Join our Facebook group to receive daily workout reminders, talk to other women tackling the four-week challenge, and even ask Dowdell questions along the way! Head over to the Women’s Health Facebook page for all the details.

Whether you’ve been cranking out sweat sessions all spring or you haven’t set foot inside the gym in months, right now is the perfect time to shake things up. And we’ve got the perfect twist.

Dynamic, explosive workouts—what experts refer to as “power” or “reactive” training—use leaps and bounds and jumps and throws to build functional strength and boost your athleticism. They also engage more muscles with every rep and teach your nervous system to recruit those muscles faster, which helps burn more calories during your workout—and for hours after as well. Consider them your express ticket to a humming metabolism and a lean, strong bod.

Excited? Intimidated? Not to worry. “A lot of people feel daunted by the speed of some of the moves, which is totally understandable,” says Joe Dowdell, owner of the Dowdell Fitness Systems online coaching program.

Our four-week challenge isn’t about endless burpees and box jumps. Instead, we’re setting you up with doable moves that naturally build momentum as you work your way through the plan, so you feel stronger and fitter and more confident, all summer long.

This exclusive power-training program was created by Dowdell to inject the right dose of fitness dynamite to deliver smokin’ results. You’ll complete three sessions each week on nonconsecutive days, alternating between workout A and workout B.

You’ll also pencil in one full rest day per week and use the other three days for your choice of activity—a workout at your favorite fitness studio, a game of catch with the kiddos, a long run, or a little extra active recovery.

Here’s the breakdown:

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The switch-up of strength moves throughout the week is clutch for this plan’s success: Both workouts are a spin on what’s known as Post-Activation Potentiation (or PAP), in which you perform a strength-based exercise just before a power-based one with a similar movement pattern.

Yet each has a slightly different emphasis (workout A focuses on linear movements, workout B focuses on multidirectional ones). This helps you squeeze more muscle power out of every sweat session. To complete workouts A and B, just follow the moves in order. Do the first two moves, repeat those for a total of three sets, and then do three sets of the second pair of moves—and finally three sets of the third pair of moves (for nine rounds total).

Here’s workout A:

And then workout B:

Join our Facebook group to receive daily workout reminders, talk to other women tackling the four-week challenge, and even ask Dowdell questions along the way! Head over to the Women’s Health Facebook page for all the details.

This article originally appeared in the June 2018 issue of Women’s Health magazine. For more great workouts, pick up a copy on newsstands now!

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