Maintain your summer body without hitting the gym

Don't let your summer body turn with the seasons

Achieving your desired summer body to begin with takes a serious level of dedication and a strict nutritional plan. However, maintaining your beach ready physique can be just as difficult. Unfortunately, a gym membership can be expensive and, if you’re working a full time job, you may struggle to find the time to fit in a workout. Thankfully, if you just know how to utilise them, your everyday surroundings can do the job just as well.

A workout that uses your bodyweight exclusively to help build muscle mass is known as calisthenic – and such exercises put the emphasis on form and reps over weight. So listen up gents, and take note of some of the best calisthenic exercises out there – to ensure that your summer body doesn’t turn with the seasons.

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The plank is a great exercise which, when done correctly, not only works your abdominal muscles but also trains your arms and shoulders. To start this exercise, lay with your stomach on the floor. Then, push yourself upwards so that you are resting on your forearms and tip toes. Hold this position for 40-60 seconds, making sure that you are tensing your abdominal muscles and keeping a straight back (no cheating gentlemen).

However, the plank won’t save that six pack all on its own…

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Cardio, a key part of building and retaining muscle, is workout Marmite. Some can’t get enough of it, whilst others avoid it at all costs.

There’s no point in doing intense strength training if there’s a layer of fat hiding the muscle. Scheduling a half hour run two to three times a week will help increase your metabolism and increase how many calories you burn. It’s important to create a calorie deficit – burning off more calories than you taking in – to ensure weight loss.

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A fundamental exercise that helps to tone and strengthen the lower part of your body, bodyweight squats require very little space – so there are no excuses not to include them in your workout routine!

Try to get so low that your thighs are parallel to the ground and, if you’re lacking motivation, try taking on one of the many squat challenges online.

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Perhaps one of the most simple but effective exercises, the push-up will work almost all your muscle groups including your chest, triceps, shoulders and abdominals. Doing push-ups on a daily basis will strengthen, tone and build these muscle groups. And, like squats, you need little space and no additional equipment to complete them.

There are many variations of the push-u. The wide-grip push-up will focus the workout on your chest muscles, whilst close-grip will work your triceps. Try adding to the number of reps every couple of sessions to ensure you don’t plateau.

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Whilst a pull-up does require a bar of some sort, a tree trunk or monkey bar in your local park will more than suffice – and many parks now have dedicated work out stations installed. Pull-up bars are available to buy and use at home – and tend to range from £10 to £100 depending on durability and quality.

As with push-ups, hand placement determines which muscle groups are worked. Pull-ups with your palms facing away will work your upper-back muscles, whereas pull-ups with your palms facing you will work your biceps.

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Lunges target the lower region of your body – so are best completed in conjunction with squats. Whilst mainly targeting the quadriceps, lunges also work your gluteal, hamstrings, abdominals and core muscles.

Make sure that you keep your back straight and chest lifted – good form is key in order to avoid injury. Start with four sets of 20-25 reps and build from there.

Exercises are undoubtedly important, but your diet is just as integral to maintaining the best body you can.

The optimal exercise diet changes over time, and the food you should eat to keep your body where you want it to be may not necessarily be the same as that when you initially began to grow muscle. Eating 4-6 small healthy meals every 2/3 hours will help to reduce your appetite and increase your metabolism. A meal should consist some form of lean protein (chicken), healthy fats (avocado) and some carbohydrates (quinoa).

And be warned, skipping meals can actually slow down your metabolism – therefore reducing the number of calories you can burn in a day – and making it harder to cling onto your prized summer body.

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