I hope everyone’s training and eating regimes are going well over the past 3 weeks, this week we will be planning a workout that can be done at home so no excuses! With regards to food this week our focus will be on portion control.
As we have mentioned previously consistency is key to achieving results, a short high intensity workout for 20-30 minutes regularly can be of huge benefit to our bodies. When training our clients at bodybyrne fitness our focus is on resistance training, with clients doing some cardio/interval training in their own time when they are not training with us.
In the upcoming weeks we will be discussing the benefits of each type of training and why one may be better than another.
At bodybyrne fitness we focus on a 2 day split of resistance training, meaning that in 1 session we will target chest, shoulders and triceps and the 2nd session of the week will target legs, back and biceps. Both sessions will incorporate some core exercises too, this way of training ensures that we hit all the major muscle groups every week.
Remember we cant “spot reduce”, many clients come in and may say I’m happy with my body its just around my tummy I need to work on or just the back of my arms. Unfortunately this doesn’t mean that we can do lots of ab exercises to get a flat midriff, we MUST workout the whole body.
The following workouts can be done at home with limited space needed, one workout will focus mainly on our upper body and the second will mainly focus on our lower bodies.
Workout 1
This is a circuit style workout, perform each exercise for 30seconds, complete the 6 exercises take a 1 minute rest at the end of the circuit and repeat the circuit again for 4-5 sets.
- Push ups
- Hand and feet on the ground, keeping a straight body throughout
- staying in controlled bend elbows, slowly bring chest towards floor
- straighten arms back to start position
- can be performed on knees/thighs to make it a little easier
- Dips
- sitting on stable chair or low table, with legs straight out in front of you
- bend elbows, almost like you were about to sit on the floor
- “dip” down towards the ground and straighten up again
- keeping back close to chair or table
- bend knees to make it easier
- Walking planks
- starting in our push up position on your hands
- slowly bring elbow to the floor so that your forearm is on the floor and repeat to the other side until both forearms are on the floor in a plank position
- then go from plank to push up position for 30 seconds
- keeping body in a straight line
- Mountain climbers
- From your push up position previously
- bring one knee slowly up to your chest and return back to your start position and repeat on the other side
- Side plank dips
- lying on your side with your forearm on the ground, keeping your body straight, feet stacked on top of each other
- lift your hip off the ground engaging your core and lower back towards the ground but don’t touch the ground
- repeat on the other side.
- Bend knee or have one foot slightly in front of the other to make a little easier
- Sit up
- sitting on the ground, feet flat, knees bent, hands across your chest
- slowly lower your back down to the ground
- just before your reach the ground return to the start position again and repeat
Workout 2
This is a circuit style workout, perform each exercise for 30seconds, complete the 6 exercises take a 1 minute rest at the end of the circuit and repeat the circuit again for 4-5 sets.
- Squat
- stand straight with feet shoulder width apart
- lower body towards the floor,bending your knees, while bringing your hips back and down
- keep your feet flat throughout the whole movement
- return to your start position and repeat
- Squat jumps
- the same body position for the squat
- as we lower ourselves down we are going to jump, bringing our feet off the ground
- landing softly on our feet in a squat position
- Lunges
- standing with feet together, step forward on one foot, bringing the knee of the back foot towards the ground, about an inch or 2 off the floor
- keep your back straight and shoulder back
- pushing off the front foot bring it back to the starting position
- repeat the same movement on the other side
- Burpee
- start in a push up position
- jump knees into your chest
- from standing jump up with your hands up and return down and jump feet back to start position
- Russian twists
- in a seated position on the floor, knees bent and feet off the ground
- option 1-hand stretched out in front of you, bring your right hand out to touch the floor on your right hand side and bring back to the starting position and repeat on the left side
- option 2- hold anything weighted (a bottle of water) in both hands, rotate your body bringing the weight over to your right side, touching the weight off the floor, return to the centre and rotate to the left side
- Plank hold
- resting on your forearms on the floor with your toes only on the floor
- the rest of your body should be off the floor in a straight position, with your core engaged
- you should be in one straight line from your shoulders, hips, down to your feet
- just hold this position
If we are training and not putting the right fuel into our bodies we are not going to get the results we want, we must feed our bodies correctly. Portion control is essential, even when we are eating natural, nutrient foods we still must keep our portions under control. When we eat we are taking in “fuel” to be used as a source of energy when we are training, if we take in more then we are burning off it is going to be stored, causing us to gain fat.
These 5 top tips will help to stop us eating more than we need to
- Think 40-30-30, so our plate should be make up of roughly 40% carbs, 30% fats and 30% protein. for example a slice of wholegrain toast, a scrambled egg with smoked salmon and a handful of berries on the side
- When eating complex carbs such as oats, rice or pasta a cooked portion should be a fist full, unless we are full time athletes we don’t need a bowl full of pasta!
- Eating nuts are great as snacks but remember they are very calorific and be careful not to over eat them, always choose nuts in their raw form, a portion should fit into the palm of your hand
- Fill your plate with salad and veg rather than our startchy carbs
- Eating little and often, can help control cravings and stop us from eating more than we actually need to.
follow these tips to get the results you want to, next week we will be focusing on interval training and good carbs versus bad carbs.