Blog: Mixing up my training

I'm stuck in a training rut.

For probably my ENTIRE exercising life, my training has consisted pretty much of 3 days cardio and 2 days weights. The weights days have gone from teaching a barbell class in the good old days to half-heartedly picking up a couple of dumbbells and going through the motions as is the current habit.



The thing is, my body has not really changed in all this time, which is kinda ok but I'd quite like a lower body fat % and some bigger muscles, please.

So I've spent the last few weeks reading up on different methods of training - much of it with a mince pie or glass of Baileys in hand I must add. How's that for guilt-inducing? I've long seen the likes of Julia and Nicola as an inspiration and after leafing through their blogs I'm going to jump right in, shake it up and embark on an entirely different way of training.

I came across this article by Simply Shredded on weight training for women. The plan runs for 12 weeks and involves 4 strength sessions a week interspersed with HIIT cardio sessions and low-intensity cardio. My only sticking point is that I'm training for a half-marathon which does involve some HIIT training but also longer runs so I'll see how it goes until the race then modify it after.

So my new regime is as follows:

Monday - 5 mile run into work
Tuesday - Upper body
Wednesday - Lower body + HIIT
Thursday - Active rest (cycle to work)
Friday - Lower body
Saturday - Long run
Sunday - Upper body + HIIT

Writing it down it sounds quite full-on so I may need to incorporate another active rest day in, I'll see how it goes.

Food-wise, my diet is already pretty good (mince pies and Baileys aside!) so I'm just going to introduce some more protein into my diet with post-workout shakes on strength days and be a bit more disciplined with the sugar. Which shouldn't be too much of a problem since I NEVER want to see another chocolate again (did I really just say that?)

If I'm feeling brave I'll do some before and after pics plus measurements. I've done one upper and one lower body session so far and am definitely walking like a cowboy feeling it. So stay tuned and watch this space for more updates...