Week 2

Welcome to my second blog entry.



Last week was a bit of a slack week for me – I only went to the gym twice & did a home workout! I visited my mum & put her through a bit of a workout at home & did my fitness shoot up at Nelson Bay on Thursday night.


Here’s what I did;


WEDNESDAY: I did some tabata training with my mum. I did a modified easier version for her & she still had trouble walking for the next few days!


I’m always getting asked what I do in regards to training and one of my favourite type of training is Tabata Training.



TABATA TRAINING


Tabata training is combining strength & cardio training at once. It is the fastest & one of the best training methods with excellent results. It burns fat fast and boosts your metabolism.


*This is not for people who are just starting out with exercise as it’s quite an intense workout!*


The idea is to do the most reps you can of a particular exercise in 20 seconds. It helps if you can have a clock handy with a second hand or a timer that you can monitor during the exercise. Even better – have a buddy to help by counting your reps so you’re not distracted by keeping watch on the time.


I’ll use body weighted squats as an example. I have found a youtube video that demonstrates how tabata training works;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDcNzEFr7yA&feature=fvw


You're aiming to do 8 sets, once you can do 8-10 sets you can start adding some weights such as a barbell but remember not to go too heavy as this is not body building!


It’s important to keep a good form throughout the training. Make sure your squats are deep enough so your quads are parallel to the ground, push your butt out, keep your head high & chest out. The video above demonstrates this).


- Don’t feel you need to be as fast as the man in the video, he is of a high level of fitness and I wouldn’t recommend attempting this until you are fit enough. It’s important you develop a good form during the exercise so you prevent the chances of injury.


You can use tabata training for almost any exercise - the idea is to use big muscle groups so you’ll really get your heart racing.


If you’re unable time yourself, you can modify it as I do sometimes. Instead of doing as many reps as you can in 20 seconds try doing between 15-20reps or so (however many you can handle) then have 10 seconds rest. I normally finish the set then immediately count down...10, 9 , 8, 7....etc. By the time I reach '0' I am in position ready to go again! Do this 8 – 10 times with 10 secs rest in between each set.


I also like to apply tabata to sprint training; sprint as fast as you can for 20 seconds, then walk for 10 secs. Repeat 8 - 10 times.



Remember you can use Tabata training with almost any exercise, just stick to the general rule of 20 secs of as many reps as you can with 10 secs rest in between each set and do 8-10 sets!



THURSDAY: I did my fitness shoot that night so I really wanted to look all pumped up especially in my arms & abs. I started with half an hour on the cross trainer on medium resistance. I then did concentrated bicep curls whilst sitting on a bench. I rest my elbow on my knee & make sure I extend my arm right out so my hand & the dumbbell almost touches the ground. I do 4 sets of 12 reps, then hammer curls (4sets of 12reps) then I did shoulder lateral raises (4sets of 12 reps) and front raises (4 x 12).


For demonstrations of these exercises please have a look at this website:

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbbellexercises.html


I then did 10 mins of non-stop crunches on the medicine ball, did 4 sets of 25 calf raises & 15 mins of stretching.


Saturday: I did a massive 2 hour workout to make up for my lack of exercise this week!


Cardio: I did 25 mins on the bike on medium resistance and 20 mins on the cross trainer.


Then I did some 9kg lunges (4 sets of 12 reps).


I trained my back and triceps today;



Back: I did 4 sets of 12 reps of single arm rows (refer to the sport fitness website above for demonstrations).


Then I did the lat pull down machine (4 sets x12 reps).


4 sets x 12reps on the seated row machine.


Triceps: I did 4sets x 12reps of triceps pull downs.


I then did a modified tabata. I did body weighted squats (5 sets of 20 reps).


Then I did body weighted lunges (5sets of 20reps).


Then I finished with wide legged squats (5 sets of 20 reps).


Abs: Then I did 5 mins of non-stop crunches on the medicine ball, then a combination of crunches and reverse crunches on a mat for 5 mins.


Calves: 4 sets of 12 reps of calf raises.


I finished with 15 mins of stretching.

That's my week done!


Here are a couple of pics from my fitness shoot on Thursday!

Here's a funny one :)