5 Ways to Spice Up Your Workouts! Article by Mark Woodgate: Body Blueprint Personal Training, Mt Maunganui, New Zealand

Bored with your current exercise programme? Lost motivation to work out? Looking for fun and innovative ways to spice up your workouts? Look no further. Here are some great ways to get the ‘zing’ back into your fitness regime!

Instead of doing 2 or 3 sets of the same exercise with rest in between, why not group 3 to 5 non related exercises in a row and perform them with little or no rest between?

For example, you could choose 1 exercise for legs, 1 exercise for your back, 1 exercise for your chest, and 1 exercise for your mid section – as follows:

Smith machine squats 1 x 15 reps
Lat pulldowns 1 x 15 reps
Chest press 1 x 15 reps
Bicycle crunches 1 x 20 secs

Once you’ve completed the circuit, you would take a minute to catch your breath and repeat 2 or 3 more times.

Not only do circuits make your workouts more exciting, you’ll also get a great cardiovascular workout. Plus, this style of working out also happens to be incredibly time efficient.

(Tip: For best results, choose exercises that work multiple joints. In other words, a chest press is superior to a tricep pushdown as the chest press works the chest, shoulder and triceps, whereas a tricep pushdown only targets, you guessed it – the triceps)

Want to escape the drudgery of long duration, ‘go slow’ cardio? Would you like to cut your cardio time in half and increase your fitness and fatburning ninefold?

Sounds too good to be true? It’s not. There are now numerous studies demonstrating the health benefits of interval training.

Simply put, interval training is where you alternate periods of high and low intensity.

One of the most effective interval workouts (and that I regularly use with my personal training clients) is called ‘guerilla cardio.’

To perform guerilla cardio, choose a cardio machine such as the crosstrainer or rower. Warm up for 2 minutes at a speed that represents about 50% of your perceived maximum. After this initial warm up you then alternate 20 secs fast (your perceived 90% speed) followed by 10 secs recovery (your perceived 50% speed)

Depending on your level of fitness this 4 minute cycle can be repeated 3-5 times – or 12-20 minutes in total.

Over the years I’ve seen many fitness fads come and go, however the swiss ball (also known as a stability ball) is here to stay!

The swiss ball calls into play significantly more muscle fibres due to it’s unstable nature – in particular, the mid section and low back. In addition, your balance, co-ordination and agility will be put to the test!

Here are some common gym based exercises that can be substituted for the swiss ball version:

Machine shoulder press – substitute with the Swiss ball dumbbell shoulder press.

(Tip: The Body Blueprint Workout Club has a variety of swiss ball exercises including home based workouts – only a swiss ball and 2 or 3 pairs of dumbbells is required)

A workout partner offering positive words of encouragement can lift your spirits and push you to even greater heights. And of course, a little healthy competition never hurt anyone!

Many people prefer to work out in a group rather than going it alone. So why not consider joining a fitness boot camp or attending a group fitness class?

Camaraderie can go a long way toward helping you stick with your exercise plan. In other words, there’s a very good chance you’ll achieve your fitness goals even faster.

These days it’s quite fashionable to have a personal trainer, destroying the myth that personal training is only for wealthy executives and Hollywood celebrities!

Whether it’s a weekly one on one session or a once a month change of programme, a personal trainer can help you reach your fitness goals in record time. Best of all, personal trainers provide a variety of exercises to keep your workouts fresh and exciting.

According to a recent survey conducted by an international health and fitness organization, 75% of people who exercise are not getting the results they want. However, out of the 25% of people who are getting results, 90% are working with a coach or personal trainer.

And there’s good news for the budget conscious. Having your own personal trainer just became an affordable reality thanks to the advent of virtual personal training.

So whether it’s online or in person, a P.T. can spice things up and make your workouts FUN!

Mark Woodgate is a leading New Zealand personal trainer. He has successfully transformed thousands of people thanks to his revolutionary ‘quality versus quantity’ training principles.

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