A Few Questions For Justin

I work away every week and I have designed myself an exercise plan to do when I'm in the hotel as I don't have the money for a gym membership.

Anyway here is my plan:

Plank
Push ups
Squats
Ski Squat
Jumping jacks
Burpees
Chair dips


I was just wondering is it better to either do as many of these in a set amount of time (say 1 minute) or do a set of 15 and repeat a few times?

Also what is a good workout for the arms and chest when you have no access to weights?

Cheers pal

You've got a nice-looking circuit there! I'd recommend performing the exericises in order from hardest to easiest (for your fitness level), so for example you may start with burpees and finish with a plank (Most total-body movement to least TB movement).

It may be best to go for a minute on each, and record the amount of reps you do in that minute. That way, if you cant get 15 reps on certain exercise then it won't mess up the rest of the program.

Repeat the circuit 2-3 more times (or just as many as you feel you can). Write down your best number of reps for each exercise on each circuit. Beat that number of reps on each exercise the next day you do it. Simple, but very, very effective.


As for your chest and arms, try this BEFORE you start your above circuit.

1. T-Press Ups Up to 10 reps each side
Rest 60s

2. Feet-elevated Press Ups (Put your feet onto the bed or something!) 10 reps
Rest 60 secs

3. 'One-sided' Press Up (From a normal press up position, come down to one side, keeping the other elbow as straight as possible. On the next rep go down to the other side. The aim is to work each arm individually). 10 reps
Rest 60s

4. (This is a mini-circuit of 3 exercises in a row. Complete all three before resting)
a. Normal Press Ups for 20 seconds
b. Paused Press Up for 20 seconds (Hold the bottom position of a normal press up, chest an inch or so off the floor)
c. Clap Press ups for 20 seconds (Explode your arms off the floor and clap quickly before coming down. If this is too difficult to start try it with your knees on the ground.)


Give it a go and keep me updated.

cheers mate, I'm away for work this week so I'll be doing it this week and let you know my progress on Friday

those pushups are a killer!! But I can feel them working well, I feel a lot fitter in myself and as I'm losing weight I feel more confident.

I have another question and it's to do with the weight of muscle compared to fat:

as you know I do weights and I'm on a diet at the same time. I weigh myself every saturday morning but I was just wondering will my actual weight be affected too much because I heard that muscle weighs more then fat?

Obviously I like to get on the scales and see that I've lost a few pounds every week but I'm not really too fussed on how much I weigh, it's what I look like and what size clothes I can fit into

Yes muscle weighs more than fat, but is leaner so takes up less mass.

If you can imagine, the best metaphor I can come up with is that 1 pound of fat may resemble a plate full of jelly, whilst 1 pound of muscle would resemble a small pear

(an odd comparison I know, but its the size ratio and density that is important!)

That is why I believe that there comes a certain point where weighing your weight becomes virtually pointless. Instead, either measure waist girth in inches, and / or bodyfat percentage.

These are the measurements that will let you know if your reaching the goal of a smaller waist or a leaner looking physique. Weight won't tell you anything.


Good job with the circuit so far, how are your rep numbers looking?

yes I understand that, as weird as it sounds! How far in to a diet do you think it would be pointless to weigh myself?

and my rep numbers are low, as you might expect because I'm unfit but I've been adding an extra 1-2 reps on every day

I couldn't tell you how far to be honest, unless I had all the info. Also, its important to note that you msut have sufficient calories on your diet for recovery and to keep your muscles active (i.e - your metabolism raised), so if calorie intake is too low you won't be doing yourself any favours.


As a rough generalisation, when your body fat percentage comes in to the 'healthy' range of up to 25%, and you want to gain muscle at this point, then that could be the point as to stop worrying about weight so much.

Basically its important to look at weight and bodyfat together. If your weight is increasing but BF is steady or decreasing then your likely to be accumilating lean tissue.

However, if weight AND BF is going up, then your putting on some fat as well.


1-2 reps a day sounds like good progress, thats the important part.