The bridal fitness challenge: week 2

I had to do 100 squats, 100 step-ups onto a tall box and a horrible series of squatting ? while pulsing on a power plate. My brain rattled around in my head during the last routine, willing a freak power supply outage to suddenly strike in West London. Ross, my smiling yet unforgiving trainer, forced me to push myself by shouting ?drive Emma?, every time I started flagging ? which in the dreaded legs session ? was every 10th repetition.

Then onto my abs; balancing on a large inflatable ball while doing sit-ups is not my idea of fun at 6.20am on a frosty Tuesday morning, but somehow, I found myself pushing harder than I could have imagined a week ago. I kept looking at my engagement ring for inspiration ? hoping it will somehow generate a new burst of energy. It doesn?t.

We also finish each session with a gruelling 20 minutes of cardio ? usually walking at a high gradient on a treadmill. This is so tough because by doing it at the end of the session, you are forced to use your final energy system: fat ? which is exactly what I need to burn.

I have taken to listening to copious amounts of electronic music, such as Faithless, in a bid to stay pumped while completing this difficult 20-minute cardio routine. Bless Ross - he has to stand next to me in silence throughout the duration of this part of our daily session ? just to make sure I don?t give up and slide off, legs akimbo.

Food-wise I am being relatively good, substituting potato for couscous, red meat for fish, and wine for vodka, Apart from the occasional slice of birthday cake this week, my diet is really quite boring ? but somehow I have become rather resolute about finally changing my lifestyle.

As I gratefully collapse into weekend ? foolishly I think ?bring on week three?. These daring thoughts are in spite of Ross?s warnings that it?s going to consist of the same exercises, but much harder. I am dreading the shrill cry of the alarm clock already?

To train with Mark Anthony visit his website or call 0207 221 8625

Emma will be keeping a weekly online diary of the six week plan ? to follow her progress visit The Telegraph's Health section every Tuesday.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568409/s/1ca390b5/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0C90A797940CThe0Ebridal0Efitness0Echallenge0Eweek0E20Bhtml/story01.htm

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