City Fit Girl

Today, 24th  September 2018 I tried out my first Gymbox   class. The gym just opened at Cannon Street and I was lucky enough to have a taster of the facilities. See below what I got up to, what I thought of the class and if I would recommend it as a top workout spot in London. What class did I do? I did the BadAss class Who was the instructor? Phoebe What was the class like? Described on their website as 'the next level workout for your derriere', I can confirm that this class certainly does make your booty burn! The class was 30-minutes and consisted of a dynamic, cardio warm-up and then 2 sections of weight-based workout. Squats, lunges, pulses were, as expected, all included in the workout. The 2 sections of workout were made up of 3/4 exercises which you did for 1 minute each before switching, complete all the exercises and then have 30 seconds rest. You then repeated that section through again before moving on to the 2nd section. I definitely struggled...

Circuits. A word that can fill you with dread as you think of running round the gym floor to different stations with someone shouting 'go' and 'faster' for what seems to be an unbearable amount of time. Circuits in classes always seem to be made up of your least favourite exercises. And you have to do loads  of them. I used to hate circuits until I started making my own. The beauty of circuits is you can do them with as much or as little equipment as you like. I think there are 4 types of exercises that are essential in creating a quick and effective circuit: Plyometric exercise also known as jump training are exercises in which muscles exert maximum amount of force in short intervals of time Cardio exercise is any exercise that gets your heart rate raised Resistance is an exercise that adds resistance, usually in the form of a weight to help strengthen the muscles  Core. Pretty self-explanatory, exercises that work your core/abs  I like to include a ...

I hate cardio. Okay, let me rephrase. I hate the traditional   forms of cardio. Running, swimming, sitting on a bike for hours at a time. I have been weight training for a year and a half now and whilst I have seen improvements in my strength and my physicality has changed, I wasn't as lean as I thought I could be. So, I decided to an experiment with myself. I dropped the weights sessions and instead I decided to do 5 days of cardio-based training for 5 weeks. I made a sheet so I could tick off my workouts and keep myself accountable. I also measured my body fat using calipers. This is what my training schedule looked like in those 5 weeks: Monday - home circuit Tuesday - zumba Wednesday - treadmill circuit and abs Thursday - legs, bums and tums Friday - rest Saturday - full body circuit and abs Sunday - rest Zumba and Legs, Bums and Tums are easy way for me to get cardio in, class-based workouts work really well for me as I don't need to come up with my own ...

I know a lot of people often struggle to come up with ideas of what to eat and, working in an office with a commute home, it is almost too easy to just abandon cooking a fresh meal and order a takeaway. Top tip: Find 5+ meals that you know are easy to prepare, don't require a lot of time and you can make in bulk. Leftovers are great for lunch the next day! I've put together a list of some of the things that I eat throughout the week to hopefully help you come up with ideas! Breakfast I eat breakfast at work so always have something that requires minimal effort to put together. Currently I eat 70g Shreddies Max Oat Granola cereal with skimmed milk. kcals 370 protein 18.1g carbohydrates 58.9g fats 5.4g This is quote a high carb content however, I like to get my carbs in towards the start of the day and have a lower carb dinner. This is just my preference! Overnight oats are also a sta...

Staying motivated. Something that a lot of people struggle with. Whether that be motivation to go to the gym or staying on track with your healthy eating, we all hit those low points where we just cannot be bothered. THIS IS OKAY I am fully of the belief that the key to staying on track is: balance. That being said, I think there are a few things you can do to help yourself stay motivated and allow you to reach your goals in a happy, healthy way. Routine It takes the average person 66 days to make a habit. That is 2 months of consistency that you need to achieve in terms of your routine. Decide which days of the week you are going to go to the gym. Decide what you are going to do on those days. Repeat. If you can get to the gym knowing what you are going to do whether that be a weights session, a gym class or a session on the treadmill, you are already one step ahead. If you like a gym class, go every week. They'll be at the same time and I find that if you're...

What is Kettlebell Kitchen? Kettlebell Kitchen is a Manchester-based business with a selection of restaurants in the local area. They offer event catering and have an online meal prep service. Endorsed by British Weight Lifting and used by athletes such as Crossfit's Sam Briggs , their meal prep service is second to none for quality and affordability. Which meal prep plan did I use? KBK offer a wide variety of plans to suit your needs from shred to bulk, offering a vegetarian plan and a tailored macro plan, personal to you. All the plans vary in price, amount of kcals and the amount of meals and snacks on offer.  I bought the 4 week 'performance' plan which had an option of 2 or 3 meals a day, 6 days a week. I opted for the 2 meals a day which included a snack as well. Averaging at approximately 1100-1200kcals a day, this was a perfect way to kick-start my slow summer shred. What were the meals like? I have had 48 meals delivered to me and 24 snacks and I can ...

So back in December I was feeling the whole 'I've eaten way too much, I'm going to need some help getting back into the gym' vibe and saw GraceFitUK 's guides online. She was offering a great discount on all 3 of her guides and I thought it was exactly what I was looking for. 5 months down the line and I am not using the guides anymore despite (pretty much) finishing the first one. There are a lot of things I liked about this programme and a few things I wish I'd known/thought of before I leapt in and purchased all 3 guides so I wanted to do a review for anyone thinking of buying the guides and who I think it could be more useful for. Pros Structure The structure of the programme I think was really great. I enjoyed the workout split and the app that came along with it which allowed me to track how much I was lifting and how long workouts were taking The workout split is across 5 days and is as follows: legs, booty, chest and arms, back and shoulders ...

Let's face it, that first trip into the weights area of the gym can be pretty intimidating, especially as it's normally full of huuuuge  guys, picking up really heavy things and grunting. Nowadays you will see a lot more women doing the same thing, which is amazing but if you've never been in the weights section before and aren't too sure on what you're doing then it can still be a little bit of a nightmare. 'What if I'm not doing it properly?' 'Why is everyone watching me?' 'What if they'll laugh at me because I'm not lifting heavy enough?' Just a few of the things that can run through your head when you take that first step into the squat rack. I know a lot of girls who struggle with this mentality and will probably let it put them off even stepping foot in the weights section... So here are my tips for getting over your gym anxiety and rocking your workout: Outfit " I don't like to match, but I like t...

In my last post I talked about my relationship with food and my use of MyFitnessPal . See my review below where I talk about the pros and cons of the app and how I think it should be used to aid you in your fitness journey What is it? For anyone who is unfamiliar, MyFitnessPal is an app on your phone that allows you to track calories, macros, exercise, water intake and weight. How does it work? When you first join My Fitness Pal, you will create an account. You get asked to put in your current weight, what sort of lifestyle you lead (sedentary, lightly active etc.) and how much exercise you do. You will then input your goal weight and it will calculate the calories you should be taking in to drop down to that goal weight. 1200kcals - what?! For anyone who has used this app before (specifically women) you will find that no matter what weight you put in as your current or your goal, then it will calculate that you need to eat 1200kcals a day to lose weight. Shock horror. Ea...

A delicate topic for some and certainly one that has caused me to reflect over the last month or so. I am here to talk about my relationship with food which, to be honest, has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me so, strap yourself in as this could be a long one! Growing up, I never really worried about food. I come from quite a fit family and was brought up doing gymnastics and swimming then horse riding and dance... Food for us always contained meat, plenty of fruit and veggies, so a fairly well balanced diet. I never really became concerned about my weight/shape until I was in high school - a classic time for any young person to develop insecurities. For a school performance of Grease, my final show in high school, I was playing the part of Sandy. I started using My Fitness Pal and, as it always does, it calculated me to eat 1200 calories a day (I will go on to my opinions of this later). At this point I was dancing for about 3 hours on a Saturday and horse riding once a week ...

Tonight, 15th  February 2018 I tried out my first  KOBOX  class. I went with my friend  Amy , who I met at a  Lilly Sabri  fitness event. See below what we got up to, what I thought of the class and if I would recommend it as a top workout spot in London. What class did I do? I did the CORE class Who was the instructor? Miranda - you can find her  @fitnesswith_mk What was the class like? This class was unlike anything I've ever experienced. It was tough, sweaty and so. much fun. If you like burpees (does anyone like burpees?) then I can 100% recommend this class to you. As it was the core class, there were LOTS of burpees, crunches, planks... all the core exercises you can think of. The class is split into 2 sections: the bag and the floor/wall. On the bag you follow a 'box-by-numbers' sequence on the wall, working out your frustrations on the bag. On the floor section, we did ab circuits, both weighted and body weight only...