Tough Little Workouts

Workouts designed to get you fit, fast

Posts Tagged burn calories

Press-ups

Jul 20

Posted by Funkster in Hints and Tips, The Workouts | No Comments

Press-ups are the perfect bodyweight exercise. You do not need to join the gym to perform press-ups, although most people need an excuse not to workout. Press-ups use up to seventy percent of your bodyweight, so it is a perfect exercise in which to tone up, gain muscle mass, improve your resting metabolism, and burn off fat.

I can successfully perform around forty press-ups without a break. This is enough for a woman (or so I think) because it keeps my chest pert, as I hate uncomfortable bras. I used to attend boxing training, and I soon built up my upper-body strength. Press-ups will burn calories…and lots. It tones the upper body of the back, biceps, triceps, chest (perfect to tone the tits, girls), and abdomen. Remember to make sure that your back is straight while performing press-ups. If you are new to press-ups, perform them on your knees and make sure to lower your chest almost to the floor as one rep.

There are a variety of press-ups to try. I like to perform press-ups with my feet resting on a box. This is a tough exercise, but it works the abdomen perfectly. Try resting your feet on top of the other foot and perform fifteen press-ups before carrying out the workout on the other foot. This increases the amount of bodyweight that you lift during a press-up and will toughen the exercise.

Another way to strain the muscles through press-ups is to purchase a stability ball. Balance the feet on the ball, lower your chest to the floor in a press-ups, and then curl the feet in on the ball to work the hamstrings and abdomen. Try to work up to 10-12. I literally break out into a sweat just performing twelve of these bastards. Nevertheless, work through the pain barriers by training your mind with positive mantras like ‘no pain’ or ‘one more minute and its over’. Another great motivator is music. The right song makes me go further. Pendulum and Prodigy are fantastic to listen to during a hard bodyweight training sessions.

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Easy Ways to Lose Weight

Jan 5

Posted by Funkster in Hints and Tips, weight loss tips | No Comments

Here are some easy ways to lose weight. I have never dieted in my life but have always managed to stay slim so I am going to let you in on my secrets.

  • You do not need to calorie count – This can become obsessive. Calories are listed on every single supermarket item except fruits and vegetables, and we all know that they are the lowest calorie foods and also the healthiest.
  • Start weight training – Weight training will NOT build up the muscles in the body, it only aims to make you look leaner overall. Now that is sexy! Adding just one pound of lean muscle tissue will boost your metabolism and burn an extra fifty calories per day. This may not seem like a lot but it accounts for over five pounds of weight loss per year. Build up the weights gradually but if you want best results I would advise doing body weight training, like press-ups, sit-ups, burpees etc, and carry out weight training with free weights. Always tense your stomach muscles throughout any exercise to work the core muscles.
  • Eat regularly – I do not mean large meals but break up your meals from three to six smaller ones throughout the day. Just at least try it for a week. It will not cost more either because you are simply breaking up your normal routine and eating when your body feels hungry. When you start to eat regularly, the body has no option but to increase its thermogenic rate and burn calories. The body burns 10% of calories through thermogenesis, simply when the body has to break down food and digest it. If you eat more you can take advantage and burn more calories. Regular eating will soon keep your metabolic rate that high and you will feel hungry every three or so hours.
  • Eat Butter – Believe it or not and with all the hype out there about these rich omega 3 spreads like Flora Pro-Active, Butter is good for you. It contains a good amount of Essential Fatty Acids and Omega 3, which help heart health. Remember, everything in moderation. I find that Lurpak is the best butter by far. This might put you off margarines and spreads for life. They are actually grey before colorants are added. Look at the natural colour of butter next to flora. When I found out that was enough for me to change to butter forever.
  • Start Power Walking - A little faster than walking but not as fast as a jogger, Power Walking will shift fat stores big style. Expect to burn around 250 calories per mile, depending on your current weight. When the average jogger or walker burns 100-102 calories per mile, power walking can help to shift weight and FAST. How to practice? If you have a treadmill this is ideal or set yourself targets like your normal walking route minus ten minutes etc.

I’ll offer more weight loss tips later in the week but I hope these get you started on the right track.

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10 Min Skipping Workout

Sep 12

Posted by Funkster in The Workouts | No Comments

I was in such a rush yesterday, so if you’ve got a skipping rope and some space, this short 10 minute workout can be performed anywhere. I truly wanted to take it up to 20 minutes to test my fitness, but even the 10 minutes was truly tough.

Okay, you require a timer for this. Blast some good tunes and time yourself. If you’ve got a wall clock with a head ticking round – this is best to watch. Skip for one minute but incorporate 10 double unders (you’ll have to jump pretty high to allow the rope to circulate under your feet twice. It may take some practice but persevere).

Double-unders are fantastic at working the heart, and they burn up to 28 calories per minutes. I can’t see running or cycling giving those odds. Although it would be tough to perform them for a whole minute, I timed myself yesterday, and each of the 10 double-unders takes about 6-7 seconds. It may not seem a lot of blasted calories, but with these kind of workouts, they are super intensive so continue to burn those calories long after. That doesn’t give you reason to blow it on beer or pizza though. Think of the hard work you have put your body under. Read the rest of this entry »

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