‘If you’re going through hell, keep on going’ Winston Churchill famously once said.
We’re not sure if the British wartime leader was a massive gym shark or not, but it seems quite apt because these New Year workouts are killing us.
If you’re still aching from last week’s #Strength workouts – we’re afraid it’s not going to get any easier. But stick with it and results will be yours.
We’ve got another simple but deadly workout in our New Year series with PUMA and Barrys Bootcamp body transformation specialist Jay Copley.
Former Royal Marine Jay has created a high-intensity, full body #Attack circuit to build muscle and burn fat that even Churchill would be proud of.
All you need is a pair of dumbbells.
Body Attack
This workout does exactly what it says on the tin. No muscle group is left untouched. It hits your chest, biceps and triceps, your back, shoulders, hamstrings, glutes and quads.
You can go light and use it for muscle endurance or you can go heavy and it will build some real strength.
There’s some testing upper body movements and some big compound exercises that will get you more bang for your buck in terms of building muscle.
Beginners go for 7.5kg-10kg dumbells, intermediate 10kg to 12.5kg and advanced 15kg or more.
Hit each move as hard as you can, notching up as many reps as possible in the 45 seconds. Doing this workout three times over the week you should see the amount of reps you can power through go up.
Bicep curls to shoulder press
Why?
The curl to overhead press uses several major upper body muscles. The action of curling the weights from full arm extension to your shoulders primarily uses your biceps. Pressing the weights overhead targets your triceps and deltoid (shoulder) muscles, particularly your anterior (front) deltoid.
How?
- Lift the dumbbells toward your shoulders (flexing elbows), turn the palms to face out and continue pushing the dumbbells over your head in a fluid, continuous motion.
- Then reverse the motion, bring the weight down to your shoulders with the palms out, then turning them to fully extend the elbows, bringing the arms to the starting position.
Close grip push-ups
Why?
This push-up variation specifically targets your triceps (as well as your chest, deltoids and core) – and big triceps make your arms look that much bigger. Also, since all your muscles grow in pairs, bigger triceps means bigger biceps.
Doing the exercise on top of the dumbbells causes your chest to go through a greater range of movement – which means more stretch and more muscle contraction.
How?
- The key is ‘close grip’ so position the dumbbells narrow and grip them with your hands while adopting a high plank position with your body.
- Once you’re in the press-up position, descend slowly with your elbows in close to your body.
- Pause for 2 seconds at the bottom of the movement – you should really feel it on your chest and triceps. Then push back up to the top while still keeping the elbows in.
Dumbbell swing
Why? This exercise targets your hamstrings and glutes, but you also use your back, quads and shoulders. If strength improvement is your focus, try a lower rep count and heavier weight. If you want to build endurance, use a lighter weight and perform more reps. Because your body has to counter the swing of the weight, your balance is also improved.
How?
- Allow the dumbbell to hang at arms length between your legs, holding it with both hands.
- Keeping your back straight and your head up, swing the dumbbell between your legs, flexing at the hips and bending the knees slightly.
- Then powerfully reverse the motion by extending at the hips, knees, and ankles to propel yourself upward, swinging the dumbbell over your head.
- As you land, absorb the impact through your legs and draw the dumbbell to your torso before the next rep.
Squat and press
Why? The squat press is simply one of the best all-around pressing exercises you can do. Hitting your quads, shoulders, triceps, glutes, hamstring and core. Because of the explosive nature of the movement, you can use considerably more weight, which not only burns more calories, but will also help you build more strength and, of course, more muscle.
How?
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Hold the dumb-bells in front of you, with your arms bent to 90 degrees and palms facing each other.
- Bend at your hips and knees to lower into a squat until your thighs are just past parallel to the floor. Keep the weights in front of you.
- As you stand back up, press the weights above your head, then bring them back to the start position.
Dumbbell plank walks
Why?
The plank exercise is about keeping your core perfectly stable. Adding the dumbbell walk means that you have to still maintain core stability while you move a load back and forth, making it an extremely challenging version of the plank!
How?
- Adopt plank position on top on dumbbells.
- Alternately walk dumbbells out as far as you can hold the stretched position for a second before pulling it back to your starting plank position.
https://youtu.be/9M3PBxUNHZQ
What are you training for? Ignite your training with Jay and PUMA, the more you put in, the more you get out #NoMatterWhat. Find out more at PUMA.com/training
