Words: Matt Roberts
Beach body season is here. If you’re in a last minute panic to see your six pack before your holiday, celebrity personal trainer Matt Roberts has a set of top tips.
EAT YOURSELF FIT, With such little time left it’s your diet that could be key to making the biggest impact. Reduce or exclude alcohol as it’s just empty calories that pile on the pounds and encourage poor food choices. Replace processed foods with fresh foods to lower salt and fat intake, encouraging water retention and, try to stay away from simple carbohydrates such as white rice and potatoes, replacing them with vegetables, pulses and whole grains.
FIRE YOURSELF UP TO BURN FAT, The key to continuously losing fat is to increase your metabolism (the rate at which you consume energy) by pushing the body beyond its comfort zone and using your muscles to burn off the calories. High intensity interval training (short bursts and high activity followed by short rest periods) is a great way to achieve this. Your training sessions should focus on full body resistance work so that one area is not becoming too fatigued or over-tired as this increases your risk of injury. Combine your resistance work with a cardio element and you’ll be in the best possible position to achieve greater results.
LEAN LEGS, Squat, lunge and step up variations are the key exercises for toned beach ready legs. Using the front (quads), backs (hamstrings) and bum (glutes) all in one exercise allows for maximal effect on many lower body parts from just one exercise. Look to perform 3-4 sets of 8-10 repetitions of an exercise. Always ensure that you can complete each exercise correctly using body weight only before progressively adding weight to the training programme.
ENVIABLE ABS, Many people are under the impression that by powering out 100s of crunches they are going to tone their waist and drop inches. Although it is true that any form of core exercise will tighten the abdominal area, if it is sitting under layers of fat around your waist then your efforts will never be seen. It is important that you look to incorporate an element of cardio exercise into your training programme to work on reducing weight around the waist and really get the work you have done on the abs to show through, which lead me to my next tip…
CARDIO IS KEY, As well as increasing muscle through resistance and weight-based work to help sculpt your beach body we also want to get that lean look that many celebrities sport during their summer holiday snaps. Cardio exercises (swimming, running, cycling, skipping or any other exercise that really elevate the heart rate) go a long way to contributing to the removal of fat from the body, which in turn makes the muscles more defined.
The most effective type of cardio training for fat burning is interval training. This is designed so that short bursts of intense effort at a more maximal level are then followed by periods of rest. It has been shown that the harder and more intensely you work out the more energy your body needs to recover, which consequently means that you are burning more calories. This is also known as Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). With little or no specific equipment needed you can continue to work on this element of your training even while away in the sun.
LOSING LENGTH AND FORGOING FLEXIBILITY, Most people neglect stretching and flexibility as part of their training. However, the longer and more flexible the muscles are the more defined they can appear. It will also help improve your posture – a lengthened torso can immediately add height and bring in your stomach muscles making you feel thinner, firmer and more confident, just through the way that you stand.
REMEMBER TO REST, As important as it is to commit to your training day schedule it is also important to factor in rest and recovery days even when you have little time left to spare. It is on these days that the body is able to adapt to the demands that you have placed on it, repair and recover and then come back stronger ready for your next session. A tired and over trained body can lead to tightness and potential injury. Active recovery in the form of walking or steady state cycling on “rest days” is a great way to maximise calorie burn whilst still giving the body an opportunity to repair itself.
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