First time at my new gym! Back and butt day.

• Wide grip lat pull down 18kg 3x10
• Bent over one-arm dumbbell row 5kg 3x10/arm
• Seated cable row 13kg 3x12
• Superman (opposite arm to leg) 3x10
• Dumbbell sumo squat 7kg 3x10
• Single leg glut bridge 3x10/leg
• Dumbbell lunge 4kg 2x10/leg (these hurt my knee too much)

• 15 mins stationary bike (level 5, RPM >90)

• 5 minute warm-up walk
• 15 minutes of HIIT: 60 sec running 11km/hr + 60 sec recovery jog 7km/hr
• 5 minutes running 8.5km/hr
• Triceps (3kg), biceps (6kg), deltoids (2kg) - 3x10
• Leg press 36kg - 3x10
• Single leg calf raises - 3x10

I’m off to the gym for the first time in four months since suspending my membership. What to do there?!

Let me give you a few bite-sized chunks of foodie goodness in the name of science.

First, milk magnifies women’s muscles.

There are lots of advantages to carrying a bit more muscle. You feel better, and you burn up more energy.

Yep, unlike fat, muscle actually burns up extra kilojoules or calories, even when you’re not using those muscles.

For women, a bit of resistance training (or pumping iron, as it is also called) will add some muscle in as little as six weeks.

And it’s long been known that taking in some high-quality protein soon after you pump iron will add a little extra muscle again.

But what kind of high-quality protein?

It turns out that half-a-litre of flavoured milk is good enough. Milk has protein to grow those muscles, while its sugars help replace the glycogen that came out of the muscle while you were working hard.

And here’s the double whammy. These sugars also stimulate your pancreas into releasing insulin. The insulin helps amino acids get incorporated into your hard-working muscles as protein.

A study looked at 20 healthy young women who had not done any pumping iron for the previous nine months. They hit the gym for one hour a day, five days a week, for 12 weeks.

If they had the expensive sugar-based sports drinks immediately after pumping iron, by the end of 12 weeks, they put on 1.1 kilogram of muscle and lost 0.3 kilograms of fat.

But if they drank the flavoured milk, they put on more muscle (1.9 kilograms) and lost more fat (1.6 kilograms).

Thanks to the cheaper flavoured milk, their body weight hardly changed, but got redistributed into more lean muscle and less body fat.

So ladies, go to it.

(Source: abc.net.au)

45 minutes on the bike (450cal), plus triceps, biceps, back and shoulder strength work. I upped the weight on my seated lat pull down to 30kg. I’ll be feeling my triceps tomorrow!

I tried out the treadclimber at the gym today - insane workout! At first I nearly fell off because it really challenges your balance.