A new home exercise routine to try - no equipment needed

I revisited an old Catalyst episode this week to familarise myself with the research results on HIIT. You may have seen it. Here's the link if you're interested. Make sure you read this article too.

I know I've written about it in the past but to recap the gist of the show:

Excellent physiological benefits can be achieved with 

minimal time spent exercising.

That's it! You don't have to dedicate hours a week in order to achieve improvements in your VO2Max (which is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise), insulin sensitivity, amount of visceral fat and cardiovascular strength.

That's great news for the time poor. Please see your G.P. before starting any strenuous exercise program. This kind of exercise program needs gradual building up to the level of intensity required.

I personally love to mix it up - when I don't have much time I'll do 4 x 30 second sprints as per the documentary. When I do have time, I'll go for a bike ride or walk around the hills or an ocean swim.

Here's a good short work out bound to leave you feeling like you've put in some effort:

Time on exercise	Legs	Arms/Back	Core	Cardio
60 seconds	Wall sit or squat and hold	High Plank	Plank on elbows	Caberet Kicks
45 seconds	Squats	Push Ups	Mountain Climber	Modified jumping jacks
30 seconds	Lunges – left	Supermans	Side Plank - left	Burpees
15 seconds	Jump squats	Tricep Dips	Crunchies	High Knees
30 seconds	Lunges - right	Supermans	Side Plank - right	Burpees
45 seconds	Squats	Push Ups	Mountain Climber	Modified jumping jacks
60 seconds	Wall sit or squat and hold	High Plank	Plank on elbows	Caberet Kicks

Just to explain a couple of the moves:

* Wall Sit - with legs at 90 degrees at knees and hips, sit against a wall and hold - burns!!

* High Plank - if your wrists don't like this try supporting your body weight on your knuckles or hold onto dumbbells. Wrists should be directly below shoulders, bottom always below shoulder height. This is a core exercise but a great shoulder stabilisation one too.

* Mountain Climber - high plank position and squeeze the knee towards the elbow - slowly.

* Side Plank - you can do this balancing on your toes or your knees. Make sure the elbow is directly below the shoulder, not out on a 45 degree angle.
* Supermans - lying face down with your arms reaching out in front of you, pull your tummy off the floor through out this movement. Kick the arms and legs trying to keep them clear of the floor to work into the back muscles.

* Crunchies - lying down, face up, I support my head with my hands, pull up the pelvic floor and pull the tummy down towards the floor, pulse up. Really keep that tummy from pushing up as you pulse up. You need to activate the core muscles by pretending you are drawing a belt in tighter and tighter around with waist. Breathing is done in the chest not in the stomach for these exercises.

* Caberet Kicks - Moulin Rouge style! Arms above the head and kick right leg up and touch left arm to right knee, alternate and go as fast as you can.

* Modified Jumping Jacks - As your arms arc overhead, hop onto your left leg, next - arms arc overhead and hop onto your right leg. Jumping Jacks with both legs jumping out akimbo will compromise the pelvic floor.

To finish I'm going to leave you with Tamara Madden's fabulous Pumpkin Loaf. I have tried so many gluten free bread recipes and now I always make this one for the freezer. It's easy to make - I do the whole thing in my food processor and it's full of protein. A meal in itself.

Lockdown with KEY Fitness

Well things have got kinda crazy since I last wrote a post. 

Covid-19 now dominates our screens, our livelihoods, our socialising and our minds.

I know that you will all be having moments of intense worry, frustration, lethargy and yet also gratitude.

We’re only two and a half weeks into self-isolation, so we’re still fresh to this. However, I wanted to write a post about the positives I’ve experienced from this experience so far:

·       So there’s community spirit – the sense that everyone has a little more compassion for each other. Stories of neighbours checking in on the elderly and leaving groceries on their door step.

·       Connecting or re-connecting to your family – there’s more time for chats, walks, games and walks together as the week is no longer consumed by working rigid hours and making meals on the fly.

·       Catching up on all my podcasts.

·       And EXERCISING! (You knew it was coming!) I’m loving not having to do my work outs at 5:30 in the morning.

So I’m going to check in every week or so with a few work out ideas. If you want more information on the exercises please contact me on louise.mavor@gmail.com. I can go through them with you and can even have a video call and show you the exercises.

For all of the ones I have included below, they are all found on the net whereby you can find some hunk demonstrating how to do the exercise.

Here is one requiring no equipment compliments of Chris Hemsworth’s (speaking of hunks) app, Centr. The work outs are good and sweaty but I am disappointed that I don’t actually have Chris talking me through my work out.

Warm Up: Take 5 minutes to do a combination of these dynamic exercises.

·       Caberet Kicks (pelvic floor friendly version of Jumping Jacks) – alternating kicking legs to hip level to warm up the hamstrings

·       Reverse Lunge with a side stretch as you lower the knee

·       Inchworm – mobilising the spine and warming up the shoulders

·       Arm circles – forwards and backwards

Now onto the sweaty stuff. Do Work Out A to E one set of each…

Work Out A: 40 – 45 seconds of working hard; 15 – 20 seconds of rest between exercises.

·       Narrow push ups – elbows grazing your ribs as you lower your body.

·       Single leg bridge – hips stay parallel to the ground at all times.

·       Other leg!

·       Lunges – forwards, reverse or travelling. Again keep the hips parallel to the ground as you lower your knee.

·       High knees running on the spot. If your pelvic floor is challenged, walk briskly on the spot with high knees and arms pumping.

Take 2 minutes to have a breather before Work Out B.

Work Out B: 40 – 45 seconds of working hard; 15 – 20 seconds of rest.

·       Burpees – I know you hate them but they are a brilliant complete body exercise.

·       Push Up with Ankle Tap - Push up then go into downward dog position and tap right hand to left shin/ankle then lower to a push up > into downward dog and tap left hand to right shin/ankle.

·       Squat jumps – get your bum down low to touch the ground, don’t bend your back, weight on your heels and an explosive jump up.

·       Squat + double pulse at the bottom of the squat before rising up; squat + triple pulse; squat + four pulses…

Take 2 minutes to have a breather before Work Out C.

Work Out C: 40 – 45 seconds of working hard; 15 – 20 seconds of rest.

·       Abdominal crunches – support your head in your hands, pull you tummy down firmly for the entire time. Don’t let it bulge up. Squeeze up from the pelvic floor muscles.

·       Bicycle Legs – Alternate shoulder towards opposite knee, nice and slow and controlled.

·       Mountain climber – Alternate knee towards arm, again, nice and slow and controlled.

·       Plank – always with plank keep your bottom below your shoulders. Otherwise there’s no point doing them.

Work Out D: 40 – 45 seconds of working hard; 15 – 20 seconds of rest.

·      Ice skaters – bound lightly side-to-side as if you are an Olympic Ice Skater. https://www.google.com/search?q=ice+skater+exercise&oq=ice+skater+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0j46j0j46j0l2j46.5423j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_77eOXsqYIMiW4-EPqf628Ak41

·       Plank + lateral jacks – Plank on fully extended arms then jump the legs out to the side and back to the starting position. Don’t do if pelvic floor is dodgey. Just stay in plank and move one leg out to the side at a time.

·      Plyo split lunge – try hopping up from the left leg lunge. 20 seconds each leg. I prefer to do this with my suspension trainer or some bands around a tree to give you some support on those knees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Bi9_o4Jhk

·       4 Square Hop – hop in a square pattern. Left leg 20 seconds, switch legs.

Take 2 minutes to have a breather before Work Out E.

Work Out E: 40 – 45 seconds of working hard; 15 – 20 seconds of rest.

·      Bear Crawls – keep your back in neutral position and knees parallel to the floor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpaxI2m75RY - this guy is really good. He knows what he’s talking about.

·       Plyo Spider – start in plank then hop the right foot to outside your right hand, switch hopping left foot to left hand – killer!

·       Tricep dips – bend those elbows to make those triceps burn

·       Caberet Kicks – start with arms above your head, kick one leg up to hip height or higher and touch opposite arm to your leg, switch and go fast!

Cool Down: Spend 5 minutes doing a combination of the following stretches.

·       Quad stretch – see if you can stand on one leg, stretch the other quad whilst balancing.

·       Hamstring stretch – standing or sitting

·       Hip Flexor stretch – from kneeling stride forward with the left leg, firmly squeeze on the right glute and slide your torso forwards. Keep the glute squeezed on as this increases the stretch.

·       Tricep stretch – take your arm overhead, bend the elbow and try gently pushing the hand down your back

·       Shoulder stretch – now take that same arm behind you, bending the elbow and pushing the hand up the back.

OK, now that you’ve worked out hard you can have a slice of this yummy banana bread with a beautiful dollop of Greek yoghurt and a piece of fruit. https://nourisheveryday.com/banana-and-coconut-bread/

Til next time stay healthy x