It was session three of term three and once again I had had a week in between the last session but, as I explained to Anna I did do a lot of walking over the Diamond Jubilee weekend like most other people who stayed in London.
The weather is so miserable and fingers crossed it improves for Friday when we have the Flannels For Heroes 20:20 cricket at Burton Court. However, when I get to Anna’s studio in Fulham all that was behind me, and for the next hour it was all about focusing on exercise.
So, today we started with the usual warm up and then straight into it with the usual 100 bum crunches or maybe it was 200, I am not sure as I know I got to have a break half way through to hug the knees and I know my bum was burning!
Weights it was, but not the full weights as the exercise changed. It was almost a six stage exercise or, at least that is how I will describe it which we repeated fifteen times and three repetitions. So, step one was the usual dead lift, step two was bending the knees and flipping the bar level with the shoulders and, then step three was to put the bar above the head powering up from the knees. Then the reversal so, step four was back down level to shoulders bending the knees, step five was flipping the arms (only) down to my waist, and then step six back to the ground. Now, that might all seem simple to you, but it is done in one move, and it is all about ensuring you engage the abs and push up with the knees. Sadly, it probably has a name but as I didn’t know it, I couldn’t find an image.
Then we moved onto squats, where we utilised a small Swiss ball against the wall 
and a 5kg medicine ball.
So, against the wall keeping my chest lifted and the medicine ball in line with my chest, my core engaged, I embarked on 15 repetitions of a squat. Then, straight into the squat position, and it was pulsing for 15, ensuring you stayed low using your heels to power the pulses. Let me tell you when I got to 10 it were burning! This exercise we repeated three times.
Then, we went into boxing and just what the doctored ordered 
as it is a great way of getting out any exercise energy or, frustration as it was in my case. So, this was an intense four minute exercise with 10 second intervals between the exercises. Firstly, it was straight forward boxing ~ left, right and back to centre but always ensuring the core is engaged and using my hips to generate the power of the punch. Then, it was onto the squat jump which was a slight disaster as my coordination of using the arms to propel forward and back as I jumped was totally out of synch. The third minute was straight punches, which is tough as a full minute seems an age, especially when you are asked to speed up at 30 seconds, so the last 10 seconds you are pushing yourself right to the end, breathing is key something I need to remember. Then, the final minute was ski jumps, well think of yourself skiing down a slope knees tightly together and then it was just jumping was either side as if jumping over a line.
Suddenly time was running out, so an exercise was dropped and we went into a cool down on the treadmill for five minutes. This was a one minute walk, 30 seconds jog, 30 seconds walk, 30 seconds jog and then 2 minutes walk all of which the pace increased and I did notice the incline as well.
Finally, it was time for the cool down and stretching the legs out. Sadly, I didn’t get to walk home the whole way due to the weather so, I will need to do additional calf stretches and shoulder stretches or by tomorrow I will know about it.
Thanks again to Anna Keeble for a great work out ‘no pain no gain’. And, honestly if you want to feel good for summer, then you should book in for a few sessions with Anna of ‘Get Fit for Purpose’.
Full details www.getfitforpurpose.co.uk.
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