• Deadlift, rack pulls, and their grip variations
• Cleans, snatches, and Olympic lift variations
• Pullups, chinups,  and inverted rows
• Squats and their variations
• Lunges, split squats, and their variations
• Standing overhead press
• Bentover rows
• Bench press and pushups

Including as many of the above into your workout routines as the primary exercises can hasten fat loss and preserve lean mass (key to getting shredded), all without doing endless bouts of steady-state cardio post-workout, or on separate days.

The Best Damn Compound Lifting Program to Get Shredded

There are a lot of demands this program places on the central nervous system (due to the large movements). If at any point during the phase you feel sluggish or overtrained, it usually means your body is telling you to scale things back. Listen, and take a deloading week.

Directions

In order to hit the whole body more than once per week, this six-week program comprises two horizontal push/pull days and two vertical push/pull days to give proper rest to specific muscle groups. You’ll notice the short rest times below too. That’s because there are no supersets in this program (perform as straight sets—completing all sets for one exercise before moving on). It goes against the grain for most conditioning programs, but this allows you to stay focused and undistracted from the big movements that require it, while at the same time keeping your heart rate elevated for the majority of the workout. Suffice to say, don’t use your actual rep max efforts here. Drop the working weight by 10-15 percent for each exercise so you don’t tap out early or risk injury due to the short rest periods.

Aim for a 3-5 percent increase in weight for each week of the program, while you cut back on rest intervals. Try to shave five to 10 seconds off your rest time per set in each subsequent week.