Monday 30 July 2012

Want to loose that last pesky 5kilos?! Top tips!


Bikini Body Summer Prep: 
Simple workout and Nutrition Tips



The summer always comes around sooner than expected and its time to stop hiding in your winter woolies and get ready for the fact that its bikini seasons only a few months away!

Want to get rid of that last pesky 5 kilos? Or tone up those love handles? Then this is the simple equipment free workout for you! To achieve these goals it is important to incorporate progressive overload in training for continual gains whether it be changing repetition ranges, exercises, weights, tempo, intensity as well as diet.

When training and aiming for weight loss or toning it is all about utilizing and burning your bodies fat stores as efficiently as possible. The best way to achieve this is targeting large muscle groups with minimal rest, as the muscle is metabolically active and requires calories to activate and use the muscle, hence larger muscles group exercises will burn more calories. Resistance training is the best method for weight loss when done efficiently as it will also increase your metabolism outside of training to recover and resynthesize muscles where as cardiovascular training does not as efficiently.

Weight training is crucial as it allows you to preserve your muscle mass as your body weight decreases resulting in higher metabolic activity, leaner and more toned physique, as opposed to cardiovascular exercise alone which looses both fat tissue and muscle tissue and slows down the metabolic rate. Workouts do not need to be lengthy for success as high intensity short duration exercise utilizing large muscle groups will raise your metabolism post training more than long duration steady state cardiovascular exercise alone, if your workouts are taking longer than 45 minutes your not training hard enough! If you get bored easy mix it up! Try some beach sprints, boxing, rock climbing, anything that get the heart rate up!

And lastly and most importantly it comes down to 80% nutrition and 20% exercise and there is no way of out training a poor nutrition! People who say I exercise so I can eat more only lead to weight gain or disappointment. Often people forget how crucial nutrition is in weight loss goals, simple changes such as consuming 5-6 small meals a day including small portions of lean meat, healthy fats, lots of vegetables and reducing starchy/simple carbohydrates intake to low GI sources such as sweet potato or brown rice can increase metabolism and promote weight loss and increase your lean mass to fat ratio (body fat %) in combination with strength training. Stick by the rule that if man made it check the ingredients, the less processed and more natural the better! Read the ingredient list and aim to not consume foods with added salt, non-natural sweeteners, trans fats, preservatives and additives which may be blocking weight loss and building up toxins in the body.

Choose supplements that will support your training and nutrition but don't rely soley upon them, supplements are there to support not make up for a poor diet or lack in training. Supplements are very individual to every person and I don't believe in giving out specific advice for anyone, seek help from a professional before supplementing such as www.muscleworx.com.au. I would advise the basics: 

1. A good quality fish oil: Aids in your energy levels, brain function, mobilising fatty acids within the body for weight loss and assisting your cholesterol levels, many many benefits!
2. A lean whey protein hydrolysed: Such as isolyze or proto whey, the more hydrolysed the better post workout as it is easier and faster to be absorbed by your body for recovery and replenishment as well as metabolised better.
3. Quality multivitamin: If your missing anything from your foods or have cut out certain foods a multivitamin will make sure your getting all your essential nutrients in and keep your energy levels high and immune system and adrenals in tact.
4. Magnesium: Aids with muscle recovery, sleep and also helps control chocolate cravings!
Other supplements I believe can be highly beneficial when required are: Zinc, pro-biotic, glutamine, BCAA, electrolytes, spirilina, green tea, chromium, vitamin C (again all individual yo your own personal needs and goals)


The circuit below is a combination of large muscle group areas that target every aspect of the body meaning overall strength and muscular gains. By working from upper body to lower body and front of the body to back it allows for minimal recovery periods to keep the heart rate up without doing steady state cardio training. The circuit includes basic exercises using your own body weight but can be adapted into a gym environment to add more resistance and progressions to progressively overload the muscles.

Aim to complete the circuit in 30 minutes getting in as many sets as possible. Begin with 10-12 reps with no cardio exercise in weeks 1-2, weeks 3-4 increase to 12-15 reps and add in the cardio exercise to progressively overload. Always record you’re training at aim to beat it every time, this circuit can be completed up to 3 times a week in combination with mobility and cardiovascular training for overall body composition gains. So grab a friend and give it a go!

1.     Athletic Lunges (quads/glutes)
(Alternate sides moving down the room, lift your knee between steps and squeeze your glutes, lunge down low and slow breathing in and push up through the heel fast breathing out)

2.     Inverted Row (back/biceps)
(Wide grip overhand on the bar, keep chest up and core tight, feet flat on the ground, pull up fast breathing out and slowly lower back to plank position)

3.     Cardio: 45 seconds high intensity (sprint, skipping, high knees, rower)

4.     FB Hamstring Curl/Ham Leans (hamstrings/calves)
(lay on back, feet on the fit ball, lift hips and hold, pull the fitball in with feet while lifting hips, slowly roll back out keeping hips high)

5.     T Push Ups (triceps/chest/core)
(hands just past shoulder width, body in plank position, lower down slowly breathing in, breath out push up and rotate to one side extending that arm to a T position and back into push up)

6.     Burpees (mobility)
(start standing, jump up then squat down, jump back keeping arms strong into a plank position and quickly jump back in and repeat)

7.     Reverse Crunch (Abdominals)
(laying on your back, hands overhead or under glutes for weak lower backs, legs in the air, thrust up using your upper abdominals rather than the legs breathing out, slowly down)

And lastly don't let those weekends undo all your hard work, I believe in having a cheat meal once a week but aim to not let it blow out to a cheat weekend or whole day, think about all the hard work you have put in and how much better you will feel for sticking to it over the weekend.



For more information contact Alice Round: Anytime Fitness Innaloo and Muscle Worx
ph 0430 504 224
email directly ali_round04@hotmail.com
Accredited Exercise and Sport Scientist/Nutritionist

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