Welcome to my training overview for Riding the Redline. I’m going to challenge you to do things you’ve never done before. We’re going to perform many unique exercises, and I’m going to combine them in “Blocks” where you perform one move right after another. Riding the Redline is a reflection of my workouts, and I’m going to ask you to try all aspects of the program, even those that you find outside your comfort zone. That’s part of my philosophy when it comes to training—you should step outside what you normally do and ride the redline. Of course, you have to be smart about it and not injure yourself.
I’ll explain more about what this means throughout the program, and you’ll begin to intuitively understand when you’re pushing yourself beyond your expectations and when to pause before you cross the redline.
Here’s more about how my Riding the Redline program works.
THE GOAL
Riding the Redline is designed to help you grow stronger, more powerful and improve endurance. Ultimately, it will provide you with many new exercises that you can incorporate into your daily training. You’ll also improve your body composition and your confidence about how you appear and what you can achieve physically. I strongly believe that increasing confidence is a huge key to attaining your physique and performance goals. And that’s what I’ve built into my program.
THE PROGRAM
On Riding the Redline, you’ll train for three days in a row and then take a rest day. That allows you to challenge your body to its limits and then recover. The three days of training will really allow you to earn your rest day. Since this is a 4-week training series, you’ll end up training for 7 mini-cycles. That means you’ll perform 21 days of training and 7 days of rest on this 28-day training series. This program will require you to give it your all while holding onto the threshold. This will allow you to keep training with intensity for optimal results without crossing the redline. Learning where your redline lies is another important aspect you’ll learn during my 4-week Trainer Series.
THE WORKOUTS
Every training day is accompanied by a video where I demonstrate the exercises. Every day contains 3-5 “blocks” or exercise clusters. Some of the blocks are one-off moves such as squats, deadlifts or bench presses. Others blocks include multiple moves performed in circuit fashion, where you go from one exercise to the next without resting. And then you rest at the end of the circuit or block. Every exercise in my program is designed to help you push your limits to maximize your results. You’ll notice how much improvement you make with many of these exercises throughout the program as I include many of them on several days.
THE EXERCISES
The first thing I want you to do with every exercise is try. I also provide you with modifications that will allow you to work up to the specific exercise if you aren’t able to do it. In addition, I provide you with alternatives if you don’t have the equipment necessary to perform a particular move where you workout. Your workouts will change from one session to another, but you’ll also repeat several of the exercises throughout the program. While you want to perform a broad range of exercises during the program to force your body to adapt and shift your redline, you also want to include certain moves every few days to measure how you’re performing from one session to another. For instance, even with simple moves such as push-ups you’ll make considerable improvements in terms of the quantity and quality of reps you perform. This also applies to more challenging moves such as man makers and handstand push-ups, which I’ll describe in detail in the videos.
GET READY
Before you perform your first workout on Riding the Redline, I want you to do several things. These are all incredibly important to achieving your goal, and so I’m going to break them out and discuss them in a little detail. I’ll also mention some of them throughout the daily workouts to make sure you’re staying on top of all the aspects of your Riding the Redline program.
* Take photos of yourself before you begin
You’ll want a visual record of all the progress you’re making. I recommend taking photos from the back, front and both sides. Not only will you take photos before you begin, but you should also take photos on Days 8, 16, 24 and 28. These are also the rest days when you’ll make adjustments in your nutrition program if needed.
For your photos, I want you to use the same posture and amount of posing on each of these days. That will provide a more accurate record of your transformation. I don’t want you to slump and try to make your physique appear as bad as possible in these “before” pictures—I want you to capture what you naturally look like. And I want you to do the same on all subsequent photo days.
Each time you take pictures you should do so at the same time of day wearing the same clothes for every session. In addition, you should take the photos in the same lighting—also use the same photographer whether that’s you or someone else. You want to remove as many variables as you can to get a true “picture” of the changes you’re making.
* Keep a journal
I’m a big believer in recording every component of your training, nutrition and supplementation. In addition, I’d like you to record your thoughts as you go through this intense training program. That will allow you to go back and look at what you accomplished during this program when you’re following another one later.
In addition, you can flip back to a few days before to see how you performed a specific exercise or how much you consumed of a particular food. You can also keep track of how each of the Kaged supplements is working for you—emphasize the supps that work for you and noting those that you don’t respond as well to. Keep in mind that everyone responds differently to individual exercises, foods and supplements. It’s important that you keep track of your program so you know what’s working for you. Some specific suggestions on what to keep in your journal:
* Write down all the sets, reps and weights you used for each exercise during every workout. Also right down any modifications you make—whether you go with easier or more challenging versions.
* Keep track of all the foods and quantities you consume at all meals. I’ll discuss this in more detail in my nutrition overview.
* List all the supps you consume, as well as the quantity and time of day. Later you may see that some supps are working better for you at specific times of day.
* Add your daily thoughts to each day—this is a personal choice, but I like to record my thoughts about what I did each day. You can do this at any time of day, but I think the best time of day to do this is either at the end of the day or first thing in the morning, whichever you prefer.
* Take your measurements
Riding the Redline is designed to improve your strength, power and endurance, but you’ll also be able to track your physique goals when you take tape measurements before you begin my program. I recommend that you have someone assist you to get more accurate results. You should be relaxed when you take all measurements. Tension on the tape should be moderate for every measurement—and it’s particularly important that you use the same tension and amount of flex or relaxation for subsequent measurements so you’re comparing apples to apples. I also recommend that you have the same person take your measurements to remove yet another variable.
These are the measurements you should take: Mid-thigh—both sides; hips; waist; chest/bust; arms—both sides. Also shoulders—with arms relaxed at your sides.
* Get a body composition test
One of the most important measurements of success on a program like Riding the Redline is how much muscle you’re adding as you’re reducing body fat. Getting a body composition test is the most accurate way to track this. You can go with a highly accurate and expensive version such as immersion, but you can also get a far cheaper callipers test that’s very accurate when administered by a trained professional. The crucial thing with a callipers test is not your specific bodyfat measurement but that use the same person and technique for subsequent measurements. You’re trying to gauge what you’ve lost more than how much you have—if this distinction isn’t clear at this point, I hope you’ll better understand it as you progress through Riding the Redline.
* Weigh yourself
Your primary physique goal should be to improve the composition of your body—reducing body fat and increasing lean muscle tissue. Your scale weight is a really poor indicator of that alone. Still, it’s valuable when you include it with the more crucial metrics such as body composition and bodypart measurements. You’ll only weigh yourself a few times during this program, including at the beginning and the end—I’ll be specific about when you should weigh yourself otherwise—on days when you re-evaluate and potentially shift your nutrition intake. I don’t want you to focus on weight loss or gain as a failure or success. I want you to have this information as a guideline for how your body responds to Riding the Redline. I’ll discuss this more throughout and at the end of the program.
* Go grocery shopping
This may seem like an unusual bulletpoint for this point in the program, but I assure you that it’s essential. I’ll provide a lot more details on what you should buy in my nutrition overview, but it’s important that you have all the foods you need at the ready from the start of the program. One of the biggest challenges of following a program like Riding the Redline is adhering to the nutrition program. It’s much easier if you have the foods pre-prepared so you aren’t tempted to cheat when you get hangry from the calories you’re burning from my workouts. Trust me, you’re gonna get hangry at some point. I’ll address that in the Nutrition Overview and throughout the program.
LET’S GO
I’ll see you in the gym for Day 1 as soon as you’ve completed all the items on your Get Ready list. If you haven’t been following my training before, then prepare to get your ass royally kicked. It’s going to be fun, and you’re going to love it. I swear.
