Escaping to Dartmouth + a HIIT workout

Last weekend I was in Dartmouth with my best friends from Bristol. It was so nice and chilled and an absolutely perfect weekend.

You know one of those weekends that makes you feel teary on the Sunday night when it's back to reality?

The weather was far from beautiful... (it was so windy we couldn't even go for a walk on the beach, cheers storm imogen) but the wind and rain didn't stop us from having a good time. In fact it made it even more cosy to hear the wind howling outside with a glass of prosecco in hand...

The highlights of the weekend for me were spending all of Saturday afternoon in a spa (with a HIIT session, pool and sauna), cooking up a few recipes from The Body Coach for dinner, and brunch at the cutest French restaurant, Saveurs.

When I was (sob) back at my desk on Monday, I received an epic delivery from Holland & Barrett full of 'heart healthy' products. As February is heart health month, the idea behind the campaign was to showcase the food that can contribute to maintaining a healthy heart, along with a cardiovascular workout for you guys, to get your heart racing.

I was thinking about where to get inspiration from for this particular workout and I decided to share the HIIT session I did with the girls last Saturday.

There are three parts to this workout, and you'll need a treadmill for part B. If you don't have access to a treadmill you can cycle through and do the body weight HIIT three times, rather than twice. I've also included weighted squats, so if you don't have a kettle bell or dumbbell, just do air squats.

This is a longer HIIT workout, and should take around 40 minutes to complete.

The Dartmouth Heart Workout:

PART A

Complete each exercise for 30 secs, doing as many reps as possible, with a 20 sec rest in between each set

• Burpee tuck jumps
• High knees running on the spot
• Mountain climbers
• Squat jumps
• Upper body get ups (moving planks)
• Jump lunges
• Weighted squats
• Push ups
• Scissor split planks (plank position, jump your legs in and out in a scissor like motion, keep your bum low!)
• Leg raises

PART B

Treadmill sprints

• Jog for three minutes
• 45 seconds sprinting at your max speed (I'm on about 17.5 at the moment)
• Jump on to the sides of the treadmill (safely, obviously), and rest for 30 secs
• Repeat until you reach 18 minutes
• Jog for two minutes

PART C

Repeat part A, all over again!

*NB as you all know I'm not a PT, all moves in this workout are moves I personally do - make sure you've warmed up properly before this, some of the moves are quite explosive - I'd do a 5 min jog on the treadmill. 

It's a killer whole body workout; perfect for blowing away the cobwebs for five girls who had spent a day having not left the house, fire on and wine in hand.

What are my favourite 'heart healthy' products from this delivery? 

So, I've been trying out some of the products Holland and Barrett sent me, which included:

• Rude Health spelt flakes
• Rude Health puffed brown rice
• Raw Health Flaxseed crackers 
• Flaxseed oil
• Oatwell crispy hearts 
• 'Seeds for Sunrise' - breakfast mix of dried fruit, nuts and seeds
• Roasted and salted pistachios (because who doesn't love pistachios)

The crackers are a definite firm favourite. Prior to tasting, my initial thoughts conjured up a dry, tasteless brown slab - but they are gorgeous! A lot of flavour - nutty and garlicky and would be perfect with hummous. Studies have shown that flaxseed has the potential to help reverse cardiovascular disease - these little seeds also contain omega 3, fibre and lignan (which can help the cardiovascular system).

I haven't tried the flaxseed oil yet, but I'm intrigued. I think it could be nice over a walnut and feta salad.. so maybe when the weather is a little warmer.

Another winner has to be the spelt flakes; I've had them before and love how 'light' they are. Spelt can also contribute to a lower risk of heart disease. They go really well with the puffed brown rice cereals (hello adult rice crispies (without all the crap!)) - brown rice is high in selenium which can reduce the risk of developing heart disease.

For breakfast over the past couple of days I've been having oats, spelt flakes and puffed brown rice topped with a fruit and nut mix and a bit of honey, with almond milk. It's delicious, and a much healthier alternative to artificial sugar laden granola.

As well as feeling physically invigorated and rested after the weekend, it definitely did my heart and soul the world of good to be out in the countryside having a laugh with some of my nearest and dearest.

If you give the workout a try let me know how you get on!

Holland & Barrett sent me these products for free (cheers!) but naturally all opinions are my own!

Current Favourite HIIT Workouts

Over Christmas, like many I didn't have access to a gym, but still wanted to keep fairly active over the festive period - mainly to offset the barrage of wine and Stilton I planned on enjoying!

To get the smugness out of the way quickly, I impressed myself by getting a few 7 / 8 mile runs, a couple of 10ks and a cheeky Parkrun in, and it was really nice to be able to get out so much. Normally in Winter I'm restricted to running on weekends, so it was good to have the freedom during the day to pound about.

Running 10k over the holidays

In true British style, the rain over Christmas was sometimes too much to bear, so I used HIIT training to mix things up.

I'm a massive fan of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), and incorporate it into my regime at least three times a week. More on the benefits of HIIT here and here.

I thought I'd note down a few of my fave workouts at the moment, in case you fancied some inspiration over the coming weeks. The workouts below include both home and gym based workouts. Obvs, I'm not a PT, I'm just sharing what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. If you're not already, get on and follow the bloody gorgeous Joe Wicks on Insta etc, as all his HIIT workouts are great. He got me into it in the first place, especially the first workout..

Workout 1
Equipment: treadmill
This is my absolute go-to for a 'killa' workout if you're pushed for time.

Naturally, you'll need to adapt the sprint speed to suit you, I usually set this to between 17 - 18kph (18 being really challenging for me).

• 1 min walk warm up
• 2 mins run 11kph
• 45 secs sprint at desired speed level (17 - 18kph)
• 30 secs rest
• 45 secs sprint
• 30 secs rest

.. repeat until you hit 20 minutes. Trust me, it's an absolute beast. I love it.

If you've not done sprints before, or don't feel comfortable hopping on and off the treadmill edges, speak to someone in the gym - I did this when I first started because I wasn't confident with the speed, and getting someone to walk me through it really helped.


Workout 2 
It has two parts to it, A & B, and takes me around 40-45 mins.
Equipment: treadmill, weighted barbell, kettlebell, bench
I do these sprints with the treadmill turned off, to make it really tough. I grab the front handles of the treadmill, and push until the belt moves, then run as fast as I can (with my hands still gripped) for 20 seconds.

A)

• Treadmill (turned off) sprint for 20 secs
• Rest 30 secs
• Treadmill (turned off) sprint for 20 secs
• Rest 30 secs
• 10 barbell weighted squats (I'd probably use a 20kg barbell) - pulse up and down 5 times at end
• 10 Burpees

Repeat 5 times

B)

• 10 dips on a bench / chair
• 10 kettlebell swings
• 10 deadlifts (use the barbell for this, adjust the weights as necessary for you, I'll increase the weight here)
• Upper body get ups (sometimes called moving planks)

Repeat 5 times

Workout 3

This one's adapted from one of Joe's, it's a ladder workout and great to do at home as all exercises are bodyweight based. 

The method for this one is easy.

10 secs on, 10 secs off (each exercise).

20 secs on, 20 secs off,

30 secs on, 30 secs off,

40 secs on, 40 secs off,

30 secs on, 30 secs off,

20 secs on, 30 secs off,

10 secs on, 10 secs off.

You do as many of the below in the time available. Once you've completed all the exercises, you adjust the time. 

• Burpee tuck jumps
• Mountain climbers
• High knees
• Press ups
• Squat jumps
• Lunge jumps
• Plank

So, you'd do each of the above exercises for 10 seconds, resting for 10 seconds in between each exercise, then move on to 20 secs and so on. 

This one's sneaky; you're doing burpees for ten seconds thinking what the hell is all the fuss about, but just you wait until you're on 30 / 40 seconds. I had to remind myself not to get cocky!

If you have any favourite HIIT workouts, send 'em my way!

My Protein: #GIRLSONLY

Last Saturday, the girls at My Protein invited me and a load of other gurlz for an afternoon of protein, HIIT, and a bloody good natter.

The HIIT class was taken by none other than MyProtein ambassador and #GirlGains co-founder Vic Spence, aka @healthyfitvic and my GOD, it was a tough one (I'd been for curry the night before, so to say I was feeling a little 'heavy' is an understatement!)

We did three rounds of three exercises, forty seconds on ten seconds off. Each round focused on different body parts and there was no one move easier than the other; it really was a killer... sweaty, hilarious photos below to document...

How nice are Vicki's yellow & green leggings?! 

You know you've probably overdone it on the naan bread front when Vic singles you out, laughs and congratulates you for being so sweaty - a high point in my gym life, I will admit...

Once we'd sweated out shed loads, it was time to refuel and dose up on some serious 'gAiNz' in the name of salted caramel protein shakes and a mountain of MyProtein treats, nut butter and some amazing CAKE from Heebs:

We then had a bit of a q&a with Vic about her training regime, general fitness advice and how she found competing, and before long, all of us were sat cross-legged on the floor, eating treats and having profound conversations.

It sounds stereotypical, but the 'sleepover' feel to this part of the event was by far my favourite (over a post-curry HIIT session, really?!). It was so nice to feel comfortable and chatty with a bunch of like minded girls. We discussed our issues with the health industry, the perception of perfection in our social media saturated lives and the concerns around influencers preaching knowledge without the right qualifications (bloggers, aka me, included - I won't ever pretend to kid anyone that I'm a dietician or PT; I just eat and exercise what I feel works for me to stay healthy and happy!). There was no judging, no competing, just a group of girls putting the world to right!

It was such a refreshing, chilled afternoon, so massive thanks to Sarah, Lucy, Hebe and Laura for organising it.

They're also offering a cheeky 20% off all products on the site for the next month with the code: GIRLSONLY - so feel free to pop this in the checkout!

Sweaty Sequin This & I

Barrecore @ Alderley Edge

On Saturday morning I made my way to Alderley Edge with Sarah to give Barrecore a try.

It's been all over my Instagram feed recently and I've been intrigued to give the ballet / pilates inspired workout a go - I was particularly interested to see what it would do for me given my notorious inflexibility..!

The Barrecore website says it's a "low impact, full body interval training programme using isometic exercises alternated with stretching." 

You use your own body weight for resistance, as well as incorporating small weights with high reps to overload the muscle, then stretched out.

As someone who likes to think of themselves as a girl not afraid to lift heavy, I was a little apprehensive about the small weights given out. Well, how cocky that was. After (many) multiple reps using these 'small' weights, my arms and core were on fire, the burn was real.. it's changed how I think about small weights that's for sure!

I used to do ballet / pointe when I was younger, although stupidly gave it up thinking I was too 'cool' (stay classy, Katie), so I was really excited to use a bar again! Needless to say I did not look cool on this bar, with my stubborn, inflexible legs giving it all they had to work against me.

It did however, mean that I worked myself really hard, using muscles I hadn't engaged in a looong time, and on several occasions my legs were literally shaking uncontrollably (much to mine and Sarah's amusement).

There was ab work after (killer), and a chilled savasana to round off which was perfect.

At the start of the class, our lovely teacher Emily warned us about the shakes, and I half heartedly laughed it off. It is no joke, kids. I still feel a bit jelly-like now, hours after the class...

Overall - I loved it. I'd definitely be up for it again, it seems like the perfect workout to throw into your weekly mix to balance out any heavy lifting or intense HIIT.