You did it! You’ve been cast on the very first season of Passion Peninsula, the reality dating show where 24 singles get hot and bothered on a piece of land that’s surrounded by water on three sides.
You’re married? Happily married for years — and have kids? Kids who’d be traumatized for decades if you appear on our show? Doesn’t matter. You made the cut. This is happening.
You’re single, but this is not how you imagined meeting “your person,” to say the very least, and besides, aren’t reality dating shows just sensory deprivation chambers where D-list influencers try to launch their personal brands, only to suffer the bizarelly specific ire of a TikTok-puppeteered host at a surprise reunion episode? Yeah, you’ve got the idea — welcome aboard!
Look, the reality dating show is elemental to modern existence. If nothing else — if neither affordable housing, nor common-sense political discourse, nor a championship for the New York Knicks — we must have this: barely clothed people in beautiful places, operating at peak emotional disruption for weeks on end. You’ll be performing a public service.
What we will concede, as the producers of Passion Peninsula, is you’ll want to look your best when we start shooting in ███████ — widely considered one of the best peninsulas in all of ███████ — in six weeks’ time. You’re not just going shirtless for a national audience; streaming is international, baby. Whether or not you find love on the show, potential suitors the world over (and for some of you, your current spouse!) are about to see your bare form in 4K for weeks on end.
Maybe you’re thinking: Who cares what I look like? Can’t I get by on some wisecracks, well-timed “Jim Halpert faces” and God’s good humor? No, no no no no no. Our target fanbase is conditioned to expect definition, vascularity, the subtle art of pec dancing. You don’t just owe it to yourself to get into unnecessary shape — you owe it to them, these lobotomized Zillennials who plod home exhausted from another day of Zoom throat-clearing only to eat defrosted Trader Joe’s dumplings on the sofa. Can’t we give them a show?
Now you’re asking: What if I’m an Average Joe? And not an Average Joe in today’s Glen Powell sense, but more of the Adam-Sandler-30-years-ago variety? Is six weeks possibly enough time to make sure I don’t embarrass myself?
It is! Promise. But you’ve gotta want it. As part of your induction materials, we’ve included our fail-safe, six-week guide to getting into Passion Peninsula-worthy shape, with pointers on loading, cutting, feasting and fasting. Even how to stay fit once you’re on the show — there’s an art to that, too. Read up and good luck. We’ll see you in ███████ soon!

Early Days
Start With Structure
All right, enough playing around. Let’s get to work. In order to have a chance at showing up to set in Adonis shape, you need to impose immediate structure on your weeks. You need a proper workout routine. Lucky for you, Passion Peninsula sourced expertise from Michael Betts, the director at London’s TrainFitness, and a personal trainer with 30 years of experience.
According to Betts: “Gaining significant muscle mass and losing fat in six weeks requires the right combination of strength training and cardio. The program needs to be progressive — meaning it get more challenging over the six-week period as your body adapts — but also include sufficient rest time, so you don’t overtrain.”
Weeks 1-3
Follow Betts’s schedule to a T for the first half of your reality-show sprint. With each week, look to increase the weight in a given exercise by 5%, which is a sustainable way to build muscle without injuring yourself. (The last thing you want to do is show up to Passion Peninsula in a sling, unable to participate in any “wet” activities.) Here’s the regimen:
Monday | Upper Body Resistance Training | – Bench press (3 sets of 8-12 reps) – Incline flys (2 sets of 8-12 reps) – Shoulder press (3 sets of 8-12 reps) – Lateral raises (2 sets of 8-12 reps) – Triceps pushdowns (2 sets of 8-12 reps) |
Tuesday | Lower Body Resistance Training | – Squats (3 sets of 8-12 reps) – Deadlifts (2 sets of 8-12 reps) – Lunges (2 sets of 8-12 reps) – Leg curls (2 sets of 8-12 reps) – Leg extensions (2 sets of 8-12 reps) |
Wednesday | HIIT Cardio | – 10-minute warm-up – 8 rounds of Tabata-style HIIT (20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest, repeat) – 10-12 minutes cool-down |
Thursday | Pull Resistance Training | – Chin-ups (3 sets of 8-12 reps) – Lat pulldown (2 sets of 8-12 reps) – Seated rows (3 sets of 8-12 reps) – Reverse flys (2 sets of 8-12 reps) – Bicep curls (2 sets of 8-12 reps) |
Friday | Lower Body Endurance | – Weighted step-ups (2 sets of 20 per leg) – Bulgarian split squats (2 sets of 20 per leg) – Hip thrusts (2 sets of 20 reps) |
Saturday | HIIT Cardio | – 10-minute warm-up – 8 rounds of Tabata-style HIIT (20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest, repeat) – 10-12 minutes cool-down |
Sunday | Active Recovery or Rest Day | – 60-minute walk – Stretching – Light yoga |
Making Gains
Weeks 4-6
The final three weeks of your training plan feature an additional progressive component. By this point, you’ve gotten used to training to failure for every single set — and you’re going to continue doing so…only you’re adding one set to each exercise.
That means four sets of chin-ups, three sets of lunges, etc. Up and down the regimen. Betts recommends initially keeping the same weight you’ve been doing for each exercise, with an eye towards continuing to increase each weight by 5% with each remaining week. Say you’re benching 150 lbs. after the first three weeks. You’ll want to be benching 165 to 172.5 lbs, for four sets, by the final “push day” of your final week.
“If you really want to step it up,” Betts says, “do the resistance training days circuit style with about 30 seconds rest between each exercise. This then targets your cardiovascular system as well.”
Cardio Options
As for Betts’s HIIT cardio routine, the easiest way to perform it is on a stationary bike or Assault AirBike at the gym. But the format is versatile enough — it’s just asking for rounds of all-out effort — that you could apply it to various other exercises, like mountain climbers, squat jumps, burpees or even jump rope.
You’re training to lounge by the pool, not run a marathon, so this brand of cardio is less about building endurance and more about burning fat. That said, HIIT is brutal by design, and requires a ton of energy and concentration. It’s understandable if you’d like another option handy for those Wednesday and Saturday cardio sessions, like incline treadmill work.
Stan Kravchenko, a former Wilhelmina fitness model and Equinox trainer and current coach at OneFit, says, “I enjoy walking on an incline treadmill at a 15-degree incline with a speed between 2.8 and 3.2 mph. This keeps my heart rate in Zone 2, and I usually go for over 40 minutes. It’s a great low-impact, steady-state cardio session, perfect for watching a favorite show or catching up on the news.”
Kravchenko also leverages a circuit that’s reminiscent of Tabata, but with longer rest periods. “For variety, I also like incorporating some running intervals into my cardio routine,” he says. “I go for a fast 20-30 second run, followed by a recovery period of 1.5 to 2 minutes. I repeat this for 10–15 rounds, then finish with another 15–20 minutes of incline walking to add a bit of spice to the routine.”
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Fuel!
Unfortunately — but not so surprisingly — all your hard work will go flying out the window if you eat crap during this period. You need to be extremely intentional here. Jahkeen Washington, the owner of Harlem Kettlebell Club, offers the following as nutritional north star: “Nutrition should emphasize a caloric deficit while ensuring adequate protein for muscle maintenance.”
Betts agrees. “You need to create a calorie deficit,” he says, “but avoid too large of a deficit. This can slow down your metabolism and reduce the number of calories you burn at rest. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the calories you burn at rest, should stay high to keep your metabolism efficient.”
In order to determine your BMR, Betts recommends first turning to the Harris-Benedict equation. Find an online calculator here; just offer your age, height and weight, and it’ll spit out your BMR. We input an imagined 5’10”, 185-lb., 35-year-old man. His BMR is 1873.6 kcal/day.
“Multiply [that number] by your activity level (1.725 for this program) to determine your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE),” Betts says. “From there, subtract 500 calories to create a sustainable deficit.” Once all the math is done, the magic number for our 35-year-old is 2,732. He should aim to consume that many calories each day during his six-week training period.
Sample Meals
What kind of calories though? After all, not all calories are created equal. Kravchenko recommends you “focus on lean protein, complex carbs, vegetables and healthy fats (but not too much)…also, maintain high water intake to support muscle growth and fat loss.”
Two things you absolutely have to say goodbye to: alcohol and sugar. At least until you start slugging Margaritas and noshing M&M’s on set.
Check out a sample day of meals below. Calorie and macro figures are estimations based on standard serving sizes. You can sub ingredients in and out based on dietary preference, but it behooves you to eat “boring,” especially for meal prep purposes.
Meal | Dishes | Macros (protein, carbs, fat) |
Breakfast | Scrambled eggs (four), slice of whole-grain toast, cup of spinach, mushrooms and bell peppers sautéed in olive oil (320 calories) | 25g, 18g, 18g |
Smoothie | Scoop of whey protein, banana, cup of unsweetened almond milk, spoonful of peanut butter (300 calories) | 30g, 22g, 7g |
Lunch | Serving of grilled chicken breast, half a cup of cooked quinoa, cup of steamed broccoli (420 calories) | 47g, 27g, 14g |
Afternoon Snack | Serving cup of plain Greek yogurt, spoonful of honey, cinnamon (130 calories) | 15g, 10g, 4g |
Dinner | Serving of baked salmon, cup of roasted asparagus, cup of cauliflower rice (425 calories) | 39g, 10g, 24g |
Evening Snack | Few squares of dark chocolate, handful of walnuts (170 calories) | 3g, 12g, 14g |
All told, that’s 2,665 calories and 174 grams of protein. You’ll want to increase the protein as the weeks progress — and as you can see, we’re still about 75 calories short of our allotted total, anyway — so feel free to have back-pocket protein bombs at the ready. Think: rolls of oven-roasted turkey slices, extra eggs, low-fat cottage cheese, bowls of cooked shrimp. A can of tuna with a spork if you’re willing to go full utilitarian. Whatever works!
Everything Else
You have your workouts, you have your meals. The third pillar is recovery. That means a nonnegotiable 7-9 hours of sleep per night, alongside a conscious commitment to low-stress activity. “Elevated cortisol can prevent fat loss and muscle gains,” Kravchenko explains, “so recovery days are just as essential as training days.”
That means: when you’re off, you’re off. Spend the majority of your non-training hours rotating between gentle walks, reading, watching TV or meditating. If you have to spend money on your recovery, keep it simple. You don’t need much else beyond a massage gun, some yoga classes and the occasional sports massage. If you have trouble sleeping at first — sore muscles can wake some trainees up, it’s true — consider sleep supplements (something with magnesium and L-theanine) and changing your sleeping position and/or pillows.
Finally, if work has you flustered during this period, don’t sweat it. You’re about to head to a tropical peninsula for a month. Either your company is cool with that, and will understand your senior-itis, or they’re not…and you’re shifting your professional prospects over to Instagram, anyway.

Make It Last
After six long weeks of lifting heavy and eating healthy, this is it: you’ve made it to Passion Peninsula. Your mistakes, bad dates and out-of-context sound bites are all at the mercy of America’s homicidal couch potatoes, but at least your body will look good along the way. Your character arc might fetch a bad edit — but it’ll be impossible to edit out the cut of your biceps as you make your match another avocado toast. That’s how it’s done.
One tiny thing to keep in mind before we go. The series pilot isn’t exactly the finish line of your training program. Assuming you don’t get cut from the show straight away, Passion Peninsula does film for four weeks. So you’ll need to perform some physical maintenance while on set.
Fortunately, Betts thought ahead on this point. “Keeping up the resistance training in circuit style will help him stay in shape,” he says. “The equipment needed for these exercises should be found in even the most lightly equipped gym.” He recommends doing the following moves over three rounds, with 15 reps each and 15 seconds of rest between: bench press, seated row or dumbbell row, shoulder press, lat pulldown, squats and dumbbell lunges.
Instead of alternating by muscle groups, or separating by push and pull movements, this routine acknowledges that reality shoots are long and random, and may leave little time for common-sense scheduling. So when you have the time, knock this out. By now your form should be sound — so who cares if the cameras are trained on your every move?
On “alternate” days, insofar as they exist, take a break from the weights and try a functional bodyweight circuit. Employ the Tabata-style cadence from your HIIT cardio training: 20 seconds of exercise, 10 seconds of rest, eight times through. Betts recommends the following moves: pushups, squat jumps, chin-ups, mountain climbers, dips and skaters.
Don’t worry about missing too many on-set workouts, though. Remember, atrophy is overrated; it actually takes three weeks, on average, for you to lose muscle after time off from the gym. Kravchenko says: “After six weeks of training, the newly established habits — smart strength training, balanced nutrition and recovery — should carry him through.”
Through to what, exactly? Fame and followers, of course. Maybe love. Probably not, but who knows. Definitely a renewed appreciation for peninsulas, at the very least. And when it comes time for the reunion episode, rest assured, you will know exactly how to whip yourself back into TV shape.
Whether you’re looking to get into shape, or just get out of a funk, The Charge has got you covered. Sign up for our new wellness newsletter today.