So I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I think about the gold standard of overall physical fitness, one of the first things I think about is the military and how there’s no way in Hell I could even come close to keeping up with their crazy six mile runs and whatnot. Their boot camp workouts just get these people into shape in every way shape and form, from muscle strength, to muscular endurance, to cardiovascular fitness. One of the really impressive things about this is that since the military trains in such large groups, they have very limited time in facilities to weight train. As a result, most of their workouts are body weight resistance based. Pushups, pullups, crunches, and distance running are the staples of the military workout. I’ve recently become a huge fan of the pullup and in my opinion it’s the best and hardest exercise you can do.

Anyway, one of the catch phrases in boot camp training is “muscle failure” and surprise, surprise, it means continuing to do an exercise until your muscles cannot physically do another rep. Here’s a good sample split:

Monday - Cardio - Run (2-3 miles)

Tuesday - Strength Training - Muscle Failure (full- or upper body)

Wednesday - Cardio - Run (2-3 miles)

Thursday - Strength Training - Muscle Failure (full- or upper-body)

Friday - Cardio - Run (2-3 miles)

I would probably do a split with three days of strength training instead of cardio and since I’m not a huge distance runner I’d probably cut down on the distance of the runs.

On your strength days you’ll want to develop a routine, run through it non stop, take a short break and then repeat two more times. Here’s a sample routine that i would probably try:

Pullups

Jump Rope (45-60sec)/Jumping Jacks (50)

Pushups

Crunches

V-Bar Pullups

Jump Rope (45-60sec)/Jumping Jacks (50)

Wide Grip Pushup

Crunches

Keep in mind this entire thing has to be done three times and each exercise is done until complete muscle exhaustion, unless otherwise noted. Additionally, there are a whole bunch of different types of pushups/pullups/crunches that can be substituted into any of those slots. This should be a pretty killer workout, if anyone decides to try it out before I do then let me know how it goes.