ELLE Talks to the Fitness Industry’s most in-demand Experts

Secrets of the Super Fit from Elle Magazine
Elle Magazine – January 2012

ELLE (UK) magazine asked me to provide some fitness tips for their January 2012 edition. The result is an article on fitness and weight loss in their ELLE beauty section (in the magazine only) in which myself and 11 other fitness experts give some tips on getting fit and losing weight. The article starts by reminding readers that there really is no secret recipe to effortlessly staying in shape. However, there are some tricks to making your workouts more effective. So, what do the UK’s most in-demand fitness experts have to say?

1. Exercise Every Day

ELLE first spoke with David Kirsch who runs a personal training business, David Kirsch Wellness, in New York whose clients include Victoria Secret Models. His tip is to exercise every day rather than do one or two long workouts a week. Also work the whole body.

2. Combine Low and High Intensity

Jonathan Goodair, creator of the Total Body Plan, and fitness trainer to Madonna, Olympic athletes and the England rugby team. He suggests that you should vary the duration and intensity of your workouts, with at least one low intensity session of 45-60 minutes each week and one speed training session, and one combined session. On his website he also recommends a minimum 200 minutes of exercise a week (average of 30 minutes a day) for fat reduction.


3. Positive Thinking

Mandy Ingber talks about the power of positive thinking and always staying mentally focused on your end goal. Overcoming your own personal barriers to training and exercise is vital in becoming a fitter and stronger person.

4. Eat Carbs after Training

Nutritionist, Drew Price, explains why we should eat carbohydrates after exercising. Carbohydrates provide your muscles with the energy needs for exercise. In the period after exercising the body takes up more carbs into muscle storage than it does at other times, which means they are not stored as fat. We discussed this in our article on nutrition for runners.

5. Exercise Outdoors

This is the advice from Brian Cochrane, one of Nike’s master trainers. He talks about the increased calorie burning effect of running over uneven terrain and the vitamin D boost from getting outdoors too.

6. Interval training to boost your BMR

Jane Wake explains how interval training can boost your fitness and also aid weight loss by increasing the rate at which your body burns energy for 48 hours after exercise – the after burn effect. The easiest way to do this is by sprinting for 30 seconds and then jogging for 90 seconds, and repeating 5 or 6 times.

7. Tone the middle with The Plank

Many people focus on the core / stomach area. It is certainly a zone that many of our readers are interested in. Jess Schuring from Heartcore explains how the plank is the best way to work the abdominal muscles. By exercising your abs you tighten your core / stomach area and this can draw in your stomach.

8. Get an Endorphin Rush!


David Higgins from Ten Pilates suggests that everyone should find their favorite exercise, one that gives them a natural endorphin rush. Doing exercise that you love, that makes you feel good, will help you stay motivated. This could be running, cycling, sparring, team sports or climbing for example. People who become “addicted” to exercise find weight management much easier!

9. Build Muscle with Resistance Training

Gillian Reeves, and exercise manage at Virgin Active, suggests regular dynamic resistance training to build lean muscle tissue. This helps to burn extra fat. You can perform resistance exercises with traditional tools such as barbells and dumbbells and also more modern apparatus like TRX (total body resistance exercise) and ViPR (vitality, performance and reconditioning).

10. Calisthenics to work all your body

My advice (Jon Wade) was to incorporate 30 minutes of calisthenics into your daily exercise routine. Simple bodyweight exercises allow you to exercise anywhere with no equipment and compliment running and other pure cardio exercises well. I also suggested that everyone aims to do 60 minutes of exercise a day in total for added fat burning.

11. Use a Virtual Reminder of your Fitness Goals

Dr. Victor Thompson who runs Sports Psychologist, explains how making a small visual reminder can help you to stay motivated. Something as simple as a dot on an everyday object such as your phone can act as a symbolic reminder of your goals.

12. A Good Sleep Routine

The final tip was from Dalton Wong from Bodyism. He suggests that a good sleep routine can work wonders for your fitness and weight management. We get fitter while we sleep, as this is when the body is working hardest to repair and strengthen tissues. These 12 tips from the experts should help you to stay on track, stay focused and get the most out of your daily exercise routines. If fitness and fat reduction are you goals then these tips will certainly go a long way to helping you to achieve them.

One Comment on “ELLE Talks to the Fitness Industry’s most in-demand Experts”

  1. All helpful points, thanks. It wasn’t until I started combining low intensity exercise with high intensity interval training that I really started noticing my bodyfat levels reducing. And exercising every day is a very powerful way to build the habit of exercise – I’ve found every-other-day all too easy to put off and allow other things on my schedule to take priority. Oh yes, totally agree with the point about building up core muscle strength first as a foundation too.

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