Week 7 – How time flies, 6 weeks have flew in and by now you should be noticing some physical changes in your body for the better. You should be proud of yourself for putting in some serious effort to create those new good habits when it comes to your diet and exercise.
In week 4 Amanda gave you some great home workouts to add into your week. This week I am going to talk you through some more of my favourite effective, quick and intense workouts. With our nutrition this week I be will talking you through some good and bad protein sources.
Workouts:
One of the most effective ways to burn away body fat while increasing your strength and fitness is to use quick and intense conditioning workouts.
Conditioning style workouts have exploded in popularity in the past few years with things like kettlebells, bootcamps, crossfit and body sculping weight training classes to name but a few.
The advantages to this type of training over cardio alone is that it puts stress on the muscles being worked triggering the muscles to repair and grow. Like gym weight training this triggers the body to not just get stronger but shape the body very effectively into a more toned and athletic shape by building muscle and burning away body fat.
If you invest in a kettlebell for your home this will help you to continually progress your fitness and give you more versatility in your workouts. I recommend a 8-12 kg for women and 16-20kg for men. You can pick these up very cheap second hand or in small sets and they will last you years. Alternatively you can do these with just bodyweight.
Conditioning Workouts:
20 minute Amrap (As many rounds as possible): This is my favourite conditioning workout. You choose between 3-6 exercises and complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes with as little rest as possible. These are effective from 10 minutes upward so feel free to do 10 or 15 mins if stuck for time. Max would be 30 mins if you’re feeling energetic.
Try the one below:
12 Kettlebell Squats or Bodyweight Squat
10 Burpees
10 Pushups
30 second walking plank walking planks
Squat
• stand straight with feet shoulder width apart holding the kettlebell into you chest
• 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
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
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
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
6 Rounds For Time: Choose 3-5 exercises and complete 6 rounds as quick as possible with as little rest as possible.
10 Squat Jumps
10 Lunges each leg
15 Kettlebell swings or 10 Burpees (if you have no Kettlebell)
30 Second rest
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
Kettlebell swings
• Hold the kettlebell between your legs with your feet wider than shoulder width apart
• Contracting your abs thrust your hips forward pushing the kettlebell up to shoulder level
• Allow the kettlebell to come back down guiding it between the legs
• Allow the weight of the kettlebell to push your hips back while slightly bending you knees but keeping your chest pointing forward
• At this point contract your abs once again and repeat the first step
50 or 100 Burpess for time:
One of the most infamous and gruelling for time workouts. The idea is to complete either 50 or 100 burpees as quick as possible. My advice would be to split the 100 burpees into 10 sets of 10 reps resting for a few seconds between each set. As you get fitter you will be able to string more and more together in a row showing you very clearly that you are getting fitter and stronger as the weeks go by.
Good Protein vs Bad Protein
Protein seems to be an automatic choice for people trying to eat healthier these days and although it is important for muscle recovery there are some good and bad protein sources out there. So here’s the low down on Protein.
Good Protein:
Good Protein sources are low in saturated fat and high in good quality digestable protein. Low fat meats and fish like Turkey, Chicken, Lean pork, lean beef, salmon, mackral and prawns are great sources of protein. Some fantastic vegetarian sources of protein include eggs which is considered a super food, along with lentils, beans, chickpeas, wholegrain quinoa, wholegrain couscous and spirulina.
Bad Protein:
Bad protein sources tend to be fatty, processed and breaded meats. Things like pork sausages, bacon, ham, chorizo and cured meats can have huge amounts of salt, water, sugar and chemicals added to them while being prepared along with having a higher content of saturated fat. Fatty cuts of pork, lamb and beef also have high percentages of saturated fat which can lead to higher blood cholesterol. High cholesterol is linked to increased risk of Coronary heart disease, strokes and heart attacks.
The best way to guarantee you eat healthy sources of protein is to choose low fat quality organic meats along with some vegetarian protein sources every day. Go meat free for 1 main meal per day and have 1 day per week completely meat free.