Gabby Dawn Allen’s At-Home Workout Programme

Follow our 4 week full body programme that you can do in the comfort of your own home.

Fitness expert Gabby Dawn Allen has put together the perfect programme for anyone looking to get started in fitness or get back on track with their fitness goals after summer.

This is a full body programme consisting of 3 sessions, 1 lower body, 1 upper body and 1 full body. Each week we will be revisiting the same the workouts and the same exercises. This is so we can make a conscious effort to track our progress and nail down the exercises. Not to worry though, it gets spicier as the weeks go on.

*The reps and sets for each exercise is a goal, please just do what your body is capable of.

WEEK ONE

First of all, we are practicing our form and technique and familiarising ourselves with the movements. Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t work hard, I want your best efforts from day 1! What I would like you to do this week; is to digest the video demo, practice and try to feel and remember how to exercise feels in your body, without adding any resistance first. Once you feel like you’re mirroring my technique, add your resistance if you wish. Always start with a weight you are comfortable with without sacrificing your form. Make sure not to rush through the movements, take your time and take enough rest between exercises. Aim towards the giving reps as a guide, don’t worry if its too many, do what you can! Alternatively, if you think you can do more, great! Get ready for week 2!

TIP: If you’re unsure if you are nailing your form or not, try filming yourself doing an exercise to watch it back. Nobody else has to see it 🙂 but sometimes it helps to see what you could work on to improve how you perform an exercise! For example, your weight is too far forward in your squats and you need to think of lifting your chest up and driving through your heels, or, maybe your hips are too high in your press ups and you need to lower your knees, to focus on keeping those hips in line, your shoulders down and your core engaged.

WEEK TWO

OK! So we have familiarised ourselves with the exercises so it’s our first opportunity to level up. This week I would like us to focus on the tempo of the exercises. You will be surprised how slowing down the movement, working on the time under tension, effectively spices up a workout without adding weight!

I would like to work with the tempo 2010 where you can.

For a squat this would read: 2 counts down, no pause at the bottom of the rep, 1 count to up to standing.

For a banded row this would read: 1 count to pull the band in, 2 counts to lower to start position

Stick to those sets and reps, focus on executing them to the best of your ability. Remember – FORM UNDER FATIGIUE. Your form is the most important thing when doing any exercise so make sure your nailing it every time. Be smart- as you get tired, your form will be the first thing to go, so prevent injury – when it started to falter, take your rest!

NOTE: Not all exercises will be possible to change the tempo! Trust your initiative! You are only in competition with yourself!

WEEK THREE

We are well into this programme now and we should be feeling more confident with the sessions and ready to turn it up a notch again!

This week we are adding reps! We are going for an extra x2 reps per exercise. Still keeping that slightly elongated tempo of 2010 where you can. We are also going to test our endurance this week too. I want you to challenge yourself to cut down your rest time from 60 to 30-40 seconds. 30 being more advanced. This will make the session a bit more of a hiit style workout so trialling and testing your fitness levels! Please only do this if you feel comfortable.

TIP: Make a note of your workouts each week. Write down your achieved reps, the weight you used (if applicable), how much rest you aimed for and how you felt your recovery was- was the rest enough or did you need less/more? How did you feel before vs how did you feel after? Did you notice any difference from the week before? These notes are great to reflect on your journey, keep on top of your progress and to ensure your pushing yourself every week.

WEEK FOUR

OOOOO the last week of the programme. Are you ready to seal the deal? We are going all in this week. We’re talking slower tempo AND we’re adding a drop set or two!

Sticking to week 3’s reps tempo is taking a simple leap up to 3110. You are adding a count to the eccentric phase i.e., the lowering phase and you’re also adding a pause at the most challenging portion of the rep e.g. For a press up you would take 3x to lower, add a pause at the bottom of the rep (grit your teeth and bare it guys �) and then drive up to starting position in one rep. Of course, remember, this is your workout, it depends on how quick or slow you count 😉

Seeing as it’s the last week and we want to push ourselves, don’t we?! I would like you to challenge yourself to add drop sets to the following exercises:

GOBLET SQUATS
HIP THRUSTS
PRESS UPS
SHOULDER PRESS
ALTERNATING REVERSE LUNGE
SUMO SQUAT JUMP

Here’s how to do a drop set:

Perform an exercise using weight for the given time/reps. When it’s done, you safely get rid of the weight and pick the exercise back up, having minimal rest, using less weight or body weight (if appropriate) for the same time/reps given or until failure 😉 i.e. goblet squats into body weight squats. If it’s not possible to lessen your amount of resistance, you can always use time instead. e.g. your given reps of banded overhead press takes 30 secs, take a short 10-15 break, then do AMRAP in a shorter time of 20 secs. (AMRAP- As many reps as possible). Please note: We are only drop setting the last set of each exercise!

This programme should be easily enough to follow and with some consistency and determination, you could get a lot out of it. One of my fave sayings is: YOUR WORKOUT YOUR RULES” which essentially means, this your time, do with it as you wish. Choose to commit to this programme for the next four weeks. Put your best efforts into every session, get comfortable with being uncomfortable! It’s supposed to be hard work that’s why it’s called “working out” 🙂

Put as much effort into your nutrition and recovery as you do your workouts. PhD’s BCAA can help accelerate your recovery and reduce the onset of fatigue. Fuel your body properly, eat lots of protein and drink lots of water. My favourite PhD product is the Diet Plant Belgium Chocolate but when I’m super busy or on the go I always make sure I have a Smart Bar.  Set yourself a step count to hit every day, even on your rest days, it will help your recovery! Take your rest days, you deserve them. Stretch for 5 mins every day and get 7-9 hours of sleep per night! It can be hard to wind down sometimes but sleep is important for recovery so I take Rest to aid my hours in bed.

YOU CAN SMASH THIS! YOU HAVE JUST GOTTA START!

Written by Team PhD