Get your body right fitness series: Do this exercise program on repeat
This is the final week of the Get Your Body Right series. And we have a special two week plan you can do on repeat. This is why you should keep going.
Strength Training
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Well done on getting this far!
For the final week of the Get Your Body Right series we have a fortnightly program that you can keep doing on repeat. It can be downloaded below under the two-week workout plan heading.
Kieser exercise scientist Deb Lawrence, who has demonstrated every workout in online videos, said it was so important to do resistance training two to three times per week.
“This also allows for other activities such as walking, running sports and mobility work,” she said.
Why should you keep going?
Associate Professor Dawson Kidgell, from the Monash Exercise Neuroplasticity Research Unit — whom we spoke to in week one — said that low muscle strength was linked to nearly every chronic disease, including diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
“Natural ageing leads to a loss of strength, on average about two to three per cent per year, if you don’t engage in physical activity,” he said.
His team recently published a paper on the connection between the brain and the ability to activate muscle as we age.
“The crux of it is, you can’t move unless your brain sends messages to your muscles,” he said.
“Ageing people often believe the brain can’t be changed, that it’s impossible to shift from an old brain to a young brain. But what we’re showing is that you can — with resistance training.
“Our findings indicate that older adults who engage in strength training exhibit increased brain activation.”
St Vincent’s Private Hospital endocrinologist Dilan Seneviratne Epa treats many patients with diabetes and said changing diet and introducing exercise could help someone go from four different kinds of medication or tablets to possibly none.
“One of the main conditions I look after is type-2 diabetes, which is very much a lifestyle related disease,” he said.
“When people do develop diabetes, we find that exercise, aerobic exercise of any type, so that can be just as simple as walking … helps with the management of it and certainly helps de-escalate medical therapy or pharmacological agents that we use.”
How did participants find it?
Retiree Jamie Hull, from northwest Sydney, said he had lost 2kg since taking part in the six-week series.
The 62-year-old said he had been able to go from 10 dips (which were part of week two) to 20.
“And with planking the trick is keeping your bum flat, I’m doing better with that than when I started,” he said.
“I’m doing about 8000 steps a day and I’m eating less, too, which helps.
“I think I’ve gone from 89kg when I started down to 87kg.”
The father-of-three vowed to continue as his son’s wedding was approaching in August.
If you took part in the series or have a program you’d like us to speak to experts for, we’d love to hear from you at health@news.com.au.
DOWNLOAD THIS TWO-WEEK WORKOUT PLAN POSTER
We have shown you how to do all the exercises listed below throughout the series. Remember to add in progressive overload when you’re ready. Once you’ve finished the two weeks, start it again.
Download the special two-week fitness calendar here.
We also have these easy-to-print-out explainers from each week that show how to do every move:
Neck exercises and a more advanced workout
Progressive overload - how to work smarter, not harder
BEGINNER: 8 to 12 repetitions
INTERMEDIATE: 20 repetitions
ADVANCED: Go beyond until fatigued
WALK:
Aim for 7000 to 10,000 steps every day, or especially on the days without exercises.
WEEK ONE:
Monday
Squat/wall sit/ lunge
Glute Bridge
Lean Back
Row
Back Extension
Chin Tuck
Wednesday
Step Ups
Clam
Push up
Back Extension
Calf Raise
Chin tuck
Friday
Squat/wall sit/ lunge
Glute Bridge
Dip
Row
Cycling Legs
Chin tuck
Sunday
Side plank
Lying shoulder raise
Wrist exercise
Bicep curls
Tricep extension
Skull crushers
Lateral raise
Tuesday
Squat/wall sit/ lunge
Clam
Seated Row
Push up
Lean back
Chin tuck
Thursday
Step Ups
Glute Bridge
Side Plank
Seated Row
Back Extension
Calf Raise
Chin tuck
Saturday
Squat/wall sit/ lunge
Clam
Seated Row
Dip
Cycling legs
Lean Back
FOLLOW ALONG
Each week high-profile journalist Anthony Dowsley followed the workout plan to help him train for his upcoming Machu Picchu trek. This is his last update.
Does your office have a macho man?
Mine does and he’s proud of it. His name is Blair.
Blair wears polos that are just a tad too tight, leaving his biceps to bulge through and out of his undersized sleeves.
Unlike me, Blair is a gym junkie and he’s right to be proud of his well-developed vascular physique.
As you might have guessed, I’ve known Blair since we were cub journalists together and I’m taking the mickey out of him.
He’s constantly bugging me to join a gym. But there’s one thing he does that I won’t do.
Blair likes to flex his muscles in a posing room filled with mirrors.
I’ve never heard of a posing room and I can’t imagine ever stepping inside one.
Then again, I don’t step inside gyms at all, even when I’m paying for a membership.
Instead, I’ve been following the tips in the Get Your Body Right series to pump up without pumping iron.
Around my house I’ve been picking up milk cartons, carrying a slab of beer home from the grog shop and using household items to help with squats.
But Blair has been kind enough to give me tid-bits of advice over the past six weeks as I make my slow but steady journey to fitness.
His big tip to anyone wanting to get in shape is to train consistently, focus on your diet and sleep regular hours.
And he’s right.
Discipline is the key to a healthy lifestyle.
During this series I’ve not given up a thing. I’ve just done a little less of some things and a little more of others.
My drinking is down to a mere red wine on a weekend dinner out.
The exercise regimen hovers at an hour every other day.
I’ve eased off fatty foods and back on the fruit and vegetables.
It’s simple and gradual. And I’m 3kg lighter.
There’s just four months to go until I set off on the marathon trek to see one of the modern wonders of the world, Machu Picchu.
It is a place where they say the mysteries of the cosmos are whispered through the stones.
After a three day hike, I just hope it whispers the directions to the nearest pub.
Originally published as Get your body right fitness series: Do this exercise program on repeat
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