The Fat Burn Revolution (12 page)

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, before that can happen we have work to do!

Now your mind is in the right place to start the Fat Burn Revolution, and now that you’ve gathered all the kit you need, it’s time to get down to the nitty
gritty. In this chapter I’ll tell you what to expect from the workouts and why they form part of the optimal recipe for fat-burning fitness.

If you have exercised with weights before or done any boot camp or military-style training, some of the moves will probably be familiar to you. But even if you haven’t
done any of the exercises before there’s nothing to worry about, all will be explained and illustrated with photos.

Metabolic Resistance Workouts

Throughout the three four-week phases of the Fat Burn Revolution, you’ll be doing two to three Metabolic Workout sessions per week. In these you’ll use either
dumbbells or your own bodyweight to create resistance to challenge the muscles of your body. These sessions are not about moving fast or performing lots of repetitive movements: you’ll be
lifting weights which are quite heavy (whatever that means for you) in a slow and controlled manner. The exercises are grouped into two or three moves per section and you’ll complete most of
the exercises 10 to 15 times before moving on to the next. This would be described in exercise jargon as 10–15 repetitions, or reps, per set. Once you’ve finished all of your
repetitions of an exercise you’ll move onto the next exercise set and you won’t take a break until you’ve completed all the sets of exercises in that section. When each section is
complete you’ll get a minute of rest to recover before moving on to either repeat the section or start the next one.

When you’re in great physical condition it feels like nothing in life can hold you down.

Furnace Workouts

In the Furnace Workouts you’ll be doing short bursts of hard, fast, cardiovascular training. This will get your heart pumping quickly, your blood circulating, and your
lungs working hard to supply your body with the oxygen it needs to perform well. Often called high-intensity interval training (HIIT) this type of exercising has been shown to produce outstanding
results both in fat loss and improving fitness, sports performance and health. You’re free to choose the type of exercise you’d like to do in these sessions. It just needs to be
something that doesn’t require a lot of coordination, but provides a challenging workout for you if performed at close to your maximum speed for short periods of time. My favoured method is
to do these on a stationary exercise bike, as I believe this provides the optimal balance of safety and toughness, but a lot people prefer running, cycling, swimming or fast-moving bodyweight
exercises, e.g. burpees or mountain climbers (described in
Chapter 8
).

If you’re not performing your intervals on a machine or in front of a clock, it could be useful to get an interval bleeper. Some sports watches have this function or there are several free
interval timer apps available that you can download onto your smartphone. You’ll find links to some of them at
juliabuckley.co.uk
.

Total Body Blast

The Total Body Blast is a full body workout. It requires no equipment, which makes it very handy for when you’re away from home without access to a gym. You’ll do
this workout once per week in Phase I of the Fat Burn Revolution and you’ll also have option of using it in Phase II. There are only six exercises to learn for this workout and there is no
target rep count. You will simply perform each exercise for 30 seconds and record the number of repetitions you do in your journal (with a view to increasing that number each week). You’ll go
through all six exercises, take a break and repeat for a total of three circuits. Sound easy? It’s not. But it is well worth it – these sessions burn serious flab!

As you strip back the fat, lean muscle will be revealed, giving you a sexy, sculpted shape.

Metabolic Blaster

In Phase II we’ll shake things up a bit by combining one of your resistance training sessions with some high-intensity plyometric moves. Plyometric training uses quick,
explosive movements, so you’ll be building power and agility as well as strength. This workout will ‘shock’ your body with a brand-new way of training and has tremendous
fat-burning potential if you give it your all. If you have joint problems or a lot of excess weight the full plyometric versions of the moves might not be for you, but that’s fine, you have
the option of doing them as non-plyo cardio exercises.

The 20-30 minute metabolism boost will stoke your metabolism and help optimise fat burning throughout the day.

Plyo Blaze

By Phase III you’ll be ready to take things up another gear. One place you definitely notice this is the Plyo Blaze workout. You were introduced to plyometric training in
Phase II and now you will take on a full session of fast-paced explosive exercise. This workout will really help torch the gristle – it’s like throwing petrol on your metabolic fire!
You will find it very challenging at first, but one of the best things about this type of exercise is that people tend to adapt quite quickly to it, so although it will never be an easy session,
you find it becomes much more manageable as you progress. Again, you can substitute low-impact moves if there’s any reason why plyometric exercise might not be wise for you.

Belly Shred

In the final phase of the programme you will do the Belly Shred workout three times per week. I suggest you add it to the end of your Metabolic Workout sessions. This workout
only takes about 20 minutes to do and targets your core and stomach muscles to ensure that when you strip back those final layers of flab, a flat, defined abdominal area will be revealed.

20–30 minute metabolism booster

For optimal results you should also do 20–30 minutes of sustained low-intensity exercise at least six hours either before or after your workout session of the day. This
can anything that gets you moving – walking, jogging, swimming, dancing, Pilates, gardening, housework, shopping, etc., are all fine.

People tend to compensate for workouts by being less generally active during the rest of the day. Often they don’t even realise it, they just don’t get up and move around as much.
This will help to make sure you don’t fall into that trap. As the name suggests, your metabolism will get an extra boost, which will ensure you keep fat burning going all day long. Plus
you’ll be adding into your daily routine some type of relaxing activity that you already enjoy. If you have an active job where you’re already moving around a lot during your working
day anyway then you don’t have to do this, in fact, it would be better for you rest up ready for your next workout session.

I
want you to get the best possible results in return for the time and effort you put into the Fat Burn revolution. From start to finish you should
aim to consistently push yourself beyond your previous limits whenever you can to get the full benefit of the programme.

In many of the sessions you’re going to be reaching the point of what is called failure. In the Fat Burn Revolution this is a positive thing, as in many other of life’s endeavours,
true success comes only after you’ve experienced failure!

I’m certainly not talking about performing the moves incorrectly here, but rather about exercising with good form to the point where you cannot continue while maintaining the proper
technique and posture. Most of the exercises in the metabolic workouts engage many muscles across the body (which is another reason why they are so effective for fat loss) as other muscles come
into play to support the movements of the main target muscles for each exercise. As failure approaches you may experience a shakiness throughout your whole body, often mainly in the muscles in your
midsection, or core. Soon after that you’ll struggle to maintain good posture and/or movement patterns, which means it’s time to stop and either rest or move onto the next exercise.
Other times failure may be specific to the exercise’s main target areas, which will start to ache and wobble as those muscles approach their maximum work threshold.