Congratulations, you did it!
Jen’s No Excuses – Just Results
8-week workout!

You’ve completed 8 weeks of solid training that no doubt had you working hard and pushing to extremes, but hopefully you’ve also been having fun and, more importantly, enjoying some serious results!

I’ve had a great time keeping up with all the #ResultsWithJen tags on Instagram – you ladies rock! I’ve mentioned it before, but if your social media profiles are set to private, then I wasn’t able to view your posts and updates. I’d love to see your results and hear all about it, though, so tag me and let me know how it went because I want to know about your progress. Feel free to email me a wrap-up of your 8-week workout along with progress pics or a picture of you having some fun with your fitness! I can be reached directly on fitnessjewell@gmail.com.

I hope you’ve had a fabulous (and fun) past 8 weeks on the programme.

What’s next?

Many of you have probably broken through a plateau or reignited a passion for working out, so you may be thinking: “Okay, the 8 weeks are up. Now, what’s next to keep the momentum and results going?”

To help you out I’m sharing a few of my favourite ways to keep things fresh and fun, to stay motivated for the long haul, and so much more! I want you all to feel your healthiest and happiest, and I never want you to think of working out as a chore or burden.

If you want to skip the gym or your weight training a few times a week, then do it! I don’t always feel like going to the gym, so whenever I feel as though I’m dreading a weight-room workout I head outside for my training session, go on a hike or I go to a yoga or group training class instead. I feel great because I’m still being active, but I’m doing something that I truly want to be doing.

If you loved the workout format I created, try mixing things up a bit. This can be done by taking the same workouts I created and switching up the reps or sets, or even switching the type of equipment that you’re using. If you’ve been working with dumbbells for the past 8 weeks, take the same workouts and try them with bands, kettlebells, barbells or with cables. Anything that’s different from what you’ve been doing is going to help shock your body and challenge you in a new way.

Set new goals for yourself! I’m sure you all sat down at the start of the programme and listed the goals you wanted to accomplish during these past 8 weeks. Do a quick evaluation of the goals you had at the start and compare them to what you actually achieved. I guarantee you’ll see that you’ve evolved, having achieved serious results with this 8-week programme! Now, set yourself new, even loftier goals.

With that, this is a friendly reminder that not all goals have to be related to your physique or appearance. When you set new goals, challenge yourself to ditch the scale as a form of measurement and instead continue taking those progress pics each week. You’ll notice all kinds of details and other results in those pics that most of us miss when we glance in the mirror. Other things I tell my clients to look out for are improvements in strength and endurance. I’ve noticed that many of you have tagged me on social media to let me know that you’ve been able to increase the number of push-ups you can do, or that your endurance has improved as a result of the cardio bursts. All of you should also be able to lift heavier weights now than when you started. These are all forms of progress that should be acknowledged and celebrated.

When it comes to nutrition, less is not more. I don’t want you ladies to get caught up on removing certain food groups or items. Instead, let’s keep it simple. Just add more healthy items into your diet every day. Did you go from never eating veggies to now having a salad a day? Awesome, that’s progress! Adding more veggies in, grabbing a glass of water instead of soda, getting fruit on the side of the burger instead of fries… I’m telling you, every time you make a decision like that it adds up to big-time results. You may not think that small changes like that will add up, but trust me, they do!

Well done, and thank you once again for sharing this 8-week fitness journey with me and the fitness magazine team.

View the other weeks: Week 1 | Week 2| Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7

Don’t forget the cardio

Women tend to store more body fat in their hips and thighs, making the booty a stubborn body part to remodel. We can train glutes as many times a week as we want, but if we still have stubborn body fat covering that area we really aren’t doing our backsides the justice they deserve. I’m not suggesting that everyone needs to live on cardio machines, but (depending on where you start out), I would recommend 3-5 days a week of some sort of cardio activity, anywhere from 20-40 minutes each session. Back when I was wearing a size 14 pants, weighing 22kg more than I do today, I first needed to burn off all that excess body fat before my efforts in the squat rack would start to show.

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Add in some cardio for 20-40 minutes, 3-4 days a week if you can. Depending on your individual goal; for fat loss aim for closer to 40 minutes during cardio sessions. For general health and endurance, three days a week at 20 minutes will be sufficient. You can incorporate these after or between your workout days as it suits your schedule.

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“It’s no secret that I love to be outdoors  and I enjoy taking my fitness outside,”  Exercising and getting your heart rate up does not mean that you have to be stuck for hours on the treadmill. Having ‘fun with fitness” is anything that gets you outside of your comfort zone while being active. It can be a hike, a jog outside or hitting the biking routes