An Athletic Workout is a style of workout that's modeled on the training used by many athletes. It typically incorporates these characteristics:

• A lot of variety, keeping the body continually challenged, and keeping you from getting bored.
• Compound exercises that involve multiple muscle groups in a single exercise, which has a lot more practical value than working on one isolated muscle at a time.
• High intensity, with either no rests between sets and exercises, or very brief rests.
• Excellent use of time - these workouts are only 20-30 minutes long, and they make maximum use of every second.
• They work on both strength and endurance simultaneously.

What's a typical workout like?

Well, as noted above, there's a lot of variety, so there's no typical routine, and I don't want to run afoul of copyright by cut & pasting from a published workout. So I'll make up an example workout to give you an idea. Do you know what a "burpee" is? It's where you jump in the air, then go down into a pushup/plank position, do a pushup, then jump up into a squat and jump up into the air again. How about a "dumbbell pushup with row"? This is where you hold a dumbbell in each hand in a pushup position, do a pushup, then a row with each arm. In addition to the arms, shoulders and back, you'll feel this in your abs and legs as you stabilize your balance during the row. Of course you know what a pull-up is. Now imagine pressing dumbbells above your head while doing lunges. Search youtube to see examples of these. Okay. Now imagine doing a set of each of these exercises (e.g. 10-12 of each), without a break between them, and call that a "series" (for lack of a better term). Now, repeat the series, say, half a dozen times, resting for no more than a minute between each repeat of the series. The muscles in your shoulders, torso, abs & core and legs will all get an intense workout. You'll be breathing and sweating really hard. And you'll be done in about 20 minutes. So go cool down, take a shower, have a healthy snack and get on with the rest of your day with plenty of time to spare. The next day's workout will be completely different. NOTE that this example I just gave isn't necessarily in any particular workout program - I just concocted it to give you a reasonable impression of how dynamic and intense this sort of workout is. (i.e. don't try it - just imagine it, then go and get a properly designed program).

You can watch plenty of examples of athletic workout exercises on YouTube (there's a link in the links section below). Some of these are from vendors of workout routines. Others are from enthusiasts. There's a lot of interesting stuff here. However, while you'll see some good exercises, you won't see much in the way of whole routines. If you know a lot about fitness, I suppose you could plan out your own workout routine. Just don't stop at one, or you'll adapt quickly and plateau. Make sure you plan a lot of different routines incorporating different exercises, and leave plenty of time to recover between workouts, e.g. by inserting active recovery days, interval running days, etc.

In my opinion, it's a lot easier just to buy a well-planned workout from a qualified trainer. A lot of the written information you'll find on the web on this topic is a little too sales-ey for my tastes, but hopefully this will change as this type of workout becomes more mainstream. I've included some links below (disclosure: one of them is a link to a blog written by me, where I provide my opinion on various programs).

So, what kind of results will you get?

An athletic workout will result in a lean, strong body, with well-defined muscles and lots of energy. Because of physiological differences between men and women, men will tend to get more muscular results, whereas women will tend to get toned. This is a generalization, but it should give you an idea.

Can you do it at home or do you need a gym membership?

Another benefit of this sort of workout is that you can do an athletic workout program at home, without joining a gym. You'll need a set of dumbbells, an interval timer (e.g. most stopwatches have these), and a pull-up bar. I also recommend a mat to do floor work on. If you have the space, a barbell & weights will be useful too, but not essential. Of course, if you want to do this sort of workout in a gym, that works too - just head to the free weights room, since you won't need the fancy machines. There are various pre-designed athletic workout programs available on the market that you can download and start right away.

Is an athletic workout right for you?

I don't know :-) But I bet that an athletic workout meets the fitness goals of lots of people.

You don't need to be a semi-pro athlete, professional model or Hollywood trainer. Just a regular guy or gal who likes to be healthy and fit, and is interested in practical techniques that work well. If you're happy to work hard to get results, but I want your workouts to make effective use of your time, because you have plenty of other things I need to fit into your day, this type of routine may work for you.

If you want to know more, or have an experience or tip you'd like to share, please leave a comment below. The best way for me to provide information that's useful to readers of this page is to respond to feedback. Thanks.