I have to say my inaugural review of this week’s magazines is a bit depressing - the multitudinous exercise articles, crazy body overhauls and get fit for summer plans I’d hoped to comment on are slightly thin on the ground. But never mind; you have to start somewhere!

On a slightly more positive note, the big news in all the mags is that the Madrid Fashion Week banned all models with a BMI of less than 18. Hooray - is it possible a normal sized human could be considered acceptable by the fashion world?

FAMOUS - OCTOBER 2:

Page 66: “Weight Loss in a Hurry”

A reader’s question about getting fit for summer gets a fairly sane response. The advice is to do cardio 3-5 times per week, and resistance exercise twice per week.
Disappointingly, there’s nothing about eating sensibly, which can make or break even the most fantastic exercise regime. The only upper body exercise advice is to do tricep dips, but something like pushups would be better since it incorporates larger muscle groups. Good advice for lower body exercises, duration and repetitions.

☆☆☆☆

NW - OCTOBER 2:

Page 60 - “You and your shadow” - short article pitching an at-home workout device called the Shadowboxer, which gives you “all the benefits of traditional boxing, but without the heavy impact and jarring neck pain”. Now, I don’t know about you, but where I come from, shadowboxing doesn’t involve impact, or jarring. And hey, if it’s good enough for thousands of insanely fit boxers, then it’s probably good enough for an at home workout. Unless you want to train for competetive shadowboxing, save your bucks and go back to the old skool, Ali style.

NEW IDEA, SEPTEMBER 30:

Page 57, “Get Fit With Guy”

Guy Leech cracks the whip over Dicko, in a mid life crisis rescue plan.

Obviously playing on the fact the two guys involved were recently on Celebrity Survivor together, there’s definately a sense of revenge and punishment in the programme Dicko’s undergoing. The rescue plan is good, but for most people, completing a 10k run, 20k bike ride and 10k paddle twelve weeks after commencing an exercise regime is a reletively unattainable goal. Remember goals need to be realistic for you, and unless you’re capable of training every day, and have a program that’s especially structured around that, you may need to make your twelve week benchmark something you have to work to achieve, but won’t fall short of.

Maybe Dicko will respond well to the idea of being flogged, but I reckon he’s in a very small percentage of people who will. Make sure whatever training you’re doing feels right for you. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be hard, but if you’re at the point of exhaustion within the first ten minutes, it doesn’t really bode well for the rest of the session. Don’t drive yourself into the ground too soon, or expect to be a world class athlete after a couple of workouts. Getting fit and losing weight isn’t something that happens overnight (to quote a famous advertisement), but if you’re able to stick with what you’re doing, you’ll get results.

☆☆

Page 58, “How to be a Winner”

While this article isn’t about exercise or fitness, it’s packed full of awesome ideas to achieve your personal best in key areas of life. I was definitely motivated after reading it, so I give it the full complement of stars.

☆☆☆☆☆