Gemma Atkinson has recently completed a 12-week body overhaul fitness program with Ultimate Performance gym in Manchester. Her workout routine and diet plan through the journey and afterward are shared here for your benefit. She has also shared some valuable fitness advice for fans that she learned from her own experience.
100% Dedication
The stunner has streamlined her workout routine with the help of a trainer Mark Bohannon who says that she leaves nothing to chance. When she decides to do something, she does it and puts in her 100%. In case she is not succeeding, she wants to know why and then works on it.
Workout Routine
The workout routine of the beauty includes hitting the gym at least three times a week and training with her dance partner for up to 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Each of her days is assessed, and the workouts are created to fit around her schedule.
When she was working with the Ultimate Performance team, her workouts were a mix of cardio and short weight sessions. She trained four times every week, and each session lasted between 45 minutes to an hour.
Her workout days were divided between squats (for quads or front thigh), lifts (for upper body) and posterior or back muscles. The exercises were in 4 to 5 sets. She did 8 reps of them in the beginning and did 10 reps until the end.
On squat days, she did split squats and pendulum squats. While focusing on the posterior chain, she started with Romanian deadlifts, moved to upper-body dumbbell presses. She also did back extension exercises for muscle tone and raised dumbbells from rest to shoulder height in alternate hands while she was seated.
Diet Secrets
Gemma takes diet advice from Mark and his colleague Steve Chambers as they are available on a call 24 hours a day with an aim to guide her diet. When she is not sure what to eat like when she is on a night out with friends, they advise her to what to pick from the menu. The duo remains in control of every variable.
Less Alcohol
Though the gorgeous woman is allowed to have alcohol, she needs to confess every drink to her trainers so that they can devise the training program accordingly. As alcohol may slow down the fitness efforts, the focus is on ensuring that she consumes less of it.
The Goal
Though the English actress has lost 5 lbs. in her first week and reduced a stone after 12 weeks, her aim was never focused on weight loss only. Before embarking upon this fitness journey, she has said that she wants to feel strong and athletic. Weight training makes her feel exactly like that. Her goal was to be the best version of herself that she can be.
The Struggle
The ex-glamour model shares that when it’s on the paper, people think it’s not hard and they can do it, but doing four or five exercises in a session with repetition, and increasing the weight towards the end makes the things very difficult.
Many people visit the gym regularly but can’t see the results because they don’t work hard enough.
Diet Plan
The Emmerdale (2015-2017) star has also made some diet changes. Throughout the day, she takes 2 protein shakes.
Her diet plan is mentioned below.
Breakfast
Three eggs, some coffee, and half avocado.
Lunch
Pesto
Dinner
Chicken with vegetables
After Dinner Snack
Greek yogurt
Snacks
She snacked on dark chocolate and nuts, but she doesn’t eat much chocolate now.
Advise for Fans
The blue-eyed woman encourages her fans to be consistent and never miss a workout when you have planned it. Also, remember that no fitness goal can be achieved overnight. She also wants you don’t push yourself too hard as you may end up injuring yourself. If you follow these tips for a few days, you will start seeing results which will most probably strengthen your resolve.
Train Smart
Training hard is important to achieve a fitness goal, but you also need to train smart. Doing endless cardio is not categorized as a smart workout as you can get better results with weight training.
Love Yourself
The Greater Manchester born also wants you to accept who you are and accept the flaws of your body. She doesn’t like her legs much as she gains weight on legs easily and finds it hard to get rid of it. But, she has accepted things as they are.
She has also started to love her legs by reminding herself that they are fast and strong.
Beauty Tips
Stay hydrated and have as much as vegetables as possible. She has kale or spinach with breakfast and more portions spread during the day.
She also drinks 3 liters of water daily. In her opinion, buying expensive creams and moisturizers for hydrating your skin is useless if you don’t eat healthy foods. You are what you eat!
Diet Fundas
The Casualty (1986-Present) actress doesn’t believe in diets and thinks they are a short-term fix. Her diet fundas include eating clean and nutritional foods 90 percent of the time and allowing herself 10 percent for pizza, biscuits or a glass of wine.
She loves having foods like fish, vegetables, oats and sweet potato.
Why She Did It?
Atkinson opted to undergo the grueling program at UP because she thought it was very hard and would challenge her physically & mentally. She wanted to test her limits and be a better version of herself. During the program, she did things she didn’t expect from herself like lifting the weight that was so much heavier than she thought she would be able to lift.
Relaxation Methods
To relax, she likes to have a soothing bath by using bath salts and coconut oil. She also has a facial at a local salon where they do a deep cleanse, tone her skin and use a moisturizing mask as well.
Featured Image via Sarah Winterman / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
