Once your big day is booked firmly into the diary, you’ve set yourself a deadline to achieve your desired health goals! Check out these must-try summer fitness hacks to help you stay on track…
To make sure you are on track this summer Marvin Burton, Head of Fitness at Anytime Fitness has put together three of his favourite summer fitness hacks that can help fast track you towards your goals in preparation for your big day.
#1 – Use the lighter mornings to your advantage!
A low-intensity faster workout is a great way to effectively burn body fat. Getting up and out will not only wake you up but also allows your body to function efficiently and become fired up before work begins. Great ways of doing this include getting out for a walk and elevating your heart rate. Alternatively, an inclined treadmill walk, or a flowing yoga routine should do the trick. Don’t count this as your main workout though! It’s a nice little extra to add to your day. Getting in some non-exercise (formal exercise) activity, increasing your daily step count and increasing your metabolic rate is our intention.
#2 – Increase your work capacity
To increase the amount that you do in a workout and really start to ‘fire up’ and overload your neuromuscular system, you could use time for your sets instead of counting repetitions. For example, you may choose to perform an exercise for 60 seconds and try (with good technique) to perform increased repetitions within the time frame, much like a circuit training workout. However, you perform multiple sets of the same exercise instead of changing it after each set. A great exercise routine for this would be the following: four rounds of 60 seconds of squats, with 60 seconds of rest in between each round. When you reach the point that you can’t do anymore squats, try holding a low squat position for the remainder of the time!
#3 – Use supersets
A superset is two exercises performed with minimal or no rest between them. You could choose to do these for the same muscle group or opposing muscles. An example of performing a superset would be dumbbell chest press followed by press ups (using the same muscle) or dumbbell chest press followed by dumbbell bent over row (which targets the back).
Your selection might be based on how many times per week you can exercise. If you are pressed for time during the week, then use the opposing muscle approach or even an upper and lower body variation. If you can exercise 3+ times per week, you can try the same muscle group approach.
Either way, the intensity of your workout will increase and therefore, more body fat will be burned. Remember, weight training will burn increased amounts of body fat in comparison to endurance based steady state cardiovascular exercise.
Here are some examples of supersets for opposing muscle groups, same muscle groups and upper and lower body variations (another option if you want to mix up your workout):
Along with some simple lifestyle changes, you should be well on your way to trimming down for the big day. As a bonus, here are three further ‘quick fire’ lifestyle hacks to ensure you’re doing all that you can!
1. Sleeping between 7-9 hours per night. Sleep and recovery are important to reduce stress, inflammation and improve your exercise benefits.
2. Hydration. Hot weather and increased levels of exercise require you to replace and hydrate more. Hydration will also improve digestion, mental focus and sleep.
3. Eat real food! Avoid the quick-buy foods that are usually pre-packaged, heated in the microwave or ordered on an app! Start cooking more, planning your meals and being more sensible with choices.
Our thanks to Marvin Burton, Head of Fitness at Anytime Fitness for these top tips! Anytime Fitness has over 160 gyms across the UK and is the UK’s second largest private gym operator, with over 160,000 members. Visit www.anytimefitness.co.uk/2019 to claim a free day pass.
Main image credit: fabletics.co.uk
Marvin Burton is Head of Fitness at Anytime Fitness, leading fitness franchise with over 160 gyms across the UK. Marvin is an expert personal trainer and has over 20 years’ experience in the fitness industry, previously working for leading names including Wattbike and TRX. He oversees the nationwide fitness offering at Anytime Fitness’ UK clubs, ensuring clubs are offering the best experience for its members.
