2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Disclaimer 3
Introduction 4
How To Use This Guide 9
The NF Training Philosophy 11
How To Succeed 19
What You Need In Your Inventory 31
Before You Get Started 36
Good Luck 40
3
DISCLAIMER:
Before beginning this program, you must read the attached disclaimer.
Booo legalities, I know. But its for your own good, trust me.
Nerd Fitness Rebel Fitness Guide
Copyright 2010 Stephen Kamb. All rights reserved.
Design by Joe Rougeux of Level 11 Studios.
4
INTRODUCTION:
Welcome soldier,
Theres a war brewingWe are up against an adversary that is
stronger and more powerful than anything we have ever seen before. We
are facing a vitually invincible army of obesity, heart disease, shorter
lifespan, no energy, and unattractiveness (boooooo ugly!). With todays
average lifestyle and food choices, everything is set up for us men and
women to fail. Its no surprise then that two-thirds of the United States is
overweight, half of whom are considered obese.
There have been incredible scientifc breakthroughs, more low fat meals,
healthy choice options, and technological advancements than ever
before, and yet people continue to grow larger and waistlines continue to
expand.
Obviously something isnt working, and few people are doing anything to
fx it.
5
Its time for us to take responsibility for our actions and own up to the
hole that weve helped dig. Our standards of living continue to improve
while our bodies and life expectancy continue to degenerate.
Food companies are working daily to fnd ways to keep us enslaved to
their products, only interested in our wallets and not in our future.
24-hour restaurants, drive-through windows, and vending machines have
catered to our desire for shortcuts and less efort at the expense of our
personal health.
Fortunately, there is hope.
You have accepted the challenge and responsibility to join an
underground movement that is gaining momentum with each passing
day.
Youre now part of a ragtag group of misfts that strikes out against
conventional wisdom, inefcient workouts, and grossly inaccurate
stereotypes. We are building an army of incredibly intelligent, incredibly
ft, and incredibly supportive super soldiers; were glad to have you.
6
Beginning today, you are no longer a desk jockey, pencil pusher, number
cruncher, database software engineer, or whatever that little nameplate
says on your desk. You are member of the Nerd Fitness Rebel Army, and
its your mission to lose weight, build muscle, look better, and live
healthier.
You are not alone in your journey. Hundreds and hundreds of regular
people like you have joined the cause, already seeing results while
going against the crowd. And for good reason; the crowd is heading in
the wrong direction!
Before we get started, I need you to forget everything you know about
health and ftness, which should be easy if youve never exercised a day
in your life. Hours of cardio, low-fat meals, and ab machines are all a
waste of time. These are tools of the empire that helped get our society
where it is today. No more.
Were turning this sucker around, one day at a time.
7
The exercises and workouts contained within this guide have been
designed in conjuction wth my friend, mentor, and Yoda: Mike Rickett.
Mike has over 20+ years of personal training experience, a Masters
degree in exercise physiology, and absolutely kicks my ass every time we
exercise together.
This is not going to be an easy mission, but if you keep your eyes on the
prize and stay on target I have zero doubt that you can accomplish your
goals.
I wont make any promises or guarantees on how much weight youll
lose, because that is entirely up to you. It might have taken years of bad
habits and complacency to dig the hole, but just a few solid months of
developing new habits and sticking to a new routine will give you a great
foundation on which to build further success.
This is your chance to turn things around. Will you accept the challenge?
8
By the time you fnish this guide youll be armed with all the equipment
and knowledge that you need to succeed. After that, it will be up to you
to carry through with your orders.
As Morpheus tells Neo in The Matrix, I can only show you the door. You
are the one that must walk through it.
Were going to take this one day at a time, and were going to win. Every
little change and every day of exercise gets us one step closer to victory. I
can already smell it, and I love the smell of victory in the morning.
For the Rebellion,
Steve Kamb
Rebel Leader of NerdFitness.com
9
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE:
Within this ftness guide, youll fnd the information necessary to level
up your life, a diet guide designed to help you lose weight, a food fghter
guide to help you fnd your way around a supermarket and the kitchen,
and at least six months of exercise programming. Each day, youll have a
mission that will need to be accomplished before moving onto the next
mission. They will vary in size, scope, and intensity, but they will produce
results if you stick with it!
Here are your frst ofcial orders:
Read the remainder of this PDF. This Rebel Fitness Guide will get you
in the right frame of mind to build a solid foundation and set you up for a
life full of win.
Read the Rebel Diet Guide and Rebel Food Fighter. Although your
exercise routines are important to losing weight, your diet will be
responsible for 80% of your successes and failures. Dont worry, I dont
expect you to start drinking wheatgrass shots and eating tree bark.
10
Instead, I tell you whats good for you, whats bad for you, and what you
should limit. Once again, this is one of those: here are the tools, now its
up to you scenarios.
Assess your level of experience, and decide if you want to start with
Level 1 Rookie or the Level 2 Recruit Workout. Be completely honest
with yourself. Its better to start with something easier than you
expected and use that motivation and confdence to build momentum
through the next round.
After youve done a routine for 4-8 weeks, you should progress to the
next rank when you feel comfortable. Once you get to Level 3, you can
pick either Outcast or Outsider. Once completing that workout, you can
either stay at Level 3 and do the other one, or advance to Level 4 and
pick either Rebel or Renegade, followed by the other Level 4 workout.
IMPORTANT: Make sure to take a break from intense weight training
every once and a while. Your body needs to recover, so take a week of
every 4 weeks to do something fun like Yoga or Karate or exercise with
less reps and weight, and THEN continue your training.
11
THE NERD FITNESS
TRAINING PHILOSOPHY:
Below youll fnd the training philosophy that Ive created, cultivated, and
built upon over the past few years, aggregating my own personal
experiences with advice and knowledge from my Jedi Council of ftness
gurus. Its this philosophy that will allow you to develop good habits,
burn fat, build muscle, and still live a normal life.
Cardio vs. Weight Training
I am a frm believer that both men and women, no matter their age, need
to build their exercise routines around weight training. Recent medical
studies, studies conducted by todays top names in fitness, and
my own experiences have shown weight training to be far more efcient,
less time consuming, and more enjoyable (my opinion on the enjoyment
part) than straight cardio at burning calories. Ive written an entire
article on this subject if youre interested in learning more about the
science behind that.
12
What this means is that the majority of your daily exercises in the Rebel
Fitness Guide will be built around weight training, efciently burning
calories and simultaneously building up the muscle that you already have.
Provided youre eating properly, those muscles will start to pop out as
the fat on top disappears.
Sure theres a chance you might enjoy running on a treadmill for hours
every day, but Im guessing you have a job, wife, husband, boyfriend,
girlfriend, kids, pets, friends, and other hobbies in your daily life. I hate
spending more time in the gym than I need to, and I dont want you to
spend more time exercising than you need to either. I dont want to take
over your life, but rather help you fnd a good balance between your
every day responsibilities and exercise.
I love efciency and soon you will too.
13
What kind of routines will we be doing?
Im going to train you to get stronger and more ft to tackle your
everyday activities by doing exercises and routines that work out your
WHOLE BODY and mimic real world movements.
Secondly, instead of just focusing on exercising isolated muscles, well be
doing exercises that work out multiple body parts at the same time.
Efcient and efective. Booyah!
Now, when doing a weight lifting routine, your muscle fbers are broken
down and then rebuilt stronger in the days following the workout.
Because of this, well never lift weights two days in a row. Instead, well
be doing three full-body routines per week with a day of in between
each to give your muscles a chance to recover.
For simplicitys sake I have it set up as Monday, Wednesday, Friday for
the workouts, but you could just as easily do them whenever works for
your schedule. Just make sure you give yourself enough time to recover
between workouts generally a day of between is enough.
14
How does each exercise work?
With each exercise listed, youll see a number of sets and a number of
reps. If it tells you to do 3 sets of 12 reps of squats, that means youll do a
12 squats, wait a minute, do another 12 squats, wait a minute, and then do
your fnal 12 squats. Look at that, youre already speaking the lingo.
For each exercise, lower the weight with a controlled tempo, and then
explode back up through the movement with some intensity. Try
lowering the weight (or your body if its a body weight exercise) in two
seconds and then raise it (or your body) back up in one second. Make
sure you go through the full range of motion too; dont half-ass it, as that
wont do anybody any good. Only lift weights that you can actually LIFT
with proper form.
What is a superset?
Sometimes, well have you doing two or three exercises in a row without
stopping. For example, you might do a set of squats and then
immediately do a set of push ups, then rest, and then start back on the
squats again. This gets explained in more detail in the workouts.
15
What is a weight lifting circuit?
Once you get to some of the more advanced routines in the Level 3 and
4 workouts, youll start to see things called Circuits. A circuit involves a
list of exercises (squat, overhead press, pull ups, and plank for example)
where you do one set of each exercise in a row without stopping. Most
of the time youll do 2-3 full circuits for a workout. By doing many
exercises in succession, youll burn fat, build muscle, AND get a
cardiovascular workout.
What kind of exercises will be done?
This guide uses a combination of body weight exercises, free weight
exercises, and resistance band exercises. Im a huge fan of free weights,
and pretty much refuse to use any weight machines in a gym. I encourage
you to do the same. Free weights and body weight exercises teach your
body to move naturally, while weight machines keep your body, joints,
and muscles on a fxed plane that keep them from moving naturally. This
is NOT cool, not safe, and not good for you.
16
But Im scared of free weights, why cant I just use the machines
instead?
Because theyre not safe, they help you develop poor habits, and theyre
not real-world efective. Although it might seem safer to exercise using
machines, they actually put you at a distinct disadvantage.
These machines do most of the stabilizing work for you, which means all
of the tiny muscles that support your big muscles, joints, and bones go
unused. Because of that, when youre in a real world scenario where you
have to bend down and pick up your kid, reach behind the refrigerator, or
run to catch a bus, those tiny muscles now need to be used but havent
been exercised, and injuries occur.
Instead, start right away with free weights, and its okay if youre wobbly
thats because your stabilizer muscles are getting used to supporting
you. As they get built up and become stronger, youll become less
wobbly and more prepared for the real world.
17
Will this guide help me get rid of my gut?
Yes it will, but only if you work for it. UNFORTUNATELY, THERE IS NO
WAY TO SPOT REDUCE FAT ON YOUR BODY. Were all created diferently,
and we all carry fat on our bodies diferently. Men usually carry extra fat
in their stomach, while women often carry it in their legs and stomach.
This goes way back to the cavemen days and the survival of the fttest -
our extra weight was stored in our stomachs in case it was needed later
when food became scarce. Food is now readily abundant, but our bodies
and anatomy havent changed much from the good old days.
Now, if you follow this guide and eat right while exercising regularly, the
fat will start to come of in a particular sequence from your body that is
completely out of your control. This means that Jabba the Hutt could do
1000 sit ups every day; but hell never lose any belly fat until he changes
his diet and the weight starts to fall of.
Dont be like Jabba, youre smarter than that.
18
Will this turn my fat into muscle?
Fat and muscle are two completely diferent things in your body, so you
cant convert one to the other. Essentially, you could have huge muscles,
but youd never know it because theyre buried under layers of fat. By
exercising regularly to build muscle and burn calories while following a
great diet of healthy food, that fat will disappear and the muscles hidden
underneath will start to pop out. Jackpot baby!
Will this help me get a six pack?
Abs are incredibly tough to come by, and actually have very little to do
with exercise, believe it or not. The ONLY way youre going to see your
abs is if you have a body fat percentage down in the single digits. Ladies,
you need to get down to 14-17% to see those abs.
Most people already have abs, theyre just hidden under fat. To get that
fat stomach and show of your six pack, you need to follow an incredibly
strict diet, have great genetics, and/ or burn lots of calories daily until
your body fat drops low enough. Its tough, but if thats what you want,
you CAN get there with enough persistence and dedication.
19
HOW YOURE GOING TO SUCCEED:
Consider this basic training for your brain; when youre through
with this section youll be armed with the tools to succeed.
Yesterday is gone. What you did this morning, yesterday, last week, last
year, 10 years ago DOESNT matter. That was the old you, who has
nothing to do with who you are today. You are a clean slate.
Consider this the frst day of the rest of your life.
I dont care if youve tried to get in shape and lose weight a hundred
times before today; this is diferent. Previous attempts werent failures,
they were merely stepping stones to get you where you are today in
order to make a serious change.
Everything happens for a reason.
20
Its not a sprint. First and foremost, you need to remember that this isnt
a sprint, its a marathon. You didnt get overweight overnight; which
means youre not going to get in shape overnight either. Dont get
discouraged when you dont look like Brad Pitt or Jessica Biel by next
week; its going to take some work! One day at a time.
Dont rely only on the scale. One day, youre going to step on your scale
and see a number thats higher than you expected. It happens, so dont
beat yourself up over it - your weight can fuctuate wildly over the course
of a day or two due to fuid levels, how much youve eaten, if youve had
a lot of sodium, and so on.
Secondly, muscle weighs more than fat, and when you get rid of one and
add the other, your weight might not change but your body composition
will - this is where taking a before and after picture can certainly help.
Rather than getting bummed out about daily changes in your weight,
pick the same day each week and weigh yourself frst thing in the
morning. Changes over a longer period of time make it easier to spot
trends.
21
Live every day with a purpose. I have a picture hanging in my room with
a quote from my favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption:
Get busy living or get busy dying.
I read it every morning before walking out the door, reminding me to
make the most out of my day. Whatever your motivation is to get in
shape (yourself, your wife, your kids, your grandkids, your job, the cute
waitress at the cofee shop), make that the frst thing you think of in the
morning so you live each day with that motivation; feel free to print your
own quote and hang it up somewhere you can see it.
Frodo knew he had to destroy the ring, Maximus had to get revenge on
Commodus in Gladiator, Andy Dufresne knew he was innocent and fought
daily in prison to remain hopeful for nineteen years before breaking free.
These men were motivated to succeed where others would had failed
(yeah I know Maximus died by the end of the movie, but he still got what
he was after).
I dont care what your motivation is, as long as it gets you to take care of
business.
22
Set goals. Plan out your goals for the future. Your success along the way
at hitting these milestones will determine if youre on target or if you
need to make a change.
Secondly, maybe getting below 200 pounds seems like a pipe dream; if
you just worry about getting down to 350 frst, and then 50 total pounds
lost, and then 20% of your body weight lost, and then into the 200s, etc.,
the challenge will seem much more manageable. Think of these
milestones like achievements on Xbox Live or quests on World of
Warcraft.
Try adding goals that arent just focused on the scale either: ten straight
push ups, one pull up, run a 5k race, etc. As you get stronger and
accomplish these goals, your weight will start to fall as a side-efect.
Determine what you expect to accomplish in the next few months with
your ftness, and what you expect to accomplish in the next few months
with your life. Success in one can snowball into momentum for the other.
Push yourself, hard (but safely). This is non-negotiable. I want you to
fnish each workout sweating bullets.
23
If youre going to spend 45 minutes exercising, you might as well use that
time as efciently as possible, right? Pick enough weight for each exercise
that its a struggle, and then next time, lift a little bit heavier. The heavier
you can lift, the more calories youll burn and the more muscle youll
build.
No half-assing it. I want you to push yourself every time you exercise.
Now, obviously if you feel like youre about to pass out or hurt yourself,
stop. But youll be surprised of what youre capable of beyond the initial
eh, I cant do this moment. Step outside of that comfort zone a little
bit further every day. Lift one more pound, do one more rep, run one
second faster.
Hopefully youve seen the movie 300 (heres the trailer). When asked
what he thought about his training to look the way he did for his role as
King Leonidas, Gerard Butler replied, That was a great thing, to put on
that cape and put on that helmet, and not have to think, sh**, I should
have trained more.
Instead, I was standing there feeling like a lion.
24
Remember that youre human. I know youre incredibly busy; we all have
stuf that gets in the way each day that we didnt expect. Shit happens.
Sometimes the weather prevents you from exercising, jury duty takes an
extra day, your friends kidnap you to play videogames with them (you
poor soul). What this means is
If you miss a day or eat bad food all weekend long, dont beat yourself
up. I repeat: dont beat yourself up! Just dont let it become two days,
and then three days, etc. Before you know it, a week has suddenly gone
by and youre right back to square one. If you mess up and skip a
workout, get RIGHT back on the horse and get back at it the next day.
Dont make excuses, just do what you need to do to take care of
business.
Remember that you are not alone. There are others doing this program,
and other people looking to turn their lives around. If you have questions,
dont be afraid to ask them on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards.
Email me if you have specifc questions that arent answered in this guide.
Ill do my best to answer your question to the best of my ability.
25
Never underestimate the power of momentum. If youve never
exercised a day in your life or given any thought to what you shovel down
your pie hole, it is going to be tough to establish a good routine for
exercise and diet in the beginning....but it is absolutely doable.
Science has taught us that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an
object in motion tends to stay in motion. This means that getting started
can be really tough, and thoughts of doubt can creep in. Your will to
succeed and your motivation for exercising are very important in the
beginning.
Fortunately, once you get moving with good habits, momentum will
work in a positive way and KEEP you going. Its a great feeling to have,
and one that will start to pay some pretty signifcant dividends for you in
life.
The great news is, the confdence youll get from your frst hey, did you
lose weight? comment will carry over into every other area of your life.
Want some inspiration? Meet my friend Christian.
26
Nerd Fitness reader Christian emailed me a few months back:
I am 33 years old, have recently gone through a divorce, lost my job,
my house, and am in the process of putting my life back together.
Despite losing so much, I have decided to use this time to perfect
myself as a man. I have always wanted to pursue an acting career, so
that is one thing that I am now working on. I have also become
overweight and I am trying to remedy that situation now.
After losing some weight, changing his diet, and building some muscle,
Christian worked up enough courage to start his acting careerand with
his frst audition he scored the lead role in a London production of
Othello!
Moral of the story: its never to late to change, and dont EVER
underestimate momentum.
27
Keep track of everything: how much youre lifting, how many sets and
reps, and how you felt after each workout. If you dont know how you
did last time, you wont know what you need to do this time to get
better. Use Excel or write in a notebook, use DailyBurn.com or
SparkPeople.com to track your workouts and your diet for free!
When possible, work out with somebody else I guarantee you will
accomplish more if you have a friend there with you shouting words of
encouragement. When youre having days where you dont want to
exercise, your friend can motivate you, and vice versa when its the other
way around. This is one of the most important things I can pass along.
If you dont have anybody to exercise with, that just means youre going
to need to work a little bit harder, but thats okay. I work out alone, and
use my time while lifting weights to relieve stress and think about life.
Build a support group around you. Start a blog, tell your friends,
coworkers, signifcant others, family members, rent a plane and
sky-write it, just get it out in public. If you have people constantly asking
how youre doing, youll be far more likely to stick with your routine so
you get to report good news along the way.
28
Want some online support? Start a new thread over on the
Nerd Fitness Message Boards, where hundreds of people have
written thousands of posts supporting each other. Tell us who you are,
what you hope to accomplish, and how you expect to get it done. A
support group, even online, can do wonders for accountability.
The more people you tell, the more places you post your goals, the more
likely youre going to force yourself to succeed. You dont want to be
known as that guy/girl that cant keep a promise, do you? Now, once you
start to see results, youll be inspiring the very people that helped keep
you accountable. Thats how I started Nerd Fitness.
Have some fun with it! Certain days will have you doing strength training,
while other days will require 30 minutes of any exercise. On those days,
do what makes you happy. Hiking in woods, walking your dog, playing
Ultimate Frisbee, taking a free Karate class at the Y, playing Wii tennis
with your kids, etc. Whatever it is that gets your heart rate pumping and
YOU smiling, do it.
29
Understand that your diet will be responsible for 80% of your success or
failure. You cant outrun your fork, and you cant out-train a bad diet. The
more positive changes you can make to your diet the more success you
will see. I go into all of this in far more detail in the Rebel Diet Guide and
Rebel Food Fighter, so check it out!
Dont get stressed! Stress is often considered one of the leading causes
of weight gain: cortisol, a hormone that is released when youre
under stress, seems to work with insulin to create visceral fat (the bad
fat in your body). At the same time, cortisol can also prompt you to crave
comfort foods.
A recent study has shown that workplace stress has been linked to
obesity. Telling you to not stress so much about work is probably useless,
but at least try to remember that your work isnt your life.
Dont forget that.
30
Sleep! Unfortunately, lack of sleep has been tied to all kinds of unwanted
issues as well, including obesity. I know its tough in todays society,
but do what you can to get enough sleep each night if you want to see
the best results. Sure, your guildmates in World of Warcraft might get
a little upset that youre not up til 3AM with them every night, but your
body will thank you. Eight to nine hours each night is best, but try to get
at least seven - less stupid TV at night, read a book, and get your zs!
Take things one day at a time. If youre 20, 50, 100, 200 pounds
overweight, the fnish line might seem like a LONG ways of. Do not
concern yourself with tomorrow just yet, because it hasnt happened.
Gandalf the Grey said it best: All we have to decide is what to do with the
time that is given to us.
Dont worry about the stuf you cant control; only focus on the stuf you
CAN control. Each decision you make today will take you one step closer
to your goal or one step further away.
That choice is yours.
31
WHAT YOU NEED
IN YOUR INVENTORY:
In order to get the most out of this guide, youre going to need access
to a few pieces of equipment. Most exercises will only require your body
weight, but in other instances youll want to use either dumbbells or
resistance bands to complete the routine. If youre serious about
training, access to a pull up bar is going to be key as well.
If you have a gym membership, youll be able to do these routines in the
gym without picking up any sort of extra equipment. Youll only need
either dumbbells or resistance bands (and maybe an exercise ball). If the
exercise routine calls for the one you dont have, substitute in an
equivalent exercise that you can do with the equpiment you DO have.
Just a heads up: the links to products on Amazon are afliate links, so I
get a small commission if you buy them through those links. If you can get
them cheaper elsewhere however, please do!
32
Dumbbells: If youre exercising from home, you should invest in a decent
set of adjustable dumbbells. Why adjustable? Because every time you
exercise, youll get stronger and stronger, and youll need to add weight
to increase the difculty to continue to improve.
Once you can do more than the required reps of an exercise at a certain
weight with ease, you need to add more weight to make it more difcult
and make your muscles work harder. Muscles need to constantly adapt
to the stress thats applied to them or they wont get stronger add
more weight and get stronger.
I bought a set of adjustable dumbbells at Walmart for 20 bucks, which
you can see here. This is a decent starter set, but youll want to
eventually buy some more plates or a bigger set if youre advancing
rapidly.
If youre serious about getting in shape, dont wuss out and pick up a set
of cheap dumbbells and then never get bigger ones. Heavy adjustable
dumbbells can get very expensive , and Im cheap, so I use the
equipment at my local gym. Check Craigslist for a good used set as well.
33
Resistance Bands: Im a big fan of resistance bands - theyre far easier to
travel with than dumbbells, they provide constant tension throughout
the entire range of motion, and theyre extremely versatile.
Youll want exercise bands of various degrees of tension so you can
adjust based on the exercise and how tough youre pushing yourself. I
bought a set for only 25 bucks at Walmart, and heres a decent set of
bands on Amazon, but the resisance only goes up to 20 pounds.
If youre going serious about building muscle, youll need heavy-duty
bands like these if you want to go the exercise band route.
Pull-up Bar: Pull ups and chin ups are two of my favorite exercises
theyre so damn simple and incredibly indicative of your level of ftness.
In the videos I used for this guide, I went to a local playground and used
their monkey bars to do my pull ups. I have an Iron Gym pull up bar.
If you want to do pull ups but dont have the strength yet, consider a big
rubber band to help you until you can do them without assisance.
34
Exercise Ball: Im a big fan of exercise balls when it comes to building
core strength. Doing crunches on the foor are boring and can be really
bad for your lower back. Instead, doing crunches on an exercise ball put
your core through a greater range of motion and really work your abs
and lower back.
I highly recommend picking up a ball for your home gym. Heres
a cheap and effective exercise ball.
A bench: some exercises will require you to step up onto a platform to
complete the exercise. If you live and work out in a one-foor apartment,
it can be tough to track down something to actually stand on, especially
when you start adding in extra weights. Heres a decent bench for
$40, which is still pricey for just something to stand on.
Instead, I would recommend either using your home stairs to get started,
then graduating to a park bench, stone wall, or a REALLY sturdy chair
that can support your weight. If youre doing this inside, make sure you
have enough head room to stand up! If you have a gym membership,
you can just use one of the fat benches in the free weight section.
35
A watch: When building strength and muscular endurance, its important
to keep track of how long youre waiting between sets. A simple
stopwatch, the second hand on your watch, or a clock on the wall will
work just fne.
Clothing: Be comfortable. I wear 100% cotton t-shirts, basketball shorts,
and I work out barefoot. If youre not ready for going barefoot yet, a
good pair of cross-training sneakers is okay - the lower the heel the more
in balance youll be for your exercises.
If you have some money and youre naturally a sweaty person, look into
those moisture-wicking shirts from companies like UnderArmour and
Nike.
Water Bottle: Its easy to get dehydrated when exercising, so have a
source of water with you, constantly taking little sips between sets. Note:
I said water, not sports drinks or water with vitamins (which are BOTH
loaded with sugar)just water!
36
BEFORE YOU GET STARTED:
1) Consult a physician before attempting any physical activity. These
routines are designed for people who are cleared for battle, so make sure
youre up for it.
2) Take a picture of yourself before you get started. Sometimes the
scales lie, and your body weight wont change but your body
composition will. If you see great results over these next few months and
want to share your story with your fellow NF rebels, there might be some
cool stuf in it for you!
3) Watch the videos as I perform each exercise before attempting them.
Your form is always of the utmost importance; begin with very light
weight when trying an exercise for the frst time, make sure you have it
right, and then start adding weight and upping the difculty.
37
4) Add enough weight for the exercise to be tough, but not so much
that you exhaust yourself completely. For exercises that arent body
weight exercises, you need to determine which dumbbells to use or what
level resistance bands to exercise with. You dont want to go to complete
exhaustion you always want to have one left in the chamber, a little fuel
left in the pod racer (I promise, this is the frst and last Star Wars: Episode
One reference Ill make).
Stimulate, not annihilate! For example, if youre supposed to do 3 sets of
12 reps of shoulder presses, you want to pick a weight that will be
challenging for you all the way through to the 12th rep on that fnal set.
5) Be careful on the body weight exercises. If an exercise calls for 15
push ups and you can only do 5, thats okay. Either adjust the difculty to
do easier pushups (down on your knees or elevate your hands) or stick
with regular push ups and do as many as can, and then go for one more
repetition next time. Pushing yourself is good, but dont overdo it.
38
6) Warm up before every workout, and stretch after every workout. Its
amazing how important these two things are to your success, so dont
shirk your duties. If you have to cut a workout short, cut the exercises
shortnever skimp on a warm up or stretching afterwards. Your body
will thank me.
7) Dont do anything if it doesnt feel right. I want to get you healthy, but
I dont want you to get hurt doing it. Its tough to get in shape if youre
out of commission with a pulled hamstring, so take care of yourself. If
there are certain exercises that dont feel right to you and you feel like
youre doing them correctly, do a diferent exercise for the same muscle
group. Let me know if you have questions on what to sub in.
8) Make sure to keep track of your workouts. Have a pen and paper
or Excel spreadsheet to keep track of how much weight you used, how
many reps you did, and if you should increase or decrease the weight for
the next time. It doesnt need to be anything complicated, just record
your numbers. Ive created excel sheets for all routines in this guide, so
feel free to print those out or fll in on the computer.
39
ABOUT THE WORKOUTS
Ive designed the diferent workouts in the Rebel Fitness Guide to be
scalable for people all ages, sizes, strengths, and levels of experience.
Many exercises on each routine will have less challenging exercises
listed in parentheses next to them. These lesser exercises will still give
you a great workout and allow you to fnish the whole routine.
For example, if the routine calls for 3 sets of 10 push ups, and you can only
do 3 sets of 5 push ups on your knees, THATS OKAY. Do your three sets
on your knees, and then next week aim for 3 sets of 6 push ups, and so on.
The increasing levels of the routines are based on experience and your
tolerance for complexity, not strength. They get tougher due to their
complexity, not how much weight you have to lift!
If you feel good while doing level 2, and you want more of a challenge,
try level 3, and scale the tougher exercises down to ones that you can
complete. Dont be scared of the higher levels, you can get there!
40
GOOD LUCK!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get in the best damn
shape of your life. Yesterday is over and tomorrow hasnt happened yet,
which means all you can control is what happens today.
If youre ready to get started, check out the exercise plans for your
particular level and get going. Dont forget to read the Rebel Diet Guide
and Rebel Food Fighter too, as they will be powerful allies in your quest
to eat better, feel better, and look better.
Most of all, good luck my friend. The journey will be long and perilous,
but I know you can succeed if you give it everything youve got.
Go fnd a mirror, tell yourself I can do this, and get started. Get mean,
swear, jump up and down, and pump yourself up. Its go time, baby.
For the Rebellion!