Jen Feighery offers an eight-week weight-loss plan and with it a one-year guarantee that you will get fit and you will get fast
IT’S THAT time of the year again: the gruelling succession of parties and dinners where overeating and overdrinking are actively encouraged. Proper nutrition is quickly forgotten, willpower goes out the window, and almost inevitably the weight creeps up.
Come January and it’s hardly surprising that THE most popular new-year resolution is to do with weight loss. Running is a fantastic activity to help you lose weight. No other exercise matches running for its ability to burn calories and give your ticker a world-class workout. It couldn’t be simpler — all you need is a good pair of shoes and air in your lungs.
With that in mind I’ve put together an eight-week plan consisting of great calorie-consuming sessions that will turn your body into a fat-fighting machine. I can guarantee you WILL lose weight and you WILL be in the best shape of your life throughout 2025.
DISTANCE RUNNING
In order to get your body burning fat during long runs you must run at a speed that corresponds to approximately 65 percent of your maximum heart rate. It’s simple to record this using a pulse monitor, but if you don’t use a monitor you can go by perceived exertion: your running effort should feel like five on a scale of ten (10 being all-out effort). The longer these runs last the more fat you burn.
SPRINT INTERVALS
Interval training is an exercise method where you switch back and forth between short bouts of sprinting and short periods of rest. To get your body into what is called an anaerobic state while sprinting you must be at 85 or 90 percent of maximum heart rate— nine on the scale of 10.
Fast interval running is an excellent weight-loss tool and extremely time efficient in getting a fat-blasting workout. Not only do you melt calories during the workout, you also give your body the ‘afterburn’ effect — long after you step off the treadmill or leave the park your body is still adapting and burning away at those fat stores.
TEMPO RUNNING
On days where you have only 30 minutes to run, your best bet is to pick up pace and run at a tempo for the duration.
Tempo running is known as a ‘comfortably hard’ workout. You’re running at a faster pace than usual (75 to 85 percent of maximum heart rate). It’s doable but also feels like a challenge.
This type of running boosts metabolic fitness and improves the body’s ability to convert food to energy, resulting in something we all strive for — a FAST metabolism.
STRENGTH TRAINING
Whether it be with bodyweight, free weights or machine weights, strength training is fantastic for shaping and sculpting long, lean muscles. It improves running technique and protects from injury.
Runners tend to cut down their daily intake of calories by anything from 300 to 500, but this causes the body to lose muscle along with fat. The beauty of strength training is that it melts the unwanted fat without burning away at muscle.
Focus on compound strength training exercises such as lunges, squats, push-ups, shoulder presses and
planks.
5 min warm up followed by 6 sets of 1-3 minute sprints (depending on your fitness level) with 1 minute recovery and 5 minutes cool down.
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