This exercise invoves skipping (surely you must know I love this activity by now), body weight training and weight training. This workout I’ve named the Muscle Killer works the cardiovascular system and the anaerobic system. When working the heart, sure calories are burned during and a little after the workout, but it’s the tough muscle workouts that really shift the flab, and burn fat for up to 48 hours afterward. This workout takes about 45 minutes. Add some great motivating music and let’s get started.

Equipment required

• Skipping rope
• Mat
• 20kg weights (or more if you can)
• Stability Ball
• Medicine ball (6 – 10 kg)
• Bench

The Workout

• Skip for a song length or about 3-5 minutes. Really warm up those muscles.

• Lie on bench and grab your hand weights. Perform 20 chest presses. Remember to breathe out as you push the weight up.

• Grab your hand weight, increase it if you can, and perform 20 deadlifts, then pull barbell up to your chest to work those arms. That’s one rep. Perform 20. Keep the legs straight, do not bend the back. Use your arm muscles to pull the weight up. If you cannot perform 10 reps with your current weight, reduce the weight.

• Do not drop the weight if you can. Straight from the deadlifts, perform 20 weighted squats. Place the weight on your shoulders, legs a little wider than your waist and squat down. Squat down to where is comfortable then use those thigh muscles to push back up. Keep the back straight. When performing a squat, push your ass right back. You should be able to still spot your toes. Do 20 reps.

• Sit on stablility ball, grab your medicine ball and curl up. Perform 20. If you perform the crunch slowly it will work your abdominals harder.

• Lie on mat. Position your ankles on the stability ball, push your buttocks up so you are balancing on ball, hands on your chest, and pull the ball in with your thigh muscles. This is a killer. Perform 20.

• Now it’s time for press-ups on an incline. Position your feet on the bench, your hands on the mat and do 20 press-ups. On an incline, they’re tough, but try to work through the pain.

• Finally, this set finishes off with 5 really hard bastards. If you’re do not know what these are, here goes. Jump down into a squat, perform a press-up, spin your body round quickly so you’re lying on your back, then jump up and do a high jump. That’s one rep. This is a whole body toner.

• Now you’ve got to do the workout again. The second set perfom the skipping, then with each rep only perform 15, and 5 really hard bastards at the end. For the final set, perform 10 of each.

• Remember to stretch thoroughly afterward.

Rest for up to 3 days afterward, as muscles will be sore, and give them time to recover.

I freely admit that I didn’t get a tough workout in last week, besides spinning and body pump. Life is sometimes hectic, as it was for me last week.

Anyway, back to basics. Here is a shortish workout of around 30 minutes, but sweat, you hopefully wll.

Equipment required:

• An incline, perhaps a box or if training from home, a pouff
• Mat
• 7-10kg dumbells
• Skipping rope (I love my rope)
• Music (primarily for motivation – optional)
• Stability ball – optional

The Workout:

• Gently warm up the muscles by skipping lightly or marching on the spot. After five minutes of briskly skipping, jogging or marching, step up the workout and skip a little faster. Jump rope for a song length or around 5 minutes.

• Pick up the weights, minimum of 7kg and perform 10 one-legged deadlifts on each leg. Remember to only briefly bend the knee but bring the weight up thigh height, keeping the back straight. That’s one rep. Perform ten on each leg.

• Position your legs on the incline and perform 20 normal press-ups. Bring your abdominals in, keep your back straight and maintain your posture. It is harder on an incline, so remember to breathe.

• Position your arms on a table or chair and do 20 tricep dips. If you want to make it easier, bring your knees in, harder, keep your body straight. Your arms will be challenged, especially after performing twenty press-ups.

• Try not to have a break, but if you must, 1 minute minimum.

• Sit yourself comfortably on the stability ball, grab your weight, again a minimum of 7kg and slowly curl with the weight. This is a tough one. Breathe out on the tension held in the abs and in on the release. If you perform this exercise slowly it will really work those abdominal muscles.

• Pick up one dumbell and perform 8 one-legged squats on each. Try to bend down as low as you can. Focus on a spot on the floor so you don’t lose balance. This exercise works to build strong glutes.

• Grab your weights, position them in your hands or on your shoulders and perform 20 squats. Really push your buttocks out. Do not curl your back, pull your abdominal muscles in at all times. When you push back, you should be able to see your toes. If you can’t, it is likely you are positioning yourself too forwards and maybe hurting your back. Practice by looking in front of the mirror. Excuse my French, but you should be squatting like you’re ready for a number two.

• If that’s not exhaustive enough, you’ve two more rounds to go with this circuit.

• Perform the above twice, and if you’r really eager four or five times.

There are a lot of tough bodyweight exercises in this exercise and because the weights are fairly heavy, and there are a lot of core balancing exercises, such as the one-legged squat, weighted sit-up and incline press-up, this workout will really torch those calories. If I remember, after the first circuit, I was perspiring heavily.

Remember to eat a nutritious meal afterward such as a banana, peanut butter on toast or a healthy milkshake.