SHIFT SHOP is anything but your average home workout program. Created by Super Trainer and former athlete Chris Downing, SHIFT SHOP — now available on Beachbody On Demand — was made with athletes in mind by challenging your agility, coordination, endurance and more. It was created to take you back to peak moments of your athletic training, or to elevate your fitness level beyond anything you’ve experienced before.
This is a three-week ramp-up fitness program consisting of strength and cardio workouts. And although they’re challenging, this is a program that anyone can do. For the strength workouts, you just need your bodyweight and a set of dumbbells. For the cardio workouts, you use the Beachbody Agility Markers as directional targets to help improve your reflexes and coordination. There’s also a nutrition plan paired with the workouts that gradually decreases your consumption of starchy carbs, to test your resolve and to push you to rethink your relationship with “comfort” food.
In week one, the workouts are 25 minutes long, and you eat a 40/30/30 balance of carbs, protein, and fat. Week two increases the workouts to 35 minutes and you cut back on starchy carbs. Finally, week three concludes with 45-minute workouts and removes starchy carbs from your diet completely, so carbs only make up 30 percent of your calories. And, if you still want more of a challenge, you can tackle the deluxe workouts, which are 50 minutes.
By gradually increasing the workout length and slowly removing starchy carbs from your diet, your body has time to adjust to the changes, making this challenging program more doable. This unique design makes SHIFT SHOP a program that anyone can do, no matter their fitness level.
“I didn’t want to create a program that would make a person feel like they didn’t belong or that would make them feel inadequate,” Downing says. Thanks to the ramp-up design of the program and a modifier who demonstrates lower-impact and less-intense options for each exercise, there have been people who have been overweight who still had much success with SHIFT SHOP.
Why Will the SHIFT SHOP Challenge You?
From the total-body moves to the rigorous nutrition plan, every aspect of SHIFT SHOP is designed to challenge you, both physically and mentally. But, here’s why it’s well worth your while to do it: even if you’re not in peak athletic shape, you can still transform your body and mind over the course of three weeks.
The Ramp-Up Method
This unique component of SHIFT SHOP helps you reach your goals by gradually training your body and mind for moves that increase in difficulty, and workouts that increase in length and intensity.
Chris likes to think of it as trying to get to the top of a mountain. “You work an additional 10-minutes per workout each week, and you want to get to that final week – the mountain top of the program,” he says. “This is challenging, but as you’re ramping up, you’re reinventing yourself the whole time. So by the time you get to the top of that mountain you’re in better shape mentally, physically, and emotionally.”
And instead of learning entirely new moves each week, the program builds on moves you’ve already learned, and combines them into compound moves. “Each week really sets you up for the next,” says Elanit Friedman, Beachbody’s Director of Fitness and Wellness. “You spend a week doing these movements, and right when your body is getting used to them, we intensify them.”
For example, in week one you might do a squat and a bicep curl separately, but in week two you do them in together, explains Friedman. “You’re not learning any new moves in week three, so you can push the intensity all the way up,” she says. “Since you already know the moves, you can push harder than you normally would.”
You’re Doing Cardio and Strength
This isn’t just a strength training program, and it’s not just and cardio program. It’s both. Each week, you alternate between cardio and strength workouts. The cardio workouts challenge your agility, coordination, and endurance, while the strength workouts help you build muscle. Both challenge your entire body, so no muscle gets left behind.
If you’re not used to using weights in your workouts, this is just another way that SHIFT SHOP will push your limits. “Using weights allows you to expand your exercise library,” Friedman says. “It’s fun, the moves are dynamic, and weights bring an added challenge into the mix.”
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