Progress report for sports editor in #getgrahamfit drive

SIX weeks into his fitness drive, sports editor Graham Smyth gets a progress report from the experts at Apple Fitness in Worksop.

Follow his progress on twitter @GrahamSmyth or @Applegymworksop

THE results are in – and they make pretty good reading.

After just over six weeks training in my lunchbreaks at Apple Fitness, under the watchful eyes of the personal training team and manager Steve Chambers, I’ve improved my fitness.

Specifically I’ve got rid of some unwanted fat and gained some much needed muscle.

My body fat percentage before I began was a shocking 21.2 per cent, but on Wednesday when I had a body composition test with Joe Palmer and Steve we discovered it’s now 16.8 per cent.

I’ve dropped back into the healthy range for someone of my age and body type (12 to 18 per cent) with a loss of 4.4 per cent.

In terms of weight, I weigh more or less the same as when I started, but this is no bad thing.

Of my total 77kg, 64.1 is lean weight – a gain of 3.03kg.

My body fat in kilos is 12.9, down from 16.43 – a loss of 3.53kg.

In essence, I’ve turned fat into muscle.

All this means that the hard work and pain over six weeks has been more than worth it, and I’m surprised at how quickly the fat has dropped.

My waist hasn’t shrunk as much as I might have liked, only 1cm of difference in my favour, but I have lost a few more centimetres off my hips.

And there are now visible improvements to my arms, legs and chest. My cardio is better too.

There are still things to work on, but I’m probably more motivated now than I was before I started.

The results were a huge confidence boost, and I felt like getting straight back into the gym.

Steve and Joe were also delighted and their encouragement is genuinely helpful.

This week, I had two more great sessions.

Tuesday presented me with a ‘300’ workout with Tom Wilde.

The pair of us split 150 repetitions between us in seven different exercises, working seven different muscle groups.

Bicep curls, press ups (chest), box jumps (cardio), military press (shoulders), squats (legs), push throughs (abs) and tricep dips were the challenge, 150 of each.

Admittedly Tom took the lion’s share, but I didn’t fare as badly as I might have predicted, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get through all seven when I started this health kick.

Thursday’s session was a heavy weights session with Joe Smith, in the blazing heat.

I sweated more than any other time in my 29 years, and as the attached picture proves, grimaced and grunted like an ape throughout.

I worked on my biceps and triceps, with barbell curls, dumbell curls, hammer curls and various exercises with a power bag that left me aching.

All good fun, genuinely – and yet more variation.

Mr Smith has promised abs sessions and boxing based workouts – probably the kind of exercise I enjoy and struggle with the most.

Here’s to another six weeks of aching muscles and health improvements.

#getgrahamfit