I thought I’d fill you all in about my current progress! Slowly but surely I’m becoming happier with my body. It’s taking time but all good things come to those who wait. The thing with my body, and I’m sure a lot of you out there have the same problem; it takes no time at all to put weight on, but forever to strip it off! Shout out to all of you who look at a piece of cake and put on ten stone!
My current motivation…my holiday in September. I find that thinking about this keeps me on track and stops me eating crap and being lazy during my gym sessions. That mixed with a completely sugar free August, will hopefully get me to where I want to be!
So recently I’ve been working on three key areas: Fat Loss, Core & Bum
For my fat loss I’m working through some HIIT training on the treadmill. A five minute jog to warm up on level 8/9 followed by 12 minutes of sprints, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds rest, on level 13.5/14 (depending on how I’m feeling!). I’m not going to lie, running on 14 is tough! It seems to be doing the trick, I’m noticing a difference in the way my body looks so hopefully its stripping the fat off.
For my core and bum I’ve been concentrating on a few exercises, here are a few:
Bum
Glute Bridges
A two-part exercise, starting with glute bridges. Lying on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, place the weight on your pelvic area. Keeping your core tight, rise your hips up off the floor and thrust them as high into the air as you can, squeezing your butt at the top. Keep shoulders on the ground. Lower hips back down, but do not touch butt to the floor. That is one rep. Perform one set of 12 reps, then immediately switch positions for Donkey Kicks.
Reps: 12 reps each exercise
Donkey Kicks
Starting on your hands and knees, keeping your core tight and back flat, raise 1 leg and keeping knee at 90 degrees. Push that leg as high as you can in the air and lower back down, repeat for 12 reps, then switch legs.
Aim for 4 sets of 12 reps.
Adductor Squats
Start with your feet stance wider than hip width; keep your back straight and arms locked with the dumbbell in the middle. Lower your body weight into a squat then hold before your rise back to the start position.
Aim for 10 to 12 reps.
Core
Mountain Climbers
For 30 seconds mountain climbers, alternating movements on each side with the knee to elbow.
Rest for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.
Medicine ball crunches
Start with feet on the floor at a 90-degree angle. Lean back onto tailbone and lift feet off the floor at 45 degrees. Hold a 4 kg medicine ball at your chest. With knees bent and toes pointed upwards, extend arms with the medicine ball while bringing the knees towards the chest. Keeping the abdominal muscles contracted, bring the medicine ball back to chest and extend the legs without letting your feet touch the ground. Stay in that position and preform a Russian twist with the medicine ball for weighted resistance. Twist core with medicine ball from side to side. Keep legs as steady as possible while twisting without touching the floor. Do this as one motion for one minute, rest for 30 seconds, repeat 3 times.
