12 week Summer Tone Up – Week 1 starting point

I’m inspired by the dedication and motivation of those around me, and those I come across on Instagram and Twitter (you can follow me at @mamafurfur if you like too) who take fitness to the next level and make it a focus of their lives.

I’m not wishing to be a Olympic weight lifter or sacrifice being able to eat good foods I love to achieve a goal, because I think I would be miserable overall, but I do want to keep moving onwards and upwards and surprise myself with what I can achieve.

My husband has recently set himself a goal of taking the next 100 days ending up on the 21st July to make better choices each day for his fitness – either move more (gym, run, exercise) or eat less each day. (You can follow his journey too at denimbanana.com for more info).

Basically, if you work out more than you are currently you will make improvements to yourself, that is fact.  Burning more calories means you are doing stuff to your body that is good – either toning it up or losing body fat or both.

So in a similar light, I wish to give myself the next 12 weeks to record my workouts, my experiences, my goals and achievements along the way.  Sometimes jumping forward to a end date doesn’t give the fun experienced along the way and that is my goal for my blog posts.

I really enjoy getting to the gym or doing exercise, but even more I love that my gym schedule includes weight training.  I absolutely have been converted to weight training.  Nothing beats the buzz of increasing your weights, or lifting more than the man beside you in the weight section (I’m competitive!).

My goal will be to each week look to increase my number of reps or increase my weights, plus I will share my gym structure to see how much it changes.

I look at each week and plan roughly when I am going to get to the gym, so it is a priority.  This week I will train Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and hopefully Sunday too.

Tuesday & Friday will be my own free form Gym session with weight training and cardio; Wednesday is a instructor lead GRIT class or similar at the Gym; Sunday will be a 5km run prep for a few charity runs later in May.

Here was today’s Gym session recorded:

Weights & Cardio: Tuesday 14/4/15

Warmup – 5mins rowing machine

Olympic bar Squats – 5 sets of 8 at 47.5kg

Overhead press – 5 sets of 5 at 19kg

Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 5 sets of 6 at 8kg each hand; 3 sets of 5 at 9kg each hand

Sets broken up with 5 Pushups against raised surface

Dumbell Bicep Curl – 2 sets of 5 at 6kg each hand

Cardio – 10 mins interval running on 2m incline (100m walk followed by 200m run)

Core exercises – Crunches, Scissor crunches, Russian twists (completed until sore) – approx 5 mins total

Cool down stretch

Since I started doing a similar program a few times a week in January, I have increased all my weights when exercising but also lost inches off my thighs and tummy (my main focus areas).  Lifting weights changes your body without doubt…plus it is great fun!

I hope I continue to feel inspired to work out hard and eat cleaner, and look forward to sharing my adventures over the next 12 weeks as we look forward to summer together.

Love MFF xx