Hey everyone,
I will be 100% honest that I chose the “Hot Body” part of today’s title as an experiment to see just how many more views I would get on my video haha!! I did this before with my Summer Bikini Blast Workout and it’s just amazing how much a difference it makes when you “sex up” the titles. Guess a lot of people just want a hot body or want to look at one 😛
Anyway, as you can see from the video itself, there is nothing remotely more sexy about me in it 😉 That being said, I do believe that as a byproduct of training for strength and performance you will be more confident, healthier and better conditioned which certainly makes you more beautiful 🙂
Oh I was glad to return to my comfort zone today with this workout! I just love the flow of these interval training workouts because they are intense, effective and fun!
The Workout
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 24 cycles of 20 seconds recovery and 40 seconds effort. Feel free to play around with the intensity by changing the interval times; for me I felt like longer recovery would serve me better. I also didn’t go too heavy today as I have a few DOMS in my shoulders from yesterday’s dip mania!
Complete 3 rounds of the following 8 exercises:
(Notice my reps per exercise and weights used in brackets)
- Kettlebell Goblet Squat and Press (16kg) (13, 12, 11)
- Side to Side Step Ups (42, 40, 40)
- Two-Handed Kettlebell Swing (20kg) (27, 27, 27)
- Stand-Kneel-Stand (16kg) (14, 13, 13)
- Stand-Kneel-Stand (16kg) (13, 13, 12)
- Renegade Row (2x16kg) (15, 16, 14)
- Burpees (11, 10, 10)
- Dynamic Squat (34, 32, 19)
All done!I hope y’all love this as much as I did. It is the perfect way to compliment strength training.
Finally, I have a discussion topic for you today.
Should you increase your activity levels to try and off-set a festive diet? With Thanks-Giving and Christmas upon us, should you be as strict about your diet, or should just try to minimise the “damage” to your body composition by adding a little extra training? Or do you do neither and let nature take its course?
I have already made up my mind on this, but I am interested to know what your views are. Can you out-train a temporary bad diet?
Cheers
Marianne
I just finished this workout. I made some changes to fit style of training. It had been a long time since I did an interval like this, I found it to be brutal.
I put my scores and etc on the forum under challenges.I did an extra long stretch and cool down. wow!
Nice work Mickela! Glad you enjoyed this workout. I love this type of interval workout.
Talk to ya soon 🙂
Hi Marianne,
I have just got carried away reading your blogs and comments and ironically i forgot about my banana bread in the oven!
The holidays for me are a time to relax and socialise, as well as catch up on my baking and other cooking experiments! If that means a ‘bad’ (but oh so good!) meal a couple of times a week, so be it! I dont think we should feel bad about eating things we like if we enjoy it, so long as we balance it out with some decent exercise. Almost all my socialising revolves around some form of food and alcohol. If its at my place i can control the type of food a lot better (slow-carb, paleo hybrid 6 days a week) but obviously this isnt always the case, and i also recognise most of my friends dont eat like me! I also beleive its equally important to at least maintain a training regime over the holiday period, and maybe increase the intensity like one reader above said. The hard thing i find is getting back into a routine once im out of routine. I didnt train for almost two weeks due to exams and boy did i feel it on tuesday when i started up again! This brings me to my next comment, which is that your workouts look incredible and the style of training i like to do. Simple and high intensity but still strength based. I am yet to try one as im part way through Alwyn Cosgrove’s ‘new rules of lifting for women’ but i am itching to do one of yours! I think i need a few more kettlebells though….
Im off to read your post on intermittent fasting while i munch on my banana bread…
Oh no I hope the bread isn’t burnt! 🙁
Thanks for your input. I hope you enjoy my workouts when you try them 🙂
Another good workout for us, Marianne!
I did this one this morning and it was hard work indeed. I took part in a 24 hour badminton marathon last weekend, in aid of Children In Need, and maybe I am getting a late reaction to me doing 10 hours overnight.
Still, if a workout is easy then I may not be trying very hard, as I doubt of I will be so fit that your workouts ever become easy!
Best regards as always, Peter
Good for you Peter! 24 hours!!!!
😀
hey marianne,
this year my focus on cmas is NOT TO EAT in front of the TV, as a vvvvvery busy mom of 3 girls who is moving till 12 at night cookin and packin meals( for 5 )etc for the followin day, week nights r not usually a problem.
MAYOR BUT here, with weekends and the long holis when girls r off from school come free evenings in front of the tv(dont watch tv wk days)I munch my way throu so much junk its beyond belief (stomach is an endless pit). i know its boredom caus im not used to sitting down, this is my true and only downfall.(it can last a weekend or entire holiday 🙁
i dont drink smoke i have fibromyalgia and take meds,,so i see the meds as my bad vice i dont like to take tablets unless im literally on the floor and i will still resist.
ive decided to stick to my usual workouts(girls health permitting) and do my v best to stay away from the goodies from 8pm on, i will have my daytime treats, desserts etc its difficult not to when i prepare a dessert each day for the holis for my family. i will increase cardio by 10 mins per session(35 at mo)I did this last year and it worked well for me. also i will not b bringing the large boxes of choc kimberly and celebrations into the house (ive a very sweet tooth)
i have moved away from traditional cardio and i mix things up with bench jumps, jumps squats, courtesy lunges, running around my house jumping over benchs, setting up hurdles with laundry baskets, and the like,and running backwards, i do hanging knee raises hanging from the rafters in the garage and use an old stove for high step ups. also a fantastic tool which is available in almost every household here in southern ireland is TRAMPOLINE. i set the interval timer for all activities.
personally for me when i want a bit more definition in my legs,(i lift weights and kBs ) its the trampoline i hit. excellent for leaning out and for abs. should u decide hemmmm think ill try this for a change layer up well AND KEEP MOVING. i do this and when im about 15 mins in im down to shorts and sports bra. (hubby says im a crazy old woman i tell him “hi less of the old”
MY RULE :CARDIO MUST BE FUN
HAHAHA!! Bug this made me laugh so much. Just the image of you running round your house jumping over random stuff and then on to the tramoline all in 15 minutes is Classic!! Love it! You should do a YouTube video of it 😀
I agree 100% that cardio MUST be fun!
Hope you reach your goals and can control that mindless eating, I get that too!
will work on the eating :), YIP its funny i guess. last week the postman offered to take out the full bags of recycling for me well did i nearly die when i had to tell him ” no wait thanks theyre my hurdles” LOL.
i dont think utube would be ready for it, its a sight ……
good luck stay strong
LOL, you are too funny 😀
Talk to ya soon!
For the holidays, I like to use the inevitable overindulgence as motivation for some extra intense workouts — not necessarily longer or more frequent — but definitely more intense. I also find it helpful to set a short-term fitness goal to achieve during this time (e.g., a new PR on the squat or x number of KB snatches in a row). It’s hard for your diet to be a “positive” during this time, so make the fitness a positive. I know I won’t “out train” the poor diet, but it’s all good in the end.
Hey marianne,
I know this was yesterdays topic but i’m still responding lol….when looking @ my eating habits I would have to say I eat good over 85% of the time. I have to admit I do get bored @ times do to theirs soo much crap that has a lot of sodium. Oh and I’m also one of those people who eats 6/7 meals per day (a lot, I know) I read your article on fasting, tryied it for one day & I notice my decrease in mussle mass so I got scared & hopped bck to my rutine lol. I dont know what it is but I think I have a fast metabolism. I mean I loose weight quick and gain quick too (fat that is…which I wish it was muscle) I try not tress by cooking on sundays & having meals prepared already…sometimes it works that way and sometimes it dont. I do think it’s very time consuming tho. As for the holidays I do my best to just have samples of everything lol….u know a little bit of this and little of that…I dont ever really do anything extra @ the gym…just because I feel I eat good & work out 5/6 days a wk. I’m not sure if you know of any other advise I can try as far as my meals go….I know that will really help me out not to stress as much. I also know I need to work on my hrs of sleep I get..I think I’m getting in 6.5 or something!
Anyway…..if I dont here from u soon…happy thanks-giving
Hey Cita,
It’s great that you are eating well 85% of the time. If 6/7 meals per day works for you then stick with it. The only thing I feel I need to correct you on is that, over the course of that 1 day fast you did, you would NOT have lost any muscle mass. It takes approximately 72 hours of complete fasting to even begin that process. It is exactly this sort of myth that keeps people (not meaning you per se) believing that if they miss a meal they will be losing muscle. I used to stress so much over that! Anyway, although it was not muscle that you lost during that day fast, you will have lost weight. The weight you lose is from your body using up glycogen stores from the muscles which also releases water weight and makes the muscles appear flatter. This is maybe why you thought it was muscle mass, when it was just muscle fullness; this returns as soon as you begin eating again 🙂
Again, it is finding an approach that you are happy with. Some people may not like the effects of fasting; some people do not like the effects of 6 meals a day. What’s important is that you are not being controlled by it. Three larger meals works just as well as 6 smaller ones (because it is all about total calories, not meal timing), so maybe this is something you could do to reduce the stress of making so many meals? I eat 2 meals per day, but I love BIG FEEDS 😀 So I hated making little tiny meals each day. I would nearly cry at the sight of them LOL!
I don’t want to tell you that what I do is right for you, but there is no harm in experimenting or adapting your current plan to fit in with your life more. I spent too much time letting food rule my life that now I make it fit in with ME. That is the main piece of advice I could give you 🙂 That, and enjoy your Thank-Giving meal 😀
The holidays are a tough time of year when trying to maintain training and good eating habits. Personally I try to just maintain the exercise regime I do normally and just let myself have a taste of everything. It’s absolute misery to have a forbidden food list when you’re surrounded by lovely treats and cakes and all sorts of yummy carbs. Have a taste of everything so you don’t feel left out:-)
I can’t wait to try the workout – I’m always looking for new ways to mix everything up! About the eating/training, I heard the best analogy recently: “Saying you are going to eat whatever you want and then go work it off in the gym is like dumping dirt all over your house and saying you will just vacuum it up later.” Isn’t that great? I think it’s true, really. It seems like it’s an 80/20 thing…80% proper eating/20% proper exercise=results. I know that since I went Paleo about 6 months ago, everything is coming together. http://bit.ly/w4rJhJ
Thanks for the fun workout 😉
Thanks Ann 🙂 Good analogy. I guess if it’s something you keep doing is when it becomes a problem. But I don’t think letting go of the reigns once or twice a year makes any difference.
While I am not suggesting that proper eating does not need to be 80%, I do think that training needs to count for higher than 20% for some people. Especially if you are training with intent. I also believe that everyone has a different ratio that works for them. For me it’s more like Training is 70% of my results and “proper” eating has accounted for 30%. This number also changes throughout the year. Like in the summer I will be very good with my diet and it will be more like 50/50, but my training, for me, had made the most difference. For me it’s been more about total calories than what I eat. Rightly or wrongly, who’s to judge 🙂 The intermittent fasting has made the biggest difference. I am sure if I cleaned up my diet and went Paleo for a few months I would see a big difference … maybe that can be an experiment in the New Year 🙂
Yes, I agree, it’s when folks keep doing it (eating junk and trying to work it off in the gym)that it becomes a problem. The occasional overindulgence especially when a guest in someone’s home, or during a holiday meal, is fine in the whole scheme of things (relationships with those we love trump our eating plan at those times). My main reason for going Paleo (see the link for the whole story ;)is that I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, and have found that the Paleo lifestyle/eating plan is the only thing that keeps my inflammation under control so that I can live an active life. So, I don’t view it as a “diet” or feel like I am punishing myself by missing out on certain foods. I never count calories, always feel satisfied with my meals and I have the energy to treat my patients, do my own exercise, and play with my family. For me, feeling good and not living with chronic pain make it easy to eat this way. Cheers 🙂
Thanks Ann, you have something in common with Molly Galbraith from Girls Gone Strong 🙂 Maybe you already read her recent article on Hashimoto’s.
Anyway, it’s a great read 🙂 Thanks for sharing, good on you for being committed to training hard and living with a chronic condition like this!
Thanks for another great work out! I’ll give it a try the day after Thanksgiving.
About the eating, working out and holidays- when I start stressing out too much about eating, I tend to go over board and gain. When I do things in moderation, I do much better. I guess the stress shows on the scale.:) I’ll be sticking to my regular workouts and evaluate as things go. If I over eat one day, I’ll go down the next. That’s the plan right now. 🙂
Thanks Denitza, I find it interesting how a lot of people have talked about stress being one of the main factors effecting their weight gain/loss. A few days of over-eating will not ruin our results; as soon as we step back on the wagon (so to speak) everything returns to normal 🙂
Hi Marianne,
I think that that endless cycle of indulging feeling guilty exercising to burn undereating and then cracking cause your starving and then scoffing down whatever in sight is not only a huge amount of stress but also the cause why we never lose those few pounds that would make us happy…. that’s why I eat, then I stop, the I eat again!!LOL
We actually have an expression in Italy that to express this stressfull loop that our minds get into, “seghe mentali”, which literally can be translated with brain wa***g!excuse my vulgarity but it express the concept very well, a constant struggle of the mind that really gets you to no solution!
Christmas comes once a year!!!!Enjoy!!!!And so does Thanksgiving for American/Canadian!
Now can I ask a couple of silly questions?
First, do you think the swing can fall in the push or pull cathegory and if yes in which one?
I keep thinking at what you said lately, about you coupling exercises… so what criteria do you use?Match a push with a pull or lower with upper?or something else?You matches swing with front squat, was that to make a complete back and front body workout?
I’m fascinated by the concept, it appeals to the OCD side of me!LOL
Also fascinated with superset but googling about it I only seem to find meat- head info about it, kinda got the feeling they are using big words to express a simple concept!Loads of people rambling on about supersetting biceps curls and triceps something, I imagine though from what you said it’s more fun doing it compound movements…
Also is there any particular order to insert a pure cardio exercise like rope jump when creating a workout?For instance at the beginning to warm up or towards the end to give it a blast?
Also I soon to join the gym, to burn more fat what would you advise me to do, cardio then weights or opposite?
Ok just noticed I asked too many question, sorry didn’t mean to be rude, feel a little bit of a fitness investigator tonight!!
Uh sorry one last question popped to mind, as you have the new gymboss that can do different intervals have you ever thought of experimenting?Like shorter intervals for strengh moves and then longer for crazy cardio blasts all in one workout?
I promise I will not be a bother for at least a month after this!:)
Thanks Marianne
LOL Sara! I am laughing at you thinking your questions are silly or annoying! Neither is true 🙂 I like the Italian expression 😉
Now for your questions:
1) The Swing could be both a push and pull in the horizontal plane, but neither really. Think of it more as a hip extension exercise or hip dominant.
I put the swing with the front squat because I know that the front squat is a quad dominant exercises, wereas the swing uses the hamstrings and glutes to balance anterior – posterior involvement.
I try and combine exercises that will compliment the other; mainly by not working the same main muscles in 2 consecutive exercises. Sometime I do break this “rule”.
Some examples of how I could couple exercises are: Upper body horizonal Push (eg push ups, bench press) with upper body horizontal Pull (Inverted Row, Single arm KB, or DB row, or Bent Over Row); then upper body vertical push (eg Military Press, BB Overhead Press) with upper body vertical Pull (Pull Ups, Lat pull down). With lower body I think front and back. Then there is also rotations and things too, but I try not to make my workouts too complicated so that people don’t get confused but still get the most out of it. For some anti-Rotational work, adding a contralateral reverse lunge or contralateral single-leg dead lift is a great way to work the core and obviously planks etc. Also when I am designing a workout that has squats and swings, then I might add reverse lunges (for quads and lower glutes) and then hip thrusts (for hamstrings and upper and lower glutes). You do get some overlap but the larger muscles can take a little extra work with compound exercises.
2) A superset is when you training 2 opposing muscle groups back to back. So the biceps/triceps superset is training the arm extensors/flexors back to back. It is just another way to try and make the training more intense, get more bang for your buck and create balance. Compound movements are more fun 🙂
3) Pure cardio, like skipping can be down anywhere in a workout as long as you are well warmed up. To answer your other gym-based cardio question I would recommend doing cardio AFTER your weights. Weight training needs more energy and you will in theory use up stored glycogen; then when you do cardio after you will maybe stand to burn more fat. I don’t know if that is true, but that’s what the theory says. The main thing I would say is that you will benefit more from using your fresh energy on your strength training because the results from that will build muscle which will burn you more calories at rest. Static Cardio will only burn calories at the time. Cardio after weights will be less taxing on your energy sytem, so leave it to the end.
4) Yes I have experiemented a few times with this function of the Gymboss Max, so I might use it in one of my workouts. The only thing is that most people only have a standard one 🙁
Let me know if these answers help and don’t worry if you have anymore to follow up with 🙂
Cheers
Mmmh interesting!
I am in a bit of a research and study phase, and I am fascinated by workout set up!Sad I know but it appeals to the nerd in me LOL
Some people seem to mix up a few exercises and bang it’s done cause a little movement is better than nothing, some use the words total body a little to freely, then I was reading on facebook, i think it was Tumminello, saying get a plan and stick to your plan no matter you have to wait for the machine/rack too be free!
I’m in a why people do what they do phase 🙂
Also I have been reflecting on what you said a while ago, about working on too many things going different direction cause your a jack of all trades, and realized it’s a mistake I do myself! Yes life is short, but unfortunately things can’t be rushed and I just have to learn to concentrate on one thing at the time….. and that thing can’t be Nutella, damn!!!!:)
Also can’t wait to know what’s brewing with the GGS movement!!!I’m just so nosey!!!!
Bye
Sara, I think you are in a good place because you are asking lots of questions. You are doing your research and trying new approaches. Not all of these will work for you, so it’s important to find an approach that works AND that you enjoy and run with it a while.
I hope you can focus on your main goal and make it work. Variety is great but I think having fewer goals helps a lot too 🙂
I’ll keep you posted on GGS 😀
How do you keep your kettlebells so clean? mine are filthy. I like this workout and will put in my schedule for late this week post turkey and wine workout.
I promised a friend I would go to hot yoga today (evil torture) with her, I’ll be wishing I was doing this instead of yoga.
In terms of the bad diet and training I tend to stick to my usual eating habits, eating vegetables fruit and protein.
My only problem is the wine, I love wine which makes it difficult to workout hard specially if I have had a few the night before. It is my only vice so I try not to beat myself up to much over it.
Haha Mickela, they are so clean coz I never use them 😉 J/K I am way too gentle with them clearly!
Good luck to your friend, that’s all I say.
Wine and chocolate will for ever be both my friend and foe too 🙁 I love them but they hate me LOL.
I respect your ability to stick to your regime though. Wish I had that will power. It seems the more I try to impose certain restrictions the more I want to break them – eek!
No point in feeling guilty about everything. I think everyone is capable of finding a happy medium.
Looks great Marianne, cant wait to try this! I might get to do it tomorrow morning 🙂
Interesting topic! I think I’m going to just keep things in moderation and don’t buy that flipping 1kg box of quality street :/ thats never a good idea!
Lately I’ve reduced the amount of exercise I’m doing by not cycling this past while and I’ve lost a good bit of weight and feel stronger! Plus I havent been super strict diet wise. So I dont think I can out train a bad diet and less exercise seems to be better for me 🙂 But maybe its just less aerobic exercise!!
You could be right Sarajane. Often too much cardio can inhibit muscle growth and you can be burning off too many calories when your body needs those calories for growth and repair.
I say stick with this for a while longer and see were it leads. My body responds better to more recovery too 😀 Plus it give you more energy for your strength training. Less is more sometimes !
i hardly do any traditional cardio and i am never super strict with my diet and i have much better results from when i did a ton of cardio and was super strict. i think a combination of not stressing out about your diet ( stress plays such a huge role!), having those extra calories for rest and repair like you said definitely is the best combination!
Amy, you could have taken these words right out of my mouth! This is exactly where I stand on this issue too. As soon as I start restricting and stressing, I gain body fat – As soon as I eat what I want again and “don’t care” so much; I end up looking leaner! It’s weird.
I think people need to find a place where they are not as stressed. Some people need more dietary structure and others (like me) need less. I wouldn’t judge anyone for eating 6 meals a day and earning carbs if that was a) not causing them to stress and become obsessive and b) it was working for them.
Thanks Amy 🙂
I always say you can never train your way out of a bad diet lol. I guess I can’t change that philosophy now. I just do my best to not miss training days during the holidays and just eat the best I can in between. I did sooo good last year during the holidays and it worked out great. This year I’ve been back on the sugar wagon and it just doesn’t matter how much I train or what I do that extra bulge creeps in so I know i have to back off the bad eating.
Thanks Aimee. I think there’s only so long you can out-train a bad diet. I go through those phases too. I am on one at the minute; that’s why I asked 🙂
Hope you beat the bulge 😉 Or do whatever makes you happy!