If you’re following any of the carb cycles featured in our book, Choose More, Lose More for Life, Shredders are the final component in the exercise part of these cycles. And when combined with 9-Minute Missions, both work to burn fat and increase fitness. These exercises are called Shredders because that?s exactly what they do?they shred the fat off your body! In fact, Shredders maximize your calorie use so you literally burn 200, 400, 800?even up to 1,000 more calories a day than you would without them!

The goal with Shredders is to move your muscles and raise your heart rate for a prolonged period of time. To put it simply, the longer you move, the more calories you burn. But don?t worry, you won?t have to spend hours on the treadmill or doing some other type of cardio workout to be successful, because Shredders make it possible for you to reach your weight loss and fitness goals in the least amount of time possible. Sound good?

Shredders are made up of two training principles: Ups and downs and power surges. With ups and downs, otherwise known as interval training, you exercise at two different intensity levels?low and high. The idea behind power surges is to step up your cardio training every week, so your workout is constantly changing. Incorporating both ups and downs and power surges into your workouts tricks your body and keeps it at peak calorie burning capacity throughout your workout and for the rest of the day. Your body doesn?t stand a chance of becoming acclimated with this program, so you don?t have to worry about slowing rates of fat loss or weight-loss plateaus! Awesome, right?! 🙂

While Shredders do vary from week to week, each workout has these common components:

• Shredders are done five days a week sometime during the day after your 9-Minute Mission is completed. They don?t have to be done at any set time, so they can be worked into any schedule, no matter how busy that schedule is.
• Shredders begin at 5 minutes, work up to 20 minutes by the end of month 1, 40 minutes by the end of month 2, and 60 minutes by the end of month 3.
• You get to pick the activities you do, and you don?t even have to stick to one activity each workout?you can do multiple activities in the same workout!
• While there are four different Shredding protocols, the work out pattern for each is the same: Shred at low intensity for a set period of time, then Shred at high intensity for the same set period of time, repeating low and high for the total duration of that Shredder for that day.
• While the eventual goal is to Shred for 60 minutes each day, five minutes of Shredding is always your promise to yourself every. single. day. Only five minutes. Everyone can find five minutes during the day to do some Shredders! Of course, the more minutes you spend Shredding, the faster you?ll reach your goals.

So…let?s get Shredding! 🙂

Learn even more about Shredders?including instructions and weekly schedules?in our book, Choose More, Lose More for Life.