Strength Circuit Workout | Body Recomposition Workout Plan Day 6

Meal Prep Tips For Body Recomposition | Live Lean Shred Ep. 06

On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m sharing strength circuit workout #4 from the Afterburn 1.0 body recomposition workout plan, as well as our meal prep tips for healthy living.

Welcome back to day six of the Afterburn x Home Shred x Live Lean Shred 42 day body recomposition workout plan.

I just put Kyla down for nap, Jessica just finished cleaning the dishes, so it’s now time to start the work day.

Table Of Contents – Jump To:

Rootz Protein Superfood Powder Review

We just received a delivery from our friends at Rootz Nutrition.

Let’s open up the box to see what we got.

I love when my homies hook us up with this Rootz Paleo Protein Powder Super Food. 

If you want to try a new non whey protein powder, use discount code: LiveLeanTV.

I used this chocolate banana nut flavored paleo protein superfood powder in this pre workout protein shake recipe for weight loss.

Rootz Protein Superfood Powder Ingredients

Let’s check out the ingredients to see what it’s made of:

• Protein Blend:
  • Egg white protein
  • Sacha inchi protein
  • Hemp protein
• Electrolyte Blend:
  • Coconut
  • Banana
• Superfood Blend:
  • Chia seeds
  • Flax seeds
  • Maca root
  • Bee pollen
  • Acai
  • Goji berries
  • Blueberries
  • Royal jelly
• Green Detox:
  • Spirulina
  • Chlorella
  • Kale
  • Spinach
  • Broccoli
• Other Ingredients:
  • Natural chocolate extract
  • Natural vanilla extract
  • Stevia leaf
  • Cinnamon
  • Natural sea salt

These all natural ingredients are:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Soy free
• GMO free
• No coloring added
• No artificial ingredients
• No artificial sweeteners

This is what I call a clean and healthy protein powder.

Rootz Nutrition is hooking up the Live Lean Nation with a 10% discount when you use this link, with coupon code: LiveLeanTV.

I like it, I like it a lot.

With that said, I’m on my way to the office right now with my little coworker, baby Kyla.

Trust me, if you’re feeling overwhelmed with raising kids while managing a business, employees, your body, health, and relationships, we’re in this with you.

Let’s find a way to make it happen together.

Hopefully you are having a great day.

Meal Prep Tips For Body Recomposition

It’s lunch time in the Live Lean household.

You have asked for more food prep content, so we’re giving it to you.

To show your appreciation, please keep reading these posts and share them with your friends.

Instead of segmenting this nutrition content into different posts, we decided we’re just going to share all the fitness and nutrition tips in this 6 week body recomposition workout plan series.

Hopefully you are enjoying the series so far.

Cooking In Bulk

While I feed Kyla her applesauce, Jessica is going to show you what food she’s putting together for us, as well as how we meal prep while making lunch.

Think of this as meal prepping for future meals, while preparing your current meal.

Every time we cook proteins, we always cook more than just one meals worth.

Why?

Cooking in bulk helps you have ready to eat healthy options so you can continue to eat well for your next couple of meals.

When prepping a meal, think about what you’re going to eat next, so you can cook more of that food.

By doing this, you will never be caught in a pinch with no ready to eat food options.

In other words, instead of just making enough chicken for the current meal, make a whole bunch, then you’ll have leftovers for tomorrow.

While the chicken is cooking, we make a salad to go with it.

That’s how you can use your time in the kitchen more efficiently.

How To Bake Chicken In Bulk

If you want to try this, here are the type of seasonings and spices we use on the chicken, as well as the amounts.

Easy way to bake chicken in bulk:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F.
2. To season and spice up the chicken, sprinkle a little bit of Mrs. Dash Salt-Free Chicken Grilling Blend, then add a little bit of salt and fresh ground pepper on all 4 chicken breasts.
3. Flip the chicken over to season the other side.
4. We prefer a medium sprinkle, however if you really want a lot of flavor, add as much seasoning as you want to cover the chicken.
5. When you season it to your liking, the chicken is going to taste delicious, without adding any other sauces, creams, or cheese.
6. Once the chicken breasts are seasoned, lay them out on a baking sheet, then add them to the oven pre-heated at 400F.
7. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes.
8. After 15 minutes, remove it from the oven and slice into the fattest piece of the chicken to see if it’s fully cooked all the way through.
9. If it’s good to go, enjoy.
10. If not, add it back to the oven until it’s done.
11. Chop all 4 chicken breasts up and divide it into 4 servings.
12. If you’re preparing 2 meals, put the other 2 servings of chicken in glass storage containers, then put it in the fridge for tomorrow.

Cooking in bulk is as simple and easy as that.

Smells amazing too.

How To Make A Salad With Homemade Mustard Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

While the chicken is baking in the oven, it’s time to make a quick salad with a homemade mustard vinaigrette salad dressing.

We love adding apple cider vinegar to the dressing because it is so healthy and it’s great for salad dressings.

Here is an easy way to make a salad with mustard vinaigrette salad dressing:

1. Chop baby spinach, cucumber, and celery into bite sized pieces, then add to a big salad bowl.
2. Add sauerkraut to the bowl.
3. For the salad dressing we mix all the ingredients into a resealable container that we get from our Sunbasket meal kit deliveries.
4. In the container, add 2 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp of dijon mustard, a tsp (or as much as you want) of salt-free Mrs. Dash lemon pepper, and salt and pepper.
5. Put the lid on and shake it vigorously.

That is how you make this super easy mustard vinaigrette salad dressing.

Once the chicken is baked, add the salad and chicken to a plate.

Enjoy your really healthy, yummy, and macro friendly lunch.

Let’s Talk About Calorie “Free Foods”

When we include spinach, cucumber, celery, and sauerkraut in this salad, we consider these calorie “free foods”.

Therefore you could eat them in abundance.

However, when we say “abundance”, even though you could eat as much as you want, we don’t recommend you eat a whole jar of sauerkraut.

We have to mention this because sometimes people say, “Oh, I can literally eat as much as I want?”.

You could, but just be reasonable about it.

You’re not going to feel good if you eat a whole jar of sauerkraut in one sitting.

That is probably common sense to most of you, however we still have to point that out in case you’re still confused about free foods, and how much to eat.

How Do You Figure Out Portion Sizes When Cooking In Bulk?

One quick note about portion sizing.

A lot of people ask, “How do you know how much of each macro to eat at which meal?”.

By setting up your meal plan ahead of time, you should know approximately how many ounces of protein you want to have at each meal.

Then when you’re doing your meal prep, it makes it really easy to look at the package since the weight is already on there.

When buying proteins, they are almost always weighed in pounds.

You can then convert pounds to ounces to figure out how many portions that package of protein making you.

For example, this package of chicken breasts was 1.58 pounds, so it’s close enough to round it to a 1.5 pounds.

You don’t have to be perfect, especially when your goal is just maintenance.

1.5 pounds converts to a total of approximately 24 ounces.

Divide the total number of ounces by the size of the portion that you want.

For example, if you wanted to get 6 ounces of chicken breast per meal:

• 24 oz / 6 oz = 4 servings for meals

We now know that this 24 oz package of chicken breast just made us four meals worth of protein.

This is really convenient since the package include 4 chicken breasts.

However, some of the chicken breasts may be different sizes, since one may really skinny and another may be really big.

Therefore it’s important to divide the full amount of all 4 chicken breasts into 4 equal portion sizes, rather than just dividing it up by the 4 chicken breasts.

To do this, just chop all the chicken breasts up, then you split it into four servings.

Since all the chicken breasts are different sizes, this is a better approach than just having one whole chicken breast.

That’s how you know how many portion sizes you have when cooking in bulk.

This is just one little tool and hack for you to utilize in your meal prepping to make things simpler.

Advanced Food Portioning Method: Weigh Raw Food On A Food Scale

If you don’t like the results you have right now, or you don’t know why you haven’t gotten to your goal body yet, it’s tome to dial in your nutrition.

When dialing in your nutrition we recommend weighing foods on your food weight scale before cooking them.

Weighing your food raw will help you be more precise and closer to your macronutrient goals when portioning your meals.

This is important because you really need to learn how to eat for your goals, before you can get to your goal body.

Once you have your goal body, maintaining it is a little bit more casual.

However, if you’re not there yet, and you’re frustrated and impatient because you want to get there so bad, I do suggest you dial it in.

That’s exactly what we have done in the past, in order to get to our goals.

Feedback: Do You Workout At Home Or At The Gym?

We’re back in the gym filming another workout.

We hope you have been enjoying the combination of gym and home workouts.

What do you like more, the gym workouts or the home workouts?

Also, how many of you don’t have access to a gym?

This is important information for us, so we can build the appropriate future workout programs that you can actually use.

If most of you train from home, we will do more home workouts, or if most of you go to the gym, we’ll do more gym workouts.

You get to decide, so let us know.

Are you ready to get shredded?

Strength Circuit Workout #4 | Body Recomposition Workout Plan

Welcome to the strength portion of the Afterburn 1.0 body recomposition workout plan.

This is the fourth training style in this program.

This will probably be the most challenging and difficult workout, since we’re lifting heavier weights.

These strength workouts are set up in circuit form, with four exercises per circuit.

If you haven’t downloaded the workout yet, you can sign up here to get the new workout PDFs emailed to you for free.

Warm Up

Since this is the strength workout, it’s essential to make sure you are nice and warm and ready to go.

No injuries.

As always, make sure you do the warm up before every workout in this body recomposition workout plan.

• WU1. Seal Jacks x 30 seconds
• WU2. Air Squats x 30 seconds
• WU3. Push Up x 30 seconds
• WU4. Alternating Pendulum Lunge x 30 seconds

Repeat this circuit twice without breaks, for a total of 4 minutes.

Barbell Substitutions

If you do not have access to an olympic barbell, you can substitute all these barbell exercises with the dumbbell variation.

I’ll include those dumbbell exercise substitutions below.

Important Note On Reps

In the past, I’ve had people who purchased this program mention that it doesn’t make any sense to complete 25 reps per set, when the goal is strength.

In the “Reps” column, this is not the total number of reps to complete per set.

I repeat, it’s not 25 reps per set.

This rep count indicates the total number of reps to complete for all the sets in the circuit.

For example, I want you to select a heavy weight that you can only lift between 5-8 reps.

Choose a weight that is within that rep range, and then do as many sets as it takes you to hit the indicated total rep count.

Some exercises have a total rep count of 25 reps, while others have 20 reps or 30 reps.

Again, this doesn’t mean 25 reps per set, this is a combined total.

For example, if you did 8 reps for the first set, and the total reps for all sets combined is 20, subtract 8 reps from your total rep goal of 20.

This mean you now have 12 reps left to complete for the remaining sets.

Complete as many sets as needed until you hit the total reps goal.

Since the goal of these workouts is to build strength, the amount of weight goes up, thus the number of reps per set must go down.

The full workout descriptions are all included in the workout PDF, so make sure you read the full workout description before starting the workout.

It’s all covered in there, step-by-step.

It’s a small investment in time to read the instructions to avoid mistakes.

The goal is to get to a total of 25 reps, using 5-8 rep sets, using a heavy enough weight that makes you fail within that 5-8 rep count.

Once you hit the total rep count over the various number of sets, you’re done.

Strength Circuit A

Complete the following 4 exercises in circuit format.

A1. Barbell Deadlift

The first exercise in strength circuit A is the barbell deadlift.

Since I did not have access to an olympic barbell in my condo gym, I’m substituting it out by completing the trap bar deadlift.

• Total reps from all sets combined: 25
• Reps per set: 5-8
• Sets: 4-5
• Rest: 20 seconds

Coaching cues:

• Remember to pick a heavy weight that’s going to allow you to do between 5-8 reps.
• Since I was just demonstrating the exercise, I could have gone a lot heavier than the weight used in the video.
• Lower the weight back to the floor with a nice and controlled speed.
• During the 3rd rep, you should start to feel a little struggle.
• Once you hit the 5th rep, you could stop if you hit failure, however if you have a little bit more in you, keep going.
• If you haven’t hit failure during the 8th rep, the weight is too light, and you need to go heavier by adding more weight.
• Make a note by writing down that you did 8 reps, then move onto the next exercise in the circuit, after taking a short 20 second rest.
• For safety reasons, if you need more time to recover, take it, but just try to keep the rest periods short.

Dumbbell Variation: Dumbbell Deadlift

A2. Weighted Wide Grip Pull Up With Dumbbell Between Thighs

The second exercise in strength circuit A is the weighted wide grip pull up with dumbbell between thighs.

• Total reps from all sets combined: 20
• Reps per set: 5-8
• Sets: 3-4
• Rest: 20 seconds

Coaching cues:

• I prefer to do wide grip weighted pull ups with a weight dip belt, however if you don’t have a dip belt, you can hold a dumbbell between your thighs.
• Remember, select a weight that you can complete between 5-8 reps with a full range of motion.
• Keep track of how many reps you completed during each set.
• Move on to the next exercise in the circuit.

Beginner Pull Up Substitutions: if you don’t have the required strength yet to do a weighted pull up, just do bodyweight pull ups.

If you can’t do bodyweight pull ups, complete a resistance band assisted pull up, a jumping pull up, or have a buddy spot you while doing a partner assisted pull up from the ankles.

You could also do a wide grip lat pulldown.

For more beginner pull up variations, check out this post called 8 Pull Up Progressions For Beginners To Advanced.

Jessica also has a post on How To Make Your Pull Ups Easier.

A3. Dumbbell Incline Bench Press

The third exercise in strength circuit A is the dumbbell incline bench press.

• Total reps from all sets combined: 30
• Reps per set: 5-8
• Sets: 4-6
• Rest: 20 seconds

I’ll be honest, in my condo gym there is not heavy enough weights for me.

However, I’ll just show you a set using the heaviest weights in this gym, 50 pound dumbbells.

Coaching cues:

• If you don’t have access to heavier weight, and you can do more than eight reps with the heaviest weight available, just use a slower lifting tempo.
• For example, press the dumbbells up, then slowly lower them back down following a 4 second count or even slower at a 6 count.
• If you have access to a lot of weight, make sure you select a set of dumbbells that you can lift between 5-8 reps, and no more.
• If you can get more than 8 reps per set, lift heavier.
• After you complete 5-8 reps, put the weight back down, then head over to the last exercise of strength circuit A.

A4. Barbell Front Squat

The fourth and final exercise of strength circuit A is the barbell front squat.

Since I didn’t have access to an olympic barbell, I had to use the smith machine to complete a smith machine front squat.

If you have access to an olympic barbell and squat rack, use that.

• Total reps from all sets combined: 25
• Reps per set: 5-8
• Sets: 4-5
• Rest: 20 seconds

Coaching cues:

• When in the front rack position, ensure your upper arms and elbows are parallel to the floor.
• If you don’t have the wrist flexibility to hold the barbell in a clean grip in your fingers in the front rack position, use a cross grip with the barbell resting on your shoulders.

Dumbbell Substitution: Dumbbell Front Squat

Once you are done your last set, meaning you have hit the total sets for every exercise in strength circuit A, go complete the Ignite Up exercise.

Ignite It Up: Mountain Climbers

The Ignite It Up exercise is mountain climbers.

• Reps: 60 seconds
• Sets: 1
• Rest: 45 seconds

Coaching cues:

• Make sure your mountain climber form is not sloppy.
• Maintain a straight arm plank position, with your abs turned on, back and body flat, and hips square to the floor.
• This means your butt should not be piked up high in the air.
• Under control, drive one knee towards the elbow on the same side, then alternate sides.
• Breathe throughout the set.
• After completing the Ignite It Up, take a 45 second break, then move on to strength circuit B.

Clarification On When To Do The Ignite It Up

I saw in the comments in the Afterburn 1.0 Facebook Group that some people were doing the Ignite It Up after every set.

You only need to do the Ignite It Up after all of the sets of the circuit are done.

For example, you only do the Ignite It Up after the final set of the circuit.

You could do it after each set of circuits, however that’s going to make the workout longer.

Strength Circuit B

Complete the following 4 exercises in circuit format.

B1. Alternating Dumbbell Reverse Lunge

The first exercise in strength circuit B is the alternating dumbbell reverse lunge.

• Total reps from all sets combined: 35 per leg
• Reps per set: 5-8
• Sets: 5-7
• Rest: 20 seconds

Coaching cues:

• Remember to lift heavy, but safe.
• Press your feet through the floor to get back up.
• Maintain a flat back.
• If you fail out at 7 reps per side, remember to subtract 7 reps from the total rep goal of 35 reps per leg.
• That means you would have 4 more sets of 7 reps per leg to hit the 35 rep goal.
• Take a 20 second rest then move on to the next exercise in the circuit.

B2. Barbell Bent Over Row

The second exercise in strength circuit B is the barbell bent over row.

Since I don’t have access to a barbell, I’m completing a smith machine barbell bent over row.

• Total reps from all sets combined: 30
• Reps per set: 5-8
• Sets: 4-6
• Rest: 20 seconds

Coaching cues:

• Take a grip that is just outside of hip width.
• Bend over while maintaining a flat back and neutral neck.
• Pull the barbell up to your lower rib cage, then squeeze your shoulder blades together.
• Make sure you keep your upper torso down and stationary, rather than rising up to use it for momentum to lift the weight.
• Under control, slowly lower the barbell and repeat.
• Take a 20 second break, then move on to the next exercise in the circuit.

Dumbbell Substitution: Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bent Over Row

B3. Barbell Flat Bench Press

The third exercise in strength circuit B is the barbell flat bench press.

I had to do the smith machine flat bench press since I didn’t have access to a barbell.

• Total reps from all sets combined: 30
• Reps per set: 5-8
• Sets: 4-6
• Rest: 20 seconds

Coaching cues:

• Plant your feet into the floor.
• Lift the barbell off the rack, then under control, slowly lower it down to your chest, then lift it back up again.

Dumbbell Substitution: Dumbbell Flat Bench Press

B4. Narrow Grip Pull Up

The last exercise in strength circuit B is the narrow grip pull up.

In strength circuit A, we did wide grip pull ups to promote a wider look to the back.

The narrow grip pull up hits the middle of the back area.

Note: In the video I mistakingly did a neutral grip dumbbell pull up.

• Total reps from all sets combined: 20
• Reps per set: 5-8
• Sets: 3-4
• Rest: 20 seconds

Coaching cues:

• Lower your body down with full extension in your arms.
• Complete as many sets as you need to hit the total rep count of 20.
• Once again, keep the amount of weights up, but keep the form tight to make sure you protect your body.
• After all the circuits are done, there is no Ignite It Up, so jump right into the tabata workout finisher.

Tabata Workout Finisher

The 4 minute tabata workout finisher is comprised of jump rope exercises.

• 20 seconds of work
• 10 seconds of rest
• 8 intervals

C1. High Knees Jump Rope

The first tabata exercise is high knees jump rope.

• Reps: 20 seconds
• Rest: 10 seconds
• Sets: 2

Coaching cues:

• Drive your knees up high as the rope goes under your feet.
• Once the 20 seconds is up, take a 10 second break, then move on to the next jump rope exercise.

Beginner Modification: if these are too difficult for you, select any jump rope variation that you can do.

C2. Single Leg To Squat Jump Rope

The second jump rope exercise is the single leg to squat jump rope.

• Reps: 20 seconds
• Rest: 10 seconds
• Sets: 2

Coaching cues:

• When performing this jump rope variation think, “1 leg, 2 legs, 1 leg” as you jump the rope.
• During the 2 leg jump, try to lower your body into a quarter squat position to pull in the quadriceps muscles.
• Complete for 20 seconds, then once the buzzer goes off, stop, or complete jump rope side swings as you rest for 10 seconds.

C3. Double Unders Jump Rope

The third jump rope exercise is double unders.

• Reps: 20 seconds
• Rest: 10 seconds
• Sets: 2

Coaching cues:

• Once the 10 second rest is up, complete double unders for 20 seconds.
• If you’re not sure what double unders are, this is when the rope goes around you twice, in one jump.
• The goal is not to jump higher, the goal is to rotate wrists and swing the rope faster.
• If your ceiling is too low, make sure you do these outside.
• Complete 20 seconds of double unders, rest for 10 seconds, then move on to the last jump rope exercise.

D4. Scissors Jump Rope

The last jump rope exercise is the scissors jump rope.

• Reps: 20 seconds
• Rest: 10 seconds
• Sets: 2

Coaching cues:

• This is similar to split jumps or jump lunges, as one leg goes in front of the other, however you don’t need to lower yourself as deep into a lunge.
• If your feet keep getting caught in the rope or you keep messing up, just keep going.
• If you screw up, stop, compose yourself, then go.
• You only have 20 seconds, so do not get frustrated.

Beginner Jump Rope: if these jump rope movements are too difficult, just complete the regular speed jump rope move.

You will still get a good burn from this movement.

Once you get better at jumping rope, try incorporating the other more challenging moves.

Complete each jump rope exercise for 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, then repeat one time for a total of 4 minutes.

After that, this strength circuit workout is done.

Question Of The Day

You have now seen all 4 training style from this Afterburn 1.0 body recomposition workout plan:

1. Circuit Training
2. Complex Training
3. Descending Ladder Workout
4. Strength Circuits

Even though the exercises within each of these 4 training styles will change in the coming weeks, I’m interested to know in the comments below:

• Which training style was the most difficult one for you?
• Which training style was the most enjoyable for you?

Now that you know how each training style works and how to move from one exercise to the next, in the upcoming videos do you want to continue to see this “follow me through the gym” style workout or just quick demos of each exercise?

Let me know your answers and what you want to see in the comment section below.

I’ll do my best to make it happen.

It’s bedtime for baby Kyla.

We’ll see you at the next workout.

Next Workout: Descending Ladder Workout #5 | Body Recomposition Workout Plan