Fitness challenge #3

Who’s up for another challenge!

These exercises are all using your body weight only so you don’t need to be a member of a gym to do them.

Completing these will increase your fitness, muscular endurance and tone and burn serious amounts of calories – which equals a sexier, leaner body!

Don’t let the high numbers put you off – most are very quick to do and totally doable throughout a week on top of your normal training. The mountain climbers for example take only a few minutes to do a few hundred.

Take your pick of exercises to do throughout the week – you can spread them out however you like:

1. 200 Chin ups (wide grip)

2. 500 V-sits

3. 1,000 mountain climbers

4. 3,000 calorie output (through exercise)

You can pick one challenge to compete over the week, or more than one. If you want some serious results, go for gold and do the whole lot!

It’s a bit of fun but hopefully still challenging so ideally choose ones that will push your boundaries.

You have a week to finish them so you can split them up however you like. Be creative!

Guidelines -

* Pick 1 challenge or more than 1 and choose how you’d like to complete it over the week. I suggest you break everything down into sets/reps when planning.

* Chin ups – These can be done however you like – as long as you are pulling yourself right up so you can see over the bar and coming down until your arms are nearly straight – but not locked. If you don’t have a gym membership, there are many parks with monkey bars you can use. All you need is a friend to hold your legs behind you if you’re not experienced in chin ups or need that extra boost to get through them. See how many you can do without any assistance! You can do these with your feet propped on something in front or behind if you need to.

* V-sits – They are straight legged sit ups where you start from a lying position on your back, then reach both arms and legs up and touch your toes (or as close as you can to your toes!). You almost fold your body in half in the air. Keep your legs as straight as you can. I have only set 500 over the week as these are tough if you do them right. So if you do them right, you’ll find that 500 in the week will have your abs stronger and looking more defined!

* Mountain climbers – Take a press up position, then ‘run’ your feet in and out. The ball of your foot should connect with the ground. Make sure you are bringing each foot as far as you can each time, without arching your back or lifting your hips. Your back should be in one straight line. ‘Right, left’ is counted as one rep. I recommend you break them up into sets of minimum 20, up to 50.

* 3,000 calorie output – Note, this is a guideline only. If you feel up for this number, I recommend you aim for a 500 calorie output over 6 training days. This can be separated into 2 workouts e.g. 250 morning / 250 evening or all in one session over 6 days. If you’re not used to such high calorie output, start with where you’re at a set a goal based on increasing your calorie burn this week. Only take on the 3,000 challenge if you are already used to a high volume of training. If you are already doing 3,000 calories or more, up the ante and see what else is possible for you! Remember to rest if you need and listen to your body.

Some example calorie output -

NOTE – This is an approximate guide only! The calories you burn are largely dependent on your weight, your speed, power, how hard you’re exerting yourself and other factors. We all burn calories at a different rate. This guideline is just to help us set some targets for ourselves.

EXAMPLE calorie burn – per minute:

Running – 10

Boxing – 8

Walking – 5

Cross trainer – 7-9 (depending how fast and hard you’re going)

Weight training – 5-7 (again, depending what you’re doing – legs burn more, the bigger the muscle the more you burn).

You also burn more if you’re using compound or body weight exercises – big movements such as squats, deadlifts, press ups etc. as opposed to say an isolated bicep curl, which doesn’t burn many calories.

Remember that with resistance training, you are laying down muscle which in time is going to increase your metabolism. This means you will burn more calories even at rest – a good incentive to go for it in your resistance work!
* Ensure you use correct technique in every exercise. Please email me if unsure – info@katmillar.com.

* It’s about quality not speed or just going through the motions- so ensure you maintain correct posture in all movements .

* Plan your sessions out to allow adequate recovery between sessions. I suggest you divide the numbers up among 6 days and have a rest day or light day perhaps half way through or towards the end.

My plan of attack -

I’m going to do my pull ups over 3 days – Monday, Thursday and Sunday.

I’ll do 3 sets of approximately 12 wide first (overhand grip, also known as chin ups) and 3 sets of narrow (underhand grip, shoulder width apart – these ones are easier than wide). I’ll need a spotter on the free bar chin ups. My goal is to do 10 pull ups on my own. Currently I can get 7 so hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be stronger.

So a total of around 72 on Mon and Thurs and then by the last day it’ll be less to complete the 200.

Mountain climbers I’m going to do 200 over 5 days at the gym as part of my cardio or after weight training sessions, as finishers.

V-sits will be 100 per day for 5 days, broken down into 5 sets of 20, or 6 sets of 15 + 1 set of 10.

Calorie output – I plan on doing 6 cardio sessions this week – mostly running as I love it so much, plus 5 weight training sessions. I’m going to average 500 output over 6 days and then do a long, easy walk on my rest day.

Please make sure you use correct technique with all movements and stop if you experience any unusual pain. Also ensure you stretch thoroughly every day.

If you’re unsure of how to do any of the exercises or need any advice, please email me at info@katmillar.com.

Please let us know how you’re getting on by posting on my facebook page.

Go get ‘em!