Here’s How To Get Jacked In 28 Days According To A Navy Veteran And Certified Personal Trainer

It’s July, you’re finally getting some time off and started looking at those flights to Mexico. Time for some fun in the sun with the bros!

But there’s just one problem – you’re still stuck with that beer gut you worked so hard on for the past 6 months.

Look, the “dad bod” just isn’t hot. You don’t want to be that awkward dude, nursing his Corona and wearing a t-shirt at the beach. Watching everyone else pop off those body condoms and party their faces off half naked.

Screw that! You’re not going to let your summer be ruled by the “what if…” and “if only…”! You’re going to be right in the middle of that mess!

To do that, you need a body you’re confident of. And you need it QUICK. The good news is that I only need 4 weeks and a shit ton of your dedication to help you get there. Let’s do this!

The Beach Body Workout

First, your workout program (you knew that you’re going to have to work out, right?). You’ll be doing 3 days of lifting and 2 days of cardio.

You’ll need a gym, even one of those weird CrossFit boxes will do. Here’s the program:

Monday (Strength + Metabolic Circuit)

Rest 2 minutes between each exercise:

A1) Deadlift – 6×6

A2) Dumbbell Bench Press – 6×6

Rest 1 minute between each exercise:

B1) Bulgarian Split Squat – 4×8/leg

B2) 1 Arm Dumbbell Row – 4×8/arm

No rest between each exercise. Rest 60 seconds after C6. Repeat the circuit a total of 4 times:

C1) Jump Squat – x10

C2) Plank – 45s

C3) Single Leg Glute Bridge – x10/leg

C4) Hand Walkout with Push-Up – x10

C5) Heiden (Side to Side Jump) – x10/leg

C6) Reverse Crunch – x15 

Wednesday (Complexes)

Barbell Complex

Choose a weight that makes your hardest exercise challenging, but doable. 

No rest between exercises. Not even to set the barbell down! Rest 60-90 seconds after A4. Repeat the circuit a total of 4 times:

A1) Deadlift – x10

A2) Bent Over Row – x10

A3) Hang Power Clean – x5

A4) Push Press – x5

A5) BB Curl – x5

Dumbbell Complex

Choose a weight that makes your hardest exercise challenging, but doable. 

No rest between exercises. Not even to set the dumbbells down! Rest 60 seconds after B5. Repeat the circuit a total of 3 times:

B1) DB Swing – x16

B2) Floor Press – x8

B3) Alternating Reverse Lunge – x8/leg

B4) Alternating Bent Over Row – x8/arm

B5) Curl to Press – x8

Friday (Strength + Metabolic Circuit)

Rest 2 minutes between each exercise:

A1) Front Squat – 8×8

A2) Pull-Up – 8×8

Rest 1 minute between each exercise:

B1) Half Kneeling Single Arm Press – 6×6/arm

B2) Single Leg Dumbbell Hip Thrust – 6×6/leg

No rest between each exercise. Rest 60 seconds after C6. Repeat the circuit a total of 4 times:

C1) Broad Jump – x6

C2) Push Up Positing Plank – 60s

C3) Lateral Lunge – x10/leg

C4) Chin-Up – x10

C5) Burpees – 45s (do as many as you can)

C6) Farmers Carry – 50 ft

That covers the pick things up and put things down part of your regimen. Now for the cardio.

Kill That Fat With Awesome Cardio

Cardio has its place in every single program. It’s awesome for helping you lose fat quickly and being able to party until 5am without getting winded.

You’re going to be doing 2 days of cardio in addition to the 3 training days above. And no, Pokemon Go doesn’t count. Don’t even think about it.

One day will be a sprint day and one day will be HIIT day.

Sprinting Days

For your sprint days, you’re going to do this workout from the Bro King John Romaniello. It’s pretty simple – just follow it like it’s written. You’re going to need a serious hill and some serious motivation (check out these 9 tips for crushing it).

HIIT Days

The HIIT days will look like this (they will change slightly as the weeks go by):

Week 1 – 30s of intense work followed by 90s of rest (keep moving, just slowly). Repeat for 15 minutes. After your intervals are done, perform 15 minutes of moderate cardio. Holding a conversation should be difficult at this pace.

Week 2 – 45s of intense work followed by 75s of rest (keep moving, just slowly). Repeat for 15 minutes. After your intervals are done, perform 15 minutes of moderate cardio. Holding a conversation should be difficult at this pace.

Week 3 – 60s of intense work followed by 60s of rest (keep moving, just slowly). Repeat for 15 minutes. After your intervals are done, perform 15 minutes of moderate cardio. Holding a conversation should be difficult at this pace.

Week 4 – 60s of intense work followed by 45s of rest (keep moving, just slowly). Repeat for 12 minutes. After your intervals are done, perform 20 minutes of moderate cardio. Holding a conversation should be difficult at this pace.

You can do whatever you want, as long as you can vary its intensity. If you want to keep things simple, use a stationary bike or rowing machine. But if you have some cool shit at your gym, here are a couple workouts you can try instead.

Walk a Little (or a Lot)

To further accelerate your fat loss, try walking as much as possible throughout the day. This is going to help speed things up and it’s nice to get outside every once in a while. The best part? You can go catch Pokemon!

The Beach Body Diet

Aww, you thought we weren’t going to go there? Ya, I feel you. This is going to be rough, but don’t blame me. Blame the keg stands and Taco Tuesdays.

We’re going to use macros for your diet. Why macros? Because they are so awesome, they allow you to eat whatever you want as long as the total calories/grams of protein, carbs and fats you eat each day add up to your goal.

First, take your body weight and multiply it by 10. That’s how many calories you’re going to eat per day.

Next, you need around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.

Have carbs only before or after your workout. So you can eat, say some fruit, before heading to the gym, and then throw in some sour patch kids with your post-workout meal.

Then fill your other meals with protein, fats and veggies. You’re going to need a lot of veggies.

Meet Bob!

So you get a better idea about what this is going to look like, let me introduce you to my bro Bob. Bob is 200 pounds because of his strict diet of tacos and beer.

But Bob has had enough and is ready to make some changes. He knows he can only eat 2,000 calories (200 x 10) and needs around 200 grams of protein a day (200 x 1).

Protein alone will get Bob to 800 calories (1g of protein/carbs = 4 calories, 1 g of fat = 9 calories).

Before his workout, he’s going to eat about 40 grams of carbs in the form of green apples, because Bob really likes green apples.

After the gym, Bob is going to put some blueberries in his protein shake (20 grams of carbs) and succumb to his passions by eating some tacos (40 grams of carbs). That brings him to about 140 grams of carbs for the day.

With the 800 calories from protein + 560 calories from carbs, Bob is sitting at 1,360 calories out of his 2,000 total. He’s going to fill in the remaining 640 calories with some good fats, for a total of 71 grams.

What You Should Put In Your Mouth

Take a little time to plan your meals ahead of time and you’ll be fine. That means not putting yourself in situations where ordering pizza is the only option. Save that for the bulk.

Good protein sources for this diet are going to be fish, chicken breast, turkey, lean cuts of beef and protein powder.

Your fats should mostly come from your meat sources, but you can throw in some cheese and supplement with fish or krill oil.

For carbs, stick with what you enjoy – fruit, sweets, bread, tacos. You won’t get to each much of these, so use this opportunity to keep your sanity.

You’re going to get hungry doing this. Focus on the end result. If you start dreaming of locking yourself in a room full of Snickers where you are forced to eat your way out, man up and eat a cucumber.

Key Takeaways

  • Lift heavy and train hard.
  • Sprint your ass off up that hill.
  • If you’re not planning your meals, then you’re planning to fail.
  • If you get hungry – eat a cucumber.

And that’s it. Four weeks of hell for an entire summer of shirtless partying. Are you up for the challenge?!

Party on Garth!

To read more of Chris’ work, check out his site ChrisCoulsonFitness.com