The Confidential Challenge for her (part 8)

Week 11

Weights, old clothes and poncey boys.

All change. As we hit the final countdown with six supervised weeks to go, it’s time for an exercise overhaul.

My kettlebell session was revised, notably with increased weights – when I first spied these at the start I didn’t imagine being able to lift them, let alone do multiple linked moves. I’m so glad of the gym gloves. I actually forgot them for one session this week and my poor little palms suffered. Darren tells me if I actually relaxed my grip slightly it would ease the friction, but these mofo’s are heavy and I’m mindful of the consequences of turning involuntary shot putter.

An intensive burst of skipping for 5-8 minutes was to follow the bell-swinging – with the aim towards non-stop. That would have had me laughing a few weeks ago but this isn’t inconceivable now.

Five minutes was no problem but eight was pushing it. I hadn’t skipped since school until I got involved in this challenge and girls, I can fully advocate this for a quick, high energy, fat burning bit of cardio.

Darren Casey, our man from Elite Fitness Training, noted on the first skipping session “Everything that wobbles is fat.” Those words have rung in my ears as the weeks have passed and the tummy tremble is tailing off. You can even do this in your living room; easy peasy.

A turbo-charged gym workout was presented to me by Darren, who put me through my paces on to ensure the correct form and technique. Previous sessions had featured ‘super sets’, doubling up on certain exercises, but this final phase sees some of these in triplicate, upping the weights then on to quadruple sets. A bloody hard, but strangely satisfying, bike sprint rounds the session off for some serious blubber blitzing.

It still takes me less than an hour, door to door, to complete the whole thing start to finish, providing the boys aren’t hogging certain machines. Honestly, I’ve noticed lots of the lads poncing about the room, checking their phones and admiring their guns in the mirror. Crack on fellas, let’s keep all our metabolisms at tip-top levels.

Added to the mix are two variations of my weights workout, one that focuses on reps, the other heavier weights. There’s a lot of consideration behind the scenes with Mr Casey. He keeps in touch with us on how we’re advancing, checking how we feel about the different programmes, whether there are certain areas we want to home in on. Darren says ‘ regular feedback is an essential part of helping anyone stick to a plan and also confirming that what is outlined to be followed is achievable and to make sure you’re actually completing the session.’ This is great. If you did the same thing, day in, day out, it would get seriously boring pretty fast, and wouldn’t be having the desired effect.

You have to confuse the muscles, at the correct time and intensity in order to promote progression, according to Darren.

He also stressed to the boy Grimes and I that we needed to tune in and power through these stints. The workouts are challenging, but designed at a level we can cope with and can recover from. Recovery is frequent, yet short, to allow for the desired effect. They’re not designed for us to come out pristine and not panting. If we aren’t working hard how could we expect to up the ante and keep building on what we’ve achieved so far?

So I hit it as hard as I can every time and exit as a right Sweaty Betty, barely able to catch my breath. It feels great.

I recommend an uplifting sound track. I’ve got reacquainted with some belting beats from old clubbing days. Drowning myself in music makes the sessions seem double quick. Even more pleasing has been the clothing resurrection. I’ve always kept certain items for that elusive slim day that was getting increasingly harder to come by as the years have passed. Some choice wardrobe pieces are getting an airing again. Size-wise I’m nearly at what I was ten years ago. How many of you would like that?

That in itself is fantastic but even better is that I’m a much healthier and toned version rather than the product of a party lifestyle low on nutrition. And I’m assured by Darren my body shape will last longer with my new, supersonic metablolism. Fab.

On the cardio side of things, shorter, faster and harder runs are planned in along with sprinting intervals. There’s a good dose of abdominals for good measure too. There’s a myth surrounding these stomach smoothing exercises that they burn fat. They don’t. They specifically tone this area but there’s little point doing them until your core is in decent shape and you’ve said goodbye to your gut. The time was right for me. Move over one-pack, five little friends are now visibly joining the gang.

At this stage, the plan is entirely bespoke. What suits me wouldn’t necessarily work for you and that’s the main reason to enlist someone to oversee your health and fitness. I’m continually kept on my toes – literally – with what I need to do. To have a complete agenda mapped out is ace. The plan does what it says on the tin. I don’t need to worry about if, how or when.

The final six weeks will require some serious dedication despite a built-in recovery period. I’m told by Darren that once this final phase is complete I won’t need to train at this intensity again for a good while. A simpler maintenance programme will keep everything in place. Chris and I will be blogging about how we are doing a few months post-challenge, but before then, read on next week to see how I cope.

The results are in: click here

Darren Casey is Master Personal Trainer and Director at Elite Fitness Training. If you’d like to know more about following a plan similar to ours or be kept up to date with other health and fitness advice register on his website elitefitness-online or email him at fit@eft-gb.com

Launching soon, with the man himself, The Confidential Get Lean Diet & Boot Camp, places will be limited so to be first in the queue click here to add your details to this list.

Archive

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 8)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 7)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 7)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 6)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 6)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 5)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 5)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 4)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 4)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 3)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 3)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 2)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 2)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 1)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 1)