HOW TO WORK OFF THE CHRISTMAS INDULGENCE

Garry Kerr, Head of Operations and Training at BMF, offers his advice to work off the extra eating.

As Christmas excess now means the average person consumes a whopping 6,000 calories purely on Christmas Day, it is no wonder many of us suffer from the festive bloat. In Manchester alone, an average of 3.26billion calories are consumed solely on Christmas Day!

Here at BMF, we have put together a list of calorie-busting exercises to help keep the Christmas Day weight gain away.

Burpees

The burpee is British Military Fitness’ signature move and is otherwise known as a squat thrust followed by a jump. It’s the ultimate full body exercise – just one simple movement tests both your strength and aerobic capacities.

How to perfect the burpee:

1. Stand with your feet just under shoulder width apart, bend knees and reach down and place hands on the floor so that you are sitting on your heels in a crouch position
2. Transfer all your weight onto your hands
3. Thrust legs out and back as a normal squat thrust
4. From the squatting position jump up, feet leaving the floor before hitting the ground again and returning to the squatting position and start again.

If you would like to make this harder then add a press-up in the middle!

High Intensity Training (HIIT)

As an alternative to counting reps you can follow a timed method, which has proven to be one of the most effective methods for fat loss.  You work at high intensity for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds rest.  Repeat for four minutes (eight cycles).  This is a great way to burn calories and it really works.

There’s no substitute for hard work and to get the amazing results of high intensity training, you need to work hard.  The good news is these workouts are much shorter; a 20 – 30 minute high intensity workout will burn the same amount of calories as a 1-hour cardio session.  With an increased metabolism for up to 36 hours, overall you will burn much more calories.

Deep squats

Deep squats are great to tone the legs and bottom and build up the strength, which then helps to burn off the calories!

• Start with your feet shoulder width apart
• Put your hands on your shoulder to keep your back straight and keep your head up.
• Lower your bum ALL the way to the floor under control and then stand up
• By going all the way down you will activate all the muscles in your legs and get that amazing all over look