The 3 Minute Challenge Workout involves you trying to fit in as many repetitions as you can in 3 minutes. We used a 5 exercise circuit at boot camp and performed 15 reps of each of the 5 exercises. Once we were finished our 15 reps at one exercise, we moved on to the next exercise and just kept going until the 3 minutes were up.

Total up how many exercises you completed and multiply that by the 15 reps at each in order to arrive at the total number of reps you have performed in the 3 minute time period.

We completed 5 of these 3 minute circuits with a 1 minute rest in between each. This makes for a great 20 minute workout and you just add up all your reps in each 3 minute circuit to get your total reps for the 20 minutes.

Next time you perform this workout, you try to beat your reps from the last exercise session. This resulted in boot campers pushing themselves really hard to set a personal best each time. You compete against yourself and setting a personal best the next time means that you know you have definitely done enough to ensure that your body changes and gets fitter, stronger and leaner!

Here are some fantastic benefits you get from performing this type of workout:

1. You Save time because the workouts are much shorter than most people spend in the gym (and in my opinion they work better too!!)
2. You maximise your metabolism – you get a huge increase in metabolism during and after your workout, which means you burn more calories while you are resting after your workout. We call this the “afterburn affect”
3. Great for strength and adding lean muscle (increase metabolism)
4. Great for weight loss / fat loss
5. Can be really simple workouts with little to no equipment

In terms of the exercises in the 5 exercise circuit, at boot camp we did 15 reps of:

By utilising the challenge workout, you can get some great fitness and fat loss results to ensure you get fitter, healthier and sexier…

Leave me your comments about how you do YOUR the 3-minute challenge workout…

• It is the “Squat”

Now, most people have probably heard of squats and performed them before, but for those who are not exactly sure…

The easiest way to picture what a squat is, is to imagine that you are lowering your bum to sit down on a chair and then just before your bum touches the chair, stand up again.

There are a few important points to remember when doing squats:

1. Stick your bum out
2. Bend through your hips and knees as you lower your body
3. Keep your heels on the ground
4. Don’t let your knees turn in towards each other

Squats are a great exercise with many benefits. They work some of the largest muscles in the body and therefore burn lots of calories and will help with body fat loss too. Research has also found that your body releases more testosterone and growth hormone when you work these larger muscles which helps you build and tone muscle in your entire body.

• So, body fat loss and toning muscle are 2 very important benefits that almost everyone will enjoy
• Another benefit is that the squat is what I call a very functional exercise. What I mean by this is that we use the squat movement a lot during our normal daily activities without even realising it. So, if you get better at squats, then you will make your daily activities easier to perform
• Squats are also great because you can perform many  different variations (see a few below)

Make sure you include our exercise of the month in your workouts to help really challenge your body to get the results you deserve. Your body likes variety and this is a great exercise to help you create a varied workout to help you get fitter, healthier and sexier.

Lateral Squat

Split Squat

Squat Hold

If you look at how most grocery stores are set up, 90% of what’s healthy and good for you is located on the outer perimeter: fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy.

That is why, when you shop, you should stick on the perimeter and shop the outer aisles by filling your trolley with all these healthy foods. Try to stay away from the inner aisles as much as possible. The inner aisles are generally where all the processed foods, snacks, and sweets are and once you are there, most people cannot resist! So, make sure your trip into the inner aisles is a quick one! Get in and out with just what you went in there for…

There are 2 additional guidelines I like to follow when grocery shopping to keep me on track:

1. Try not to shop when you are hungry as when you are hungry, you will be much more likely to make unhealthy choices
2. Always shop with a shopping list. And stick to it!! This will help ensure you stick with the healthy eating plan and shop within your budget

Healthy eating starts in the grocery store. The reason I say this is because if unhealthy food is in your cupboards or fridge, you are going to eat it at some time. So, if it doesn’t end up in your shopping trolley or basket then it won’t ever end up in your cupboards or fridge. So, follow the simple guidelines of:

• Don’t shop when you’re hungry
• Always have a shopping list and stick to it, and
• Shop the outer aisles

Let me know any other shopping tips you use to stay on track with your eating plan by leaving me a comment below…

• Great quality protein
• Fibrous carbohydrates
• And healthy fats

And is perfect to help you get the results that you deserve. So, here is what you need in terms of ingredients:

• Chicken breasts (1 or 2)
• Salad (spinach, tomatoes, red onion, green pepper)
• Cottage cheese (low fat)
• Avocado
• Rice paper

Preparation:

You can either steam or grill the chicken. While you are waiting for the chicken, you can chop up some red onion, green peppers, spinach and tomatoes.

Now prepare your sauce by scooping out some avocado into a bowl and mash it up. Add the low fat cottage cheese and mix it all together.

Instead of using a regular wrap, this is where the rice paper comes in…Fill a frying pan with about 1cm of water and allow the rice paper to soak in it for about 2 minutes. This enables the rice paper to become nice and pliable so you can use it to wrap your chicken and salad in. Take the rice paper out the pan and place it on a plate.

Once ready, cut the chicken into smaller pieces and put them on the rice paper. Add the salad, avocado and cottage cheese. Now, roll up and fold the rice paper around your salad and chicken to keep it all together.
All in all a great healthy chicken and salad wrap to help you on your health and fitness journey that is great for a snack or have 2 or 3 of them for a full meal.

“The Arm Slide Push-Up”

Now, last month we also featured a push-up as our exercise of the month. And just like last month, this is a push-up with a difference because it really does work almost everything!

Okay, so how is “the arm slide push-up” performed? Just checkout the pictures below:

• Start in a position kneeling on all fours (hands, knees and feet on the ground)
• Now lift your knees off the ground and straighten your legs to assume the push-up position
• Level 1 of this exercise would be just holding this position for 15 – 30 seconds

• Level 2 involves taking your right arm and sliding it forward away from you as far as you can and then back to the starting position. You then repeat the same movement with the left side.

Level 2

• Level 3 involves adding a push-up by moving your chest toward the ground while moving your right arm forward and then repeating with your left arm (you can also perform this push-up from your knees)

Level 3a

Level 3b

• In order to help with the arm slides, you can place your hand on a paper plate or piece of cloth on a smooth floor

Make sure you include our exercise of the month in your workouts to help really challenge your body to get the results you deserve. Your body likes variety and this is a great exercise to help you create a varied workout to help you get fitter, healthier and sexier…

So, give it a go and leave me your comments…

At our boot camp program we have implemented a regime of 3 weeks of metabolic resistance training and then a 1-week rest from metabolic resistance training. We repeat this cycle throughout the year with a few exceptions where we workout for 4 weeks at a time. And our planned end of year break is normally 2-3 weeks rather than 1 week.

Why do we do this…? And, more importantly, do we see better results because of this…? Continue reading to find out…

Planned breaks you take from exercise give your entire body (muscles, nervous system, joints, etc.) and mind (training gets mentally draining on everyone after a while) an extra large dose of rest/recovery to allow for super-compensation to occur (which is basically when all of your body’s improvements occur). This then puts you in a fresh and ideal state for the upcoming boot camp and ensures you can maximise the next phase of boot camp workouts.

Many people worry that they will “lose” all the benefits that they have gained from the preceding 3 weeks of boot camp if they have a week off. Now, that all depends on what type of week off you have:

1). A week of absolutely no exercise and eating whatever you want

• This will probably lead to you losing a little bit of ground especially if your main goal is weight loss and body fat loss
• It will probably also result in you getting rather “sore” muscles after your return to exercise as you will experience some DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)
• I recommend a complete break from exercise about every 3 months (depending on your age, results, training and injury history) and during this time, you do need to be very mindful of what you are eating
• So, if you are taking a complete rest then make sure you are a little stricter with your food choices

2). A week of active rest

• By active rest I mean a break from metabolic resistance training, but one in which you are still active and perform some exercise
• This is what your “week off” from boot camp should be most of the time
• Some cardio exercise (run, walk, swim, cycle, etc.) would be a great way to give your body the “rest/recovery” it needs while still maintaining your fitness and results
• Performing foam rolling (myofascial release), stretching and stability exercises can also be a great way to facilitate recovery during this week

You definitely do need some “time-off” from metabolic resistance training (boot camp workouts) and I find that boot campers get much better results when they are getting the rest and recovery they need. It also drastically reduces your chances of injury!!

Let me know your thoughts and experiences on rest and recovery by leaving your comments below…

Our workout of the month at Fitness Boot Camp for February is a “Ladder Interval Workout” and will not only help you lose weight, but also firm and flatten your abs and maximise your fitness!

Now, last month our workout of the month was one that combined 40 seconds of exercise with 20 seconds of rest and repeated this sequence with 5 different exercises. And, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that as it is a great interval workout that will produce fantastic results.

But, this month we are including multiple interval protocols within the same interval workout. Why are we doing this?

It provides an excellent shock to your body to help you breakthrough any frustrating workout and training plateaus. In fact, it is such a great way to mix up your workout that we are spending the month of February doing just that at boot camp…

This type of workout is called a “ladder interval”. At boot camp, the ladder interval workout causing the most noise amongst our clients is the pyramid triset. Why the strange name, pyramid triset? The triset refers the fact that we have only 3 exercises in this workout (tri means 3). The pyramid refers to the way in which we combine the exercise intervals.

First we do 15 seconds of all 3 exercises. Then we do 30 seconds, then 45 seconds and then 60 seconds. Now we are at the top of our pyramid and then go back down again by performing 60, 45, 30 and 15 seconds of each exercise.

We used the following exercises in our boot camp circuit:

Squats

DB Swings

Knee to Elbow Push-Up (our exercise of the month)

We followed the sequence of 15, 30 45, 60, 60 45, 30 , 15 for each of the 3 exercises. We had a 15 second rest between each exercise and this made for a really intense 20 minute workout.

By utilising the pyramid triset workout, you break through training plateaus and continue getting the results you deserve.

Give it a try and leave your comments…

“The Knee to Elbow Push-Up”

Now, last month we also featured a push-up as our exercise of the month. And just like last month, this is a push-up with a difference because it really does work almost everything!

Okay, so how is “the knee to elbow push-up” performed? Just checkout the pictures below:

• Start in a position kneeling on all fours (hands, knees and feet on the ground)
• Now lift your knees off the ground and straighten your legs to assume the push-up position
• Level 1 of this exercise would be just holding this position for 15 – 30 seconds
• Level 2 involves taking your right knee towards your right elbow and then back to starting position. You then repeat the same movement with the left side
• Level 3 involves adding a push-up by moving your chest toward the ground while moving your right knee to your elbow and then repeating with your left knee to elbow

Make sure you include our exercise of the month in your workouts to help really challenge your body to get the results you deserve. Your body likes variety and this is a great exercise to help you create a varied workout to help you get fitter, healthier and sexier…

So, give it a go and leave me your comments…

Now, most people know what a push-up is and have probably tried a few at some stage in their life. But, few people know that push-ups can be a full body workout and the corkscrew pushup is no exception. It works:

• the legs
• arms and
• abs all at the same time

We last featured the Corkscrew Push-Up in February 2011, and just had to bring it back as it was one of the most talked about exercises amongst boot campers. And, since including it again in our workouts this month, it has been the talk of boot camp!!

You either love it or dread its appearance in the workouts…yes, it is that good an exercise!

Okay, so how is “the corkscrew push-up” performed? Just check out the video below…

 
The 3 levels of difficulty described in the video, make sure that there is something for most fitness levels…

Make sure you include our exercise of the month in your workouts to help really challenge your body with new exercises. Your body likes variety and this is a great exercise to help you create a varied workout to get the results you deserve. Leave me some comments about how you get on with this one…

So, Fitness Boot Camp & Boot Camp To Go have combined forces to bring you the “Holiday Survival Guide” to help you maintain your weight or lose weight and body fat during the holiday season…

Here is what I have for you:

• Express exercise workouts – 4 minute workouts for when you just do not have time to exercise
• Nutrition Checklist – to help you stay on track with your eating and also be able to enjoy some treats too!
• Exercise Checklist – to help you ensure that you get some exercise in during the busy holiday season
• Workout Music – to help automate your exercise workout so you do not even have to think. You just press play, listen and workout

Just right click on the link below to download the resources:

The Official Holiday Survival Guide

(You will need to “unzip” the folder once downloaded. If you do not have software to do this, you can download “7-zip” which is FREE open source zip software by following the link alongside: http://www.7-zip.org/ )