The Best Procrastination Workout

I call it the "Kitchen roll workout"

Sounds a bit odd huh

But the kitchen roll workout is not only a great procrastination tool, but it’s also a time saver, a challenge and a great way to get you in shape

What is it?

The kitchen roll workout is something that I created while procrastinating early one Sunday morning.

I was having a lazy morning on the sofa and really wasn’t in the mood to train

I had a family event in just over an hour and couldn’t really be bothered to faff about driving through Chichester traffic, trying to park my over-sized pickup in my gyms carpark and train

So I decided to pick four exercises that were personalised to my goals and perform 5-10 sets of each exercise with 45 seconds rest. All from home.

I grabbed a piece of kitchen roll to simply count my sets. Tearing a small rip with every set I’d performed

Simply huh?

The beauty is that I didn’t even need to leave my living room. I had “Wallis and Gromit – A matter of loaf and death” on (I’d highly recommend watching) and a coffee pot on the go

Personalised Your Workout 

The only equipment I had was a pull-up bar and my own bodyweight, so I performed;

10 sets of 10 – Pull-ups

10 sets of 15 – Lunges (with my back foot on the sofa)

10 sets of 10 – Slow-motion Pressups

10 sets of 10 – Jackknives

For this session, I wanted to work the biggest muscle groups in my body to get the most out of a short workout

But of course, you can personalise the exercises to suit your goals

Say you want to work out your legs more you can pick a lunge or squat variation.

Maybe you want to focus more on your upper body and your triceps by performing dips and press ups.

Maybe you just a super intense ab workout by only picking four ab exercises!

The Rules 

• Aim for at least five sets of each exercise with a max of 10

• Rest for no longer than 45 seconds (make sure you have a timer on hand)

• Count all your sets by ripping a small incision down the kitchen roll (this stops you miscounting)

• Don’t get distracted by any chores or anything that needs doing around the house

I’d also suggest you don’t sit down on the sofa between sets. Getting up once to train is hard enough for some so don’t attempt to do this fifty times!

Have a tall glass of water nearby and keep sipping during the workout instead

Why it works 

The kitchen roll workout is so effective for a few reasons;

1. You can really master an exercise

Form comes before anything else. Forget the tempo, the reps, the resistance. Good form always comes first!

By performing 10 sets of one exercise you can really hone in on the technique which will get you better results as well as making sure the right muscles are working

Good form is something I will nag about until I’m blue in the face. That’s why I include detailed instructional videos in all of my programmes

2. It’s so simple

• It’s a lot easier to train if you only have to think about doing four things. Not ten different exercises with ten different pieces of equipment.

• There’s no queuing for equipment or any travelling to and from your gym

• You can make your living room into your own personal gym with your own music or choice of TV channel!

3. It’s easier to get motivated

Lack of motivation is the biggest killer of results

If you lack motivation to train I’d really recommend giving the Kitchen Roll workout a go!

I don’t care who you are, what athletic background you have or how fit you currently are

NO MATTER WHAT you will get days when you lack motivation