,
2013). In menopausal women, where bone density loss is a concern, HIIT
can help restore density (Martyn-St James et al, 2006). And it may also help
with erectile dysfunction, heart diseases associated with inactivity, and dietinduced obesity (La Favor, 2013).
One of the real beauties of HIIT is that it can help improve your antioxidant status by decreasing oxidative stress (Bogdanis et al, 2013). With every
breath we take, highly reactive molecules (free radicals) are produced. The
amount of free radicals in your body makes up your oxidative stress load.
This load can vary depending on a number of things, such as exposure to
toxins and pollution, processed foods, and chemicals. As you may already
know, free radicals can damage cells in many ways, including injury to our
DNA. This oxidative damage contributes not only to aging, but also to the
development of many diseases. In fact, oxidative stress is believed to be the
underlying cause of cardio-vascular disease, stroke, cancer, MS, Alzheimers
disease, Parkinsons, some types of anemia, and arthritis (both osteoarthritis
and rheumatoid arthritis). So the fact that HIIT can decrease your oxidative
stress burden is truly a huge benet for your all-round health.
Once youve seen the scientic research evidence conrming such
broad eects of HIIT, its almost impossible to still think of exercise as an
optional part of health! Weve already seen how HIIT can help keep our
minds young and exible, but theres more to the story about the
connection between our brains and HIIT. As youll see in the next chapter,
HIIT is also an extremely benecial ally in helping with mood stabilization
and maintaining a general feeling of wellbeing because of its feel good
eect.

22

Chapter IV

tHe suPeRWoMAn
(oR suPeRMAn) effeCt

heres a very good reason that this book is subtitled The Super-Quick
and Addictive Way to Get into Fantastic Shape. Thats because the 20SW
workout is extremely addictive. While the term addiction often brings to
mind dependency and purely negative consequences, there is another kind
of addictionwhat Dr. William Glasser calls positive addiction,that is
wholly healthy and desirable. Both forms of addiction have one characteristic in common, a craving to repeat certain behaviors because they are
pleasurable. But thats where the similarities end. Addiction to substances
such as illicit drugs, tobacco, alcohol, or food usually do have pleasurable
sensations at the outset, but the longer term eects on health and wellbeing
are inevitably very negative. On the contrary, a positive addiction not only
gives us pleasurable feelings while we are engaged in the activity, but also
brings about positive longer term eects. And thats why the 20SW is so
addictive: it does both!

Earlier I said that one of the reasons that many tness programs fail is
that they are boring or unenjoyable. Although it is possible to see some
good results with programs of this type (eventually), because of the
boredom factor it is very challenging to stick with them for long enough to
see those results. I suspect that it would be quite dicult for someone to
become addicted to one of these programs because the combination of
super slow results and lack of enjoyment can quickly erode even the
strongest motivation and will power.
Every single time I go to the gym I see that the equipment getting the
most use is treadmills. Personally, Ive never found walking or jogging
endless miles on a treadmill very enjoyable, and it seems that most of the
people I see at the gym would agree. Theyre reading the newspaper,
listening to music, or watching TVanything to relieve the boredom. And
their body language conrms this: many of them have an expression that
suggests theyve just been asked to eat a large plate of worms!
23

Even so, my local gym is almost always packed. But as a 2013 survey
from the UK reveals, that doesnt mean everyone is actually working out.
About half of gym-goers spend more time in social interaction (chatting
with friends) than actually working out. Its not surprising, then, that
according to the survey published in the Telegraph, only 1 of every 2 people
complete their intended workouts. What is just as telling is that an estimated
1 in 20 doesnt even have working out on their minds when they head to
the gymthe go simply to watch football on the big screen.
My guess is that the reason fully half of the gym members fail to complete the workout they planned is that their tness routine is so repetitive
and tedious that it just cant hold their attention. One of the reasons that
problem never arises for me or anyone else I know who does the 20SW
routine is that its over so quickly you dont even have the chance to get
bored. No boredomno dread of the next workout sessionno demotivation. But its more than that: the workout is so enjoyable that, just like an
addict, youll want to repeat it again and again. The 20SW workout will leave
you feeling powerful, energetic, and happy.
And whats the key to all these feel good eects? Would it surprise you
to know that it all comes down to chemistry?

Feel Good Chemistry: Hormones, Endorphins, and More

Every day our bodies and brains produce hundreds of hormones that
interact in complex ways to aect everything from how our organs function
to our cognitive processes and our emotional state. The more eectively our
brains uptake these chemicals, the more smoothly our bodiesand our
livesrun. Although a full discussion of all the hormones that are at work
in our bodies at any given moment is beyond the scope of this book, there
are a few that deserve special attention because of their ability to help us
experience that feel good sensation.

Endorphins
The term endorphin rush is often used to describe a state of
exhilaration or heightened awareness or excitement, and theres a good
reason for that. The term endorphins derives from two other words,
24

endogenous (meaning produced within the body) and morphine

(meaning exactly what you think it means). In essence, endorphins are
naturally produced chemicals that closely resemble the eects of the
synthetic drug morphine. Their most critical role is to protect our bodies
from experiencing the full brunt of pain by inhibiting transmitters in our
brains. But endorphin levels also increase when we eat spicy foods, become
extremely excited, experience intense feelings of love, and during sexual
activity and orgasm. Thats one reason why we feel a heightened sense of
well-being when, for instance, we fall in love.
Research studies have shown that there is also a close correlation
between high intensity, vigorous exercise and elevated endorphin levels in
plasma (Goldfarb et al. 1987; Pierce et al. 1993). In particular, high intensity
exercise that has an anaerobic component, such as HIIT, increases the levels
of beta E. Elevated beta E has been linked to several positive changes (both
physical and psychological) that arise after exercise, which together make
up the eect of what is sometimes termed exercise-induced euphoria
(Harber and Sutton, 1984).
And although less intense training (for instance, treadmill training at a
steady pace) will trigger some endorphins, the level will not usually be high
enough to bring about the feel good eect. On the other hand, even very
short bursts of intense exercise, such as those used in the 20SW, will do so.
And if thats not enough incentive, endorphins also help burn fat.

Endocannabinoids (eCBs)
Naturally produced in our bodies, the endocannabinoid chemicals are
a close cousin to cannabis (marijuana) and their eects are similar to those
of smoking marijuana. If youve ever experienced runners high youll
already be familiar with the ability of Endocannabinoids to reduce pain,
relieve stress, and create a sense of relaxed wellbeing. The cannabinoid
system is intimately involved with the reward pathway in the brain, and it
now appears that the reward sensation associated with eating sweet foods
is also triggered by exercise. One study by researchers in Rome (Chiara et al.
2010) with mice found that both exercise and eating sweet foods increased
the sensitivity of cannabinoid receptors in the brain, resulting in a higher
25

level of activation of the pleasure response. The up-regulation in cannabinoid transmission seems to explain the strong connection between exercise
and feel good emotions, as well as how exercise helps prevent stress,
anxiety, and depression. However, not all exercises are equally eective in
triggering these eects. The intensity factor is of signicant importance, and
the latest research studies suggest that while high intensity exercise is very
eective as a release trigger for eCBs, low or average intensity workouts are
not particularly eective. What all this means, in essence, is that HIIT workouts such as the 20SW stimulate the pleasure receptors in our brains, so that
we not only feel great after them, but want to repeat them over and over.
Thats one reason that the 20SW is as addictive as any sugar-laden comfort
food, but without any of the undesirable consequences of a sugar high!

Oxytocin
Better known as the love hormone or the cuddle hormone, oxytocin
is one of the chemicals in our bodies that helps us bond with others. It is
released when we are in close physical contact with others, and even with
our pets. Very high levels naturally occur in women when they are giving
birth, lactating, and breast feeding their infants, as well as during orgasm in
both men and women. But even simply touching someones hand, or watching an emotionally touching movie can increase oxytocin levels. Besides
making us feel closer to others, there are other benets as well; oxytocin can
help decrease pain sensations, and reduce anxiety and stress levels. And it
also seems to be an important factor in promoting weight loss. For instance,
in a 2012 study (Morton et al) noted that when obese rats were injected with
oxytocin they experienced a sustained reduction of food intake leading to
a decrease in body weight.
Exercise is another way to naturally raise your oxytocin levels, which is
just another reason that youll feel awesome after your 20SW. And after you
work out and are feeling wonderful, why not share that feeling by spending
a few minutes petting your dog? Researchers have concluded that just like
humans, dogs experience an increase in oxytocin when theyre stroked (Kis
et al. 2014), which helps foster the unique bond between owner and dog.

26

Serotonin
Serotonin serves to elevate the mood, increase feelings of satiety and
ght depression. In fact, one of the common signs of clinical depression and
anxiety is an insucient level of serotonin. Serotonin rises naturally when
you exercise, and although the exact mechanism of how this occurs is not
fully understood, scientists believe that motor activity (exercise) increases
the ring rates of serotonin in the brain cells, which results in increased
serotonin being released into the bloodstream. All of this suggests that
vigorous exercise may have antidepressant and antianxiety eects. Furthermore, working out causes an increase in tryptophan, an amino acid that
helps your body synthesize serotonin; and according to a 2007 study
featured in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, higher tryptophan
levels persist after exercise.

Dopamine
Dopamine, another chemical involved in elevating our mood, works
closely with serotonin. In fact, their functions are closely intertwined; both
are metabolized by the same enzyme, MAO. When one chemical is out of
balance, for instance due to chronic stress, the other one is aected as well.
Exercise boosts both dopamine and serotonin levels, and because
dopamine is also involved in our sleep cycles, a higher level of dopamine
will help you sleep well. Dopamine is also a natural appetite suppressor that
inuences weight loss and gain. For instance, do you know someone who
may have tried a restrictive diet, lost weight, and then gained it all back
plus more besides? Part of the reason for that is that restrictive diets that
cause you to drop weight also push your dopamine levels down, and then
when you begin to eat a less restricted diet, your body naturally restores
your dopamine to a higher level, causing the weight to come right back. If
you really want to lose weight, one of the keys is to keep your dopamine
levels high through working out, so that you can avoid that yo-yo cycle of
weight loss and gain.

27

Adrenaline
Adrenaline plays a crucial role in the ght or ight response that kicks
in when we are faced with a potentially dangerous situation. To prepare you
for sudden action, your body boosts your adrenaline level to give you an
immediate burst of energy. This additional adrenal increases your heart rate
and blood pressure, delivers more blood to the muscles and stimulates their
contractions, and raises your body temperature. Like dopamine, adrenaline
levels can be depleted by chronic stress, leaving you feeling mentally and
physically exhausted. But when you perform high intense exercises your
adrenaline levels rise, giving you an adrenaline rush that will make you feel
like a superwoman or supermanmore alive and ready to take on whatever life throws at you. And one more thing: adrenaline is also largely
responsible for releasing and burning fat during HIIT!
Although most of the feel good benets of the 20SW occur as a result
of the combination of all these chemicals ooding through your body, youre
unlikely to even be aware of whats going on inside while youre working
out. All youll really notice is that feeling of exhilaration and wellbeing, but
isnt that a reward in its own right worth pursuing?

28

Chapter V

WHy HIIt Is tHe Best

WoRKout APPRoACH

arlier I described my struggle to crunch my way to tness, as well as

some of the other things I tried to stay in shape. Like me, you may have
tried a number of dierent workout regimes and not found the maximum
success you were looking for. So you may be curious about what HIIT can
oer you, but at the same time you may be wondering why you should
believe that HIIT can succeed where so many other programs fail. In fact, Id
be surprised if you werent! In this chapter, Ill describe some of the things
that make HIIT not only dierent, but also better than all the rest.

Its Super Quick to Do!

HIIT turns your body into a fat burning machineliterally in seconds!
Why does that matter? Well, because I think that the number one reason
that people dont stick with a workout programor even start oneis lack
of time. Saying Oh, Id really like to but I dont have time, is a pretty familiar
song, and it does sound like an excuse. But I dont think it is. We live in a
world that is more fast-paced and stressful than any time in human history,
and our everyday lives are often lled with rushing here and there, trying
to get everything done. Were also constantly being bombarded by more
and more information virtually everywhere we look, from the media,
advertisers, and cyber spaceand its all just begging for our attention. If
something is happening anywhere in the world, its in front of our eyes
instantaneously. In fact, according to Richard Alleyne, science correspondent
for the Telegraph, we are exposed to enough new date every single day to
ll 174 newspapers!
Thats why, in a world that seems to be going faster and faster all the
time, it sometimes amazes me that it took so long to gure out how to make
our workouts more time-eective. That is, until HIIT appeared on the scene.
As the name suggests, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) involves
very short intervals of exercise done at high intensity (90% of your maximum
29

heart rate) followed by a short recovery period of either rest or low intensity
movement. The most eective HIIT programs (including 20SW) use a
workout to rest ratio of 2:1 because this is not only the optimal formula, but
because its easiest on your body as well.
By contrast, many of the well-known cardio exercise programs that
feature low intensity workouts (60% of your maximum heart rate), such as
treadmill walking, take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to complete.
If you work out, say, 5 times a week, thats 4-5 hours of your precious time
simply goneand that doesnt include the time you spend getting to the
gym and back!
On the other hand, doing the 20SW program as recommended is superquick! If youre already time-poor, doesnt it just make good sense to choose
the workout program that actually lets you save 4 or more hours a week,
especially if it also works better than those slower routines?

Its the Choice of Pro Athletes and Coaches!

While its true that HIIT programs have only truly began to really gain
attention in the last few years, the secrets behind their eectiveness have
been known for decades to professional athletes and coaches. In fact the
rst HIIT protocols were specically designed to train runners, but theyve
steadily become more and more popular with athletes in other elds, such
as soccer and basketball. However, in light of the fact that a steadily
increasing number of research studies have shown the advantages of HIIT
over more traditional cardio approaches, this type of training has virtually
exploded in popularity in the past few years. According to the American
College of Sports Medicine, HIIT programs now rank at the top of the list of
tness trends for 2014, while many other popular approaches such as Pilates
and Yoga didnt even make it into the top twenty.
Of course, you dont need to have aspirations to become a pro athlete
to appreciate its simplicity and eectiveness. But isnt it nice to know that
HIIT is the choice for the very people whose career success as athletes
depends on staying in top shape?

30

Its All You Really Need!

In the good old day (pre-HIIT), the conventional wisdom was that
tness levels and time clocked in the gym were inevitably correlated. Weve
all heard some variation on the idea that the more you exercise, the more
t you will be. But as it turns out, this is simply not true.
What actually matters, as hundreds of scientic studies have conrmed,
is not the duration of the workout, but the intensity. While many dierent
kinds of exercise will help you decrease stress and feel better, when it comes
to improving your bodys ability to burn fat, HIIT is the clear winner.
According to Jacob Wilson, PhD, professor and director of the Skeletal
Muscle and Sports Nutrition Laboratory at the University of Tampa, just 10
seconds of HIIT exercise can deplete energy stores in the muscles by as much
as 15 %. This is critical, because when muscles use up their stored energy,
the body begins to burn up its fat stores to provide the energy it needs to
function. As Wilson says, The results are truly remarkable. We've found that
with 10-30 seconds of all-out sprints, you can actually lose more fat in just a
few minutes than with the long duration 30-60 minute cardio. But thats not
all! After you nish your HIIT workout, your body will continue to burn fat for
hours.

It Delivers Lightning Fast Results!

Imagine that you want to travel from point A to point B and you can
either ride all the way on an old, slow donkey or drive to your destination in
a Porsche 911 Turbo. Unless youve got all the time in the worldand a
special fondness for donkeyswhat are the chances that youd choose the
rst option?
Likewise, if youd prefer to reach your tness goals as quickly as possible,
why not choose the program that will get you there the soonest?
In a word, HIIT is simply the most rapid way to burn fat and gain lean,
toned muscles. One reason is that HIIT is extremely eective at increasing
body oxidation. The higher your oxidation rate, the more energy (and
calories) you burn, which encourages your body to start burning your fat
stores. In a 2006 study, for instance, it was shown that following a HIIT
31

protocol for as little as seven sessions over the course of a two week period
can increase your entire bodys fat oxidation process by 36% (Talanian et al).
In a recent study, researchers found that in addition to weight loss, HIIT led
to a signicant decrease in abdominal and truck adiposity (fat) of 44% and
a 17% decrease in visceral fat (the potentially dangerous fat deposits that
wrap around internal organs) (Heydari et al, 2012). The chart below is a
portion of the research summaries collected by Stephen Boutcher (2011)
with respect to the eectiveness of HIIT for decreasing various types of fat,
as well as some of the other benets experienced by participants.
Study

Subcutaneous Abdominal/trunk
fat (kg)
fat (kg)

Other ndings

Length
of study

Boudou
et al, 2003

Decrease18%

Decrease 44%

Insulin sensitivity
increased 58%

8 weeks

Dunn, 2009

Decrease 8%

Decrease 6%

Waist circumference
decreased 3.5 cm;
insulin sensitivity
increase 36%;
Vo2 max increase 18%

12 weeks

Mourier
et al, 1997

Decrease 18%

Decrease 48%

Waist circumference
decrease 1%;
insulin sensitivity
increase 46%;
V02 max increase 41%

8 weeks

Tjonna
et al, 2009

Decrease 7%

Decrease 8%

Waist circumference
decreased 7.2 cm;
insulin sensitivity
increase 29%;
V02 max increase 10%

12 weeks

Trapp
et al, 2008

Decrease 10%

Decrease 10%

Insulin sensitivity
increase 33%;
Vo2 max increased 24%

15 weeks

Tremblay
et al, 1994

Decrease 15%

Decrease 12%

Vo2 max increased 20%

24 weeks

32

The V02 max mentioned means maximal oxygen consumption or how

much oxygen your body is consuming during exercise. V02 max measurements are used to evaluate both cardiovascular and respiratory (aerobic)
tness. The higher your V02 max score, the more t youand your heart
are likely to be, which makes the increases associated with HIIT indicated in
this chart very meaningful and impressive.
The term insulin sensitivity describes the eciency of your bodys
ability to handle insulin. A lower level of insulin sensitivity is considered an
important risk factor in obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and a number
of other serious health conditions. So, the ability of HIIT to help improve
insulin sensitivity means that it may not only help you to burn stubborn fat,
but also protect your health against potentially serious illnesses.
But HIIT can not only help you lose weight, it is also an eective tool in
helping you to prevent weight gain. As one research review paper (Boutcher,
2011) notes, one of the benecial mechanisms associated with HIIT is that
it helps reduce appetite, unlike most workouts which actually increase
appetite. And as a further study in 2014 reveals, people who engage in high
intensity activity, even for short periods at a time, are likely to have a lower
body mass index (BMI) and a decreased risk of obesity. In fact, every minute
spent doing higher intensity physical activity appears to lower the odds of
obesity by 5% for women and 2% for men (Fan et al).

Its the Smart Way to Get Fit!

After a long work day you arrive home (nally!), grab a quick snack,
settle into the couch for a few relaxing minutes, and expect your extra
pounds to simply melt away. How smart is that? It sounds more like an
impossible, self-deluding daydream, doesnt it?
Normally, it would be. But if youre someone who does HIIT workouts
regularly, this is actually a realistic portrayal. Thats because you not only
burn calories while you work out, but for up to 12-24 hours afterwards,
because HIIT dramatically increases your bodys resting metabolic rate (the
rate at which you burn calories) for an extended period of time after your
workout is long over and done with.
33

Some research suggests that this after-burn eect of HIIT can burn up
around 100 to 150 calories (Tabata, cited in Ingle) but of course the actual
amount of calories you will burn depends on several factors, including the
duration and the intensity of your workout. This is why many people
mistakenly conclude that the longer the workout, the more after glow
calories youll burn.
Based on current scientic literature, it is now clear that it is the intensity
of the workout that has the most impact on weight loss, because it has the
greatest impact on EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption)
(Kravitz et al, 2004). EPOC is a measure of your resting metabolic rate, or how
quickly your body metabolizes fat in a resting (non-exercising) state. The
higher your EPOC level, the more quickly your body is burning calories. One
study, for instance, found that in comparison to low intensity continuous
training, the number of calories burnt during the EPOC stage following
intermittent bouts of high intensity interval training doubled (Kaminski et
al, 1990).
HIIT is also up to nine times more eective than traditional aerobics!
According to a study (Tremblay et al, 1994) comparing the results of twenty
weeks of traditional aerobics exercise versus fteen weeks of interval
training, those doing the interval training demonstrated less actual calories
burned during the workout itself, but they lost nine times as much fat, and
in only of the time.
Or to put it another way, you would be burning twice as many calories
while youre relaxing on your couch after a 10 minute HIIT training session
you did yesterday than you would be if youd just spent the last hour on the
treadmill at the gym. And it would take you about 75% of the time to do it,
as compared to following a traditional aerobics program. Thats what I call
smart!

Its Money in Your Pocket!

One of the most overlooked benets of maintaining a high tness level
is that it can pay o quite nicely with respect to your nancial future as well.
While we all know that being t can help improve our appearance, did you
34

know that exercising regularly can positively aect your earning power? In
a 2013 article, Forbes editor Ty Kiisel reviewed several research studies and
his conclusion was simple: you are judged by your appearance! He found
evidence that employees who exercise earn an average of 9% more than
those who dont. For people who are obese, the story is even more dismal,
says Kiisel; obese workers are paid considerably less than their non-obese
coworkers, by an average of $8,666 less for women and $4,772 less for men.
If those gures dont motivate you to get t, consider how much these
yearly dierences in salary would add up to over the course of an entire
working life! And a lower wage isnt the only nancial penalty for being
less t. It is well documented that obese individuals have more health issues
than those who dont carry excess weight, which may translate into an extra
$2,800 annually in medical bills, according to a 2010 article published in USA
Today.
And when you add up all the factors weve discussed in this chapter, its
not hard to see why HIIT has so many things to recommend it: its the quick,
eective, complete, smart, and nancially savvy way to improve virtually all
corners of your lifeand in just a few minutes a week! If youre serious about
reaching your tness goals, then a program based on HIIT is clearly the best
choice. But of course, not all HIIT programs are created equal, so in the next
chapter well discuss why the 20SW HIIT plan is quite simply the best of the
best!

35

Chapter VI

20sWtHe Best
of tHe Best!

hen it comes to evaluating the merits of the several thousand

dierent tness programs currently available, there is simply no
comparison: HIIT-based programs come out ahead on many dierent fronts.
But when it comes to choosing between various types of HIIT program,
things get a little more complex, because most will share a number of the
positive attributes Ive outlined in the last chapter to some degree or other.
They are invariably much quicker to do than traditional low intensity
continuous protocols, and bring about noticeable results in far less time.
Theyll also save you money, and help encourage your body to burn fat, even
when youre at rest. And yet, not all HIIT programs are equally eective, and
youre about to nd out why.
Of course the 20SW will give you all the benets of other HIIT plans. But
there are two ways in which the 20SW program stands head and shoulders
above the rest. The rst has to do with the exercises themselves. The 20SW
program is specically designed to include only the absolutely most
eective exercises, as proven by both research and experience.
For instance, in a 2007 research paper, triceps dips were ranked as one
of the top exercises for working your tricepsas measured by EMG (Boehler
et al, 2007), while exercises that depend on the use of gym equipment were
found to be the least eective. So, of course, triceps dips are included in
20SW!
Similarly, a 2001 study at San Diego State University compared 13
common abdominal exercises. Each exercise was evaluated for muscle
stimulation of the rectus abdominis (the six pack musculature) and oblique
muscles (as recorded by EMG). Of the 13, bicycle crunches were found to be
most eective with respect to activating the rectus abdominis and second
most eective for obliques (Francis, cited in Anders, 2001). A review based
on 87 dierent studies conrmed that exercises which involve rotation of
the trunk, such as bicycle crunches and crossed trunk curl-ups, result in
36

higher activation of the rectus abdominis and obliques than single plane
exercises such as regular crunches (Monfort-Paego et al, 2009). With strong
evidence like this, it would be an unforgiveable oversight if these exercises
werent part of 20SW.
20SW also incorporates a unique holistic approach that will show you
how to boost our workout results exponentially by adopting a few simple
habits in between your exercise periods. Youll learn all about what these
habits are and why they matter so much to your overall tness in the next
chapter. But for now, lets have a look at how the 20SW takes the principles
of HIIT to a new level with respect to your actual workout routine.
If you google HIIT youre likely to get hundreds of dierent hits,
because as mentioned earlier, interest in the HIIT approach has simply
exploded over the last several years. And as you might expect, countless
HIIT-based tness programs have been created to cater to that interest.
Some are quickly thrown together, some are well thought out, but I can
assure you that none are like 20W. Thats because the 20SW has been
carefully designed with two aims in mind: to help you fulll your tness
goals; and to make your tness routine t as seamlessly as possibly into your
busy lifestyle so that its easy to maintain.
One way that the 20SW accomplishes both these aims is by keeping
things simple with respect to the actual exercises. In general, exercises can
be classied as isolated or compound. An isolated exercise is one that
targets a highly specic, limited set of muscles. For instance, bicep curls are
isolated because they only target biceps. Routines that consist mostly of
isolated exercises will be fairly time consuming because they require you to
do a large number of dierent, separate exercises in order to work all your
muscle groups. And thats important, because only training some of your
muscles can lead to strength imbalances, which can increase your risk of
injuring yourself. At rst blush, a routine that largely depends on isolated
exercises may not sound too time-consuminguntil you consider that the
human body has over 650 skeletal muscle groups!
This does not mean, of course, that exercises that target isolated
muscles have no value at all. They are excellent for minor tweaking of your
37

overall tness, for instance, once youve achieved your tness goals and
simply want to improve muscle denition in a particular area. They are also
benecial if youve injured certain muscles, and are working on rehabilitating them to full strength.
On the other hand, when your goal is to work and tone your whole body
quickly and eectively, compound exercises are the way to go. Thats
because just as the name suggests, this type of exercise has a compounded
or multiplied eect because it targets a broad range of muscle groups
simultaneously, which means they are super-ecient time savers. After all,
why spend hours and hours exercising when you can achieve the same
or betterresults in minutes? That would be like making multiple trips to
the grocery store and buying a single item each time, rather than just
making one trip and getting everything you need at once.
Its not hard to see why compound exercises represent the best choice
if you want to train faster, smarter, and more eciently. But this type of
exercise also oers a number of additional benets over isolated exercises.
Because they involve multiple joints and muscle groups, the risk of
overtraining (and, so, injury) is lower. Plus, they result in a greater release of
anabolic hormones, which stimulate muscle development, and enhance
coordination and joint stability. And if thats not impressive enough,
compound exercises contribute to cardiovascular health (because they raise
your heart rate) and weight loss (because they promote faster calorie burn,
which means more fat loss).
Thats why the 20SW workout is comprised almost exclusively of
compound exercises. The one exception is Donkey Kicks, an isolated exercise
that targets glutes. And theres a good reason for that. Based on the results
of a 2006 study conducted at the University of Wisconsin, John Porcari
credits Donkey Kicks (along with squats) as having the greatest butt
beautifying potential of all the exercises evaluated, including leg presses
and step-ups (Porcari, cited in Anders). Because it is a balanced exercise that
helps dene glutes better than any other exercise you can perform, it was
simply too great to leave out of the 20SW program.

38

The emphasis on compound exercises alone already puts the 20SW far
out ahead of most other HIIT programs. But it also includes a strong focus
on plyometrics, a class of cardio exercises that super-charge your bodys
ability to burn the maximum number of calories in the shortest amount of
time. In essence, plyometrics (also known as jump training) are designed
to cause muscles to move from a fully extended state to a contracted state
as quickly as possible, so that the muscle exerts an explosive burst of
maximum force. Sprinting, high jumping, and depth jumping (o a platform)
are all types of plyometric exercise. Because they help increase muscle
strength, they are often used by professional athletes to help improve speed,
power, and overall performance. In fact, Russian athletes training for the
Olympics have been using plyometrics since the 1960s, when they were
developed by Dr. Y. Verkhoshansky.
However, despite their popularity with professional athletes, the use of
plyometrics in the general (non-professional) tness eld is still somewhat
rare. Thats a shame, because plyometrics have quite a few tremendous
benets. They are super cardio exercises, and they burn calories better than
any other exercise. And because they strengthen muscles so well, they may
also help prevent tness-related injuries. And those are all good reasons why
the 20SW workout does include plyometrics.
Aside from including only the best and most eective exercises, another
factor that makes the 20SW superior to other HIIT programs is that it uses
the optimal ratio of exercise to rest, which is 2:1 (20 seconds exercise: 10
seconds recovery), as endorsed by top tness experts. And the program is
designed to alternate cardio (including the super cardio plyometrics) and
non-cardio exercises, which have been shown to burn that fat even faster!
But as youll see in the next chapter, one of the main reasons that many
HIIT programs ultimately fail, or deliver sub-par results at bestis that they
neglect to take into account a number of key factors that play an extremely
important role in determining your tness status. In contrast, the 20SW
incorporates these factors and tells you exactly what you need to know
and doin addition to working out in order to achieve your tness goals.

39

Chapter VII

tHe 5 seCRet Keys

to suCCess

f you are serious about tness, the ve simple and easy-to-implement

habits Im about to discuss may well be the factors (along with your 20SW
workouts, of course) that make all the dierence between success and
failure. None of these habits are truly secrets at all. They are well known
aspects of overall tness. So it baes me that so few tness programs
mention them at all, or if they do, give them only the slightest bit of
attention.

Because I am convinced both by the scientic research that Im going

to share with you in this chapter, and also by the personal experience of the
members of my own small tness community, that these are make or break
factors, Ive built them right into the 20SW program guidelines. And once
youve implemented them, I have no doubt that they will super charge not
only your tness regime, but your life!

Sleep Your Way to Fitness

Get enough sleep!
Everyones heard it, but how few of us actually get enough rest each
and every night? Our lives are so busy, were trying to cram more and more
into each day, and there always seems to be just one more thing we need
to do before bedtime. With everything we need to get done each day, its
easy to feel like we simply dont have enough time for a full nights sleep.
True, we may end up paying the next day for hitting the pillow in the wee
hours, but is being a little sleep deprived really a big deal?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is. According to
their data, we are in the midst of a public health epidemic, with up to 70%
of Americans having one or another type of sleep disorder. And although
many people associate a lack of sleep with fairly benignand transitory
eects, such as diculty concentrating and remembering details, this is far

40

from the whole story. The long-term eects of sleep deprivation can be
serious illness or even premature death!
Long-term sleep loss is associated with diabetes, heart diseases (including high blood pressure), anxiety and depression, and various dysfunctions
in the endocrine, immune and nervous systems. And as recent research
shows, sleep loss can lead to an increased risk of mortality (Kripke et al, 2002;
Tamakoshi et al, 2004; Patel et al, 2004). In fact, just a two hour dierence
(sleeping 5 hours or less a night instead of 7) can increase our risk of dying
prematurely by roughly 15%. And its not just getting inadequate sleep over
a long period of months or years that can cause issues. Just a week of poor
sleep can cause havoc in your body, altering your metabolism and stress
response (Moller-Levet et al, 2013), and aecting your genes. In fact, it has
been shown that sleep deprivation impacts on 711 genes, including those
related to circadian rhythm, inammatory response, and immune system.
Whatever your response to this data, Im sure that part of your reaction
is to wonder why a book about tness is discussing sleep. Well, there are a
couple of ways that inadequate sleep can inuence your ability to achieve
optimal tness. For one thing, sleep is an essential part of the recovery
process that your body goes through each night; it is the time when your
body renews and repairs any cellular damage in order to maintain proper
muscle, organ, and brain functions. If it doesnt have a chance to do so, it is
impossible for your body to remain in optimal good condition.
And if part of your tness goal is weight loss, heres the kicker: inadequate sleep can not only prevent you from losing weight, it can actually
cause you to gain extra pounds. In fact, there are at least 24 separate studies
that demonstrate that individuals who sleep less also weigh more. For
instance, one research initiative involved following 68 women for a 16-year
period. Those who slept 5 hours or less per night were almost three times
as likely to gain 30 pounds as those who slept 7 hours nightly (Patel, cited
in Kovaks, 2007). Another study conducted at the University of Chicago
found that individuals who sleep less consume an average of 220 more
calories per day than those who get adequate sleep. One reason for this
may be that sleep deprivation alters the bodys ability to regulate appetite,

41

which may lead to an increase in the consumption of high fat, high carb
foods. For instance, just a single night without adequate restful sleep
increases activity in the brains reward center, which may cause an increased
craving for foods laden with fat, sugar, and salt.
And of course, lack of sleep can rob you of energy, so that you may be
tempted to skip your workout after a restless or light sleep night. But dont!
Exercise can not only help you sleep better, but also sleep longer. Regular
exercise has been shown to improve the quality of sleep. Even low or
moderate exercise helps, but according to the Sleep Foundation (2013)
intense, vigorous exercise results in the highest quality of sleep. According
to another study, exercise improves both the quality and quantity of sleep
(Dworak et al, 2008; Youngstedt et al, 1997). These ndings have especially
important connotations for older individuals, because the periods of deep,
slow-wave sleep associated with the bodys restorative processes naturally
decrease as we age.
So the benets of exercising vigorously are very clear. You will sleep
better, add an average of 2.2 years to your life, and when you follow an HIIT
program such as the 20SW, you not only wont gain weight, youll burn fat
while you sleep. Its a cyclical relationship, in a sense, but denitely not a
vicious cycle like the one that follows from sleep deprivation!
Granted, there may be times when you have trouble sleeping. If you nd
that you are unable to sleep for at least 7 hours during the night, try taking
a power nap during the day. Keep it short, around 20-30 minutes in length.
Ideally, take your power nap at the same time every day, and try to do so in
a dark, warm room, as this will help you relax. Also, if you simply cannot
remain asleep for 7 hours, work on increasing the quality of your sleep by
adding a little more exercise time to your day. And if all else fails, ask your
doctor if melatonin may be right for you. It has been shown to improve
overall sleep quality (by increasing REM duration) as well as sleep quantity
(Kunz et al, 2004). Melatonin also appears to help individuals fall asleep more
quickly (Ferracioli-Oda et al, 2013), and can be especially helpful for shift
workers or individuals who work during the night. Also ask your doctor
whether you should be tested at a sleep clinic to rule out sleep disorders;
many people have a sleep disorder and never even suspect it.
42

Vitamin D: Your Best Weight Loss Ally!

One of the key reasons that people get discouraged with their tness
routine is that no matter how hard they exercise and how well they eat, they
just cant seem to lose weight. A former patient of mine faced exactly this
struggle, and she also had a variety of other complaints, including chronic
back pain, susceptibility to catching infections, and depression. When her
lab tests came back, I discovered that her Vitamin D level was extremely low.
I had suspected as much, because Vitamin D deciency is one of the
most commonly undiagnosed conditions in America, aecting an estimated
70-80% of the overall population. And it is linked with many of the
symptoms that my patient reported, including depression, bone pain, and
allergies, as well as other serious health issues (high blood pressure, heart
disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and others).
So as part of her treatment protocol, I recommended that taking a good
quality Vitamin D supplement would not only correct the deciency, but
may also help alleviate some of her symptoms. And I wasnt surprised that
when she returned to my oce some time later she reported that she was
experiencing less pain, a decrease in allergy symptoms, and a great
improvement in her mood.
But I was surprised when she added that although she hadnt been exercising any more than usual, nor eating any less, shed begun to lose pounds
and inchesvirtually eortlessly. The reason for my surprise was that at the
time there were no research studies that suggested a strong connection
between Vitamin D deciency and an inability to lose weight. So I certainly
hadnt recommended Vitamin D with the intention of helping my patient
enhance her tness progress!
In the intervening decade, however, all that has changed. Numerous
studies have conrmed a close link between obesity and Vitamin D
deciency. And I now routinely recommend Vitamin D supplementation
specically because of its ability to support tness success. In fact, I consider
it so essential that Ive included it as one of the ve secret keys featured in
this chapter. And in spite of all the scientic research demonstrating just

43

how valuable Vitamin D is in promoting weight loss, it still is something of a

secret that most other HIIT programs dont seem to have caught on to yet.
And thats just one more way that the 20SW is a bit ahead of the pack.
So, what exactly is the connection between Vitamin D and weight loss
(or gain)? Well, for one thing, research has shown that Vitamin D deciency
is closely associated with excess weight, and especially with fat accumulation in the abdomen area. In a 2014 study, for instance, researchers
evaluated a group of 137 participants (74 males and 63 females) between
the ages of 18 and 60. Over 90% of the participants had some degree of
Vitamin D deciency, and also had increased abdominal obesity (Bhatt et
al).
Another study concluded that the odds of developing a Vitamin D
deciency are several times higher for individuals with a larger than average
waist circumference than they are for individuals with normal sizes waists.
Evaluating the results by gender, the researchers also found that the risk is
highest for men (6.8 times as great) but still disturbing high for women (3.3
times as great) as well (Theuri et al, 2013). Even more dramatic evidence of
the correlation between Vitamin D insuciency and obesity comes from a
UK study (Grace et al, 2013) involving 118 obese patients awaiting bariatric
surgery. Researchers found that all of the 118 individuals had extremely low
Vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D deciency is also inversely associated with fat oxidation, as a
recent study (Ellis et al, 2014) showed. Researchers set out to evaluate the
link between cardio-respiratory tness, fat oxidation and vitamin D status
in formerly sedentary women age 60 -74 who followed an exercise program
for the duration of the study. Those women who had higher blood levels of
Vitamin D also had greater fat oxidization, which means that their bodies
were burning fat at a higher and more ecient rate. In other words,
adequate Vitamin D helps your body shed weight.
There is evidence that high doses of Vitamin D cause fat cells to commit
suicide. Of course, all cells eventually die, but there are several ways that
cell death can occur. In the case of cell necrosis, when cells die they cause
inammation in surrounding cells. However, when cells have outlived their
44

usefulness to the body, they undergo a process called apoptosis or

programmed death, in which surrounding cells are not aected. According
to a 2014 animal study, high doses of Vitamin D (possibly in combination
with calcium) activate an apoptotic pathway in adipose (fat) tissue which
causes fat cells to die without negatively impacting other cells in the area.
This is very promising news, prompting the authors to recommend further
studies to explore the potential ecacy of high dose Vitamin D supplementation as a treatment option for the prevention or reversal of obesity
(Serjeev et al, 2014).
What is already abundantly clear, however, is that Vitamin D is a critical
factor in exercise, because an inadequate level can lead to muscle shrinkage
and weaken. On the other hand, a healthy level helps protect muscles by
reducing inammation and protein synthesis, resulting in optimal muscle
function and performance (Shuler et al, 2012). Correspondingly, exercise
also helps stimulate Vitamin D production by the body.
One of the resources I highly recommend for more information about
the benets of Vitamin D, as well as guidelines on how to evaluate (and
increase if necessary) your level, is the Vitamin D Council. The following
general recommendations are loosely based on the Councils advice.
Whether you suspect that you have a Vitamin D deciency or not, its a
good idea to have your status checked. Ask your doctor for a blood test
known as 25(OH) D, or if you prefer, you can order a home test here:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/testing-for-vitamin-d/
Once you receive your results, if you have a deciency this link can help
you determine how much additional Vitamin D you need to take:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/further-topics/i-tested-my-vitamin-d-levelwhat-do-my-results-mean/
In the meantime, start taking 2,000 to 3,000 IU of Vitamin D a day, and
then adjust your dose as needed once you know your Vitamin D status. The
Vitamin D Council suggests a daily dose of 5,000 IU for optimal benets,
because it is the only essential micronutrient (or vitamin) that diet alone
cannot provide. And although you do absorb Vitamin D when your body is
exposed to the sun, it would take approximately 30 minutes spent in the
45

sun with most of your body surface exposed (and no sunscreen) to provide
you with 10,000 IU.

Water: The Stu of Life!

While it is possible to survive for a week or more without food, the
human body absolutely needs water in order to sustain life for even a few
days. Thats because our bodies are composed of up to 60% water, and some
organs such as the brain and heart are almost three-quarters water. Even
our bones are watery in that they are made up of 31% water.
Water is involved in virtually every cellular process in the body. The carbs
and proteins that we eat are metabolized and transported by water. Our
joints are lubricated by water, our body temperature is regulated by water,
and our digestive and elimination processes are dependent on water. When
we become dehydrated all of our bodys functions are disrupted to some
degree or other. And worst of all, if weight loss is part of your tness goal,
you metabolism slows down to a crawl. In fact, if you are even 1%
dehydrated, your metabolism has already begun to slow. At 2% dehydration,
your exercise performance can drop by up to 20% (Kliner et al, 1999).
So it clearly makes sense to avoid getting dehydrated! But sometimes,
its not so easy to tell when were in danger of doing so, because rather than
feel thirsty we feel hungry. Your body is trying to tell you that it needs you
to consume something but it isnt able to tell you whether that something
is liquid or food. Unfortunately, this means that by the time you actually
experience thirst your body is already dehydrated to some extent or other.
So next time you feel hungry, keep in mind that what your body may
actually be craving is water rather than food. Try drinking a glass or two of
water rst, and if that doesnt relieve your hunger pangs, chances are you
really are hungry!
Mistaking hunger for thirst is one reason that people sometimes have
trouble losing weight. Staying well hydrated can help decrease your
appetite, so that you dont consume more calories than you need. For
instance, in one study researchers found that individuals who drank a glass
of water before meals consumed 75 less calories than those who skipped
the water. Another put the decrease in caloric consumption even higher, at
46

90 less per meal. To put that into context, if you are following a nutritional
plan like the Pound-A-Day program, and drink one glass of water before
lunch, over the course of a year that would add up to about 32,850 calories
(90 calories X 365 days), which equates to about 10 pounds of weight loss!
Thats with adding a glass of water to one meal a day, remember, so making
a habit of having a glass of water before every meal would pay o even
more!
With outcomes this positive, you may be wondering whether drinking
even more water before each meal could lead to even larger weight loss.
According to another research study published in Science Daily in 2010, the
answer is Yes! During this study, 48 participants were divided into two
groups. All participants followed the same diet, but one group drank two
glasses of water before each meal, while the other group didnt. After 12
weeks, those in the rst group lost an average of 15.5 pounds, while those
who didnt drink water before meals only lost 11 pounds. And although a
dierence of 4.5 pounds may not sound impressive at rst, when you
consider that over the span of a year that adds up to an additional weight
loss of more than 18 pounds, the benet of drinking additional water
becomes crystal clear. And in a follow up a year after the initial study,
researchers noted that members of the rst group had not only maintained
their original weight loss but had also managed to lose additional pounds
(Davy, 2010).
Of course, the benets of drinking adequate water dont end there.
Water helps lubricate your digestive tract so that your body is able to digest
the nutrients you eat more easily, which helps avoid constipation. Water is
also one of the most critical factors in helping ush toxins out of your body,
by allowing both your digestive system and kidneys to function eciently.
And not drinking enough water can signicantly impact the eectiveness of your workouts. Thats because during exercise, your muscles
generate heat, which is what causes you to sweat (losing both water and
electrolytes). However, the sweating process is dependent upon intracellular
(inside the cells) water being shifted to the extracellular space (outside the
cells), which causes the cells themselves to dehydrate. This in turn impairs

47

muscle function, because cell dehydration causes the blood ow to your

muscles to decrease signicantly. This causes a decrease in aerobic power
and physical performance (Swanka et al, 2000). The intensity level of your
workout falls so that you are burning fewer calories. And in addition to a less
eective workout, you will likely experience muscle soreness as well.
Given the connection between workout eectiveness and hydration,
you may think that you should be drinking water during exercise. While its
a good idea to drink water when youre doing any type of sustained physical
activity, such as playing tennis, jogging, mowing the lawn, or even swimming on a hot day, I dont recommend that you drink water during the 20SW.
The reason is simple: its such a short, intense workout period that you
literally wont have time to sip water. Instead, drinking a glass before you
startand another when you nishwill keep you hydrated enough.
It is true that its sometimes dicult to know whether you are drinking
enough water. But one easy way to keep an eye on your hydration status is
to check your urine output regularly. If your urine is a clear, light yellow, your
body has adequate water; if it is darker in color your body is in some stage
of dehydration.
If you arent overly fond of water, try adding a little lemon or lime juice
to liven up the taste. And as an added bonus, youll be upping your Vitamin
C intake. This is benecial not only for your overall nutrition, but also because
Vitamin C is a powerful ally in burning fat during your workouts. In a recent
study, researchers found that individuals who have enough Vitamin C in
their diets oxidize (burn) 30% more fat during workouts than those who are
Vitamin C decient (Johnston et al, 2005).
Drink your water plain or with a Vitamin C boost, but whatever you do,
please dont try to meet your bodys hydration needs with one of those
energy drinks that are lled with articial sweeteners and various hard to
pronounce ingredients. Coconut water is a much superior choice, because
it has fewer calories, less sodium, more potassium, and a balanced
electrolyte prole that will help boost your energy and help build (and
repair) lean muscle.

48

Protein Shakes: Feed Your Muscles Right!

If you want strong, lean, toned muscles, feed them right! And that
means protein. Aside from water, your muscles are mostly composed of
proteins. A diet rich in quality protein foods will help prevent muscle
shrinkage. And dietary protein has very impressive weight loss properties
as well. In comparison with carbs and fats, protein is metabolically
expensive for your body to process. In other words, it costs your body more
energy to process protein than fat or carbs. In fact, your body will expend
about 20% of each calorie of protein you eat just to digest it, but only 8% of
each carb calorie and 2% of each fat calorie. Not only that, but proteins also
make you feel full faster than either carbs or fat do, and stay feeling satiated
longer, which means they act almost as natural appetite suppressants.
So, how much protein do you need? Well, there are a number of
guidelines out there, and most will suggest that you eat somewhere around
0.8 to 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. However, I recommend the calculator provided by the University of Maryland Medical Centre,
because it takes into account a number of variables such as age, height,
gender, bone structure, and exercise level. You can nd the calculator here:
http://www.healthcalculators.org/calculators/protein.asp
Keep in mind that if you are a vegetarian, you will likely need additional
amounts of protein. And if youre doing a HIIT program, you should up your
intake as well. As part of the 20SW I highly recommend protein shakes, not
only because theyre a delicious way to consume protein, but also because
they are very benecial in supporting your bodys needs when youre on a
workout regime.
For one thing, protein shakes help promote muscle repair by restoring
the muscle glycogen used up during workouts. All nutrients that we eat
must be converted into glucose, the form of energy our bodies use, and
muscle glycogen is the substance in our muscles that is converted into
glucose by the muscle cells. So its important that our bodies have the
wherewithal to replace muscle glycogen as quickly as possible. In addition,
adequate protein intake helps improve body composition and stimulate
muscle synthesis in individuals who exercise (Paddon-Jones et al, 2009). And
49

as a recent study involving adult women shows, improved blood lipid levels
are associated with consuming enough protein in combination with exercise
(Lyman et al, 2005).
And dont forget that protein also helps raise HGH naturally, and weve
already seen the benets of HGH for building muscles and burning fat! For
people who are following the Pound-a-Day diet plan in combination with
the 20SW, I recommend that you have additional protein in the morning (1
scoop of protein powder) and additional during the day (1 scoop for nonvegetarians; 1.5 to 2 scoops for vegetarians) and also include high protein
snacks such as nuts, seeds, and peanut butter.
There are plenty of dierent types of protein powders available, and in
general the protein component of these products comes from one of three
sources: soy, whey (found in milk) or casein (found in milk). But like HIIT programs, not all protein powders are created equal. A review of the scientic
evidence published by W. Lagakos, PhD in nutritional biochemistry and
physiology, reveals that whey protein (considered a complete protein
because it contains all 9 essential amino acids) is the clear winner (2013).
Another study conrms that whey isolate is particularly eective. In this
study it was found that those who consume whey isolate showed a larger
decrease in fat, and an increase in lean muscle mass and strength than those
using casein supplementation over a period of 10 weeks.
Whey protein isolate is a great choice because it contains at least 90%
proteins, and has had the fat and lactose removed during processing.
Another formula that represents a good option is whey concentrate.
Whichever whey protein formulation you consider, youll also be getting
some other pretty wonderful health benets as well. Whey proteins have
been shown to improve cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure (which may
help reduce the risk of heart diseases) and help improve asthma in children,
and it has also been suggested that whey proteins exhibit anti-cancer
properties.
Natural Factors has a number of great, highly eective (and inexpensive)
whey protein formulas. If you are allergic to milk proteins or are vegan, there
are other options available as well, such as a raw vegan protein shake oered
50

by Garden of Life. If you are considering another brand, choose one that is
based on natural or organic whey and is free of articial avors, colors and
sweeteners, and that contains at least 17-20 grams of protein per scoop (30
grams). Also, look for one that is non-denatured, micro-ltered, and cold
processed, since heat destroys wheys molecular structure.

Get Your Mind in Shape!

I call this last secret to workout success the Mental HIIT factor. Its the
aspect of embarking onand staying withan exercise program that is
rarely mentioned, yet it is pivotal to the ultimate success or failure of any
workout regime. In essence, what Mental HIIT involves is getting your mind
in line with your workout goals, so that it cooperates instead of constantly
getting in the way. You know what Im talking about! No matter how
determined we are to get into great shape, if our minds are not onside it can
become an ongoing battle to keep up our tness routines.
Professional athletes know this, and thats why they are willing to pay
big money for a whole team of coaches and tness experts to help keep
them motivated and on track. But you dont need to do that: all you really
need is an understanding of sports psychology and how to use it to your
own advantage. And thats exactly what youre about to learn how to do!
First things rst, though. Although there are many tips that you can use
to get your mind working in cooperation with you to reach your tness
goalsand well get to those in a minutethe cold, hard truth of the matter
is that there are a few non-negotiable factors too.
The rst is that if you sincerely want to get into shape, youll have to
work hard. What do I mean by hard? Well, lets put it this way: if you want
an average body, work out at 50% of your capacity. But if you want to get
into the best possible shape you can, then you have to work at 100% of your
capacity. As a rule of thumb, you can quickly see whether youre working
intensely enough by using the talk test. If you can easily get a full sentence
out without feeling breathless, you arent working at your maximum
intensity. You also have to put 100% of your energy into it. When you feel as
though you absolutely cannot do one more burpee, do another one anyway.
There is no shortcut for hard work. But this may be some comfort: the most
51

calories are burned when you get out of your comfort zone and push
yourself just a little further than you thought you could go.
The second non-negotiable is consistency. In fact, Id go so far as to say
that consistency is even more important than the intensity of your workout.
An intense exercise routine like the 20SW will get you into good shape
relatively quickly and easily. But staying in good shape means keeping up
your tness routine over the long haul, which is all about consistency.
Throwing yourself heart and soul into the 20SW until you get into shape,
and then working out only randomly and sporadically simply wont work as
a strategy for maintaining a lean, athletic, strong body.
Of course, its not always easy to give 100% consistently, but it is
possible. And thats where sports psychology comes in. Sports psychology
is a relatively new eld of medicine, and its particular focus is on how
psychology inuences athletic performance. The goal is to understand the
interplay between psychology, motivation, and performance in order to
help athletes deal positively with lack of motivation, stress, and setbacks. In
other words, how to develop and maintain a winning mindsetor play it
smartin order to achieve goals.

Play it SMART!
What is SMART? In a nutshell, its a formula for helping you achieve your
tness goals. There are various permutations of the basic SMART model, but the
one that I incorporate into the 20SW program is adapted from the formula
recommended by Jerey Hodges, a performance consultant to elite athletes,
and an NLP Master Practitioner. The 20SW adaption is not just smart, its
SMARTER, and thats not just in the intellectual sense. SMARTER stands for:
S = Specic and measurable
M = 'Me' focused (Im in control)
A = Achievable
R = Review regularly
T = Timing
E = Ecologically focused (consider the 'whole' self )
R = Reasons and Rewards
52

Now lets break each of these components down, and see what each one
involves.
S = Specic and measurable
The key insight here is that what gets measured, gets done. In other
words, if you want to get to a particular goal, rst you have to have a clear
idea of what that goal entails, and be able to express it in measurable terms.
For instance, saying I want to lose weight is extremely open-ended and
vague. However, saying I want to lose 1.5 inches from my waistline within
two weeks is specic and sets up the criteria of how you will measure your
success after two weeks.
M = 'Me' focused
No, its not about egoism here! This component is simply to remind you
that your tness routine is all about you!
For instance, many people think that they should lose weight in order
to please someone else. Although this sounds reasonable on the surface,
when you dig a little deeper the implication is that someone else if
responsible for making you lose weight. The bottom line is that when your
motivation for losing weight (or quitting smoking, or learning to dance, or
anything else) is someone else, then they become the focus of your eorts.
In other words, your workouts are not really about you at all, theyre about
what someone else wants.
Contrast that with this statement: I do my 20SW four times a week
because I want to wear a size 4 dress, and feel beautiful in it.
Now, thats a strong, personal motivation that puts I at the center, not
someone else. And its this I-motivated mindset that will help you push
through and give 100% every time you work out.
After all, its your body, youre doing all the hard work, and the one who
will reap the most direct benets in terms of health and wellbeing is you.
So why give someone else all the credit for making you t, lean, and
fabulous?

53

A = Achievable
To put it simply, make your goals reasonable ones in light of where you
are right now. For instance, having a goal of losing 4 from waist, hips, and
thighs combined in 6 weeks is perfectly achievable. But if you rarely work
out and your goal is to have six-pack abs by next weekend, youre setting
yourself up for failure because that is simply unrealistic.
If you have a goal in mind that will most likely take a relatively long time
to achieve, why not break it down into smaller increments. For instance, if
your ultimate goal is to lose, say, 40 pounds, set up a series of intermediate
goals (i.e. losing 10 pounds over a certain time period). Doing so will keep
you from feeling discouraged before you even start, and as you reach each
interim goal youll feel a sense of achievement that will help keep you
motivated and on track.
R = Review regularly
Review your tness program at least once a month. Sometimes its easy
to forget just how much progress youve made since starting your 20SW
workouts. Tracking how far youve come will not only keep you from getting
discouraged, but will also inspire you. Reviewing also gives you an
opportunity to identify any facets of your tness plan that arent working as
well as they could. For instance, do you need to pay more attention to your
diet? If you always work out in the evening and sometimes nd yourself too
tired to get going, would doing your exercise routine earlier in the day work
better for you? Check out the Action Steps (Appendix I) near the end of the
book for ideas about how to keep track of your progress.
T = Timing
We all know that time can be quite elastic if we dont pin it down exactly.
How many times have you run into an acquaintance, chatted for a few
minutes, and ended the encounter with Lets get together soon! Ill call
you? And how many times has soon turned into months, years, or even
forever? On the other hand, when you say to a friend, Lets get together
Thursday at 7 for dinner its more than likely that it will happen.

54

The same thing applies to tness goals. Once youve claried what your
next tness goal is, giving yourself a denite time in which to accomplish it
can make all the dierence in whether you actually do or not. If, for instance,
you plan to lose an inch from your waistline in 2 weeks, count forward 14
days from today, and youve got yourself a deadline. And dont just put it in
your mental calendar, write it down!
E = Ecologically focused
Being ecologically focused means taking into account all of the aspects of
your life that make up your whole self: physical, mental, emotional,
psychological, social, and community belonging. It may sound a little trite
to remind you that you are more than just your body. But when you are
intensely focused on your body (tness, diet, physical changes), it isnt
unusual to nd that the physical aspect of yourself starts to overshadow
other parts of your life.
Your tness plan is an immensely valuable tool for enhancing not only
your physical wellbeing but also your whole life. In fact, whole life enhancement is often the reason that people embark on a tness program in the
rst place. So it is important that you nd a balance between your tness
program and the rest of your life. In other words, it is important to focus on
the big picture of your life, and that includes expressing all aspects of
yourself, such as spending time with family and friends, socializing, exercising your intellect, pursuing hobbies or interests you enjoy, and anything
else that adds meaning and value to your life.
Making time for the people and activities you enjoy does take your
attention away from your tness programthat is true. But you neednt
worry that doing so will derail your progress. On the contrary, it will actually
help you achieve your tness goals, because the positive feelings, thoughts,
and experiences you have in other areas of your life carry over into your
tness life, empowering you to keep striving for the results you want.
R= Reasons and Rewards
Some people will tell you that the benets you reap from getting into
shape should be reward enough. But not me! Im all in favor of a little
55

celebration whenever you achieve a signicant goal, whether in tness or

anything else that matters to you. So I highly recommend building some
rewards into your overall tness plan, and treating yourself to a massage, a
weekend trip, some new (and smaller!) clothes, or anything else you love.
Of course, if your favorite reward is extra fudgy double chocolate cake with
whipped cream, go easy! But by all means, have a few celebratory bites and
savor every bit while you congratulate yourself on a job well done.
SMARTER +
Keeping the SMART guidelines in mind will denitely help motivate and
inspire you. But here are a few more things that you might also consider.

the Power of Why

In sports psychology (and elsewhere) the power of why is a wellknown concept. What this involves is not only uncovering the underlying
reason for why you want to do something (lose weight, get a new job, eat
that cake), but also the core, underlying beliefs that motivate you, or,
alternatively, stop you from achieving your goals. The power of why is
actually very subtle, and it may take some deep thought on your part to
discover your individual why. Which or your needs are being fullled and
which are not? Is a lack in one area (such as job insecurity) leading you to
overcompensate in another (such as overeating) or settle for unsatisfactory
(but secure) relationships?
In his 1954 book Motivation and Personality, Abraham Maslow identied
a pyramid of needs that are common to all human beings. Some, like food,
shelter, and water, are basic survival needs, and these appear at the bottom
of the pyramid. Others, such as feeling loved and valued, are higher needs
because while they arent necessary for sheer survival, according to Maslow
they are necessary for complete personal wellbeing. Maslows diagram (on
the following page) may help you work out your own unique why.

56

Maslows pyramid: the heirachy of human needs

The Power of Why Not

The reasons why we dont do things are equally as important as the
reasons why we do, yet very little attention is paid to the why not factor.
In part, this may be because we are not accustomed to questioning certain
things. We take the idea that some things just are the way they are as a
given, having learned from parents or through experience not to question
them. But when it comes to your own motivation, it pays to think outside
the box a little bit, and question yourself. Dont feel like working out today?
Why not? Dont believe that getting slim is possible for you? Why not?
Try it with some of the things you take for granted! You may be surprised
at how this simple little question can open your mind to new ways of
looking at the situation, and to innite possibilities that have, until now,
been just daydreams and iron-clad impossibilities.
57

The Power of Now

Youve heard it a million times: You never know whats going to happen
tomorrow so why not just live for now? When it comes to, say, nancial
planning or covering your plants before it snows, I would recommend that
you spare at least a thought to tomorrow (just in case). But with respect to
your tness routine, this is perfect advice. Be in the now as you work out.
Forget about work, dont make a mental grocery list, refuse to think about
the next thing on your to do list. If youre constantly living with one foot in
the present and the other in the future (even if it is only the near future of
this evening at the grocery shop) how can you give your absolute best to
what youre doing at the moment?
Looking to the future can be distracting, but constantly looking to the
past can actually be damaging to your tness success. If you are always
thinking of failed diets and workouts of the past, you become disconnected
from the present, and start to dwell on whats already happened instead of
immersing yourself in what is happening now. Not to mention that running
through a history of your past tness failures is quite the opposite of
motivating! Instead, why not develop (and practice) the 3:1 technique
after your workout, of course!

the 3:1 technique

If youve read or heard anything about the power of positive thinking,
you may be familiar with the advice to replace each of your negative
thoughts with a positive one. But does that really work? According to
Barbara Lee Fredrickson, author of the book Positivity, in order to develop
and maintain a positive mindset, the correct positivity ratio is not 1:1, as
this advice suggests, but 3:1. In other words, we should aim for three positive
thoughts for every negative one. If the ratio is lower than this, the critical
balance between negative and positive thoughts and emotions is impaired,
and will not allow you to reach 100% of your potential. Consistently hitting
this 3:1 ratio takes practice and mindfulness, but it is well worth the eort
because it can pay o tremendously in terms of your tness successand
other areas of your life as well.

58

And now that youve equipped yourself with all the tools, tips, and
scientic knowledge to really make the absolute most of your workout time,
lets have a look at the exercises!

59

Chapter VIII

THE 20-SECOND WORKOUT

COMPLETE PROGRAM!

n the next pages, youll nd descriptions and images for all the exercises
included in the 20SW. Before you begin, though, there are a few things
that Id like to mention that will help you work out eectively, properly, and
safely. Most of these points have already been discussed, but they do bear
repeating here.
1. First and foremost, always be safe. Talk to your doctor before
beginning any HIIT workout.
2. In order to assess any factors that might indicate a risk for you,
take the quiz at this link before you begin:
http://www.healthcalculators.org/calculators/exercise.asp
3. If you experience chest discomfort or any other symptoms during
your workout, stop immediately, and seek medical advice.
4. If you are unable to jump, you can skip the parts of the following
exercises that include jumping. If the reason you cant jump is
due to an ankle or knee injury, I dont recommend that you do
any of the jumping (pylometrics) exercises at all, but feel free to
modify the rest to meet your needs.
5. Monitor your heart rate. As I said earlier, one easy way to do so is
with a heart watch monitor. Another method is to use a stop
watch, and ensure that your heart rate stays at 90% of your
maximum heart rate for cardio exercises, and 70-80% for the rest.
The formula provided by the American Heart Association for
determining your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. So
if you are 40 years old, your maximum heart rate would be 180.
6. If you are taking medication for high blood pressure, be aware
that some of these types of medications can lower your
maximum heart rate (and thus your target zone rate), so ask your
doctor if you should be using a lower target zone rate.
60

7. Measure your intensity level using the 0-10 scale and intensity
guideline chart on page 62.
8. Dont try to do too much too soon. Take your cue in this respect
from babies, who learn to sit, crawl, stand, and walk before they
are ready to run and jump. Adapt the exercises to your tness
level.
9. When youre starting out, technique is much more important
than speed. Take the time to learn the exercises properly before
you worry about doing them quickly. Speed will come with
practice and familiarity. Warming up before your workout and
cooling down afterwards are important not only to make your
work out more eective, but also to prevent injuries.
10. Although you need minimal equipment for the 20SW routine, I
do suggest that you purchase a tape measure so that you can
keep track of your progress. Dont forget to measure (waist, hips,
and thighs) before your rst workout, so you can compare where
you started to your ongoing progress. To count the 20 seconds
for workout, 10 seconds for rest use the stop watch on your
mobile phone, or use an online, free one such as:
http://www.timeme.com/timer-stopwatch.htm
11. Follow the 20SW formula as closely as you can, and in the order
given in the exercise charts (below). This order has been carefully
designed to give you maximum results from every single
workout. And dont forget one of the most important factors of
all
12. Work at the Proper Intensity
You will need to work out at a 9 to 9.5 intensity level (90% -95%
of you max heart rate) for your cardio and plyo exercises in order
to burn fat. All other exercises can be done at an intensity of 80%.

61

The 0-10 intensity scalealso known as

RPE (rating perceived exertion)
10

Maximum (unable to maintain workout intensity for more than

20 seconds)

Very hard

Hard (really feeling the workout and is a challenge to speak)

Somewhat hard (breathless but can still speak comfortably)

Moderate

Light moderated (good level for warm up, ready for work out)

Light

Very light

Very, very light

0/1

Nothing (rest)

The link between 0-10 intensity scale and the percentage of Max heart rate
is shown below in the chart below.

Percentage of Max heart rate

0-10 intensity scale

50-60%

2-4

60-70%

4-5

70-80%

5-7

80-90%

7-9

90%-100%

9-10

62

The 20SW Program Details!

Three times a week:
Core program: 14 specically targeted exercises performed for 20 seconds
each, followed by 10 seconds of recovery (time: 30 seconds X 14 = 7 minutes)
Warm up/cool down: The 20SW formula also includes two short sets of
exercises (warm up to be performed before the core program; cool down to
be performed after your workout).
Optional, but highly recommended: The core 20SW program includes the
rst 14 exercises listed in the chart on page 72. The two last exercises are
optional, but are denitely worth spending the extra minute (30 seconds X
2) on. If youre interested in working your triceps, exercise # 15 is one of the
best!
Although you can perform the 20-Second Workout 3 times per week
rather than 4 if you wish, why not hyper-boost your tness and do the 4th
workout? After all, skipping it will only save you a few short minutes a week,
and what else can you do in 7 or 8 minutes that will pay o in so many
positive ways?
Another great optional is to add some weight training. Its a great
complementary approach to HIIT!
In a nutshell, the 20SW program consists of three phases: warm up
session; core program; cool down session. Ive provided three charts (below)
corresponding to the respective phases with guidelines regarding duration
and intensity. Immediately following each chart, youll nd detailed
descriptions and images for all exercises in that particular phase, so youll
know exactly how to perform each one.

Warm Up Exercises
Most people are aware that before exercising it is very important to
warm up the muscles, ligaments and tendons to prevent injuries and muscle
soreness. But did you know that warming up also helps prepare the nervous
and cardiovascular systems? Traditional wisdom has it that slow and gentle

63

movements such as yoga stretches are best, but according to the National
Institute of Health, these slow static movements can actually have a negative
eect on your performance in sports and exercise.
The warm up exercises included in 20SW should all be done at an
intensity of 5/6 or 6/6 in order to get your body ready for the more intensive
workout routine that comprises the main 20SW program.

The 20SW Program Exercises!

The20SW program is designed to help you burn the most fat in the least
time. As you know, HIIT exercises feature a relatively short burst of intense
activity followed by an interval of rest or recovery. However, in order to give
your workout even more power, weve created a unique interval within an
interval structure, which alternates very high intensity exercises (cardio and
super-cardio/plyometrics) with medium-high intensity exercises (strength,
exibility, core, stability). These less intense exercises create an interval
period between the high intensity exercises so that your body doesnt
become over-stressed or too tired during the course of the entire workout.
Alternating exercises of varied intensity also ensures that all of the important
aspects of tness are covered in each workout session: the high intensity
ones help burn fat quickly, while the lower intensity interval exercises help
improve core strength, exibility and coordination.
The high intensity exercises should be performed at 9/10 intensity, while
the non-cardio exercises should be performed at an intensity of 7/10. Each
exercise will still, of course, also include the rest/recovery interval of 10
seconds.
Because the 20SW has been carefully designed with this interval within
an interval structure in mind, to hyper-boost your tness results the
exercises should be performed in the order in which they appear below.
Since the exercise section of this book is intended to be used as a guide
while youre doing your actual workout, you can tell at a glance which
exercise youll be doing next and at what intensity simply by checking the
chart. No need to interrupt your workout!

64

Cool Down Exercises

Cooling down after exercise reduces muscle stiness and soreness
because it helps your body ush out the waste products (lactic acid) accumulated during your workout. Here gentle exercises work best, because they
help slow your heart rate, decrease blood pressure and body temperature,
and improve exibility. The following exercises are all excellent for cooling
down. However, keep in mind that when cooling down, start with dynamic
stretches at a medium intensity of 5 to 6/10 and slowly decrease the intensity
to 3/10 in order to give your body, and especially your heart, time to adjust
to the change in activity level.

WARM UP EXERCISE LIST

EXERCISE

DURATION

INTENSITY (OUT OF 10)

REST

1.

Jumping Jacks

20 secs

5-6

10 secs

2.

Skaters Lunge

20 secs

5-6

10 secs

3.

Jab & Cross

20 secs

5-6

10 secs

4.

Mountain climbers

20 secs

5-6

10 secs

5.

Bear crawl

20 secs

5-6

10 secs

6.

Lateral ankle hops

20 secs

5-6

10 secs

65

1. Jumping Jacks Work your whole body

Target: Legs, Butt, Core, Arms/ Full Body Workout

Start with your feet hip-width apart and hands at your sides
Raise both arms above your head and jump
Repeat. Do as many reps as you can for 20 seconds
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#JumpingJacks

66

2. Skaters Lunge The celebrities secret to sculpted legs

Target: Full Leg Workout, Butt, Core

Perform a reverse lunge, bringing your left leg behind you at a slight
angle Leap to the side, bringing the right leg behind you and tapping
your toe
Quickly jump back in the other direction. This is one rep.
Do as many reps as you can for 20 seconds
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#SkatersLunge
The lower you can get while doing the lunge, the harder your quadriceps
muscles will work
Option: use dumbbells to work your arms more fully
Non-plyo version: skip the jump
Hollywood celebrities are using this exercise it to achieve overall sculpting
of the legs, without putting too much pressure on the knees; highly
recommended by celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak

67

3. Jab and Cross No more abby arms!

Target: Arms, Chest, Shoulders, Core

From an on guard position (left foot forward, elbows bent, hands

curled into sts on either side of your chin) throw a quick jab
(punch) with your left arm, while rotating your st down; do not lock
your elbow.
Follow with a quick right cross (punch your right arm forward,
rotating your right hip into the punch and lifting your right heel o
the oor)
Bring your arms back to on guard position and repeat
Keep the core (abdominal muscles) tight during the entire workout
Speed is very important
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#JabAndCross

68

4. Mountain Climbers Burn excess fat in a hurry

Target: Legs, Butt, Core, Arms/ Whole Body Workout

Start from a push up position with your hands shoulder-width apart

Bring the right knee in towards the chest
Jump up and switch feet in the air, bringing the left foot to the chest
and the right foot back. This is one rep
Do as many reps as you can in 20 seconds
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#MountainClimbers
Option 1: to make it easier you can use a bench or other sturdy raised
platform

Option 2: skip the jump and simply walk

The steady running motion activates your glute and leg muscles, while
your core muscles, including your back, hips and abs, will also work hard
to maintain stability; shoulders and chest are also trimmed and toned.
The closer you keep the hips on the oor, the stronger you will get.
Non-pylo option: skip the jump and walk instead of running
69

5. Bear Crawl For killer abs, and strong, lean thighs and shoulders
Target: Abs, Butt/Hips, Legs/highs, Shoulders, Full Body/Integrated

From a push up position (hands and feet wide apart), walk your left
hand and right foot forward at the same time
Return to starting position, then repeat the movement right hand
and left foot
Keep your abdominal muscles tight , so your spine will be straight
and the pelvis stable during the workout
If you have limited space you can move forward and backward as
needed, but continue to move and do so as quickly as you can
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#BearCrawl

70

6. Lateral Ankle Hops For shapely legs and ankles

Target: Legs (including inner thighs) Butt, Core
With dumbbells: will also target the arms

Stand straight with your feet apart

Bring your left leg up, knee bent
Hop to your right, landing on your right foot
Quickly switch, bringing your right leg up and hopping to your left.
This is one rep of the exercise.
Do as many reps as you can in 20 seconds
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#LateralAnkleHops
To make the exercise more dicult, increase the width and/or height of
your jumps
Non-plyo option: skip the hop

71

The 20SW ROUTINE - EXERCISE LIST

NOTE: This chart is color-coded (pink = high intensity; blue = medium-high
intensity) so that you can tell at a glance how hard you should be working
while doing each of the individual exercises. The last two in yellow, are
optional.

EXERCISE

DURATION

INTENSITY (OUT OF 10)

REST

1.

Donkey Kicks

20 secs

10 secs

2.

Chair Pose

20 secs

10 secs

3.

Squats

20 secs

10 secs

4.

High Knees

20 secs

10 secs

5.

Side Lunges

20 secs

10 secs

6.

Knee Drivers

20 secs

10 secs

7.

Single Dumbell
Swings

20 secs

10 secs

8.

Broad Jump

20 secs

10 secs

9.

Lunge & Twist

20 secs

10 secs

10. Plyo Jab, Cross and

Squat

20 secs

10 secs

11. Superwoman/
Superman

20 secs

10 secs

12. Burpees

20 secs

10 secs

13. Bicycle Crunch

20 secs

10 secs

14. Glute Kicks

20 secs

10 secs

15. Tricep Dips

20 secs

10 secs

16. Rock Star Hops

20 secs

10 secs

72

1. Donkey Kicks Great butt-beautifying potential

Target: Abs, Butt/Hips

Start from the quadruped position (hands and knees on the oor,
with your knees and feet hip width apart and your hands under
your shoulders). Keep your spine straight and in a neutral position
by keeping your abdomen muscles tight
Lift the left leg and bend the knee at 90 degrees. Contract your
glutei (butt) muscle and press the foot toward the ceiling (move only
the hip joint, do not move the knee joint). Lift the leg until the heel
of the foot is pointing toward the ceiling and the leg is lined up with
the body; repeat for 10 seconds, then switch legs and perform
repeats for 10 seconds with the right leg

To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:

http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#DonkeyKicks
Along with squats, this exercise is ranked as most eective for tightening
your butt.

73

2. Chair Pose For fabulous legs and strong core

Target: Butt, Legs, Shoulders, and Back

Stand straight, feet together, arms straight at your sides with the
palms facing your thighs
Squat and at the same time, raise your arms over your head
Jump up out of the squat, bringing the arms down to your sides and
then out behind you
Swing arms forward to your sides so you land in the same position
your started
Non-plyo version: skip the jump and simply squat and rise up,
following the same arm movements
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#ChairPose

74

3. Squats Another super butt-beautier

Target: Abs, Butt, Hips, Calves and Shins, Thighs

Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, toes pointed straight

forward.
Tighten up your abs, lift your chest up tall while pulling the shoulder
blades back and down during the entire exercise
Keeping the chest up, sit back as far as you can (as if you are going to
sit in a chair)
Keep the knees over the ankles (do not push them forward over the
toes)
When you are in this position, bring your thighs parallel with the
oor
Repeat for 20 seconds
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#Squats

75

4. High Knees Natural enemy of belly fat

Target: Butt, Legs, Core, Arms

Keeping your upper body straight, start running on the spot

Keep your left knee high (the higher the better ) and swing your
right hand
Switch, and bring your right knee high, while swinging your left
hand
Repeat as fast as you can for 20 seconds
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#HighKnees

76

5. Side Lunge Shapes the butt, sheds the inner thigh fat, improves
balance and hip exibility
Target: Butt/Hips, Inner and Outer Thighs

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, hands on your hips

Keep your chest up tall and proud, while pulling your shoulder
blades back and down during the entire exercise; Toes should be
facing front
Take a big step to the side with your left leg, bend your left knee,
and push hips back and down (so the left knee is bent 90 degrees
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#SideLunge

77

6. Knee Drivers Choice of professional runners;

increases speed and power
Target: Thighs, Butt/ Hips

Start the exercise in a push up position; keep your arms straight and
hands below the shoulders
Take right foot o the oor and bring the right knee into your chest
Return to starting position, than take the left foot o the oor and
bring it to the chest
Repeat as fast as you can, alternating legs, for 20 seconds without
pausing
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#KneeDrivers

78

7. Single Dumbbell Swings Sleek, sexy arms in no time,

great for core and lower body, too
Target: Arms, Shoulder, Butt, Thighs, Core

For this exercise you can use dumbbells if you wish, but you can also use
items you already have around the house (2 full cans of food; 2 water bottles
or milk jugs lled with sand or water). The key idea is to use something with
a bit of weight to it, and that you can comfortably hold in your hand. If you
are working on improving your strength, work with heavier weights and do
fewer repeats; if you are focusing on building endurance use a lighter weight
and more repeats.
Place your feet 2-3 feet apart and hold a weight in your right hand
(palm facing downward)
Squat down until your thighs are almost parallel to the oor, and
move the weight between your legs
Thrust your hips forward, straighten your knees, and swing the
weight up to chest level, keeping your arm straight
Squat back down, swing the weight between your legs, and you are
done with your rst rep
Repeat with your other arm
Keep your core (abdominal muscles ) tight at all times
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#SingleDumbellSwing
79

8. Broad Jump For a beach body

Target: Butt, Legs, Core

Stand with your feet hip width- apart

Drop into a squat with your weight on your heels (your knees should
be over your toes) keeping the back at
Leap forward as far as you can, throwing your arms forward to start
the movement
Land on your feet in a bent-knee position (weight on your heels)
As you touch the ground, quickly leap forward again in the same
manner
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#BroadJump
Variations: Decrease your jump distance to make it easier; or simply turn it
into a squat. But keep in mind that the further you jump the more muscle
you work, so try to jump as far as you can on each repetition.

80

9. Lunge & Twist The magic is all in the twist!

Target: Core, Butt/Hips, Thighs

Stand with feet together

Bring right foot forward and lunge
Hold at the bottom of the lunge and twist slightly towards the left
side
Repeat on opposite side, do as many reps as you can for 20 seconds
If you need to hold on to something for balance (example: a chair)
you may do so.
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#LungeAndTwist
This is a great exercise to improve balance and stability. Its vastly better than
regular lunges, because while the lunging motion isolates and nicely shapes
your quads and hamstrings, the twist helps your glutes to contract more
while the core is also engaged

81

10. Plyo Jab, Cross and Squat For sleek, sexy arm and a at belly
Target: Arms, Butt, Legs, Core/Whole Body

From an on guard position (right foot forward, elbows bent, hands

curled into sts on either side of your chin) throw a quick jab
(punch) with your right arm, while rotating your st down; do not
lock your elbow.
Follow with a quick left cross (punch your left arm forward, rotating
your left hip into the punch and lifting your left heel o the oor
Perform 2 quick punches
Bring your arms back to the on guard position
Quickly push your hips back and lower into a squat
Jump up, land and get into the on guard position and repeat with
the opposite arm
Keep the core (abdominal muscles) tight during the entire workout
Speed is very important so do this sequence as quickly as you can
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#PlyoJabCrossAndSquat

Non-plyo version: skip the jump and the squat

82

11. Superwoman / Superman Fabulous for back and butt

Target: Core (great for lower back), Butt, Thighs

Lie on the oor on your stomach with your arms extended straight
forward (over your head, as if you are reaching for something), and
your legs straight and front of feet touching the oor
As you exhale, squeeze the muscles of your back so that your left
arm and right leg raise o the oor [this is a small, controlled
movement focused on contracting the back muscles]
Return to the starting position, and repeat with your right arm and
left leg
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#Superman
Option 1: You can add weights if you wish to add intensity and tone your
arms
Option 2: You can also perform this exercise using the arm and leg on the
same side of your body. Simply raise one leg, arm and the side of your chest
while you exhale. Repeat with the opposite side.

83

12. Burpees Belly be Gone!

Target: Thighs, Legs, Core, Arms

Stand up tall, feet shoulder-width apart

Bend your knees, place your hands on the oor
Jump your feet out behind you so that they are straight and you
land in a push-up position
Keeping your hips in line with your shoulders quickly hop your feet
back in and stand up, keeping your weight on your heels and your
back straight
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#Burpees
Non-plyo option: skip the jumping and complete a modied burpee by
squatting down, walking your legs out straight behind you (one by one) then
stepping them forward again into a squat, then stand up without jumping.

84

13. Bicycle Crunch Show o your 6-pack!

Target: Core

Lie at on the oor, keeping your lower back pressed to the oor
Contract your core muscles
Holding your head with your hands, lift your knees to about a
45-degree angle and perform a bicycle pedaling motion, while
alternatingly touching each elbow to the opposite knee
Do as many reps as you can for 20 seconds
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#BicycleCrunch

85

14. Glute Kicks Butt-kicking calorie burner

Target: Butt / Hips and Thighs

Stand up with knees slightly bent, and your heels hip-width apart.
Bend your elbows, keeping your hands close to the body
Kick your right foot up and back, so that the heel touches the right
gluteus muscle (the butt). Your right thigh should be almost
perpendicular to the oor
Switch, kicking your left heel up to your left gluteus (left butt)
Repeat for 30 seconds, as quickly as you can
Dont worry if you cant touch the butt with your foot at the beginning; as
your tness level improves, you will!
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#GluteKicks

86

15. Bonus Exercise! Tricep Dip For terric triceps (arms)

Target: Triceps/Arms, Chest, Legs

Sit on the edge of a low bench or a sturdy chair, knees bent, feet at
on the oor
Place your hands, palms facing down, on either side of the hips with
ngers extended over the edge, arms straight Scoot forward on the
bench until your hips and butt are in front of the seat
Bend your elbows so that the hips drop below the level of the
bench, and arms are parallel to the oor
Push back and start another rep
Do as many reps as you can for 20 seconds
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#TricepDips

87

16. Bonus Exercise! Rock Star Hops Mega calorie burner

Legs, Butt, Core / Whole Body

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart

Jump straight up as high as you can and try touching your heels to
your butt.
Land with your knees bent
Quickly jump up again
To see a video demonstration of this exercise, go to:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#RockStarHops
Option 1: Jump twice before bringing your heels to the butt
Option 2: Skip the jump, and bring one heel at the time to the butt
This is the most intense exercise in 20SW by far. If its not your favourite at
rst, just keep at it and it soon will be when you see how fast you get
resultsand the adrenaline rush!

88

COOL DOWN EXERCISE LIST

NOTE: As you perform your cool down exercises, begin with an intensity of
5 or 6/10 and gradually lessen the intensity to 3/10. Do each for 30 seconds;
no need for a recovery interval here!
Exercise

Duration

1. Hamstring Stretch

30 secs

2. Quad Stretch

30 secs

3. Chest Stretch

30 secs

4. Upper Back Stretch

30 secs

1. Hamstring Stretch
Stretch one leg out in front of you, keeping the
knee straight. Bend the back leg slightly. Hands on
hips, gently push the hips backwards and hold for
20-30 seconds.

2. Quad Stretch
Balance on one leg and bend the other leg back
and upwards (towards your butt). Reach back and
grab your toes, pulling the heel in towards your
butt. Keep your core strong and tight. Hold for 2030 seconds.

89

3. Chest Stretch
Clasp your hands behind your back and bring your
shoulder blades down and closer together. Pull
your elbows in toward each other as far as you can.
Hold for 20-30 seconds.

4. Upper Back Stretch

Bring your hands together in front of your body.
Bring your chin close to the chest and push your
hands forward. Hold for 20-30 seconds

And there you have it, the 20-Second Workout

exercises that will have you well on your way to
your ideal tness level in no time at all!
Good luck! And enjoy yourself!

90

APPENDIX I

ACtIon stePs:
stAy MotIVAteD!

In the Appendix, youll nd two schedules for 20SW: Part I will include
your planned workouts; Part II will include all the other elements weve
mentioned throughout this book. Fill both parts in at the beginning of
each week, so that when you get busy you can see at a glance whats on
your calendar for the day, tness-wise.

Find a photo that portrays your ideal body. Dont take this action step
too lightly, because images speak to a part of our brains that language
cant reach, so each time you glance at the photo you are eectively
reinforcing in your mind what you will soon look like. Reinforcement
leads to developing habits (of both thought and action) that will help
you stay on track and create consistency. Stick the image on the fridge,
so that youll see it every time you pass through the kitchen. And when
you go to open the fridge door, it will be the rst thing you see, which
may also help you think twice about whether its water or food you need,
and also, which snack to grab to give you a great nutritional boost.

At least once a day, spend a minute or so on your mental HIIT, thinking

about your why and how you will feel when youve achieved the results
youre after. Although once a day is the minimum, why not also try to
engage in a little mental HIIT while youre doing those boring things like
waiting for the bus, standing in line at the bank, or on an elevator? Every
second spent this way adds to your positive thinking quota for the day,
and might just tip the balance when it comes to maintaining a positive
mindset. And thats a pretty nice payo from what would otherwise be
lost time!

91

APPENDIX II

tARget HeARt RAtes

(By Age)

The table below shows estimated target heart rates for dierent ages. In the
age category closest to yours, read across to nd your target heart rate. Your
maximum heart rate is about 220 minus your age. The gures are averages,
so use them as general guidelines.
(Source: American Heart Association)

Age

Average Maximum
Heart Rate 100%

20 years

200 beats per minute

30 years

190 beats per minute

35 years

185 beats per minute

40 years

180 beats per minute

45 years

175 beats per minute

50 years

170 beats per minute

55 years

165 beats per minute

60 years

160 beats per minute

65 years

155 beats per minute

70 years

150 beats per minute

92

APPENDIX III

20-SECOND WORKOUT
PLAnnIng tooLs
PART I
WORKOUT CALENDAR

Fill in the days that you plan to do your workouts (also mark whether youre
doing a 2-minute or a 5-minute workout, if you like)

Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

93

PART II
WORKOUT CALENDAR

KEY
D Follow the Pound-A-Day diet plan
M Practice mental HIIT
S Sleep 7+ hours / night

Monday
D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Monday
D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Monday
D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Monday
D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

W - Drink the recommended amounts of water

P Protein shake
Vit D - Vitamin D supplement

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

D
M
S
W
P
Vit D

And dont forget to write down your waist, thigh, and hip measurements at
least once a month.
94

APPENDIX IV

VIDeo DeMonstRAtIons
of tHe 20-SECOND
WORKOUT exeRCIses

Jumping Jacks:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#JumpingJacks
Skaters Lunge:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#SkatersLunge
Jab and Cross:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#JabAndCross
Mountain Climbers:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#MountainClimbers
Bear Crawl:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#BearCrawl
Lateral Ankle Hops:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#LateralAnkleHops
Donkey Kicks:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#DonkeyKicks
Chair Pose:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#ChairPose
Squats:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#Squats
High Knees:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#HighKnees

95

Side Lunge:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#SideLunge
Knee Drivers:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#KneeDrivers
Single Dumbell Swings:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#SingleDumbellSwings
Broad Jumps:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#BroadJump
Lunge and Twist:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#LungeAndTwist
Plyo Jab, Cross and Squat:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#PlyoJabCrossAndSquat
Superwoman / Superman:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#Superman
Burpees:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#Burpees
Bicycle Crunch:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#BicycleCrunch
Glute Kicks:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#GluteKicks
Tricep Dips:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#TricepDips
Rock Star Hops:
http://www.The20SecondWorkout.com/Exercises.htm#RockStarHops

96

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