The no excuse training programme

Clew tries out a 20 minutes training programme from Lifestyle Optimiser:

Exercise can be as simple as this 20 minutes programme! Do it at least 3 times per week – and there is no excuse for not doing it!

The 20 minutes get started no excuse training programme

1. Squats

• Stand with feet not wider than your hips
• Stretch out your hips and squeeze your glutes
• Put body weight on your heels and sit down so your bum is in height with your knees

• Make sure your knee isn’t moving in front of the toes and always keep your heels on the floor. If your heels are coming up it’s your knees taking the body weight and impact and not the muscles
• Then come up to starting position
• Do 12 repetitions (reps)

2. Back rotation

• Keep same feet (hips width)
• Tuck your tummy in, keep soft knees (slightly bend) and bend your hips into a 90 degrees angle, keep your back arched (stick your bum out) and arms crossed in front, hands on front shoulders

• Do a rotation to the right, center and left, exhale on the outward rotation, inhale coming back to center

• Do 12 reps altogether, 6 to each side
• Always stay strong in your core (pull belly button in towards your spin and keep your back arched!

• Put one leg in front of the other (quite a big step)
• Lift your back heel up from the floor and find balance using your core muscles (tummy in towards the spine)

• Bend both knees with the back knee almost touching the floor
• When you go down, lift up your arms towards the ceiling. Try to move the arms close to your ears.
• Inhale going down, exhale coming up.

• When you are going down bending your knees, make sure your front knee isn’t moving in front of your toes
• Do 12 reps on each leg

4. Lower and upper back

• Stand with feet hips width, same position as the rotation
• Legs slightly bent, almost a 90 degrees angle in hips, tummy in, back arched (stick bum out)
• Arms bend in front of you, relax in your shoulders

• Open your chest, make sure the shoulder blades are doing the work and moving towards each other
• Pay attention to you shoulders, keep them relaxed and make sure you have a big distance between ears and shoulders
• You are not lifting your arm, you are opening your chest by using your shoulder blades

• Open and close arm, 12 repetitions. Stay strong in your core!
• D0 exercises 1-4 one after the other, 3 sets altogether. This should take approximately 12-13 minutes

5. Abs

The plank:

• Starting position; lay down and keep body straight, looking like a plank
• Bend your arms with elbows and feet on the floor
• Parallel arms (not praying hands…)
• Eyes looking between your hands. By keeping arms parallel and eyes looking between hands you will take pressure off your shoulders and keep neck as an extension of the spine
• I find it useful to put a tennis ball between the legs and hold on tight to the tennis ball. Then it is easier to find the corrects core muscles
• Remember to keep the body straight

• If that’s too tough, put your knees on the floor

• Hold as long as you can, time yourself and always aim to keep the position longer
• Once you feel that you can’t keep your bum up anymore, take a small break and then repeat
• Do the plank exercise for 5 minutes

Tap the floor:

• Lay on your back
• Put your hands behind your head to support the head, not to lift it!
• Lift shoulders up from the floor and make sure there is a gap between your shoulder and the floor. Stay there
• Then lift legs up, 90 degrees in hips, 90 degrees in knees
• Make sure you can feel your lower back on the floor through the whole routine

• Tap one foot at the time on the floor, keep the knees bent
• Lift up again

• Tap the other foot on the floor

• If you want to challenge your abs a bit more, keep the leg you are moving down straight and stop just above the floor
• Lift up again and move the opposite leg down

• Always stay strong in your core
• Do 16 reps, 8 on each side, small break and repeat, 3 minutes altogether
  If you feel strong and don’t need the break, keep going

The whole thing should take approximately 20 minutes. I recommend that you do this 3 times a week with one day’s rest in betweeen.

Good luck!
Clew, Februrary 2016, first published by Cecilie Rigneus on Lifestyle Optimiser. Photos by Lisbeth Ganer ©