30/30 CARDIO CHALLENGE
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Welcome to the Cardio Challenge. A little while ago I decided I wanted to do a 30 day
experiment in my backyard. What would it feel like to wake up every day for 30 days in a row
and head out for 30 mins of cardio without fail?
The reason for challenging myself in this way was motivated primarily by the pure fun and
enjoyment of movement exploration. I had revisited some of my training from past years
preparing for the CrossFit Regionals, when I’d do several workouts a day including an
aerobic session in the mornings. And while I have no desire to revisit that amount of volume
and intensity again on a regular basis, it did make me remember how good this type of
workout can feel.
Daily cardio also has a host of other benefits. If you want to build a better aerobic base, burn
more energy throughout the day, and get to eat more food as a result, this will set you on
that path. Aerobic work with my special formula for success is also great for blood flow and
recovery. And with Functional Bodybuilding, we always hold a place for the thinking athlete
to simply explore new modes of training and find more and more ways that might hook you
on staying consistent, healthy, and fit.
In order to have the best chance at completing this 30 day experiment, I knew I was going
to need some variety. I mean, I could just get on the stationary bike for 30mins a day but
even with my strong sense of discipline, I knew I would likely get tired of the same old thing.
I love variety so long as it doesn’t take away from the intent of training.
What follows are 30 of the sessions I completed using the variety of tools I have at my
disposal. I’m fortunate to have 5 different pieces of cardio equipment in my backyard
including 2 different bikes, a rower, a ski erg, and a treadmill. Add to that a couple other
tools that show up like a jump rope and some bodyweight exercises and that was the kit I
had available.
If you have access to all that equipment then you are in for a treat. If not then NO WORRIES.
I’ll provide some substitutions that you can use. Furthermore, for the 30 day challenge you
don’t need to do all 30 different workouts. If you find 5 that work well with your equipment
list, then just perform those 5 workouts for 6 straight cycles and you will arrive at 30
completed days.
We will structure an organized challenge with the Functional Bodybuilding community to
help keep you motivated from time to time, or you can use these workouts any time you’d
like to get 30 minutes of feel good movement into your day. For current Challenge
information and 30 day workout logs, visit:
https://functional-bodybuilding.com/cardio-challenge/
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
W H Y
D O
T H E
C H A L L E N G E ?
Do you thrive on setting goals for yourself? Does the idea of a community event make you
feel motivated? Are you looking for a little more accountability? Maybe you have been
looking to add some more movement to your days but are worried that if you do too much
you might burn out and start feeling beat up. Or perhaps you are interested to learn more
about how to do cardio, what it is supposed to feel like, and ultimately spend a little more
time building your ENGINE in longer formats that don’t show up in PERSIST or within your
training all that much.
Any of these could be good reasons to jump on board with the challenge.
W H A T
M A K E S
T H I S
C A R D I O ?
Cardio is not in the sets and reps but rather the intention and effort. You can’t just assume
that because the workout says 25–20–15–10–5 that you are going to be hitting your cardio.
Don’t rush into this without checking out a few of our resources on cardio:
Why Do Cardio?
Inside My 30 Day Cardio Challenge
Does Cardio Kill Your Gainz?
In summary, cardio (aka Aerobic Work), is the implementation of the following recipe:
Low Complexity + Sustainable + Cyclical
Each of the examples below met these criteria when I performed them over the course of 30
days. You may need to scale certain workouts back and/or adjust your effort level to keep to
the SUSTAINABLE concept.
W H A T
I S
I T ?
Thirty workouts that are meant to fall inside the 30min time domain. Because the workout
formats vary widely in this PDF, some workouts will by nature of their design always be
30mins in duration. Examples included the 30min AMRAP, or :30sec of work/:30sec of rest x
30 sets. Your goal in workout formats like that is to simply focus on giving a sustainable level
of effort the whole time.
For other workout formats, the time to completion may vary widely depending on your
aerobic capacity. An example would be the final session of the challenge.
For Time @ sustainable pace
100 Cal Run
100 DU
100 Cal Bike Erg
100 DU
100 Cal Row
100 DU
100 Cal Ski
100 DU
In this example it took me right around 30mins to complete. However, you might find
yourself going slower. You can approach these formats in one of two ways. Put a 30min cap
on your effort. Or, adjust the reps in such a way that you can complete it within 30mins.
The last workout format combines time constraints with variable length work prescriptions.
Something like this example:
Every 3mins
40 Double Unders
12–15 Calories Bike Erg
12–15 Calories Row
x 10 Sets
You begin a new set every 3mins for 10 total rounds. This = 30mins. But the amount of work
you complete inside that 3mins will vary from person to person and the total time to
complete it might also vary too. While these sets took me about 2:15 each to complete
while performing 40/15/15 reps, that might take you longer. In these examples there will be
a guide as to how long the work sets should take and you will need to adjust your reps
accordingly so that you can complete the work in a sustainable fashion within the suggested
time frame.
W H O
I S
I T
F O R ?
These workouts are being made available exclusively for PERSIST MEMBERS and FBB
CLIENTS. The 30/30 Cardio challenge could literally be for anyone. You can do 30 minutes of
cardio every single day so long as you are doing something that is simple, sustainable, and
repeatable. The reality is that for many of you, going for a 30 minute walk each day is the
most advisable cardio to do. Why? Because you already dedicate a lot of time and energy to
your PERSIST training and that alone is more than sufficient to give you great results. For the
majority of the last couple years, I did nothing but 4–5 PERSIST workouts a week, and went
for two 90 minute bike rides.
However, for some of you that are very experienced with FBB and have added time and
bandwidth in your life to take on the challenge in more complex cardio formats, these
supplied workouts could be great.
You don’t have to do all 30 workouts to complete the challenge. What I want you to commit
to is moving for 30 minutes each day outside of your PERSIST or FBB workouts in an aerobic
fashion. You could follow the workouts exactly, go for a 30min walk every day, or alternate
between the two every day. Maybe just pick 3 of your favorite and simplest looking cardio
workouts from this PDF and do them every week, and on the other 4 days go for a walk for
30 minutes and get in your steps.
W H A T
T O
E X P E C T ?
If you truly learn what it means to complete aerobic sessions at sustainable efforts for you,
then doing 30 minutes of cardio daily could be a huge benefit to your energy, body
composition, aerobic fitness, and mental well being.
If on the other hand you push your intensity too much, have too much EGO to scale back
some of the workouts, or you just like to get after it, you might find that the combination of
these cardio workouts along with your PERSIST training could leave you feeling a bit more
tired than normal.
Neither is wrong, I just don’t want you thinking you can crank on your PERSIST/FBB workouts
and at the same time crush your CARDIO and not feel the impact it might have.
C O M M O N
Q U E S T I O N S
How hard should I be going?
•
This is the part that is hard to make a generalized
statement about. Every single person needs to find their
own proper pace.
•
A great way to think about this is through the concept of
Rate of Perceived Exertion. The 0–10 Scale is not a new
concept. 10 is the hardest effort you could possibly
imagine. 0 is sitting on the couch.
•
In testing, a reporting of 7 out of 10 is often when people
show signs starting to push beyond sustainable work.
This is when things get really uncomfortable for most
people.
•
Therefore I encourage you to perform all of your cardio
at 7/10 or below.
•
The tricky part is that 7/10 isn’t the same for every workout. Consider the 3 following
scenarios.
•
◦
7/10 when doing 30mins of non stop work
◦
◦
7/10 when doing 30sec intervals with 30sec rest
7/10 when doing 2min efforts with 60sec rest
The challenge and also the fun of doing cardio in the ways we have built these
workouts is to learn for yourself what AEROBIC feels like every single day. The reward
of practicing this over and over like a skill is that someday you will be able to tackle
almost anything and make it feel aerobic (you could do it all day). Talk about power!
How should I incorporate these cardio sessions along with PERSIST programming?
•
Perform them 2–3 hours or more before or after your PERSIST programming. If you give
yourself a 2 hour buffer between your regular training and cardio then you will likely
have zero issues with these workouts impacting your performance for the other parts
of your training.
•
Perform along with your PERSIST/FBB workouts. You can tack these on to the end for
30mins of added time, or you can replace any of the functional pump conditioning
workouts on a given day with your 30 minute cardio session
What if I only want to do 2–3 cardio sessions a week? Are there ones I should pick over
others?
•
Even though the challenge is to do 30 days of 30 minutes, I love having you do some
rather than nothing.
•
Pick workouts that look fun and that inspire confidence. This isn’t the time to pick out
the HARDEST most CHALLENGING looking ones you can find. If you can get in a 30
minute cardio session 2 or 3 days a week, then make it something you are really
looking forward to.
•
Don’t forget that you can go for a walk on the other days.
What if I only have access to one of these cardio machines and not several different ones?
•
There are a handful of cardio workouts included in this PDF that only require a single
machine. Others require two machines. Some require three machines.
•
Focus first on the workouts that only require one machine and no matter what the
prescription calls for, just use the tool you have.
•
Some other bodyweight movements that lend themselves well to cardio are the
following
◦
◦
◦
◦
Walking Lunges
Tall Kneeling to Standing
Beast to Alternating Leg Through
Sprawls
◦
◦
◦
Box Jump Step Down
Double Unders or Single Unders
Burpee Box Step Ups
◦
•
Crawling for distance
You can take movements like these and substitute them in place of the second or third
machine exercises that are included in the workout.
My machine doesn’t count calories. How can I make the appropriate conversions?
•
Please see the comprehensive guide we have included below that outlines how you
can move between calories, meters, machines, time domains, etc.
•
Note that for machines where power output is influenced heavily by body mass and
force production, there is often an 80% adjustment made for female athletes. This is
based upon generalized averages and you do not necessarily need to scale your
workouts to 80% of distances and calories, but it may be more suitable to the time
domain.
•
All of the included workouts in this PDF are written with distances and calories
prescribed with a male athlete in mind as these were workouts that I (Marcus) did
personally.
Fiiii AEROBIC METRIC CONVERSION CHART
ROW
RUN
METERS
11
Bll<E
AIR BIKE
TIME
METIRS
MIHl/TES/SECOH0S
METERS
MEltPS
M
w
100
125
100
200
250
200
300
375
400
'"
M
w
125
100
=
250
300
500
400
600
750
600
800
1000
1000
1250
w
M
w
M
�
250
� 250
200 ,-
200 '�
0:30
200
=
�
500
400
500
=
400 =
1:00
375
300
�
�
750
�
600 �
750
�
600 �
1:30
500
400
:::::;
1,000
800
2:00
750
600
�
=
1,500
= 1,500
1,200 =
1,200 �
3:00
800
1000
800
�
�
2,000
� 2,000
1,600 �
1,600
ri
4:00
1000
1250
1000
2,500 2,000 ri
5:00
=
=
C
800
2,500 2,000
1,000
ri
M =MEN
W=WOMEN
F"
Fiiii
FUNCTIONAL BODYBUILDING
AEROBIC CALORIC CONVERSION CHART
RUN
ROW
METERS
CALORIES
M
■■
ll
l4
w
100
10
7
200
20
15
300
30
400
M
w
Bll<E
AIR BIKE
TIME
CALORIES
CALORIES
MIHl/TES/SECOH0S
M
w
�
,-
M
w
7
5
�
'
0:30
=
=
1:00
10
7
6
4
20
15
12
9
15
10
22
30
22
18
14
22
15
40
30
40
30
24
18
30
21
600
60
45
60
45
36
27
45
30
3:00
800
80
60
80
60
48
36
60
42
4:00
1000
100
75
100
75
60
45
75
50
=
=
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
1:30
�
�
�
�
2:00
5:00
M =MEN
W=WOMEN
F"
■■
FUNCTIONAL BODYBUILDING
T H E
W O R K O U T S
Day 1 – Monostructural Repeats:
500m Row
rest 60sec
x 10 Sets
Day 2 – 15/12/9 on the 3min
Every 3mins
15 Calories Row
12 Calories SKi
9 Calories Bike Erg
x 10 Sets
*Each Round you will rotate the order of the machines and keep the calorie counts the same.
On round two you will perform 15 Cal Bike/12 Cal Row/9 Cal Ski. On round three you will
perform 15 Cal Ski/12 Cal Bike/9 Cal Row. Then back to the original order and continue
rotating each round until you have completed 10 total sets.
Proposed Scale reps 12/9/6
Day 3 – 30min AMRAP:
30 mins Continuous Effort
1k Assault Bike
40 DU
10 GHD sit Ups or 15 sit-ups
Day 4 – Continuous Long Rounds:
10 Rounds
15 Calories Row
15 Calories Bike
15 Calories Ski
Day 5 – 45/15×30 × 3 Tools:
:45 – Run
:15 – Rest
:45 – Row
:15 – Rest
:45 – Assault Bike
:15 – Rest
x 10
Day 6 – Monostructural 30/30 for 30 (1 Tool):
:30 Bike Erg
:30 Rest
x30
Day 7 – Back to Back Triplets:
18–15–12–9–6–3
Calories Bike Erg
Calories Ski Erg
Calories Runner
rest 2–3mins
10–9–8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1
Calories Assault bike
*30m farmers Carry tough
*6 step ups 30/24"
Day 8 – 15/12/9 Sets for Time
8–10 Sets for Time
15 Calorie Ski
12 Calorie Bike
9 Calorie Row
rest 45sec
Day 9 – Every 3mins x 10 Sets:
Every 3mins
40 Double Unders
12–15 Calories Bike Erg
12–15 Calories Row
x 10 Sets
Day 10 – Continuous Long Rounds:
5 Rounds
30 Calories Row
30 Calories Bike
30 Calories Ski
Day 11 – 12/9/6 × 15:
12 Calories Ski
9 Calories Bike
6 Calories Run
rest 30sec x 15 sets (scale back to 12 sets in order to keep total time under 30mins)
Day 12 – 15/12/9 Every 2:30:
Every 3:00 × 10 Sets
15 Calorie Run
12 Calorie Assault Bike
9 Burpee
*after set 5, rest walk for 3 mins and restart your last 5 sets
Day 13 – Monostructural 30/30 for 30 (2 Tools):
:30 – Row
:30 – Rest
x 15
:30 – Bike
:30 – Rest
x 15
Day 14 – Back to Back Couplets:
21–18–15–12–9–12–15–18–21
Calories Ski
Calories Run
rest 2–3mins
7 RFT
15 Calories Row
10 GHD Sit Ups
Day 15 – Monostructural Repeats:
300m Row
rest 30sec
x 18 Sets
Day 16 – Every 3mins x 10 Sets:
Every 3mins
12 Calories Assault Runner
10 Burpees no Jump no Clap
12 Calories Assult Bike
x 10
Day 17 – 21/15/9 Rotating Order:
7–9 Sets for Time
21 Calories Ski
15 Calories Bike
9 Calories Row
rest 60sec
*Each Round you will rotate the order of the machines and keep the calorie counts the same.
Round 2
21 Calories Row
15 Calories Ski
9 Calories Bike
Round 3
21 Calories Bike
15 Calories Row
9 Calories Ski
Round 4 is like Round 1 again
Day 18 – 45/15 × 30:
:45 Run
:15 Rest
:45 Ski
:15 Rest
:45 Assault Bike
:15 Rest
x 10 Rounds
Day 19 – Sustainable Increase EMOM:
EMOM x 30mins
1st Min – Assault Bike
2nd Min – Ski Erg
3rd Min – Run
2 sets – 10 cals
2 sets – 11 cals
3 sets – 12 cals
3 sets – 13 cals
*Increase the calories every 2–3 sets.
Day 20 – Monostructural 30/30 for 30 (3 Tools):
:30 – Bike Erg
:30 – Rest
x 10
:30 – Row
:30 – Rest
x 10
:30 – Ski
:30 – Rest
x 10
Day 21 – Back to Back Triplets:
15–18–21–18–15
AB Cals
Row Cals
Run Cals
rest 2–3mins
15–18–21–18–15
Ski Cals
Bike Erg Cals
3x Double Unders
Day 22 – Continuous Long Rounds:
12–15 Rounds Continuous
10 Calories Bike Erg
10 Calories Ski
10 Calories Row
Day 23 – Every 3mins x 10 Sets:
Every 3mins
15 Cal AB
45 Double Unders
15 Cal Runner
x 10
Day 24 – 10–28–10 Calorie Pyramid:
Assault Runner Calories
10–12–14–16–18–20–22–24–26–28–26–24–22–20–18–16–14–12–10
:30 walk rest between each set
Day 25 – Monostructural Repeats 60/30 (2 Tools)
:60 Assault Bike
:30 Rest
:60 Run
:30 Rest
x 10
Day 26 – 15/15 Every 2:30:
Every 2:30 × 12
15 Cal Ski
15 Cal Bike Erg
Day 27 – Descending Ladder Triplet:
50–40–30–20–10
Calorie Row
Calorie Bike Erg
Calorie Ski
Day 28 – Back to Back Couplets:
For Time: 5–6 rounds
500m row
10 Burpees
Rest 2–3mins between
For Time: 5–6 rounds
500m ski
40 double Unders
Day 29 – Monostructural Repeats 60/30 (1 Tool):
Row 60sec
Rest 30sec
x 20 Sets
Day 30 – 100’s Chipper
For Time @ sustainable pace
100 Cal Run
100 DU
100 Cal Bike Erg
100 DU
100 Cal Row
100 DU
100 Cal Ski
100 DU