Tough Little Workouts

Workouts designed to get you fit, fast

Posts Tagged burn fat

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.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Fat Burning Percentage

Apr 20

Posted by Funkster in Hints and Tips | No Comments

I’m having a break from bodyweight training, and doing more cardiovascular exercise these days. I’ve just been to the gym and cycled for an hour. I still kept it intense and hard, one minute riding on high resistance, one minute casual riding. Then I did twenty minutes of hills, and finally I pressed the ‘fat burning’ button for the last twenty.

Apparently, for my age the ideal fat burning heart rate for me is 123. Bearing in mind I had stoked it up to 180 after my rapid cycling, it took about five minutes to bring it down to this level. I felt so lazy, and sweat started to dry on me and turn me goose pimply. During a workout, I like to sweat sweat sweat, or what’s the friggin point? After three minutes, I gave up and went back to my tough workouts.

How the hell can people get fit if they don’t even try to work their heart? A heart rate of 123 for me  during a workout is absolutely nothing. Even when I used to speed walk to work, I would have a guess that my heart rate was 150 or something in that region. Intense training is the best way to burn off fat. Keep the heart rate high, and the metabolism heightens. My goodness, if I would have cycled at 123 beats per minute for sixty minutes, I probably would have only burnt off 150 calories next to my 450 effort. It did make me feel extremely euphoric afterward.

Tags: , , , , ,

The Bodyweight Training Galore Workout

Apr 1

Posted by Funkster in The Workouts | No Comments

The whole point of this blog is to give informative articles about fitness, nutrition, and to design my own short tough workouts that build strength, tone the muscles, and burn off stubborn fat. Occasionally though, I feel I do have to go over the 30 minutes.

This workout took me around fifty minutes, and I’m feeling its positive effects today in two sore buttocks, a tight back, tender triceps, and aching abdominals.

The weights are optional for the squats, but weight are needed for the dead lift. Adding weights makes each exercise harder. Take a minute between each exercise if you need it. These moves draw out perspiration and require healthy lung power, so therefore the moves dry the throat easily.

Equipment Needed:

  • Mat
  • Stability ball
  • Weights 30-80kg
  • Skipping rope (optional)

The Workout:

Start off with 3-5 minutes of jump rope or jogging on the spot to warm the muscles.

  • Twenty normal press-ups, twenty squat thrusts, and twenty star jumps, without taking a break, followed by twenty sit-ups on the stability ball.
  • Nineteen weighted squats. Feet hip width apart, and try to squat down slowly rather than rush the move. Really work those buttock muscles. After several you will feel the ache. Nineteen sit-ups on the stability ball.
  • Eighteen dead lifts. Feet close together. Suck in the abdominals. Reach for the weight and pull up to stomach. Do not curl the back, rather stand up naturally. Follow the weight down keeping the back straight and bend the knees slightly until you feel a pull in the hamstring and buttock areas. Eighteen sit-ups on the stability ball.
  • Seventeen wide press-ups. Widen the hands as far as possible and perform seventeen. Straight onto seventeen squat thrusts, and seventeen star jumps, followed by seventeen sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Sixteen weighted squats, but widen the legs slightly. Sixteen sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Fifteen dead lifts followed by fifteen sit ups on stability ball.
  • Fourteen diamond shaped press-ups, followed by fourteen squat thrusts, fourteen star jumps, and fourteen sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Thirteen weighted squats feet closer together, followed by thirteen sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Twelve dead lifts, followed by twelve sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Eleven normal press-ups, followed by eleven squat thrusts, eleven star jumps, and eleven sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Ten weighted squats, feet wider, followed by ten sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Nine dead lifts, followed by nine sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Eight wide press-ups, followed by eight squat thrusts, eight star jumps, and eight sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Seven weighted squats, feet close together, followed by, you guessed it, seven sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Six dead lifts, followed by sit-ups on ball.
  • Five diamond shaped press-ups, followed by five squat thrusts, five star jumps, and five sit-ups on ball.
  • Four weighted squats, feet wider. Four sit-ups on stability ball.
  • Three dead lifts. Three sit-ups on ball.
  • Two normal press-ups, two squat thrusts, two star jumps, and two sit-ups on stability ball.
  • One weighted squat, feet closer, followed by one last sit-up on stability ball.

Try to perform the moves without taking a break before the sit-ups. Performing sit-ups on a stability ball works on core strength because it requires some effort to remain on the ball and perform the exercise. There are a wide array of activities to perform on a stability ball, more of which I’ll discuss another time.

Be sure to eat protein rich food 30-60 minutes after the workout. If you can, try to go from five to one without taking a break to really stress the muscles. The physical act of lifting the weight, even for only one rep still stresses the muscles, and will help then grow back stronger – with the right nutrition.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Muscle vs. Fat

Feb 6

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

What is important to remember when you are undertaking any exercise or weight loss programme is that if you perform weight training, you WILL put on weight. If you’re obsessed with weighing yourself, this isn’t going to help you one bit and can lead you off the right path onto the wrong.

Instead, get rid of the scales and let your clothes tell the truth. I always know when I’ve lost weight because my clothes are loose. The scales always show me at the same weight or more but I do a lot of weight training.

The reason I state this is because muscle does weigh more than fat, so obviously if you are doing regular weight training the muscle gain will show up on the scale. This can make some people panic but remember muscle is your best friend and will help to burn off the fat over the long term. It may not be overnight but you will certainly look leaner if you keep up weight training.

Another myth that most people worry about with weight training is that they will bulk up to look like Arnie. Even if you start with light weights and perform 20-30 reps, you will start to build muscle. To burn serious fat, try to increase the weights every week. The more weight you can squat or press, the more leaner your muscles will become. Avoid pyramid training which use heavy weights and you’ll be fine. I would highly recommend Body Pump. It is tough but work on building your mental strength to perform weight training.

Even today I weighed myself and I usually never do. Twelve stone. I am lean but I perform a boxing training, body pump, spinning, and skipping over the week so my metabolism is high. Another great thing you must know about weight training is that it will burn still be burning off fat for up to 48 hours afterward. Cardio may burn it for up to 2-3 hours afterward so how cool would it be to burn fat through the night.

Remember to eat lots of protein to fuel the additional muscle.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,