HEALTH AND FITNESS
HOW TO
Just as abs are made in the kitchen , summer bodies are built in January – or at least the foundations laid .
Like most clichés , there ’ s truth behind this thinking . By allowing plenty of time , and slowly dialling it up , you are able to implement manageable lifestyle changes that you might actually stick with .
While you can craft a holiday physique in four weeks , you ’ re going to have to suffer for it , probably with a painfully sharp boot camp-style routine that , even if it does have an effect , is so unsustainable ( not to mention unpleasant ) that you ’ ll fall back into your bad old ways immediately after your holiday . Only your results should be drastic .
Ultimately , a summer body should be for life , not just for summer . And besides , it ’ s a hell of a lot easier to be virtuous in Dry January than sunny June , when the beer garden beckons ..
Start Building A Summer Body Now
about a month .”
Muscle is your friend : it burns more calories than fat and makes you solid where you ’ re flabby . So even if you only want to tone , you need to get familiar with the free weights area .
“ The quickest moves to build muscle are squats , deadlifts , rows , chin-ups and overhead / bench pressing ,” says Walker . “ Start in the 10-12 rep range and gradually add weight while reducing your rep count by two every few weeks until you ’ re down to 6-8 reps . Then increase your reps back up to 10-12 while keeping the weight the same .” it with a sledgehammer are particularly effective double whammies , while sprinting is another powerful muscle-building , fat-burning tool : “ But you can get a similar benefit from most cardio activity by going with 100 per cent intensity for short , 10-15 second bursts .”
Going to the hardware store isn ’ t a prerequisite for going hard either . Simply combine those classic muscle-building exercises into a basic circuit : say , 8 reps each of squats , chinups , bench-press , deadlift and overhead press , with 15-30 seconds rest between exercises . Do three rounds , with 60 seconds rest between each .
“ By training in this way , you ’ ll burn a lot of fat during the workout , and continue to afterwards ,” says Walker .
Start Your Packing “ Building muscle is the best way to get and keep a good body ,” says body transformation specialist Tim Walker of Evolution of Man Fitness . “ It ’ s also the thing that takes the longest . Dropping a kilo of fat can take as little as a week but putting on a kilo of muscle takes
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You don ’ t have to bulk then cut like a creosote-tanned bodybuilder either . “ You can build muscle and burn fat at the same time ,” says Walker .
Despite the keg-bellied connotations , strongman-style moves like pushing a sled , flipping a tyre or hitting
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