Week two and the derrière has lifted slightly
I have signed up for celebrity-trainer-to-the-stars, Mark Anthony's 6 Week Body Plan and am starting to feel the pain.
The plan requires four (yes, four) visits to the gym each week, but there is an upside - all my food is being delivered to my doorstep overnight [courtesy of Pure Package], to ensure my body becomes a temple inside and out.
Everything is organic and, I have to admit, pretty filling. But I confess, I've fallen off the wagon - a number of times. First it was a couple of brownies, then a giant tube of Smarties (a gift, so not my fault) and one week of serious indulgence for a friend's 30th topped it all off.
However by week two I am already feeling better in body and mind. I know we all hear it time and again but the endorphins that exercise produces really do improve your mood - especially in the depths of winter when it seems like nothing will.
After my initial session with Mark, I am now training with Charlotte, a lovely Irish girl who, at the age of 24, has already trained soldiers in the army; this could become more punishing yet!
Each session we concentrate on a different area of the body. Always beginning with a 5-minute aerobic warm-up, we move onto anaerobic exercise, lifting weights for a good twenty minutes before a full 20-25 minute cardio session on either the treadmill or cross trainer. The reason? In a nutshell, if you do weight training first, you can use your glycogen stores as fuel. Then, when you move over to doing cardio, you're exactly where you want to be...with depleted glycogen stores, giving your body the opportunity to burn fat as a fuel source.
This all makes sense entirely but in practise, its tough. Repetition work with 4kg dumbbells in my hands was…testing shall we say. In the days following I knew my muscles were doing something as my forearms ached like they'd never been used before. I may never be a match for Hulk Hogan but by the end of week two, my stomach is feeling and looking more taut and my arms have more definition. There even seems to be a small lift in the derrière.
Click here to go read more about Mark Anthony's fitness programmes
Click here to see a sample menu from Pure Package
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