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"Working Class Cardio Workout"

How about a cardio workout that doesn't need a gym, machines, or even running?

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"Championship Edition 2.0 MMA Workout"

The MMA Workout Program designed for a UFC Champ...

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Gymboss Timer

Simply put, a kick-ass little workout timer that's small and easy to carry, easy to use, and even easier on the wallet!

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"Eat, Stop, Eat"

The best book on Intermittent Fasting on the internet - it's how I eat!

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GI Nutrition

The only supplement company Wiggy has ever endorsed. All-natural ingredients, great tasting, and most of all, it WORKS!
Use the promo code WIGGY to get 10% off!

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Adaptation is one of the most basic instincts in all living creatures. It is the ability to adapt to surroundings and environment that allows a creature to survive. Adaptation can be looked at in many ways – long term, short term, individual, an entire species, etc. What we're going to look at is how adaptation to strength and conditioning can help make us better fighters, and how to manipulate adaptation to benefit us most.

Adaptation, to give it a simple definition for us humans, is the ability of the body to deal with uncomfortability.

The human body is a naturally very lazy creature. Whether or consciously or unconsciously, our body is always trying to find the easiest way to do things – the “path of least resistance” if you will. Why? Because this is (usually) what will ultimately lead to an easier, safer time and in turn a longer life.

When we want to excel in something, we have to train. Training puts our bodies in a state of uncomfortability, and thus our bodies get into better shape so that training isn't as uncomfortable.

Eas example - you decide that you need to improve your cardiovascular conditioning, so you start doing basic cardio workouts consisting of simple jogging. You start off jogging a mile, and when you're done, you're breathing hard, your heart is pumping fast, and your legs burn. However, after you keep practicing this by repeating such demands on your cardiovascular and cardio-respiratory system, your lungs and heart will adapt so that jogging a mile is no longer such a labored effort.

You've just adapted.

However, because you've adapted, you're now in a state of comfortability (per se), so you need to push your body back into uncomfortability to keep your body adapting and progressing. Now, it's time to either increase the distance of your jog, or to increase the speed of how fast you jog that same mile.

We now know that the body adapted to this cardio workout because you made it adapt by constantly putting it in a state of uncomfortability. But what if you took the opposite approach?

What if going for a jog a few times per week, let's say that you only went for a jog once every few weeks or so? Do you think you'd adapt then? Of course not. The body wouldn't be uncomfortable enough.

But what if you took a completely different approach? Let's say you kept the body uncomfortable, but you constantly did it in a different way. Instead of doing the same cardio workouts each time, you did something different with every workout.

So, maybe one day you'd go for a jog. The next workout, you'd do some sprints. The day after that would be circuits of bodyweight calisthenics. That sort of thing.

After a while of this, you go back to your jog, and find you'd likely improved - even though you hadn't done much actual jogging. But you wouldn't be better at jogging than if you had just done the jogging and that's it.

You see, there is a line between too much adaptation and not enough. If you have too much adaptation, you quit progressing. If you don't have enough, you never actually get better at anything.

Now, with varied cardio workouts like this, there are two ways to look at it. First, is your cardio improving? In this sort of "randomized" scenario, the answer would likely still be "yes". However, your performance on the jogging itself would likely suffer. So this is where you have to strictly define what your goals are - to simply improve your cardio (say for health reasons) or to actually improve your jogging (say for the sake of running a race).

There are a lot of different workout protocols out there that are based on, more or less, confusion. By keeping the body constantly guessing, the idea goes, it never completely adapts, and is constantly progressing. This can be as little or as much random activity as you like – everywhere from just picking different exercises every time you work a bodypart, to doing completely random workouts, with no set protocol to it.

There is a certain amount of validity to this. However, I feel it can be taken too far. At some point, you go from “keeping the body guessing” to “keeping the body confused.”

Think of it like this – say you were studying for a test. You could re-write your notes, re-listen to lectures, make flash-cards, etc. Now, if you were to mix and match all these different learning styles, that might work if you were studying for one test in one subject. However, apply it to a different test in a different subject everyday, and you never really study enough to retain like you should. Sure, you'll retain and remember some of the info, but not nearly enough as another method of studying might let you do.

Well, random training treats the body the same way. You need a certain amount of adaptation, so that you can progress on your training. Sure, the cardio workouts are always hard, but are you getting better at it?

I once read a professional strength coach (I'm not sure who it was) write that (and I'm paraphrasing here) “Anybody could beat the hell out of their trainees. It takes an intelligent coach to make them better.”

I agree.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.

"As a trainer and coach myself, I know not only what works but what people
will actually do. There is an art and science to physical change and peak
performance. Matt Wiggins program does it all. It is fast, effective and you will feel like a complete bad ass when you're done. This is the type of training that that isn't all show and no go...it will create both the show and the go! Scientific, Fun, and Manly. Love it!"
Billy Beck III
-2x MET-Rx World's Best Personal Trainer
-Personal Fitness Professional Magazine Trainer of the Year

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"Not just for the guys! The thing I like about Matt’s workout is that it’s simple. That doesn’t mean it’s not hard! It’s intense! It makes you feel like you’ve worked. And if you work at it, you’ll get results. I like the format and the progressions each week. Having done the workout myself and tested it on both my male and female clients, I can say it’s not a workout that’s just for guys. I really encourage women to give it a go, as much as I encourage guys. The fact that you need minimal equipment and only a small area in which to work really eliminates any excuse not to give it a go!"
Eve Gillard
Melbourne, Australia
Executive Master Trainer
www.cardiocafe.com.au

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"It's 'cardio' that moves you... beyond the boring, sitting there crap...it's your body in steady motion... burning and shaping..."

Shawn Phillips
author, "Strength For Life"
creator, "Full Strength" performance nutrition

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"Wiggy is one trainer who knows how to combine complex training for the average person as well as elite athletes..."

Dave "Scooter" Honig
Celebrity Trainer to Rapper/Actor LL Cool J
co-author, "LL Cool J's Platinum Workout"

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"Hi Matt - You are a much needed voice of reason in the strength and conditioning field. Keep up the great work."



Alwyn Cosgrove
www.alwyncosgrove.com

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"First thing that I've got to say is that I lost 5 pounds in the first 1.5 weeks of your program...that's definately the workout I would follow before my official fight...the combination of posterior and anterior chain exercises various other sportsmen would find useful because of the amount of cleans and pushes combined with anaerobic circuits."
Nikolay Ryzhkov
Ukraine

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"...after 2 weeks of the cardio program, the biggest thing that I’ve noticed is that my resting heartbeat is down about 3 beats per minutes. I’m down a couple of pounds as well. My energy level appears to be higher (I’ve got twin 4 year olds, so keeping my energy level high is very important)...At 43 years old I’m not concerned with being the biggest or the strongest, just being in the best overall athlete I can be."
Rick Eklof
masters (age 40+) Highland Games competitor

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"I have been a loyal customer of Wiggy's for 2 years now, and I’m so confident in anything that Wiggy puts out, that I will guarantee you it will work. I’m in my early 30’s and can honestly say I’m in the best shape of my life and getting better. The new "Working Class Cardio Workout" is AWESOME. If you want to get into real shape then look no further. Like any workout you will only get what you put into it. No, it’s not easy but you wouldn’t be reading this if you wanted to look like everyone else at the gym. Like Wiggy always says “Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard”. So pick it up, do what he says and you to will look better, feel better, and believe in him like I do. God bless and good luck."
Aaron Bonafede

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"I'm Aaron's Bonafede little brother, and we have been devout followers of your amazing strength and conditioning programs for at least two years. They truly have transformed my body into a work horse of a machine. I am a Firefighter who also does some Jiu Jitsu on the side. I have been asked/told by more than one person, 'How are you so strong?' or 'Do you ever get tired?' With the 'cardio workout' theme I decided to keep the rest (wait there is no time to rest between all of those wood choppers) to a minimum. By the time I was finished with the first workout, I had soaked through a shirt and had to answer more questions then normal as to what exactly I was doing. I knew it was another winner. I am confident this program will take anybody's cardio and strength to the next level and beyond. Thanks again for new ass kicking programs."
Matt Bonafede

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