Joe Wicks The Body Coach—you may not know that name over here in the States, but people in the U.K., and more than one million Instagram followers, are losing their damn minds for this personal trainer's 15-second recipes, workout tips, and uncanny resemblance to Jon Snow. He has a new book outlining how he gets healthy with the quickness called Lean In 15.
And while you can't get everything done in a quarter of a minute, you can get it done in the typical 20 to 30 you normally use to eat breakfast, run in place, hose yourself down, tie a tie, pack a lunch, mainline some coffee, and sprint to the car.
Here are Wicks' tips on how to make your mornings easier, better, faster, stronger.
Go For a High Intensity Workout
The first thing you want to do when you when you open your eyes in the morning is close them again. The second thing you want to do is get on the floor and do some HIIT exercises, which stands for High Intensity Interval Training.
"I'm a big fan of HIIT workouts that only last 15-20 minutes," said Wicks, who says you can do all of these workouts in a spot the size of a yoga mat. "Basically, you're causing your body to go into a state of shock. It's saying, 'God, what have you done to me?'" But in a good way.
To get your body to freak out for the better, queue up Joe in one of his YouTube videos. They're done in real time, so when he's done, mercifully, you're done. Most of routines involve exercises like burpees, mountain climbers, and squat jumps. Below is one of his most-watched to get you started.
Go Even Harder Than You Think You Already Are
"The biggest mistake people make is the intensity," says Wick. "They think they're training the hardest, but you need to make yourself uncomfortable. Ultimately, I know when I'm training hard I feel like I'm going to throw up." As a backup to his gut feeling, Wick also uses a heart rate monitor (Apple Watch or Fitbit, take your pick) to make sure that he's at the maximum BPM. Here's a calculator to figure out your maximum heart rate, because you stopped doing math in your head decades ago.
You also want to make sure that you allow yourself to recover before killing yourself anew. "I used a good ratio of 30 seconds of working out to 45 seconds of rest," he says. Pro tip: Put some tarp down.
2 Pieces Of Equipment That Don't Take Up Much Space
- Battle Rope: What used to just be a longshoreman's day at work has become a fitness go-to. These ropes work your arms and your heart.
- Resistance Bands: Rubber bands with handles you can use for increasing muscle tone. Or, a slingshot that can kill a man.
Train Now, Eat Later
"I like training on an empty stomach," says Wicks, but after he's done he'll grab a breakfast with some protein, carbs, and a little fat. Later in the day you can up your fat content with coconut oil, avocado, and the finests meats and cheeses, but right after you throw up is not the time to go heavy on the fat.
Your 15-Second Recipe Videos
In Wicks' Instagram videos, he rips through 15-seconds recipe steps like a hummingbird Gordon Ramsay, but you'll be damned if it doesn't look like something you can actually do. The big help, he says, is spending some time either the night before or over the weekend chopping and dicing vegetables and portioning proteins so you can just toss them in the pan. The part where he goes "Bam!" is optional.
From: Fatherly
