Guest Page: The Ultimate Workout

Today’s post is a special one as I have a guest writer….  my beautiful and extremely talented friend, Louise Heap. Louise has shared her thoughts on “THE ULTIMATE WORKOUT” .

Louise is a Personal Trainer, and an amazing one at that!  I was the girl that swore that I would never do any sort of plank exercises as these were pure torture, but Louise somehow got me doing them properly and hating them less and less each time.  She has a natural ability for making exercise fun, whether that’s going for a hike (and inevitably getting lost and laughing so much it hurts), or somehow convincing me that it would be fun to do a workout class whilst at a spa day (crazy right?!).  Anyway, hope you enjoy this fresh approach to getting a little fitter and debunking those exercise myths.

L x

Having been an avid gym-goer for most of my adult life, a qualified Level 4 Personal Trainer and a mum of a budding gymnast, it may surprise you that I, too, suffer from gym fear every now and then. That fear can take on many different forms; “I don’t know what to do”, “I am bored with my workout regimen”, “I don’t feel confident enough to do that / go there” etc etc….It seriously happens to us all at some point. For me, I am surrounded by the fittest of the fit; I live in Las Vegas and many of the Cirque Du Soleil cast members work out next to me…I stare…a lot! This, in turn, can lead to gym fear; feeling under-confident, like I don’t know what I am doing. But I DO know what I am doing! I spent years studying for qualifications to know EXACTLY what I am doing! See? It really does affect us all. But what these extraordinarily fit people are doing in their workout has no bearing on my workout. We are training for different purposes, we are different body types, we have TOTALLY different lives! And whilst I am in total awe of their abilities and gym prowess, I do not feel like I am under achieving or accomplishing any less than they are.

I am also totally guilty of getting stuck in a rut and over-doing the cardio. If in doubt, I will warm up on the cross trainer and climb the Eiffel Tower on the stepper. But my body was not benefiting from this arduous workout. I wasn’t challenging myself or demanding of myself what I would expect of clients. The exercises which I found hard would never feature in my workout plan, so I never got better at them; those muscles went untrained. I like to fit in exercise wherever I am (I can manage a week - max- without doing any exercise and then I start to go crazy), and we do a lot of travelling as a family. Sometimes there isn’t a gym to go to, sometimes we are limited on space, sometimes we have a little person in tow! There are so many variables and life is totally unpredictable, which is something I have learned to love being part of a military family.

This workout was borne out of a set of circumstances. A set of circumstances which left my husband and I training TOGETHER (Think Weightlifting Walter & Cardio Cammy), no gym equipment, too hot outside to go for a run and no internet to tap into one of the many workout videos we have subscriptions to. We needed a gym routine that was 1) Challenging, 2) Flexible, 3) Not space dependent, 4) Not gym / equipment dependent, 5) Not time consuming, and 6) Not boring……Hmmmm, I can hear you all rolling your eyes. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually means it is, right? Well, actually, not this time.

Now, because I am the PT, it would have been very easy for me to boss my husband around, getting him to jump squat into a plank, whilst performing bodyweight tri-cep extensions, but I was feeling benevolent. So, we took it in turns to propose an exercise, targeting legs, core & abs, and upper body separately, stating time / reps & sets. Let me give you an example: I would choose 2 sets of 20 reps Air Squats. Next, he would choose Plank for 1 minute. Back to me and I would choose 2 sets of 10 reps Press ups……..and then back to legs………

Whilst the concept appears to be super simple, we were each choosing exercises that we preferred, which ultimately meant that the other found them ridiculously hard. It was challenging but motivating because once the horrid exercise, chosen by the other person, was over, you got to pick something easy for you, appealing to your strengths. It almost felt like a rest period! If intensity was an issue, we could add reps / sets / time, and we could keep up with this routine for as many rounds as we had time for. It was flexible enough to do with a little person around, we needed no equipment, but when we did have it available to us, the exercises took on a whole new level of intensity. And with that came new and interesting exercises; we started getting adventurous when we were able to go to the gym, adding in cardio equipment, barbells, monkey bars, boxes etc. I can even do it on my own - I have to remember to challenge myself and incorporate some of my husband’s preferred exercises, but it is a workout that I can take anywhere with me. I have even been known to do it in tiny European hotel rooms, employing plyometrics to get the cardio element in.

It really is limitless; if you need more cardio, add in a cardio round. I usually tag on 100 skips with a jump rope onto the end of each round. If there is a bigger group of you, take it in turns to choose a complete round of exercises, so, one person chooses an exercise for legs, core & abs, upper, and cardio, then the next person chooses a complete round of exercises, and so on. You’ll learn so much from each other and the more the merrier! You can do it outside, in the park, utilising the kid’s playground and benches, inside, at the gym. You can do 3 rounds, 10 rounds, 20 rounds. It can last 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 1 hour. There are no rules; just a basic structure to follow to make sure you are doing a full body workout. CAVEAT: Always warm up prior to starting (min 5 minutes) and cool down by stretching.

And there it is! The Ultimate Workout to take anywhere. No scary gym equipment is necessary. No scary gym is necessary. You can work out with ANYONE - you don’t have to be a similar level of fitness or have the same interests. You can work out alone. It is challenging, interesting, progressive, flexible, and changeable.

If you are desperate to find a fitness regime that works for you, give it a go and let us know how you get on in the comments below. Share your exercise ideas with us so others can challenge themselves with your strengths.

Happy training!

Louise Heap