How To Get Shredded, Build Muscle And Endurance According To Mike Rashid

This is a 2 part article. In part I, you’ll find a series of workouts that will get you shredded in no time. In part II, a series of weight lifting routines to build thick, dense, high-quality muscle

Do you want to know how to get shredded? How to increase your endurance and cardiovascular capacity? How to become stronger? 

What exercises to do, and how to string them together to maximize results? 

Read on… 

If you want to get in shape, knowing how to train efficiently is crucial. But what does that mean? 

See, many people out there have good-looking bodies, though when it comes to actual strength and endurance, they don’t pass the test. 

When I train, I want to build muscle, sure! But, I also prioritize endurance, cardio, and mobility. This is how you build the kind of overall fitness and strength that makes you feel capable of taking on any task. 

In my particular case, this daunting task was making my pro boxing debut well into my 40s:

What You’ll Find In This Article 

This article is a compilation of some of my most effective muscle-building and fat-burning workouts.

It’s divided into two parts. In part I, I’m going to walk you through a series of short, high-intensity workouts that will get you shredded in no time! 

These workouts will help you build dense, high-quality muscle, burn fat and calories like crazy, and will also condition your cardiovascular system better than anything out there. 

In part II, I’m going to walk you through a series of weight lifting routines specifically designed to build dense, high-quality muscle that will stay with you even if you can’t work out for a couple of weeks. 

These workouts will help you develop play muscles that also look good, not just show muscles without strength to back it up.

I mean, what would you want that for? With these workouts, you’ll be able to look the part and play the part, you know what I’m saying? 

Getting Shredded & Building Muscle: What You Will And Will Not Get Out Of This Article 

More than just a series of workout routines, I’m going to tell you exactly how to train to increase your overall fitness strength every day. 

If you follow along and do these workouts the way I’m about to tell you to do them, you should start noticing results in just days. 

For the most part, in part I of this article, we’ll go over stuff that doesn’t require a gym or any fancy workout equipment. 

You can add some weights if you’d like. But, just with your body weight, you’ll be able to get a killer workout that will incinerate fat and build you up like a true athlete. 

Warning: If You’re Serious About Getting Shredded… 

With all this said, I must be upfront and tell you that results go hand in hand with nutrition. You can’t outwork a mediocre diet. 

Sure, you’ll be able to get fitter just by doing the workouts I’m about to walk you through. But, if you want lightning-fast results (to the extent that nature allows it—we don’t cheat over here), you gotta take care of your nutrition as well. 

Now, this article is not about nutrition. There are many different diets and components to a diet that are crucial for getting good results. 

Also, nutrition-wise, whatever works for me may not work for you. For example, even if it may be hard to believe, I eat once a day and stay away from animal proteins (for the most part). 

If you’re interested in how this works, how I do it without getting hungry and other details, I break it down in this video: 

Anyhow, my goal is not to tell you that there is a single way of doing things. On the contrary, what I’m saying is that you should be open to trying different things. 

However, there are certain nutrition basics you should learn before trying anything new.  The best place to get started with this is at Sean Torbati’s nutrition Youtube channel. 

So Why Should You Care About What I Say? 

My name is Mike Rashid. I’m a professional heavyweight boxer and fitness entrepreneur. I’ve been working out for the greater part of my life, and for some years now, I’ve been helping other people get in the best shape of their lives. 

But, as I mentioned above, I don’t just help them look good. I mean, everyone ends up looking good, but their looks are a consequence of their overall fitness, mobility, and strength! In other words, I train people to look, feel, and perform like true athletes. 

Growing up, I didn’t have access to a fancy facility to train at, so I had to find ways to use my body to train. In doing so, I ended up developing a very effective and efficient training style that, of course, doesn’t require a gym. 

Today I box professionally and lead a series of fitness endeavors such as Ambrosia Collective, a plant-based supplement line; Trifecta, an organic meal prep and delivery company; and Fight Camp, an online boxing academy. 

Additional to this, every so often, I run the Alpha Shred Challenge, which has gotten thousands of people into the best shapes of their lives—and I also provide private training for those who want to take things to the next level. 

Embrace This Mindset And You Will Thrive 

Listen, these workouts I’m about to show you are meant to be hard—and that’s a good thing! In fact, it’s a great thing! 

We want them to be hard. We want them to be challenging. We want them to give us a sense of accomplishment—that we did something that most people wouldn’t even think about. 

But why do we want this? There are two main reasons. One of them has to do with muscle growth, and the other is the most important thing that you will get out of working out like a savage. 

The 1st Reason: Muscle Growth

When it comes to building muscle, like I said above, you can either take the show muscles route or take the play muscles route. In other words, you can workout to look strong, or you can work out to be strong. 

Both of them will have you looking strong, but why would you want to look strong and not be as strong as you look?

I don’t know—it beats me! But, it’s not of my concern. Around here, we workout to become all-around athletes, and that’s done by doing the following: 

You gotta understand our bodies’ nature. Look, according to scientific consensus, we’ve been on the planet for approximately 250,000 years. During this time, we’ve only been somewhat civilized for 10,000 years. 

This means that for over 95% percent of human existence, we’ve been living a nomadic life based on hunting or being hunted—surviving has been the goal. Therefore, our bodies’ physiology and neurology have evolved to maximize our chances of survival. 

What Does This Imply? 

Well, we developed, like many other living organisms, a fight or flight reflex to have us become suited for survival. 

This means that every time we were in a threatening situation, our bodies were reacting in such a way that, if we survived, they would become a little stronger in an attempt to maximize our chances of survival the next time a similar threat came by.  

Think of the gym as a threatening situation. Now, you know it’s not a threatening situation. But your body doesn’t know that!

For all it knows, when sprinting, for example, you may have a bear chasing you down, or when squatting, you may be trying to stop a big stone that’s about to crush you. 

So what does your body do? If the stress is enough, you’ll trigger that fight or flight response, and your body will adjust and adapt. Or, in other words, your body will become stronger.

Mind you, if the stress on your muscles is something that your body is already used to, then you won’t trigger this response—your body will simply do what it’s already strong, fast, or fit enough to do. 

My point here is that each of you has his or her own physical and athletic capacity. So, when I speak of reps, resting time, or weight, I’m merely giving you a reference to go off of. 

You gotta be honest with yourself and adjust the exercises to push your limits because if you don’t push your limits, you will simply stay inside your comfort zone, which means you WILL NOT get stronger or faster. 

And keep something else in mind: MY REPS WON’T MAKE YOU STRONGER! Just because the guy next to you knocked out 25 pull-ups in a row, it doesn’t mean that he is getting stronger than the guy who knocked out 3. 

Why? Because if the guy who knocked out 25 could’ve knocked out 30, but the guy who knocked out 3 gave it his all, only the guy who knocked out 3 pushed his body to the limit and triggered the flight or fight response! So forget about the reps and start focusing on the burn! 

The 2nd Reason: Mental Toughness

What we do in the gym transcends the gym. I always say that to my private clients and to the Alpha Shred Challenge participants. When you go to the gym and embrace a mindset of willingly putting yourself through a stressful situation, you’re building character. 

If you do that every day in the gym, you’ll not only be preparing your body to become stronger for the next threat, but you’ll also train your mind to overcome challenges. 

That’s why, for optimal results, you must never let your body fall into its comfort zone. Nothing good ever happens in your comfort zone when it comes to getting stronger, both physically and mentally.

But, if you’re constantly out of breath, knocking out reps until you hit failure or almost failure and keeping your heart rate up, what do you think will happen to your body and mind? 

You’ll start looking better than you’ve ever looked. And what about the way you feel? What about your self-esteem and confidence? Those will go through the roof, and they won’t leave you after you leave the gym like your muscle pumps will—no. 

That high self-esteem and confidence will stay with you—they will transcend the gym. And they will be there for you to harness in any challenge you set your eyes on. That’s what working out should be about. 

It’s not just a tool to look good—although you’ll look good—it’s a tool to develop the kind of character people admire and look up to—the kind of character that is useful in any kind of situation in life. So, with that said, let’s get after it, squad! 

Note: I’m constantly revising this post and checking on the comments section so if you have any questions, feel free to leave them there! 

PART I: HOW TO GET SHREDDED IN 7 DAYS 

Ok before you go crazy on me, no one will get shredded in 7 days if they’re not already very fit. So, what I mean is that I will walk you through 7 days of some of the most effective and efficient muscle-building and fat burning workouts that there are. 

Also, remember that getting shredded results from an equation that includes hard work in the gym and smart work in the kitchen. If you want to get the best of these two worlds, you should consider joining my upcoming Alpha Shred Challenge. 

This challenge gives you access to 30 days of training (I personally put it together) and a custom-fit nutrition plan adjusted to your diet (vegan, keto, traditional, etc.) and to your macronutrient needs. 

This challenge is like no other, and you’ll see results if you stick to the plan. But that’s not it! I give out $12,000 in cash prizes to the first 5 places (best 30-day transformations) in both categories (men and women). 

So, if you want to get in the best shape of your life in just 30 days, or if you’re just curious to see the hundreds of crazy body transformations this challenge has produced, go check out the Alpha Shred Challenge site now! 

Oh, and this is an international challenge. Feel free to join from anywhere in the world! 

Ok, let’s get started with the workout routines… 

How To Get Shredded: Warm Up 

Before jumping onto the actual workout, I want to walk you through a series of push-ups I came up with when I was growing up.

I didn’t have access to a nice gym or fancy equipment, so I had to be very creative when working out mainly to keep it fun. In doing so, I ended up stringing together the following types of push-ups, which later came to be known as Warrior Push-Ups.

You can do this as a warm-up, as a finisher, and even as a full workout by doing it multiple times. This series is great for building overall chest and arm strength, core strength, and endurance. 

Warrior Push-Ups Consist of 5 Different Types of Push-ups:

Hindu Push-Ups x 5

Pretend there’s a bar and you’re going below it and forward with your head. One of these push-ups is like 5 regular push-ups. This push-up will stimulate your upper chest and shoulders. 

Touch Hand Push-Ups x 5

When one hand is off the ground, it will engage your stabilizers and your core, so you wanna do these nice and slow.

Knee-Ins x 5

These ones are really good for your abs. Don’t go crazy with speed here. It’s better to take your knees as deep as you can as that’s what’s really going to engage your abs. As to the actual push-up, keep your hands to shoulder width. 

Push-Up to a Side Plank x 5

Go down on a push-up and when you come back up, turn your body to face left and point to the sky with your left arm. Then, repeat the same thing with your right arm. If you’re feeling strong,  raise your leg to form some sort of star-like shape. This will engage your core and challenge your stabilizers even more. 

Diamond Push-Ups x 5

Place your hands close enough until you form a diamond-like shape. Go down and up on a push-up. Try to keep your hands close together. These push-ups will work on your middle chest area. 

Plyometric or Hand Clap Push-Up

Depending on how I get to this final stage, I’ll continue with plyo push-ups or hand clap push-ups. Both of these are meant to be really explosive. In the first one, you lift yourself entirely off the floor, and in the second one, you clap. Once you do your five reps, go into regular push-ups until failure. 

These push-ups will kill you! Go ahead and try them out and let me know in the comments what it was like for you. They are challenging, but it’s a great way to build muscle and endurance.

How To Get Shredded: Day 1

We’ll get started with a short but effective circuit for day one of how to get shredded. Before I get into it, remember that each and every one of you has their own threshold.

So, adjust this circuit as needed for you to take your body a little bit beyond its comfort zone—we don’t want to take it too far out because you won’t be able to push yourself that hard for a long time.

So, we want to push ourselves to a place where we know we’re comfortable—where we’re having trouble breathing, and our muscles are burning. But, we want to stop there because the idea is to be there for 20 minutes or so.

In other words, you want your heart rate to be elevated but not too much. That way, you’ll be able to sustain the pace for a longer period and will be able to get more sets in.

The following circuit consists of 3 sets of 4 different exercises. But, if you feel like you need to do more to get your body out of its comfort zone, then do more! You’ll get a 30-second break after the first set and a 60-second break after the second one.  

In terms of reps, you gotta decide what makes it worth it for you. For example, I knocked out 12 pull-ups and 20 dips on each set. By the third set, this gets me going. For you, it may be more or less, I can’t know. Just be honest with yourself and adjust. 

But, with that said, you gotta remember that your body adjusts to challenging situations. If you’re just putting your body through stuff that it’s already used to, then you won’t be getting much out of this. 

Exercise #1: Pull-Ups

Exercise #2: Dips

Exercise #3: Leg Raises

Exercise #4: Bodyweight Squats

This type of workout may seem simple on paper. But, if you’re disciplined with resting times and if you’re honest with yourself regarding reps, it should be very challenging.

Sure, it’s short. But it can be very effective. Go ahead and give it a try and let me know how you felt in the comments.

How To Get Shredded: Day 2

The following routine, even though it’s mainly bodyweight and a lot of cardio, will still have you jacked, make you strong, and build muscle. It’s taxing. It’s vicious. But it will make you better overall. 

We’re gonna do three different exercises. This is short but really intense. During rest periods, I want you to take deep breaths. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Focus on calming yourself down—on getting your heart rate lower. Do this throughout the entire routine. 

Note: In Between Exercises Rest Period — Focus on bringing that heart rate back down. DON’T SIT YO LAZY ASS DOWN! 

Exercise #1: Kettlebell Thrusters

First, we’re gonna use kettlebells to do thrusters. Grab your kettlebells and place them on your shoulders. Then, go down on a squat and come up. Once you’re up, raise your arms as if you were reaching up—all in one motion. 

We’ll do 15 reps 3 times, and we’ll take 20-second rests in between. Make sure your knees aren’t going over your toes. Also, go nice and easy, don’t rush. You should go into a nice easy rhythm. Trust me, you’re still gonna feel it—we just want to make sure that once fatigue kicks in, you’re in good form. 

Exercise #2: Kettlebell Swings/Push-Ups

We’re gonna superset kettlebell swings with push-ups. There’s no cardio break here. Your break from push-ups is the kettlebell swings, and your break from kettlebell swings is push-ups. 

We’re gonna start with 15 kettlebell swings and 20 push-ups. Then, we’ll do 12 kettlebell swings and 15 push-ups. Then, we’ll do 8-10 kettlebell swings and 10-12 push-ups.

Look, it’s tough, you get no breaks. I know it’s rough but just do it. If it helps you, think that you get kind of a rest by giving yourself shorter reps. Give it a try and go, no breaks. 

For push-ups, you can cross a leg over the other one. This makes you more unstable, which means that you must engage your core even more to stabilize yourself.

In other words, you workout your abs more. Also, for your kettlebell swings, make sure you’re not engaging your back. This should be a controlled movement that starts from the hips.

Exercise #3: Monster Finale!

If you thought warrior push-ups were hard, you’re gonna die doing this. For the finale, we’re doing a burpee with a push-up, but then we’re increasing the push-ups all the way up to 10 and then back down to 1. 

This will kill you, but it will definitely make you stronger, and you’ll also build muscle and endurance. 

It works like this: give me a push-up and then get back up and jump to make it a burpee. Then do it with 2 push-ups, then with 3, then with 4, all the way up to ten. Once you get to ten, do the same thing all the way back down to one!

Try to get into a nice rhythm. Don’t fall into the trap of going too crazy because, in the beginning, it may seem that it is not too hard. But, you’ll start feeling fatigue way before hitting your 10 push up series, which isn’t even half. So just do it calmly. It’s already hard enough. 

Look, from the outside, I might look like I’m all show muscles. But you see I get busy here. This is about mobility. Just doing curls and bench presses won’t necessarily get you in shape.

You might have muscles on your body, but your heart’s not in shape. Neither are your lungs. You gotta be well-rounded renaissance athletes. Now go try this and let me know how it went in the comments!

How To Get Shredded: Day 3

Listen, many people will tell you that you have to train strength and cardio separately to get good results. But for me… naa, I won’t tell you that. 

Imma give you workouts that beat the hell out of you and literally incinerate fat while you build dense, high-quality muscle that is not just show muscles, you feel me?

This type of shit will get you jacked, but it will also get you feeling like an Olympic athlete, y’all. 

For How To Get Shredded Day 3, I decided to give y’all an abbreviated version of one of my Alpha Shred Challenge workouts. This is the type of stuff we do in the challenge.

Before we get started, shoutout to my girl @AllegraNicole_ for volunteering as guinea pig—go give her a follow on IG, here’s her profile:

Day 3’s workout consists of two circuits. These circuits, like others I’ve already shown you, may seem simple on paper. But trust me, you’ll feel the pain—embrace it. Alright, let’s get after it!

Circuit 1

We’ll get started with a 3-exercise circuit: kettlebell swings, bodyweight squats, and push-ups. And, we’ll do three rounds of 15 reps each. But, you’ll get no breaks. Your break from kettlebell swings is squats. Your break from squats is push-ups, and so on and so forth. 

Exercise #1: Kettlebell Swings x 15

Notice how she doesn’t swing with her arms. She keeps her body moving in sync and pops her hips out on the way up. This is the right way to do this to avoid engaging your back in the wrong way.

Exercise #2: Bodyweight Squats x 15

Keep your heels on the ground and go down vertically. Make sure your knees aren’t going over your toes. Also, try to get into a nice easy rhythm that is not too fast. And, don’t go up into a full extension so that you don’t rest at all.

Exercise #3: Push-Ups x 15

If you can’t do push-ups *yet* get on your knees and do them! You’ll get there though, just stay patient! On the other hand, if push-ups are easy for you, cross one leg over the other one. This will engage your core just a little more.

A Note On Cardio

@AllegraNicole_ told me she doesn’t like cardio. But, see what we just did in circuit 1? We did three strength exercises and strung them together with no breaks, and guess what? That’s cardio, my friend! 

Listen, cardio is important for you. Healthwise, we need cardio. We need to push our hearts and open up our lungs to oxygenate our blood. But, the thing is that people think of cardio as steady-state cardio, and the reality is that our bodies are not efficient at burning fat while also building muscle while doing that type of cardio. 

So that’s why we train this way! Here we’re building muscle while also getting great cardio in. In fact, it’s even better cardio than a lot of steady-state cardio because, say, you go on a 7-mile run… there’s gonna be a moment where you’ll be at cruise speed—you’ll be comfortable. 

And, since you’re comfortable, your body isn’t being forced to get stronger. In other words, your body is already strong enough for that situation, so it stays the same—it doesn’t adapt!

But with what we do in these types of workouts and in the Alpha Shred Challenge workouts, your body is always forced to adapt. That’s why we get to see crazy body transformations in such short periods of time!

Circuit 2 

Tired yet? Good! We’ll continue with a Thrusters/Pull-ups superset. A thruster is essentially a dumbbell squat that comes up into a press. It’s a pretty demanding exercise that engages the majority of your body. 

Exercise #1: Thrusters x 15

Exercise #2: Pull-Ups x 5

Ok, so Allegra did 15 Thrusters, 5 pull-ups. Then, 10 Thrusters, 5 pull-ups. And, lastly 5 thrusters, 5 pull-ups. However, if you’re feeling stronger, you can do the same amount of pull-ups as you do thrusters. 

Once again, we’re not taking any breaks. Your break from thrusters is pull-ups, and your break from pull-ups is thrusters. We’re trying to get our heart rates up! That’s how we grow stronger all around! So don’t take any breaks!

Go try this on your own and let me know how it goes in the comments!  

How To Get Shredded: Day 4

For How To Get Shredded Day 4, I’m gonna give you guys a workout that will incinerate fat. Listen, it’s only a few minutes, but you can do it multiple times if you want. Just do the entire thing that I’m gonna show you in sets if you want. 

So basically, each exercise is gonna be done for 45 seconds, and then you give yourself a 15-second break, and you go into the next one, alright? It’s pretty simple.

It’s gonna get your heart rate sky high, you’re gonna be drenched in sweat, and you’re gonna be burning fat. And a lot of this stuff is muscle-building, and it’s also cardio. This is the best of both worlds. 

Alright let’s get into it (remember, 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off)

Exercise #1: Shadow Boxing With Dumbbells

Exercise #2: Kettlebell Swing

Exercise #3: Bodyweight Squats

Exercise #4: Sit-Ups

Exercise #5: Burpees

Exercise #6: Push-Ups

Alright, on paper, none of these exercises are challenging on their own. But it’s the combination of doing them all and taking short breaks (15 seconds feels like nothing) what makes this so effective!

If you don’t have dumbbells to shadow box with, do it with nothing. If you don’t have a kettlebell for the kettlebell swings, just do jump squats. Other than that, you don’t need a gym.

Go try this and let me know how you felt in the comments!

How To Get Shredded: Day 5

Ok, so for day 5 of How To Get Shredded, I decided to bring out some more advanced stuff. By now you should be stronger, right? Good! I’ve got something special for you: 7 of my favorite movements. All you need are two dumbbells. 

And you’ll do this instead of cardio. Cardio is boring. I don’t say you shouldn’t do it, but I know the reality is that a lot of you guys won’t be spending an hour on a treadmill as won’t I. 

So I have something more exciting for you to do. And the beauty of not doing steady state cardio is that you’re not burning away muscle. Here we are burning calories and, of course, also building muscle. You’re gonna be doing some high-intensity training, so your heart rate is always gonna be up. 

Regarding weight, it doesn’t need to be too heavy. Just use something that makes it challenging—be honest! With this workout, you’ll be burning fat and also building muscle. It’s strength training, so you’re getting the best of both worlds. I’m all about that. 

Exercise #1: Man Makers

Exercise #2: Push-Ups With Row/Side Plank

Exercise #3: Weighted Burpees

Exercise #4: Goblet Squats

Exercise #5: Weighted Jump Squats

Exercise #6: Dumbbell Deadlifts

Exercise #7: Dumbbell Deadlifts/Row Complex

There you have it. It doesn’t take long—maybe 5 minutes, but that’s it. I want you to do this in order. Just knock it out. I’m telling you, you’re burning calories like crazy. Listen, when you do steady-state cardio, you’re only doing cardio while you’re on that machine. 

But, when you’re burning calories in a muscle-building capacity, you’re burning calories for like a day or so because your muscle fibers gotta rebuild, so you’re always burning calories.

Trust me, y’all. You don’t see your boy getting on a treadmill for an hour. You see me do this type of shit here. You know why? Because it works! Go give it a try and let me know how it went in the comments below!

How To Get Shredded: Day 6

For day 6 of How To Get Shredded, all you need is 2 dumbbells—not too heavy and not too light. You can do it without weights also. We’re gonna do fundamental movements in a cardiovascular capacity.

That means getting your cardio up and keeping it there. This is a way to get your cardio in and also increase your overall fitness level because the movements that you’re doing are high intensity and are muscle-building at the same time.

Exercise #1: Weighted Burpees (x 5)

Exercise #2: Weighted Side Step Overs (x 5 each side)

Exercise #3: Thrusters (x 5)

Exercise #4: Push-Ups With Row (x 5 each side)

Exercise #5: Weighted Jumping Squats

Do all of this, then take a 20-second break and then do it all over again. Do as many reps as you can. Listen, this training style is more exciting, and it’s a little bit more fun and efficient.

If you’re interested, I do a 30-day challenge called Alpha Shred Challenge. I program 30 days of training and custom nutrition—not cookie-cutter shit. It’s custom-designed to your weight, gender, and the nutrition side is specific to your particular macronutrient needs.

We also have a private Facebook group where I’m continually helping you guys out. This is for you to get to your top transformation. Listen, I give out $12,000 to the top 5 people in both categories (men & women).

We see so many legit transformations and our Facebook group is like a community. Every day you’ll get a different program, and it’s all bodyweight stuff, so you don’t need a gym or any equipment. You can sure add it, but it’s not required. Go sign up now and take my money! I want you to take my money!

Anyhow, back to the circuit. Go try this today and let me know in the comments how many reps you were able to get in before calling it quits.

How To Get Shredded: Day 7

For day 7 of how to get shredded in 7 days, Imma show you an abbreviated version of one of my Alpha Shred Challenge upper body/lower body workouts and will also give you a couple ab circuits that have worked really well for me.

Now, the intensity level is up to each one of you. You can choose to go at a comfortable speed, or you can choose to destroy yourself—to make yourself suffer.

But guess what? The only way your body adapts and therefore responds is if you force it to do so by pulling it out of its comfort zone. Again, your choice. 

These exercises may seem easy at first glance, but once you get into it, you’ll see that it’s tough. This is because we’re not really taking rests. We’re getting our heart rates up, and we’re keeping it there for basically the entire workout. 

This way, you’re even burning fat while you’re resting and for a long while after you finish your workout. This is what this is all about! You gotta get in the mindset of going to workout out of your comfort zone so that your body transforms! 

Alright, let’s get into today’s workout… 

Upper Body/Lower Body

Exercise #1: Upright Rows/Jump Squats

Exercise #2: Modified Burpees/ Walking Plank

Exercise #3: Push-Ups/Bench Jumps

Do this circuit as many times as you want. Like I said, intensity is up to you. If you do this taking long rests and not doing enough reps feeling pain, then you won’t get as much out of it as you could.

This time I didn’t give you reps and resting time on purpose. It’s up to you to define that. You might want to do each exercise for 30 seconds with 15 seconds of rest. But, that may be too easy for you, so go ahead and make it challenging—only you will know!

Finisher: Ab Crusher

Imma give y’all a couple versions of the Dirty 30’s. This is an ab circuit that I do. We’ll do 30 reps of each exercise—that simple. But… you won’t be taking any rest in between exercises—you’ll do one after the other nonstop. 

Now, at the end of the circuit, give yourself a 60-second break, and then we’ll run through it again. Once you get good at running through this twice, start working on doing so three times to make it more difficult. 

If the 30 reps get too difficult for you, start out with 20 or maybe 15 reps. But, what you don’t wanna do is stop in between exercises. Try to do each exercise one after the other without any breaks. It’s gonna get difficult. It’s gonna get hard. But that’s ok—that’s what we’re all about around here.

Now listen, just because you’re training your abs, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to see your abs. You’re gonna have to eat properly for that to happen, alright?

Abs are made when you’re training with the exercises that we’ll do to strengthen our abdominal muscles. But, it’s the kitchen that allows you to reveal your abs.

The lower your body fat is, the more you’ll be able to see your abs—that simple. Now, go ahead and give this circuit a try and let me know how you liked it.

After you’re done with the upper body/lower body circuit shown above, you can do one or both of the following ab circuits.

Ab Circuit #1

Crunches x 30

Leg Raises x 30

Bicycles x 30

Touch Toe Situps x 30

Ab Circuit #2

Vertical Crunches x 30

Leg Raises x 30

Touch Toe Crunches x 30

Bicycles x 30

Elbow/Push-up Plank x 30

How did this feel? Let me know in the comments y’all!

That’s The End Of Part I (How To Get Shredded In 7 Days)!

Alright, that’s it for part I of this article. Now, like I said, no one is getting shredded in just 7 days unless they are already fit.

Remember that getting shredded is a two-part equation where your nutrition is arguably the most important part of things. You can build, say, ab muscles, but only the kitchen will reveal them.

However, with this said, the seven workouts I’ve just given you, whether you make them your core workout or just a compliment, will get you on the way to getting in the best shape of your life!

Trust me, I’ve personally seen hundreds and hundreds of crazy body transformations from running the Alpha Shred Challenge—this is the type of stuff we do in the challenge y’all!

If you’re interested in signing up for the next one, go do so now! For now, we’ll move on to how to build high-quality, dense muscle that stays with you even if you can’t work out for a few weeks.

PART II: HOW TO BUILD HIGH-QUALITY MUSCLE THAT STAYS WITH YOU

Now that you know what to do to get shredded let’s talk pure muscle building. Just like getting shredded, here we also want to push our bodies outside of their comfort zone.

Remember, our goal is to trigger that fight or flight response—that’s how we’ll force our bodies to adjust and adapt. How do we do this? By essentially learning to enjoy the experience of knocking out reps until failure. Alright, before we get started…

If You Want To Gain Weight… Be Careful With Longterm Cardio

Doing just cardio is fine, but our bodies aren’t very good at doing that type of activity and maintaining muscle. So you do what’s called waste muscle when you do long term cardio.

Keep in mind that a sprint can always increase your endurance, but endurance doesn’t necessarily increase your explosiveness. What we’re doing here is all explosive, and it’s gonna be kind of extended because we’re doing movements several times.

If you’re like me and don’t want to spend an hour on a treadmill or stair climber, you can do stuff like what I’ve shown you. It’s taxing, it’s challenging, but you’re not burning away muscle, and it doesn’t take long. You’re building muscle while incinerating fat.

Building Muscle Day 1: How To Get Big Arms

The other day I got together with my boys to work on our arms, and I wanna share what we did with y’all so that you go and try it out yourself. We did a bunch of exercises for our biceps and our triceps and then finished it off with some pull-ups. 

As you know, these exercises, when strung together, will be more effective and efficient at making you strong if you are mindful of the amount of time you’re resting. You can’t be going in there, feeling some pain in a set, and then stopping for a few minutes because your muscles will be comfortable again. 

Let it burn. Embrace the pain. Whenever you’re feeling pain, that’s when you’re getting money! That’s when your muscles are being forced to adapt and adjust to become the challenge. There’s really no other secret to strong muscle building other than that. 

Listen, y’all, we’re all creatures of habit. With that in mind, you should strive to make it a habit to push yourself in the gym. You’ve heard me say this before: what we do in the gym transcends the gym. How you push yourself in the gym will actually trickle down to whatever you do in life. 

Exercise #1: Bicep Curls

Do 7 reps from the bottom to midpoint. Then, 7 reps from the top to midpoint. And then, instead of doing 7 reps three times in a row, burn out—all the way to failure—with a full range of motion. 

Listen, you shouldn’t go in the gym thinking Imma do 3 sets of 10 or something like that. If you feel like you got to the money in 2 sets, then you got to the money, and you move on. 

I’m about efficiency in the gym. I go in, warm-up, then get so something heavy, and then I knock out as many reps as I can with that heavyweight. If I feel like I put the proper amount of stress in my muscles, then I’m good, and I move onto what’s next. 

Exercise #2: Skull Crushers

Exercise #3: Closed-Grip Press

Exercise #4: Preacher Curls

Exercise #5: Dumbbell Overhead Tricep Extension

Exercise #6: Single-Arm Preacher Curl

How To Get Bigger Biceps: My Bicep Ascencion 

Imma be honest with you: if you do all of the exercises above being mindful of resting times, and pushing your body to its limits, then you’re good to go! Don’t do anything else because otherwise, you might be stretching yourself too thin.

So, what you’re about to see can be something you do another day. This is something that I do with my private coaching clients. But, I wanted to include it here so that y’all can see the type of stuff that you’ll get access to in addition to the training and nutrition program. 

I’ll be using certain weights that make it challenging for me. You can adjust according to your physical capabilities. Remember, your bodies are great at adjusting and adapting, so it’s up to you to keep your body outside its comfort zone. 

My bicep ascension consisted of three different sets. Set one at 65, set two at 85, and set three at 105. I knocked out ten reps with each weight and then when through it again right away. Here’s a video for clarity:

As you can see, it was very challenging for me. We keep it real around here—no editing!

This is hard. But that’s how you get stronger. My training is all about finding ways to make the body uncomfortable to develop think-dense, high-quality muscle that won’t go away in a few days as happens to people who develop show muscles. 

Go try this during your next workout and then let me know how it goes in the comments!

Building Muscle Day 2: Chest And Arms Supersets

We’re gonna do a couple supersets for chest and arms. I’ll walk you through a bench press progression on the way up, and, in between sets, you’ll knock out some bicep curls. 

The whole idea here is to stress your muscles so that they become stronger and grow. So, be honest with yourself when choosing the weight. Use something for your bicep curls that is challenging but not so heavy that you can only knock out a couple of reps. 

Also, be mindful of how much you’re resting. I did this with my friend  @Mactrucc_Wesboxley, and we were resting while the other was knocking out his superset. So, you’ll do your chest exercises and immediately jump into your biceps exercise. 

Then, you’ll rest while your partner gets the same thing done. Now, if you’re alone, pretend you have a partner and rest for as long as it would’ve taken your partner to complete the set. 

Superset #1: Flat Bench/Bicep Curls (Dumbbell)

We’ll first start with the flat bench supersetted with some dumbbell bicep curls. I’ll leave our weights below for reference. But, simply adjust them to your physical capability.

Remember, this is a superset. We’re not really touching our max weights or even getting close to them. We’re looking to lift heavy but not our heaviest so that we can knock out a shit ton of reps, you know what I’m saying? 

Flat Bench

• Set 1: 45 on each side 
• Set 2: 90 on each side 
• Set 3: 135 on each side 
• Set 4 (TOP): 145 on each side 

Bicep Curls (Dumbbells)

Superset #2: Decline Bench/Bicep Curl (Resistance Band & Bar)

For the second superset, go to the decline bench. This exercise engages the lower part of your chest really good. This time we supersetted it with a couple of bicep exercises. First, we went into bicep curls with a resistance band. Then, we immediately went into bicep curls with the bar. 

Once again, be mindful of the weight you’re using. We’re building muscle density and endurance here. You don’t want to be lifting anything close to your max because otherwise, you’d be done in just a couple of sets. There’s a time for that, but not today! 

Decline Bench

• Set 1: 90 on each side 
• Set 2: 90 on each side 
• Set 3 (TOP): 135 on each side 

Bicep Curls (Band)

Bicep Curls (Bar)

This is a quick but extremely effective workout. Even though you shouldn’t get close to your max reps in any of your exercises, your muscles will be in constant stress for a considerable amount of time. To put it in other words, you’ll never give your muscles any significant time to recover. 

So, they will always be under constant pressure to have to perform again, and again and again. Like I said in the beginning, this may seem simple on paper. In fact, for too many of you, it may have looked simple. But, trust me, it wasn’t simple. We were both feeling it and got a really good pump out of it. 

Now go try this today and let me know in the comments how you did! 

Building Muscle Day 3: Flat Bench Press Pyramid Progression

Imma walk you through a classic pyramid progression for chest that is great for beginners, intermediate, and advanced levels. I always preach about sticking to the basics, and the following bench press progression is a great example of it.

This is what I do personally. It’s the same progression I’ve refined over the years for optimal results. Listen, I’ve worked on this to gain strength, put on mass and size, and gain overall functionality to the point where I hit a double bodyweight max when I was 225 (that’s a 500-pound bench press). 

The Ultimate Bench Press Pyramid 

Listen, you shouldn’t be off of the flat bench, or whichever is your day’s primary movement, in 4-5 sets. You haven’t done enough. Especially when you’re just getting started, and you’re trynna build that foundation. 

I’ve been training for over 25 years, so I have the luxury of having a great foundation and strength that I’ve built up over the years that I can do a 5 set progression and call it a day.

But, I prefer to do what I can do—to push myself to and past my limits so that I can keep getting stronger. And, that’s what I want y’all to do as well. 

Avoid Making This Mistake

You wanna start out really light and without going crazy. I used to go all out on every set trynna get to the heavy set. But, what I didn’t realize at the time is that I was burning myself all the way out before I got as heavy as I could get. 

You don’t wanna do that because the heavier you get at the top of your pyramid, the more reps you’ll knock out with heavier weight. This means that you’ll be able to cause more trauma to your muscles, which is great for getting stronger. 

Progression Numbers On The Way Up

• Set 1: 135 pounds, 10 reps 
• Set 2: 225 pounds, 5 reps 
• Set 3: 275 pounds, 3 reps 
• Set 4: 315 pounds, 2 reps 
• Set 5: 365 pounds, 2 reps
• Set 6 (top set): 415 pounds, 2 reps

Ok, so I hit my top set at 415 pounds. You gotta be conservative on your reps on the way up because the top set is really heavy, and you need all your energy for that.

The more weight you press, the more trauma you cause to your muscles—and the more trauma you cause to your muscles, the bigger and stronger they grow back when the tissue repairs. Pretty simple, isn’t it? 

Progression Numbers On The Way Down

On the way down, things change up a little. Now we don’t need to be conservative with our reps. In fact, we want to knock out as many reps as we can on every set. For this, we’ll use the same weight that we used on the way up. 

• Set 1: 365 pounds, 5 reps 
• Set 2: 315 pounds, 12 reps 
• Set 3: 275 pounds, 13 reps 
• Set 4: 225 pounds, 15 reps 

Go try this out on your next chest day and let me know how it goes in the comments! 

Building Muscle Day 4: Full Chest Destruction

Before we get into the details, I want to mention something ONCE AGAIN. I’m about building nice, dense, high-quality muscle that stays with you even if you can’t work out for a few days. 

I had to stop lifting for a few months due to an injury, and I still looked good. Sure, I Iost some mass, but since I’ve focused on building dense muscle for a long time, I was able to retain it while not lifting. 

On the other hand, if you take as an example people who just focus on building show muscles, you’ll see that if they get injured, or something happens that forces them to stop lifting for a month or so, when they come back, they’ll look like a completely different person. Alright, let’s get into it.

The Workout: Triple Threat Challenge 

Warm-up to *Your* 315 

Warm-up to build yourself up to *your* 315. You don’t need a lot of weight for this. Just use something that is somewhat challenging to get your body ready. 

Start with some nice and easy reps. Then, progressively start increasing the weight until you get to your desired weight. In this case, ours was 315. For you, it may be more, or it may be less. Simply be honest with yourself and adjust accordingly. 

For reference, our approximate average body weight is 230. We were looking to warm-up to 315 to start our drop sets. 230 is about 135% of our combined average bodyweight so just do the math!

Benchpress: The Triple Threat Challenge 

The challenge is simple. Once you warm yourself up to the ideal weight, what you’ll do goes as follows: 

• Set 1: 315, 5 reps 
• Set 2: 225, 10 reps 
• Set 3: 135, 15 reps 
• Set 4: 335, to failure 
• Set 5: 315, to failure 

Now don’t be going out there and doing this with shitty technique because you’ll get injured. If you’re unsure as to how to benchpress the right way, go check out this benchpress tutorial for beginners I made. You know me. I’m all about developing proper foundations. I recommend you think the same way. 

Bonus Exercises To Make Sure You Destroy Your Chest 

After the Triple Threat Challenge, you should be feeling that stupid pump already, and that’s great! That feeling means your body is responding and is, therefore, adapting. Or, in other words, you’re getting stronger.

But that shouldn’t be it. You should get at least a couple more exercises in so that you take advantage of that stupid pump and continue to further develop strength and endurance. So, go ahead and get some sets of the following exercises: 

Exercise #1: Plate-Loaded Incline

Exercise #2: Cable Crossover 

Killer Finisher (Optional)

If you’re feeling it, go ahead and knock out one set of Warrior Push-ups. At this point, most likely, you won’t be able to do all of these push-ups unbroken but try to do so. And, if you’re not able to, try to get back at it as quick as possible. After all, one set should be just about 35 push-ups in total. 

Go try this today and let me know how you felt in the comments!

Building Muscle Day 5: Back & Triceps

Imma walk you through a killer back workout with some triceps today. These sort of exercises can be very effective if you do them the right way. What’s the right way? You gotta superset them. Don’t be going into the gym thinking you’ll do 4 sets of 10 of each exercise, and that’s it. 

That’s what lots of people do and then complain because they don’t see results. You gotta be going in embracing the mindset of doing hard things to get stronger. Going to the gym to do what you’re used to doing won’t do much for you. So, superset these exercises and welcome the pain. Remember, when it’s hurting, that’s when you’re getting money! 

Exercises To Get A Strong Back 

Exercise #1: Bent Over Dumbbell Rows

Exercise #2: Pull-Ups

Exercise #3: Tricep Rows

Exercise #4: One-Handed Lat Pull-Down

Exercise #5: T-Bar Rows

Exercise #6: Closed Bar Rows

Exercise #7: Dumbbell Skull Crusher

Bonus: How To Get Strong At Pull-Ups

If you’re in the process of getting strong at doing pull-ups, don’t use a band. The band provides too much help, which prevents your body from becoming stronger.

Just ask someone to help you a little. Tell them to give you just enough help so that you can get one or two more reps in while giving all of your effort. 

The Secret To Getting Stronger 

You gotta learn to keep going. You must push yourself so that you can convince yourself that you can do it. Listen, your mind is gonna try to convince you that you’ve done enough. But, that’s because it’s avoiding the stress—it’s an instinctual reaction. 

However, if you force through, it will activate another instinctual reaction: adapt and adjust, or in other words, get stronger. Always remember, when it hurts is when you’re actually getting money! Reps that hurt are the ones that count the most! 

Embrace this way of thinking, and I guarantee you that you will get stronger both physically and mentally. This is the sort of mentality that builds character.

This is why I always say that what we do in the gym transcends the gym. We’re in there, strengthening our will! Our physique is just a consequence of this. 

Go try these exercises and let me know how you feel about them in the comments! 

Building Muscle Day 6: More Back & Triceps

Hey y’all, just to be clear, you don’t need to be doing anything on here in order. You can jump from day 2 in the How To Get Shredded section and then jump to day 5 in the How To Build Muscle Section.

With this said, I’m giving you some more back and triceps today. But, don’t be doing this on back to back days. If you’re going in and destroying your muscle fibers, you gotta give your muscles some time to rest and recover.

So, imma give you 3 super sets mainly to work your back and we will throw in some triceps as well. Here we go.

Super Set #1: Set 1 Pull-ups & Tricep Extensions

We’ll start out with pull-ups super setted with tricep extensions. If you can’t do pull-ups yet, keep trying every day. Get to your maximum effort even if that means you can only do one pull up. 

Remember, if you keep trying and putting your body in an uncomfortable situation, your body will adapt—that’s how you get stronger! If, on the other hand, you just go until it burns a little bit, you won’t get much out of that. 

Then we move immediately into tricep extensions. With Allegra, we knocked out 15 reps but just adjust if you need to. Be honest with yourself. Use enough weight so that you’re able to get 15 reps but not too easily. 

Super Set #2: Romanian Deadlifts & Bent Over Barbell Rows 

The next set is Romanian Deadlifts super setted with Bent Over Barbell Rows. For these two, you wanna be very mindful of your posture. Deadlifts can be really bad for your back if you don’t. 

For Deadlifts, sit nice and straight but bend your knees a little bit. Then, let the bar slide down your legs. Go slowly on the way down and then be explosive on the way up. Then, for the other exercise, bend your back but keep it straight and go into a nice and easy row movement. 

We’re gonna do 5 reps of Deadlifts and 5 reps of Bent Over Barbell Rows, and we’re gonna do this 3 times each. Adjust the weight to where your effort isn’t too much because we’re dealing with the back here, so it’s not like we need tons of weight, and we also need to be careful. 

Super Set #3: Set 3 Lat Pull-down & Tricep Extensions 

For the third set, we’ll do Lat Pull-downs super setted with Tricep Extensions. For the Lat Pull-downs, when you pull, you need to let it come up nice and easy because otherwise, you’re just letting gravity do its work. But when you come down, you wanna be explosive. 

You wanna feel something similar for the tricep extensions. When coming up, don’t just let the weight do the work—resist it a little bit. Then, on the way down, be explosive. 

Again, use enough weight so that this is challenging for you. You gotta be honest with yourself. No one but you will know if that last rep is hard for you, so it’s up to you whether you want to make it hard or easy. 

Go try these supersets today and let me know how you feel about them in the comments!

Building Muscle Day 7: Leg Day Baby

So before jumping into leg day, I wanna talk to you about squatting. Squatting is one of the best things you could do. If you only had one exercise you could do, it should be the squat. The reason is that squatting is a total body muscle builder—it engages your entire body! 

It’s not easy. It’s intimidating to have that much weight on your back. So, I feel like it’s also a metaphor to life—heavy stuff trynna push you down, but you stand your ground and resist. 

So, let’s go through this movement’s basics to make sure you’re doing it properly for optimal results and avoid potential injuries due to mediocre technique.

How To Squat With Proper Form To Avoid Injury 

Let’s start with a typical standard back squat. You should already be efficient at doing it with at least your body weight, although we’re trying to lift a little bit more. But hey, we all gotta start somewhere, so it’s alright if you get started with just bodyweight and start working your way up. 

Racking Off The Weight

When you rack the weight off, you wanna take two steps back. These steps don’t have to be too long. But, make them nice and stable. Once you take these two steps back, you’ll be ready to go after it. 

Why only two steps? That should be enough for you to be the right distance away from the rack. Anything more than two steps just shows you’re not confident, and you wanna be confident, not for people watching you but for yourself. You gotta show yourself that you’re confident. Take those two steps back and then get after it. 

Getting After It

When you squat, you’re not just dropping straight down. The first thing that you should do is move your hips backward and push your knees out. The reason you wanna do this is that it takes the pressure off of your knees. Then, you go down in a controlled manner and explode on the way up.

To get into your proper squat form, don’t think legs. Think hips and knees. You can’t just start by dropping down because you’ll get injured—perhaps not right away, but over time you will trust me. 

Pretend you’re sitting down on a chair to move your hips back. That’s how you should always start the movement. See below for clearer reference. 

Then, push your knees out. At this point, the weight should be on your heels. Feeling the weight on your heels will protect your knees by allowing them to bow out just the right amount. This is how you alleviate the stress on your knees.

Squatting Leg Day

There are different ways to squat. Let me show you some of them so that you can go and try them out and get stronger and stronger. 

Exercise #1: Goblet Squat

Goblet Squats help you stay in perfect form. You have the weight in front of you, and it’s a counterbalance. The majority of your weight is in the back, and it drops you down into a perfect position. 

Exercise #2: Weighted Jump Squat

This is one of my favorite types of squats. Jump Squats are great for burning more fat. We do them all the time in Alpha Shred Challenge Workouts. You can do them with or without weight. 

Exercise #3: Standard Dumbbell Squat

Just hold the dumbbells down at a neutral position, and get after it. Here you still wanna be very conscious of your form even if you’re not lifting a lot of weight. Remember, it’s all about building a proper foundation—everything else comes after. 

Again, reps and resting time is up to you. Only you will know if your heart rate is high enough so that your body is never comfortable. Only you will know if that last rep you got in challenged you. Be honest with yourself—if you want to see killer results.

Go try this out on your own and let me know how it goes in the comments! 

The Bottom Line: You Gotta Train Like A Savage

Listen, this is how I train. I just gave you enough workouts for you to be busy for a while. This training style and mindset are not for weennies. If you just wanna do a couple of sets here and there and shoot it on your phone, this is not for you. And that’s alright—this is not for everybody. 

This is for people who wanna develop a solid foundation. People who wanna increase functionality, strength, and endurance. In this type of training, you develop quality muscle—dense, thick, high-quality muscle, alright? 

If you’re serious about this, you gotta train this way. This style of training is life-changing. These types of workouts combined with good nutrition will produce results in very short periods of time.

But that can only be guaranteed if you’re willing to push yourself to your limits—if you’re willing to embrace a mindset of being ok with pushing through pain.

Whether you decide to join me for the upcoming Alpha Shred Challenge or not, I’d still love to help you out—that’s why I created this giant post! So, feel free to ask questions in the comments, squad!

With much love,

Mike Rashid King