Lose a stone in a month

Burning calories is the way forward, as the majority of us know, but when we are all pinching pennies, spending out on exercise equipment is not what we want to do.  No worries, you can work out in your home.  Every day, use your stairs to the max, this is where you are going to seriously increase your metabolism.  It’s similar to going to an aerobic step class at one of your local gyms, but it’s free.  The stairs will feature in your routine every day apart from Sunday, which is a day of rest. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, use the stairs as you would for a step class, do twenty seconds of steps in quick succession, stop for ten seconds, repeat process ten times.

Next it’s time to get on the floor to work those abs, lie on your back, with your feet outstretched and raised about 10cm off the ground, next, pull you knees towards your chin making sure you raise your hips off the floor in the process, reverse by pushing your knees back to the start point.  If you find this a real struggle, put your hands underneath your bottom, it diminishes pressure.  Do the process for twenty seconds and repeat ten times.

Next grab a couple of cans of beans, make sure they are both the same weight.  It’s time to work on those shoulders and back.  Stand with feet hip-width apart, with your cans in front of your legs, raise your hands out sideways until they meet above your head, lower slowly and in a controlled manner to the start point again, do a twenty second stint and then repeat ten times after a ten second stop.

Not finished yet, this next part of your home fitness clubs together legs muscles and your bottom, it’s lunges.  Not everyone’s favourite move, but to get rid of that stone and to tone up, you’ve got to lunge.  From a standing position lunge your right leg forward, dropping your rear knee to the floor, stand back and repeat with left leg, keep your top half upright.  Do this in quick succession for 20 seconds, stop for ten seconds and repeat twenty times.

That’s your mini home circuit, but what about Tuesday and Thursday, back to the stairs we go, this is where your aerobics class meets mountain climbing.  It’s very simple, it just involves you walking up and down the stairs; aim to spend 30 minutes on this exercise, with a maximum of 45 minutes.  You will be burning calories every step of the way, remember if you haven’t exercised for a while or if you have a medical condition, ask your doctor first to make sure you can do this.

While you are doing the weight loss, you also need to watch what you are eating, losing a stone in a month is easy with this plan but you have got to reduce your carb intake, this means your body will burn fat, rather than the carbs you are eating.  You don’t have to cut them out completely as you need energy from somewhere.  Instead of jacket potatoes with beans, eat grilled salmon and kale.  You can swap pasta for strips of courgette with chicken meatballs.  Instead of noodle stir-fry, add more bean sprouts and broccoli.  Avoid high fat food for the month such as crisps and chocolates.

If you stick to the exercise plan you should have lost a stone after 30 days, your fitness will have improved and it might even inspire you to join one of your local health clubs and meet likeminded people who enjoy keeping fit and staying trim.

Written by Steve Regis who is an experienced personal trainer and has worked with many clients over the years, he is an avid writer about health and visits his fitness club in Bristol and can be found working in local gyms.  He likes to focus on motivating people in their fitness goals and aims to inspire people to want to feel great.

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