No Gym, No Equipment, No Excuses

For my first year of training I did short and intense workouts in my bedroom with no equipment and saw really good results and got very fit. So stop making excuses, get out in this lovely weather and start doing some burpees! Here is a sample workout plan you can try in the park or in your garden. This is a short 10 minute intense workout that will burn that fat right off your abs! You need to give it your all for each 30 second interval. Don't forget to warm up.

Set your timer for 30/30/30

 

Round 1

 

30 seconds- Jumping Jacks

30 seconds- Ski Jumps

30 seconds- rest

 

Repeat

 

Round 2

 

30 seconds- Basketball jumps

30 seconds- Squats

30 seconds- rest

 

Repeat

 

Round 3

 

1 minute of burpees

 

Round 4

 

30 seconds- High Knees

30 seconds-Push ups

30 seconds rest

 

Repeat

You don't get Abs by doing Abs Exercises- so how do you get Abs?

I didn't get my abs from doing abs exercises. This is the worst myth. YOU ALREADY HAVE ABS- the problem is that they are probably hidden. What you need to do is remove the fat that is covering your abs.

YOU CAN'T SPOT REDUCE- doing a 100 sit ups a day is not the answer. Your body decides where the fat will come off and there is nothing we can do about it. Stop focusing on training your abs and start doing the following:-
 

1. LIFT WEIGHTS- the more muscle on your body the more fat your body burns even by doing absolutely nothing. Concentrate on large compound movements. With weights you are working your abs indirectly by engaging your core with each movement. And NO doing weights doesn't make you bulky it gives you that lean defined look.
2. NO MORE CARDIO- instead of long and boring cardio do High Intensity Interval Training- click on my bikini challenge link on my blog home page for some 10-20 minute HIIT workouts you can do from home. Try do 3 sessions a week and trust me you will start to see a difference and start seeing some abs coming through.
3. CONSISTENCY- Consistency is key. Set realistic goals so that you don't burn yourself out after two weeks. This is a lifestyle change -so try fit it into your lifestyle not let it take over your life! Start off with 2 or 3 days a week to see what works for you.
4. EAT CLEAN-this does not mean starving yourself or eating tasteless food, this just means making healthy choices. Click on the clean eating label on my blog home page for some clean eating ideas or follow my instagram page @thechicphysique.
5. CUT OUT GLUTEN AND DAIRY- some people don't realise that they might have an intolerance to either gluten or dairy or both. This causes inflammation in your gut which decreases nutrient absorption and makes you put on weight.
6. CARB CYCLE- eating the same amount of calories day in and day out when trying to lose fat can quickly result in adaptions, making it impossible to lose weight or gain muscle. The solution is to "cycle" your calories. For example on weight training days have a calorie surplus- eat starchy carbs for breakfast and lunch. On cardio days or light training days- try have a calorie deficit- one starchy carb in the morning. This will keep your thyroid activity efficient and leptin sensitivity high, which is necessary for fat loss and muscle gains.
7. DRINK WATER- It increases your metabolism, regulates your appetite and aids in digestion to name a few. A lot of people think drinking water bloats them. One of the main causes of bloating is dehydration. When the amount of water in your body falls too low, your kidneys signal the rest of your body to hold onto water. So drinking enough water can help reduce bloating.
8. DRINK GREEN TEA-Try drink green tea after each meal. In addition to boosting your metabolism it also decreases belly bloat.
9. EAT PROTEIN- Try eat protein with every meal. Proteins are the body's building blocks. After a tough workout, muscles are rebuilt and repaired by the proteins you eat.

 

Which Workout Challenge is for you?

Different workouts to suit different levels of fitness:-

 

For those of you who do not have access to a gym or equipment click on my Bikini Challenge from last year where you will find 5 weeks of workouts to get you into shape for summer! These workouts consist of HIIT exercises (High Intensity Exercises) with a mix of some weights. These exercises are short and intense and will burn fat right off your body in no time. Exercises consist of big compound movements mixed with more muscle focused exercises.

Exercises can be done with or without weights. My advice is to start of with body weight until you have good form then add weights as you get stronger. These are all workouts that you can do from home, in your bedroom or outside in the garden.

For those of you who are more advanced and want to add muscle tone to your body- click on the Lift like a Man Look Like a Goddess link for weeks of workouts involving weight lifting and cardio.

And for those of you who really want a challenge and want to transform their body in lean toned feminine muscle, click on my new challenge-Bulking!

Where do I find these Challenges?

On the right side of the blog page under labels, click on any of the below challenges to gain access to the workouts.

1. Bikini Challenge
2. Lift Like a Man Look Like a Goddess
3. Bulking

The above challenges are an overview of my fitness journey over the last couple of years. Pick a challenge depending on your level of fitness and goals. Work hard for it and don't give up! 

Don't forget to follow my fitness journey on instagram or on twitter for tips, motivation and clean eating ideas:-

Any questions email me

 

Mary

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Workout Planner- April 2013

 

After pigging out over Easter and after my cousins wedding in Ireland last weekend I have to get back on track ASAP. I am going to be a good girl from today on.  The best way to get motivated and stay motivated is to create your own custom planner to suit your own individual needs and desires.

Building a custom fitness plan is critical to the success of your exercise program. Establishing a fitness plan eliminates the danger of falling into an “I’ll do it tomorrow” thought pattern and makes you accountable for following the plan every day.  Once you start putting the plan into practice, you will see that having a simple achievable plan in front of you helps motivate you to succeed.

Before you create your own fitness plan, there are a few things you need to learn about. As most people don't have the luxury of having a few hours in the gym, we need to learn ways to workout all our muscles within a certain period of time.

So lets look at the different muscle groups that we need to target:

MUSCLE GROUPS:

Chest
Shoulders
Traps
Triceps
Biceps & Forearms
Back
Legs
Core

We have 8 different muscle groups to target throughout the week. You now need to ask yourself;

• Which days during the week can you work out?
• Which body parts do you feel need the most development?

Working Muscle Groups Together

For most of us, free time isn't something we have a lot of, so I recommend that you work muscle groups together over 5 training days.For this to work effectively you will need to train different muscle groups together on the same day. This is where lots of people make mistakes that will ultimately be slowing their results.

I am also guilty of this mistake. I used to train back and biceps and when I researched more into it, I realised that this is in fact wrong!

Building Muscle Worldwide explains that:

“Training 2 muscle groups that compliment (support) each other during an exercise, means that the supporting muscle CANNOT be trained at maximum capacity during a workout due to it being partially fatigued before being fully isolated. For example if you are training chest & triceps on the same day and your muscles capacity is at 100% when you walk into the gym. Your first exercise is the tried and trusted barbell bench press which uses your chest muscles as primary and your tricep muscles as a secondary supporting muscle. After performing 6 sets of bench press, your chest muscles are now at a capacity of 60%, due to using this exercise your triceps have also been recruited heavily and are now at a capacity of 75% meaning that they CANNOT be correctly targeted during this same workout because they are already partially fatigued. Now if you're still thinking that for example, training biceps on a Monday and back on a Tuesday (which uses biceps in back exercises) you were not giving your biceps enough time to recover and are at risk of overtraining, my answer is simple;

When a muscle is recruited in a supporting or secondary role, it is not stimulated to a level high enough to impact on its growth. Although it is fatigued, it will be fully recovered within several hours post workout and can be trained as primary the following day.

The correct way around this is to ensure you combine muscle groups that DO NOT impact on each other during exercises.”

Here are the muscle groups that he has suggested. He combines muscle groups based on their sizes and exercise mechanics.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHEST with BICEPS/FOREARMS
BACK with TRICEPS
SHOULDERS with TRAPS
LEGS with CORE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is suggested to spread working out these muscle groups over a full 7 day week.

Day	Muscle Group
1.	Chest & Bicep/Forearms
2.	Back & Triceps
3.	Rest Day
4.	Legs & Core
5.	Shoulders
6.	Rest Day
7.	Repeat Day 4 (If you want to improve a certain area)

All you need to do now is organise them around your availability and ensure the muscle that needs most attention is trained after your day of rest so it has over 48 hours of recovery before being retrained again on day 7. So if you want to work on your abs for example work it out on Day 4 and Day 7.

Here is my planner of what I hope to stick to this month. Use this as a guide when creating your own.

On Saturdays you see ‘HIIT Extra’, this means I do a HIIT routine non-stop for about 45-50 minutes. On Tuesdays, I have a light session where I just do a 12 minute HIIT session with bonus round. Remember to switch up your routine each week to keep the body guessing.

SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THUR	FRI	SAT
	1	2	3	4   IRELAND	5   IRELAND	6   IRELAND
7   IRELAND	8 HIIT   Chest/Biceps /Forearms	9 HIIT Light   Back/Triceps	10 REST DAY   Yoga	11 HIIT   Chest/Biceps Forearms	12 HIIT   Legs/Bum ABS	13  HIIT EXTRA Shoulders/ Traps/Abs
14 REST DAY   Yoga	15 HIIT   Back/Triceps	16 HIIT Light   Shoulder/I Traps/Inner Legs	17 REST DAY   YOGA	18 HIIT   Chest/Biceps/ Forearms	19 HIIT   Legs/Bum/ ABS	20 HIIT EXTRA Shoulders/ Traps/  Oblique ABS
21 REST DAY   Yoga	22  HIIT   Chest/Biceps Forearms	23  HIIT Light Legs/Abs	24 REST DAY   Yoga	25  HIIT   Back/Triceps	26  HIIT   Shoulders/ Traps/ obliques abs	27 HIIT EXTRA   Inner Legs/ Biceps
28 REST DAY   Yoga	29  HIIT   Back and Triceps	30 HIIT Light   Shoulder/Traps Oblique Abs

 
Turquoise- Rest Day

Pink- HIIT LIGHT

Red- HIIT EXTRA

Legs/ABS
Chest/Biceps
Back/Triceps
Shoulder/Traps

Here is a link to a printable calendar so you can print off and create your own to stick up and follow.

http://www.calendarlabs.com/printable-calendar.php

I hope this helps you create a better schedule for your training.