Ladies and gents, welcome to your 4 week 'Summer Ready' fitness program. Each week we'll be taking you through an initial step by step guide to getting in shape.
Don't worry, you're in the capable hands of Dolphin Fitness Club's fantastic Personal Trainer, Karen Lucia
Speciality Areas
Fat Loss; Strength and Conditioning; Mobility and Flexibility
Background
Coming from a creative background as a professional dancer and teacher, I have a great passion for movement and I am fascinated by the never ending possibilities of the human body. My experience has taught me that practice makes perfect, and with the right mindset and guidance you can achieve almost anything. This translates in learning and refining techniques and habits in both exercise and nutrition, and increasing your ‘healthy’ knowledge. I believe that motivation and support are key to realising your goals and developing a healthy, active lifestyle.
Philosophy
When you want to go that extra mile, I’ll push you to the finish line. If you have lost direction, I’ll help you to get back on track. And always remember: practice makes perfect!
The Plan
There are two fundamental foundations to any workout plan: building muscle and diet (week 2's plan.) To start, Karen will put you through your paces and demonstrate two exercise to get increase your heart rate, work your muscles and burn those calories.
Week 1: Build Muscle / Burn Fat
Exercise: Squats
Advantage: Not only do squats build muscle and strength in the quadriceps, hamstrings and calves, they also create the ideal environment throughout the entire body.
Advanced: Add a 10kg weight
Myth: You can let your knees go over your toes - that's the case when you're walking, why not when squatting?
Reps / Sets
Exercise: Dips
Advanced: Using a chair or a ledged surface lower your body to the ground, keeping knees together, legs extended and feet flexed (toes raised and pointed with heel on the floor).
Beginners: Using a chair or a ledged surface lower your body to the ground, keeping your legs bent and knees together.
Reps / Sets
Week 2: Core
To recap: In week one, we demonstrated upper body (dips) and lower body (squat) work outs, so this week we're focusing on the core.
Core exercises are an essential component to a well-rounded fitness program. Apart from the odd sit-up and pushup, exercising the core is often overlooked. One of the advantages of working on this area is to improve balance and stability. Core exercises train the muscles in your abdomen, pelvis and lower back, helping to improve your performance in sport and daily activities.
Exercise: Knee Plank
Beginners: Position yourself on a mat, with your feet, knees, elbows and hands on the floor. Elevate your lower back and engage your core.
Reps / Sets
Exercise: Standard (High) Plank
Position yourself on a mat, with your toes and hands touching the floor. Body elevated, engage your core.
Advanced: From your starting position, lower your body onto your elbow, one at a time. Once both elbows are on the floor, extend and lean on your hands. Alternate direction and speed, engaging your core at the same time.
Week 3: Step it Up
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to your Summer Ready Fitness Tabata Challenge. It's been two weeks since we started our SRF, so it's time to step it up!
4 Exercises, 4 Rounds, 16 Minutes, 20 Second Rest
Burpees - 1 min
Now comes the hard work! Dreaded by most, burpees are one of the best HIIT exercises which target group muscles for an all body workout. Start in a plank position, bring your knees to your chest and jump vertically as high as you can. Repeat.
Mountain Climbers - 1 min
Perfect for a full body workout, mountain climbers target group muscles such as deltoids, biceps, triceps, obliques, abdominals, lower trapezius, latissimus dorsi, quadriceps, hamstrings, hip adductors and hip abductors.
Reverse Lunge Knee Lifts - 1 min
Similar to the forward lunge, the reverse lunge knee lift strengthens muscles groups such as quads, hamstrings, glutes and claves. If you have any aches or pains or you're worried about a knee injury, this exercise is great as it doesn't allow your knees to extend beyond your toes.
Jumping Jacks - 1 min
A favourite among many, jumping jacks elevate your heart rate, increases oxygen flow and burn calories. It is important to note that jumping jacks offer a complete body workout too.
Week 4: Building Muscle and Burning Fat
Ladies and gentleman, you've made it to the fourth and final stage of our Summer Ready Fitness plan. But we have one more challenge for you.
Building muscle and burning fat:
Exercise: Dips
Exercises: Advanced Planks
Core exercises are an essential component to a well-rounded fitness program. Apart from the odd sit-up and pushup, exercising the core is often overlooked. One of the advantages of working on this area is to improve balance and stability. Core exercises train the muscles in your abdomen, pelvis and lower back, helping to improve your performance in sport and daily activities.
Tabata Challenge:
Exercise: Mountain Climbers
Exercise: Burpees
Exercise: Jumping Jacks
Exercise: Reverse Lunge Knee Lift
At Dolphin Square fitness is part of the lifestyle. We boast gym classes for all, with the best trainers; no we aren’t being biased… well maybe a little. And whilst we race (or swim, practise yoga, take to Dolphin’s croquet lawn) to get our bikini-body in shape for our holiday, we have to admit we still need a little motivation. The summer evening G&Ts are calling and suddenly working out isn’t quite as appealing as it used to be. In an attempt to focus on fitness we’ve taken to Instagram to find inspiration from influencers and have put together our favourite routines to work your whole body.
Don't just take our word for it. Here are also a few Summer workout tips from a few of Instagram's biggest fitness influencers to take onboard:
Glutes
Self-proclaimed 'Queen of workouts' Alexia Clark must be doing something right to motivate 910k followers. Here she works on glutes with a mixture of squat and lunge exercises, incorporating weights as an extra challenge. Alexia recommends doing each exercise for 60 seconds, only resting in between your 3-5 rounds, depending how advanced you are, or how brave you're feeling.
Abs
Carly Rowena is our go-to fitness guru when it comes to strengthening our core. As she says 'abs are made in the kitchen' but we're happy to try anything else Carly does, although we might not smile as much when we do it. This routine can be adapted for beginners, intermediate and hardcore gym-goers. Carly uses a weighted ball to work a little harder with these four core exercises.
Shoulders
Fitness, foodie and law lover Krissy Cela is constantly making us jealous in her holiday snaps. However, we have no excuse as she shows us on Instagram just how she stays so fit. Another routine you can do with just one piece of equipment is this 'shoulder sculptor'. Watch Krissy to see just how she perfects a Reverse Grip, Upright Rows, Military Press and Neutral Grip. She suggests one minute intervals and four rounds but this can of course be adapted into your own routine.
Arms
Zanna van Dijk, Adidas Ambassador who also tracks her favourite places to brunch (@LondonBrunchGuide), because it's all about balance, documents regularly shares her fitness progress with her followers. She suggests adding this arm routine to the end of a workout to use any last energy, apparently you will need it all. Remember to adjust your weight according to your level.
Full body
We had to end on something that will challenge your whole body. Em Sheldon might travel the world but she always has time for a work out, so why don't we? In this full body work out she mixes squats and burpees with a variety of equipment for an intense session. Em makes three rounds look easy but assures us it won't feel like that.