Niko’s Weekly Dose # 9 | Follow My Weekly Fitness Plan

This week is the first week of the new year and the last week of me being away from home.

For the last 2 weeks I have been on holidays with the family at a place called Yamba in Northern New South Wales, Australia.

Yamba is known for it’s awesome beaches, so with a bit of encouragement from the father in-law and Mrs Niko I decided to have a go at surfing.

I knew it was going to be tough as all movements performed whilst surfing originate from the core muscles of your body, but I didn’t realise how tough it would be.

Training: Surfing
Date: Sunday 1st January 2012
Time: 10:00am
Location: Turner’s Beach, Yamba, NSW

If You Want To Improve Your Fitness Whilst Having Fun, Try Surfing

As I have been holidaying in Yamba, I thought that it would be a great opportunity to give surfing a try. I have tried surfing on a couple of occasions, but it is not something that I have ever done regularly.

Being fit, I was of thought that whilst I would have difficulty actually surfing i.e: standing up and riding a wave, I would have no trouble with the physical side of it. I was so sure of this that I actually planned to do a Crossfit session when I got home after surfing.

How wrong could I have been. Surfing is physically very demanding. I never doubted for a minute that at the higher level it was physically demanding, but for a beginner trying to stand up in the white wash?

By the end of an hour I was exhausted and I was no chance of completing the planned Crossfit session.

Whilst I didn’t wear my heart rate monitor whilst I was surfing I did use a calculator at www.sparkpeople.com to work out approximately how many calories I had burnt.

This workout took 60 minutes to complete, burning approximately 493kcal.

Training: Crossfit
Date: Monday 2nd January 2011
Time: 2:00pm
Location: The Oasis
Training Partner: Mrs Niko and Lissy

My High Intensity Crossfit Session to Burn Fat

Workout:

• The workout is done from start to finish with only the 1 minute break in the middle. This break was due to the heat we were training in, which was about 33 degrees.
• We alternate who does the hill sprints in between the weighted exercises.
• The hill sprints involve sprinting at 100% effort to the top of the hill, then jog back recovery to the bottom.

For those that are not sure what Thrusters are, watch this video

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNTW7B09VJg

Finisher:
Push-ups using the Tabata Protocol – 20secs of Dumbbell Swings then 10secs of rest (repeat sequence 8 times without resting between sequences)

Warm down:
• Static Stretching.

This workout and finisher (not including warm-up and warm down) took 29.36 minutes to complete, keeping my heart rate at an average of 151 BPM, burning a little over 405kcal.

Date: Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Rest Day

Training: Crossfit (Deck of Cards)
Date: Wednesday 4th January 2012
Time: 3:00pm
Location: The Oasis
Training Partners: Nil

My High Intensity Crossfit Session to Burn Fat

Warm-up:

•  Dynamic Stretching
•  Body Weight Squats x 20
•  Push-ups x 20

Workout: (Deck of Cards)

• Take a deck of playing cards.
• For each suit and jokers, assign an exercise.
• For today’s session I assigned the following:
• Hearts: Squats (Holding a 10kg dumbbell in each hand).
• Spades: Burpess (For those that are not sure what these are, I have included a video below).
• Diamonds: Chin-ups.
• Clubs: Push-Ups
• Place the deck of cards face down.
• For each card you turn over complete the number of reps for the exercise assigned to the suit, i.e:

6 of Hearts = 6 x Squats

•  Continue through cards until deck is completed.
• Try and complete session without resting. If you can’t take short breaks until you finish the deck.
• If training in a group like I did today, make sure you don’t select the same exercises to the same suit as each other You can all perform the same exercises, just assign them to different suits.
• Sip on water during the workout.

Warm down:

• Static Stretching.

This workout (not including warm-up and warm-down) only took 27.43 minutes to complete, keeping my heart rate at an average of  151 BPM, burning a little over 410kcal.

Training: Surfing
Date:Thursday 5th January 2012
Time: 10:00am
Location: Turner’s Beach, Yamba, NSW

Today I had another crack at surfing, however this time I did not plan to do a cardio session after it.

Again I found it physically demanding but a load of fun. If I lived closer to a beach I could see myself using surfing as a form of hidden exercise.

Again whilst I didn’t wear my heart rate monitor whilst I was surfing, I did use a calculator at www.sparkpeople.com to work out approximately how many calories I had burnt.

This workout took 60 minutes to complete, burning approximately 493kcal.

Date: Friday 6th January 2012
Rest Day

Training: Interval Running
Date: Saturday 7th January 2012
Time: 8:00pm
Training Partners: Mrs Niko

Interval Running My Free Secret Method For Burning Fat

Warm-up:

• Dynamic Stretching
• Body Weight Squats x 20
• Push-ups x 20

Workout:

• Run 1km
• Rest (2 minutes)

Notes:

• Repeat the sequence 4 times.
• Sip on water during workout.

Warm down:

• Static Stretching.

This workout (not including warm-up and warm-down) only took 25.31 minutes to complete, keeping my heart rate at an average of  151 BPM, burning a little over 349kcal.

With minimal equipment and structuring my workouts to suit my environment I was again able to complete 5 intense workouts.

Next week I am back at home and will be starting Phase 2 of the weight training program that I am reviewing, I can’t wait.

I hope everyone has had a great start to 2012 and you are attacking your health and fitness new year resolutions with intensity and consistency.

Anyhow that’s the week that was, below is a summary of the week.

Drop a comment below if let me know if you have any questions about any component of my training for the week or if you are needing a bit of help with your new year resolutions!

Weekly Summary:
Sessions: 5
Total Time Trained: 3 Hours 23 Minutes
Total kcals: 2,150