Hi everyone,
This week has been very strange, as I have been out of my usual routine with everything. Do you ever get days when you just feel out of sorts and a little down in the dumps? Well that’s how I feel today 🙁 So, I thought I would whip myself back into shape and knock the negativity away with a new workout!
The Workout
This workout is a mixture of Kettlebell and Body Weight exercises (to add variety), it is also interval training which will hopefully maintain a faster pace throughout, so no hanging around between exercises and sets etc – obey the Gymboss LOL!
For your own safety I need to highlight the only exception to “max effort” in this workout and that is the KB Windmill. Normally I include windmills with set reps, but today, because I wanted this in the workout, I thought I would put it in. This exercise MUST be performed in a slower, more controlled way. No rushing! Not only will you risk injury to your back or shoulders, but you will miss out on the benefits from this great stability and flexibility exercise. If you are not comfortable with this exercise then either drop the weight down, or leave it out and do body weight side hip raises instead.
Now on to the actual workout. If you have one set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 24 cycles of 15 seconds rest and 45 seconds effort. The aim is to complete 3 rounds of the following 8 exercises. I have indicated beside each exercise in one set of brackets if an exercise is cardio (c), strength (s), resistance (r) based or if it is a plyometric (p), stabilising (st) or, core activating exercise (cae). In another set of brackets I record my reps per exercise. PLEASE NOTE – how low my windmill reps are, this should be a guide to the speed you should perform this exercise at.
Now the exercises:
- KB Thruster into Reverse Lunge (right) (r,c) (10,11,9)
- KB Thruster into Reverse Lunge (left) (r,c) (11,10,8)
- Half Evil Burpee (making it half means it will be faster) (s,r,c,cae) (18,17,15)
- Double KB Bent Over Row (alternatives – single arm row, ballistic row) (s,r,cae) (18,17,15)
- Evil Jumps (c,p) (17,16,16)
- KB Windmill (right) (cae,st) (6,5,5)
- KB Windmill (left) (cae,st) (5,6,5)
- Seated Bench Jumps (c,p) (11,9,10)
Sorry if the abbreviations are getting confusing, but I needed to add a few more for this one. As you can see, not only does the variety of exercises serve to prevent boredom, but it also facilitates the use of many different muscular and neural functions. Tying together all these elements results in one heck of a functional workout. All of these aspects are required for everyday movements – so this is what we want to achieve from our workouts, as well as losing fat and looking good of course 😉
So now I’m off to enjoy a nice afternoon coffee and chill out until our big roast chicken dinner this evening.
Marianne
PS If you are enjoying my workouts and want to receive regular updates on new posts, then you can subscribe to my RSS feed. Also to all YouTube users who follow my site, feel free to subscribe to my channel to – it will be greatly appreciated 🙂 Cheers all.
Hey ladies nice conversation and advice from you Marianne (as always). I actually saw a photo of “your friend” (ha)at Bodyrock.tv before the heavy workouts and the boulder implants and she was very pear shaped, she was still lean on top, but her thighs were heavier.
I have also noticed lately that she is not looking healthy. She is also now wearing sports tops that are less revealing of the boulders, maybe she is visiting your site and reading the comments.
I better stop now.
cheers
LOL, yes I noticed that too (the less skimpy tops), maybe she’s trying to win back her female viewers 😉 She does look very pale these days and way too skinny, but that’s what vanity drives you to, there’s no end to it once it takes its hold to that level.
Anyway, don’t want to get started 😀
Cheers for your comments
M
Hi there, Just came across your site. I’m from N.Ireland too! I am going on hol in under a month and am really stressing about my legs. Do you have any workouts that concentrate on toning legs? I don’t have kettlebells so it would just be stability ball and body weight exercises that I could do?
Hi Nic, Nice blog btw 😀
Where in NI are you from?
Right now to the issue in hand. Any of my bodyweight and stability ball workouts will help you. You should focus on full body workouts as these will burn the most calories and will hopefully allow for greater fat loss. Keep them varied and intense. Most of my workouts have lots of leg work in them anyway as the leg house the biggest muscles and therefore are a powerhouse for burning excess energy. Workouts, rather than a few exercises will help you the most.
The best piece of advice for you, in your short space of time, is to really focus on your diet. Knock the McDonalds on the head and watch things like bread, and flour (as the salt and yeast will make water retention a lot worse). Drink loads of water (AT LEAST 2L per day).
Hope this helps
Marianne
PS If you have any dumbbells lying around, hold them during any squats or lunges and things to give the legs a little more work. Use a chair and do high step ups, but get the heart rate up to burn more 🙂
Cheers
Hi Marianne,
I am having difficulties with those twisting exercises (windmill or side to side lunge with KB) as my lower back starts hurting after a few reps – should I cut those exercises out of my routine?
Thanks for your advice!
Cheers,
Ruth
Hi Ruth, I would advise you to stop if it hurts. It could be that the weight is too much right now. Maybe work on your core strength and flexibility of the thoracic spine (middle of the back) to make these exercises easier. Try the windmill and twisting with body weight only and try and increase (carefully) your range of movement. Watch that you don’t curve your back, keep good posture through out. You may also have tight hamstrings which can cause a weakness in the lower back (as it’s always compensating for poor hamstring flexibility).
As I am not qualified to advise you properly, I can only tell you to stop any exercise that causes pain and seek the advice of a trained professional in back pain.
Sorry I can’t help you more 🙂
Marianne
Hi Bianca,
I loved the workout and I also loved the plyo part of it (you know I’m very much into plyo right now, lol, though I don’t actually jump but only high-step-up on my plyo boxes).
Anyway, I would like to ask you something: as you know, I am an ecto-dominant. I have a smaller upper body and slightly bigger bum/legs area with more muscles (and also slightly more fat) in the lower part of my body.
Though I am generally thin, I tend to accumulate extra-fat in the upper part of my thigs. Nevertheless, I have to try and eat a lot, because otherwise I tend to become too thin. (When I am very thin, the upper-thighs fat tends to decrease a lot, of course).
Do you have any advice? I don’t want to loose “general” weight because I like myself more now, but I’d love to be able to get rid of this specific fat? Any fitness or nutrition advice? If not, don’t worry: I know it’s a very difficult question.
Another general fitness question is: how often should I train, in order to build muscle and avoid over-training?
Thanks very much for everything and, as usual, I love your site. And your cats.
Cheers
Usually-ecto-but-endo-on-the-upper-thighs-Bianca
Sorry Marianne, I just realized that I wrote “Hi Bianca”, instead of “Hi Marianne” (my ego is endomorph dominant). 🙂
Hi Bianca, The best advice I can give you is to training heavier 3 times per week, all over body compound exercises with reps 12 – 8. Exercises like deadlifts or partial deadlifts (with a barbell to allow more weight), also squats, bulgarian squats, chest press, bent over rows, tricep dips and bicep curls and things like that. I don’t know if you go to a gym or not to supplement your training. It’s difficult to get heavier training done at home. Keep cardio minimal too (essential only) If you can manage it, train in a fasted state but your post-workout meal should be the biggest containing more protein and carbs (more overall calories). You can get away with eating more.
The problem with being a “pear” on top of ecto is that you will only see the fat on the lower half go when the top half is too skinny, so you might need to build up the muscle in the upper body to take away from the “skinny” appearance and allow the fat to go from the thighs. The other possiblity is that you may only need to tone the lower half to see an improvement. Target the inner thighs with heavier sumo deadlifts and wider squats. It is hard to generalise as everyone is slightly different however females respond best to compound , full body exercises and workouts, but don’t be afraid to up the weight – you need to really challenge those muscles to grow.
I hope this helps a bit anyway.
Cheers
Marianne oh I mean Bianca DOH !! LOL
Never had anyone write to theirself before 😉
Hi Marianne,
thank-you very much for your wonderful advice. In order to avoid “language” misunderstandings, could you please check that I have understood correctly what you told me?
Considering that I am an ecto but I am also a pear with fat on my outer-upper thighs, you advise me to train heavy 3 times per week doing from 8 to 12 reps for each set, with full body workouts.
You also advise me to build muscle in my upper body to balance the “pear” thing.
Could you please confirm that so far I understood correctly?
The thing that I really did not understand is why you say that another alternative could be to just tone the lower body to see improvements, perhaps targeting the inner thigs. Could you be so kind as to explain to me why?
Another thing: why do you say that it’s difficult to train heavy at home?
Thanks again for everything and I am sorry for this check that I am asking you to make.
I really appreciate your advice very much and I don’t want to miss a word or a concept of it.
🙂
Cheers
Bianca
Hi Bianca, Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, been working all weekend and only just had enough time to post yesterday then slept the whole day – that’s winter got ya!
I said it was hard to do heavy training at home because usually, you require weight that is hard to have at home. For me anyway, the heavy KBs are not enough. Maybe you are different and have the available stuff for the exercises you do.
When I was talking about your lower half and “toning”, I meant just that it may not be fat as such, but, like with me my inner thighs are not as toned as the rest of my leg, so it looks like more fat. That why sumos are great, but then I don’t know how you look 🙂 . Your other interpretations are right though. Just remember, if you are a pear shape, in order to look leaner on the lower half, you may sacrifice the top half as it may start looking too skinny, hence trying to build more muscle up top. You can’t spot reduce fat, but you can spot gain muscle, and tone. Our friend over at Bodyrock is naturally very pear shaped, and look how skinny her upper body has become as she’s got leaner, yet her lower half looks normal. But then she only eats salad LOL
Anyway, I hope I have answered your query, forgive me if I haven’t, or don’t make sense as I have yet to got to bed :/
Talk soon
Marianne
Hi Marianne,
thanks so much! You have been very very nice and I really appreciate it 🙂
Oh, and you are right about your friend: she definitely only eats unattractive salads. Do you think she’s an ecto too? (I would not want her to be an ecto and a pear, which is like me…but I look different: I don’t have the “boulders” to start with…you see? I’m even learning English, thanks to your site).
🙂
Bianca
LOL Bianca, I think she might be an ecto, meso-pear LOL, as she does have good leg muscles and she used to be a lot more muscular, before the calorie reduction happened. Like last year when Zuzana lived in Malta, she looked her best. Now she’s too gaunt and skinny, except the boulders of course 😉 LOL, but she does have good genetics, bar the extreme pear-shape she has. Although it was way more noticable in her older videos way at the start of BodyRock.tv – but she then built a lot of muscle, so I think she could be meso-ecto, as she has always been quite lean. But it’s all about how many calories. I eat loads and I put on muscle very easily. If I didn’t train, as I said before, I would turn into an actual boulder LOL!!
Great banter here tonight B 😉 Love it LOL
Cheers
Marianne
PS I ‘m always glad to try and help – as much as I can anyway 🙂
Great workout Marianna, I will add some of the moves to my workout routine today 🙂
ps. You look great 😀
Thanks Izzy 😉
Hi Marianne,
Can’t wait to do this one tomorrow morning. Mmmmmmmm,roast chicken dinner,sounds delicious gonna make that for dinner one day this week. I’ll let you know how it all works out. Enjoy the day!!! :o)
Minnie V.
Thanks Minnie, the chicken dinner was a big success – so juicy 🙂 We had roast potatoes (done in coconut oil), broccoli cheese, stuffing balls, yorkshire puddings, sweetcorn and gravy MMM – then a triple chocolate cheesecake for dessert :/ lol – Just as well I fasted all day for that one!
Today’s post-fast meal will be homemade Irish Stew (with leaner beef instead of lamb)! Maybe I’ll post my recipe 🙂
Talk to you soon, thanks for stopping by as always 😀
Marianne
Hi Marianne,
I am new to your site and love it! Thanks for all the great workouts. I was just wondering how high the bench is that you use in your workouts? (the blue & white bench) Also, I don’t have a bench at home and was wondering what exercise you could substitute for the seated bench jumps?
Thanks!
luv2bfit
Hi Luv2bfit (love the name 😉 ), Welcome to my site, it great to hear from you.
The Reebok Deck is about 35cm high, it’s a great piece of kit, but don’t worry as it’s not essential. A good substitution for the seated bench jumps would be sumo squat jumps. Go down to parallel and then jump, this will work the same part of the leg as the seated jumps 🙂
Hope this helps. Hope to hear from you again – enjoy the workout!
Cheers
Marianne
Thanks for the quick reply! Love your workouts! You look amazing!