Jeff's Thoughts

• The Ennis Effect

  10 December, 2012

  

  With the Olympics now well behind us we can look back on the amazing wins, athletes and  highlights of the London 2012 games.  Many of us have been inspired to get into better shape and one of the most talked about bodies is that of British Gold Medal winner for the Heptathlon – Jessica Ennis (well at Studio41 at least).  So how do we do this? How do we get a body that looks like this – toned, lean and athletic, all the attributes that most people would die for.

  1. Have the genes

  Sorry to put this in but if you ever have the chance to choose your parents – take it. The gene pool plays a large role in your fast twitch to slow twitch percentage. The more fast twitch muscle fibers you have the faster you will be. The faster you are the easier it is to put muscle on.

  2. Variety.

  The trick here is balance. People say you need to “keep the body guessing”. This is true to a point, too much guessing and you get no where. The key thing is Jessica has had the time to become good at her disciplines so there is lots of repeated practice, but enough variety within the chosen disciplines to be beneficial. Each event in the Heptathlon requires different muscle contractions, one of the best ways to ensure variety in a workout.

  The worst thing you can do is do the same old 20 mins on a crosstrainer time and time again.

  3. Do things fast

  This is key. Long aerobic training that sees you train in the medium HR zone does not yeild better results than those who train at maximum intensity for shorter periods of time. I think that Jessica has proved we do not need to run for more than 400 meters to look great. How can we put this into our own practice? Go to the track, run 400 meters 10 times, but each time you run a lap, run it so fast you have to rest between each one.  Run fast, rest – repeat. Pretty simple really.  If a track isn’t the place for you, simply choose a path up Mount Vic and sprint up a hill that takes you about 60 sec to go up and then walk back down to recover, then repeat. Or even a flight of stairs will do the job.

  4. Eat clean

  Base your nutrition around wholefoods. Cereal for breakfast is the worst thing you can do. Protein and good fats such as eggs and smoked salmon will take you further than coco pops or weetbix will ever do. When you eat carbs go for rice or quinoa as they are  tolerated better by the body than the gluten filled pasta or noodles. Don’t be afraid of fat, hummus is a great snack with vegetables for throughout the day. If you are as lean as you want to be, then add sugar into your post workout shake. But only once you are lean. Until then sugar is the enemy.

  5. No need to run more than 800 meters.

  Running for 45 mins only burns muscle and makes you look skinny. But athletic looks are not achieved by long aerobic running. Keep it short and fast. You can also mix it up with interval training in the gym in a circuit format.

   

   

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