Most athletes have multiple fitness goals. They want to get fit, build muscle, get stronger, and lose fat, usually at the same time. Invariably, this involves doing several different types of exercises, like lifting weights one day and doing cardio the next.
While this training approach certainly works, it can be time consuming. And when time is short, workouts are often the first casualty. We have all said, at some point, “I can’t go to the gym today, I’ll catch up on my training another time.”
And while some people can make up for lost training, most never do.
Most athletes can afford to miss the occasional workout and still make progress. But, skip more than a couple, and your progress will start to plateau, and you may even start to regress and lose some of your hard-earned fitness.
So what if there was a force, hypertrophy, metconand fat loss workout that you could only do three times a week and it would take 30 minutes or less?
Sounds too good to be true, right?
But, before you dismiss this as hyperbole, take a look at the 3×3 training.
This high-intensity training program will help you reach all of your fitness goals in twice the time. However, that brevity comes at a price, as 3×3 workouts are HARD!
But, if you’re up for a challenge, 3×3 training will produce the results you want in less than 90 minutes of training per week.
What is the 3×3 Training?
In essence, 3×3 is a High intensity Y Circuit Weight Training (CWT). However, unlike most circuits, it has been reduced to just three exercises and three laps, which is where the name 3×3 comes from.
The 3×3 starts with a compound leg exercise, followed by an upper body push and an upper body pull, or vice versa. Between them, these three exercises work most of the major muscles, including the arms and abs. However, these smaller body parts are trained indirectly.
For example:
- squats
- dominated
- bench press
Each exercise is taken to failure and you do three laps of the exercises without stopping. So, that’s nine non-stop sets or about 20 minutes of work.
Regarding repetitions, you should choose weights that allow you to start with around 20 repetitions for the leg exercise and 12 repetitions for the leg exercise. upper body exercise. The high rep leg workout it will get your heart rate up and provide the metcon aspect of this workout.
However, because you’ll be driving each exercise to failure, your reps will likely drop as you progress through the nine sets.
That means, from start to finish, your 3×3 workout will end up looking like this:
- squats x20
- dominated x12
- bench press x12
- Squats x 15
- Pull-ups x 10
- bench press x 10
- Squats x 12
- Pull-ups x 8
- Bench press x 8
To ensure that you train all your muscles equally, your next 3×3 workout, usually done 2-3 days later, would use three different exercises, for example:
you can make up three 3×3 workouts per weeksuch as Monday, WednesdayY Friday. It’s not a good idea to do them on consecutive days as you need some time to recover.
Once you’ve completed your 3×3 workout, you can do a direct workout for your abs, arms, and calves. But in reality this is not essential and may not even be possible.
If you’ve taken each set to failure and gotten through all nine as fast as you can, there should be very little gas left in the tank for additional exercises.
Weekly Plan 3×3
You now have all the information you need to create your own 3×3 workouts, but to save you the trouble, here is a weekly training plan to follow.
Do each workout once a week, resting a day between each. Remember to take each set to failure and quickly jump from one exercise. Don’t rest more than necessary between exercises OR laps. Once training begins, it should be a straight run through all nine sets.
*Representatives are for illustrative purposes only. Use approximately your 20RM for leg exercises and your 12RM for upper body exercises. Take every set to failure, regardless of how many reps you perform.
Advantages and Benefits of 3×3 Training
Not sure if 3×3 training is for you? Consider these benefits and then decide!
More than one fact in 30 minutes – you should be able to complete a 3×3 workout in 20 minutes or less. So even with a ten-minute warm-up, you can be in and out of the gym in about half an hour. That’s a considerable time saver compared to most workouts, and you only need to work out three times a week.
full conditioning – despite only lasting 20 minutes, 3×3 workouts develop multiple fitness components simultaneously. If you want to be a fitness all-rounder but can’t spend a lot of time on different types of workouts, 3×3 might just be the time-efficient training approach you’ve been waiting for.
Burn fat and lose weight – because 3×3 workouts are so intense, each one will burn a lot of calories. However, that high intensity also triggers EPOC, which is short for Excess, Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption, and also known as the afterburn effect.
In simple terms, EPOC describes how, after a high-intensity workout, your metabolic rate remains elevated for many hours, leading to faster fat burning. Expect your heart rate to be higher than usual for several hours after you complete your 3×3 workout.
infinitely variable – As long as you follow the 3×3 workout legs/push and pull structure, you can create dozens, if not hundreds, of effective workouts. Your training never has to be boring or repetitive. You can also adapt this training method according to the training facilities available. It will work even in the worst equipped gym.
a hard workout – some people LOVE to suffer for fitness, and despite its brevity, the 3×3 workout is immensely demanding. If you like to push yourself to the max, you’ll probably enjoy the 3×3 workout.
Disadvantages and Disadvantages of 3×3 Training
As beneficial and effective as 3×3 training is, there are also a couple of drawbacks to consider…
monopolizing equipment – doing the 3×3 workout means hogging three pieces of exercise equipment for 20 minutes or so. That’s not a problem if you exercise on your own. garage gym, but it could be a problem if you train at a commercial gym. This exercise may not be practical or convenient when the gym is busy.
One way around this is to do a machine, dumbbells/barbellY body weight exercise 3×3 training. Take the dumbbells/barbell to the machine you want to use and do the entire workout without leaving that spot.
For example:
training to failure – 3×3 training is effective because it involves training to failure. Not just once or twice, but nine times in quick succession. As the old saying goes, you can train long or you can train hard, but you can’t do both!
Training to fail requires a particular mindset, and it’s very easy to think you’ve trained to fail when you haven’t. So in this case, training to failure means getting to a point where you physically can’t do any more reps, i.e. exhaustion. 3×3 is not for the faint-hearted!
This type of high-intensity training is painful, and you’ll have to deal with burning muscles, heaving lungs, and a racing heart. You may even feel sick. But that’s the price you have to pay if you want to do more in less (much less!) time.
You’ll also need a spotter for some exercises, especially squats and bench presses. If you plan to train alone, choose exercises you can most safely fail at, such as trap bar deadlifts and dips.
muscle imbalances – the simplified nature of 3×3 training means that you will not train all major muscle groups equally. Some minor muscles may not be trained at all. As such, this training method may not be ideal for competitive bodybuilders looking to develop a balanced and aesthetically pleasing physique.
However, if you’re more interested in function than appearance, the 3×3 workout should produce the results you want.
Starting weight designation can be tricky – you probably don’t know your 20RM for leg presses or your 12RM for bench presses. As such, you may find it difficult to determine which weights to use for your first few 3×3 workouts.
That said, you can make a fair estimate with a 1RM calculatorusing about 55% for leg exercise and 70% for upper body exercises.
However, truth be told, there is no need to be extremely precise when deciding on training weights. And you can adjust your weights for subsequent workouts based on your performance. However, as long as you take your sets to failure, this workout will produce results, even if you end up working outside of the recommended rep ranges.
3×3 training – Ending
The 3×3 workout is great for anyone who’s short on time and doesn’t want to do strength training and cardio separately. With this ultra-intense training method, you can build cardiovascular fitness and muscle strength/size simultaneously and with workouts that last 30 minutes or less.
3×3 is also a very effective fat loss workout.
That said, if you want to maximize hypertrophy or strength, or train for marathon running or other endurance sports, 3×3 may not be the workout for you. It’s just not specific enough.
But, for general athletes pressed for time, this type of training could help them achieve all of their fitness goals simultaneously and efficiently.
