The return of Warrior Cardio: Weeks 6 & 7

Hey all,

I realised that i completely forgot to document week 6 but in all honesty thats exactly the reason why i decided to take the week off. The weeks were blending into each other and i was starting to amble through sessions in weeks 5&6.

My week off consisted of some light rowing, stretching, practising barefoot running on the woodway (im starting to like it), did a full body weights session on friday, got massage and chilled out by my pool. The definite goal for the week was to be 100% up for the start of week 7 so i did very little on the weekend and eat as much good food as possible without overeating.

On the nutrition side, i dabbled with the velocity diet (all shakes), not 100% but atleast 85-90% and dropped what i needed to drop to get my head back on again.

Inbody results 19/6


weight - 79.6
muscle - 41.9
fat - 7.9
Bfat % - 10.4


Goals, definitely need to get this back down towards 75kg asap. Change of eating to lower carb and less frequent meals. I plan the last 3 weeks (10, 11 and 12) to be all-out fat loss so still have some time to adjust to lower calorie eating.


Day 1


Good to be back on the plan, I feel bigger and leaner thanks to a good week off and a cheeky attempt at the velocity diet (shakes only). Bought usana cappuccino flavored meal replacements and they are the best tasting supp I've ever had. Will keep using for sure.

Day 1 was hurricane training just like one of the previous weeks, it's tou but fair, push ups, crunches and sprints x 9.

The warm ups although excellent and much needed, I must admit have become very boring for me. I know find myself creating my own and stick loosely to the original system. It's the one fault I can think of about the program - but who am I to tell MR what's right or wrong, it's just an opinion. I put in some light rowing, Bulgarian bag, skipping and still take 30minutes + to prep so I like that aspect of it.

Swiss ball plank circuit was ok, I have added 50 reps of an abdominal exercise from now on (summer round the corner) so today was ab wheel outs. I'm working on my barefoot running so finishing every session with 5 minutes forefoot running style on the woodway with my vibrams. Nothing crazy but this should help lean my legs out.

In addition to WC I am currently doing the 100 rep calf challenge daily (t nation) and my own 402 squat program on off-days, both are working really well and will hit them over the next month and see the difference in my lower body. All good so far, looking to get visually leaner in the next 10-14 days while maintaining Bodyweight.

Finally, I started using tracker.dailyburn.com - this is awesome for those who don't count calories, this does it for you. It's amazing how much more we eat than we think. For me, it's the next step in get super lean. In only 2 days it's changed my mind on a few choices and opened my eyes to the quantities of food I eat. Try it out.




Day 2


Ive really started to ditch the full warm ups now as i have found that i can use this time to get in extra cardio/fat loss work that i don't feel like doing after the sessions. i'm starting to run intervals and all good so far. also im using bulgarian bag and some light overhead squats along with some of the warrior cardio prep stuff. honestly, 2 alternating warm ups just got super boring for me. I hate to go against MR's program but i do feel this area could be improved. just my own thought, possibly change every 4 weeks? 


The metabolic work was a beast called 'the doubler', double your reps on 4 exercises (bench, chins, dips, push ups) - i tried 4, 8, 16, 32 and got caught out out the 32 push ups! tough stuff


Shoulder circuit was great for rotator cuff work.


Core training was side plank sequence and ive added in 50 hanging leg raises for extra ab work.




Day 3


metabolic work was a lower body DB complex (deads, hammer curl, snatch, squat, lunge) - what a beast! did 3 sets because i loved it, hr was up to 165bpm using the 16kg DBs.


tabata jumps squats... yeah you know how thatll feel.


6 rounds of bag drags with 40kg of bulgarian bag on the bag, pulled with a trx. honestly its the worst feeling, best pump i have had in my quads for a while. they were so pumped there was a sting! great exercises and will defo use this again for conditioning. 


core work was elevated side plank which i added some cable crunch and lower back extensions.


all in all a good training week, i'm eating a lot of good calories (probably too much for my goals) so my weight has gone up with the additional 3x squat sessions per week. next week is going to be more carb controlled as i don't want to move away from the original goal of the program which i fat loss. I'm surprised that this program has increased my muscular weight as much as it has. Although the reason for this is obviously my consistently large eating over 2500 cals per day, 200g+ from protein. Great of course but sometimes overeating when there is no real need. easy area to improve on.


More updates next week

Warrior Cardio: Week 5

Week 5 

Decided after last week that this week IS strict diet week! Really need to take the body fat levels down a level, results are consistent but my eating is a little loose. Also bought a pre workout supplement (musclepharm assault) in the hope it will shake off my training lethargy from last week. I've been adding rowing and Bulgarian bag work to fire up my body ready for training, also it's 10 or so minutes cardio work while fresh. 

Day 1 - really starting to enjoy warming up, my body is feeling the benefits and I'm actually spending more time on it. Warm up used to represent a full but yet rushed activity for me, WC has made me appreciate the preparation process more. Ive mentioned previously its a sign of a great program that you feel better as its going along, not worse.

Today was hurricane category 3 - barbell combinations with sprints, 3x3 rounds that was pretty challenging at the end but excellent at the same time. Core training was regular series, which has improved a lot. great session, really felt the assault supplement and didn't feel the heaviness I'd recently felt.

Day 2 - involved some upper body dumbell circuit called the gauntlet. 6 exercises, 6 reps each with the weights increasing each round until it made sense to stop. Due to the tricep extension i stopped at 14kg, which is a decent weight, i think without that exercise you could go much higher so i may change it around if it comes around again.

the pull up series is tough but excellent for upper body development, 5 pull ups variations back to back for max reps. Felt weak around the elbow (potentially from my earlier training program this year) but managed about 5-6 reps on each for 2 rounds. Felt pretty pumped after this combination.

The program is now turning into one i would normally use (more resistance, complex style), with slight differences. In my opinion moderate to heavy weighted circuits/complexes beat everything in the gym for overall training goals - so its a great fit for my training preferences.

core training was the push up plank series, which felt so much better. really have found the plank series to be beneficial and challenging. my previous thoughts on the plank was that its too easy - adding variety and accumulative fatigue in the series really does make it a valid reason to put planks into your training whatever your level.

Day 3 - The metabolic conditioning was the tabata protocol, 2 circuits of lunger and squatter Bodyweight movements. Simple, effective and tough assuming you work hard. I'm currently working at 80% for some reason. Not fully feeling back to my best. But progressing every week and I still perform a high level so generally happy with the effort. I improvised on the prowler sprints with a boxing bag across the gym floor, weighed down with a 23kg Bulgarian bag. After 2 sets you realize why prowlers are so infrequently used! What an attack on my legs and lungs. It's a great way to finish a session - short, sharp and highly metabolic. 

 I have decided to take a full week of training after next week (half way), I really benefitted from a deload training week last time around and I think a strict dieting week and lots of recovery work could be the ticket for a great second half to the program. Just feeling the sprints a little which has confirmed this decision. My weight loss has stalled, which is another indicator that something needs to change.

ive included a seperate squat program i created called squat402 (you do 402 squats per week), it took me a while to make up that name! im doing this after the sessions or on my off days. my deadlift is far more tuned in than the squat and i recently noticed that i can bench press more than i can "comfortably" squat! thats wrong on so many levels, thus i created a program to alter this - so will run alongside WC and will probably blog on it after completion. If it doesn't work then i will deny i ever wrote it. 

see you for week 6