Hong Kong Park Workouts

Adam Milner

Guest Blogger

Now that the weather is sunny-ish, skies are (sometimes) blue and junk season is upon us, what better way to get in shape then to hit up some outdoor workouts in HK’s beautiful parks. Some of my favourite parks to work out in are Tamar Park in Admiralty, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park in Sai Ying Pun and Hong Kong Park in Central.

Trainer Adam’s top tips for a bikini/boardshort body outdoor workout –

• Choose a park that has a hill. Hills are great for sprints and fast paced walks. They can quickly raise heart rate and start burning fat quickly.
• Use the German Body Composition method (GBC) to save time. GBC training focuses on pairing two, three or four exercises together to give you an effective and time saving workout.
• Pair upper/lower body together exercises to ensure you maximise recovery.
• Beginners should start on two exercises, then progress onto three then four after several workouts.
• Ensure that you have more rest when moving onto three and four exercise combinations. However to ensure that your heart rate stays high, keep your total rest time below 2 minutes.
• Wear a heart rate monitor, Polar do some great ones. As a guide, beginners should keep their heart rate between 120-140BPM. An effective way to measure your fitness progression would be to see how quickly your heart rate goes down after each workout. Time your heart rate for one minute after your first set, and see how quickly it reduces. Then check again after five workouts. If your heart rate goes down faster then you are getting fitter.
• An effective park workout would be to integrate benches and park swing. You can incline your feet/hands on benches, perform pull ups or push ups – use your surroundings effectively.
• An effective workout should last for 45mins including your rest time and should include a variety of upper and lower body exercises.
• Compete against yourself. Simply perform your workout and then time it, then on your next workout aim to beat your last time.
• Ensure that you stretch your muscles and warm up for 5 minutes prior to exercise.

Set one

3 x 50 metre flat/hill sprint at 50% max effort or fast paced hill walk

3 x 10 push ups

3 x 10 walking lunges

Rest for 2 minutes

Set two

2 x 100 metre sprint at 70% max effort or fast paced hill walk

3 x 10 bench dips

3 x 10 deep air squats

Rest for 2 minutes

Set three

1 x 150 metre sprint at 80% max effort or fast paced hill walk

3 x 30 seconds plank hold

3 x 10 Bulgarian split squat from bench

Rest for 2 minutes

WHAT NEXT?

• For progressions you can increase the intensity and the length of the sprint ie instead of 70% you can go at 80% effort.
• Increase the sets from 3 to 4 and onto 5.
• Increase the reps to 15 then 20
• Increase the time of the plank to 1 minute and above
• Decrease the rest time by 30 seconds then by 60 seconds
• Train for longer but no longer than 1 hour at a time

Adam started in the fitness industry 7 years ago as a gym instructor at a local health and fitness club. He decided to go into the field after spending four years in the British Armed Forces. During this time, he learned to be physically fit and healthy. He set his sights on moving abroad and chose Hong Kong, within this time he has completed over 10 body transformations and progressed into a senior trainer and mentor.