#MyWorkoutFor with Virgin Active: Getting in shape for holiday

A few weeks ago I was invited down to Virgin Active‘s Cannon Street gym to take part in their ‘#MyWorkoutFor’ class with vlogger Hobbie Steward. Essentially, #MyWorkoutFor gave us a quick and challenging routine, that, if repeated, should whip anyone into shape that will be going on holiday soon. For me, it was just a few days before Malta, for Hobbie Stewart, he was preparing for Ibiza. As the invite said, the exercises were for all those who need a bit of ‘help with that all-important party-week prep’.

I’ll be honest and say that the workout was probably the last time I’ve done any serious exercise, and given it that was about a month ago, that’s pretty shocking. I go through stages of being really into the gym and falling out of love with it, I’m currently trying to get my head around a few regulatory exams for my new job before I get back to working on my fitness, and going to the gym. At the time of the invite, I was in one of those stages where I was going to the gym almost every single day. I’ve heard Virgin Active have some of the best gyms you will ever see (and given I only ever go to my university gym, it absolutely blew that out of the window), and knowing that it was specifically designed for those going on holiday, and I was due to go to Malta, I was very excited for the session.

Given that I’d been in the gym quite a bit around that time, I really didn’t expect anything too difficult. We’re all bloggers, and we were told there’d be team exercises, so I genuinely thought I’d walk right through it. Boy… was I wrong. Just a few minutes into our first circuit, my muscles wanted to give up. My thighs in particular were aching for a good two days post workout. Despite the pain, it was a genuinely fun session. I got to meet a lot of fabulous bloggers, and I actually picked up a few tips with regards to getting into shape quicker…

1. Focus on strength exercises, drop the cardio
I’ve always kind of known that strength exercises were supposed to be really good – after all, muscles burn more calories than fat. However, all I’ve ever really known is that cardio burns fat so in the gym I typically go pretty ham with my cardio exercises. Actually – if you’re trying to get in shape quickly, as Helen puts it in the Virgin Active video below, it’s best that you “don’t be a cardio bunny.”

2. Eat clean
Although I haven’t been going to the gym recently, I’ve still been quite strict with myself and the healthy eating. Nothing gets my body to a place I’m satisfied fast like eating healthier does. Cardio takes forever to noticeably get rid of fat, but with healthy eating, it all falls off so fast you don’t even notice whilst its happening. If you want to know what I eat in a day, you can check out my recent food diary post here.

3. Train hard
You know when you have an exam coming up and you start pulling all-nighters in the library? It’s similar when it comes to dropping some pounds quickly (just without the all-nighters). Basically, you have to go hard! If you only have a short period of time, you need to work twice as hard in the gym as you typically would in order to see fast, visible changes.

See all of these tips in visual form in the Virgin’s official video: