How to look like Jessica Ennis

She's been the darling of the nation when it comes to athletics for the last 5 years because of her performances in the heptathlon at the 08 and 2012 Olympics.

But what every girl seems to be asking once they've finished reading 50 Shades of Grey is "How can I look like Jessica Ennis?

   
 

- Low body fat

- 'Toned' arms and legs

- Great abs

- Tight bum and legs

It's what every girl dreams of.

In fact it's what most red-blooded males dream about!

So is it possible for you to look like Jessica Ennis?

 

Yes of course it is.

However, you're going to have to make some BIG changes.

We know that 99.9% of people reading this are not professional athletes so you can't train 5-6 hours per day but there are definitely things you can do to head towards a body like Jessica's.

First let me point out that, trying to just copy athletes but fitting it into your timetable DOES NOT work - it's the all-round package that works.

However we can replicate the PRINCIPLES that work so well.

Now let me state I don't know her exact training program but I can tell you what Jessica doesn't do.

1) She doesn't do Zumba, aerobics, power plate squats or BodyPump.

2) She doesn't go out for coffee and cake with the girls a couple of times per week.

3) She doesn't have a bottle of red wine of an evening to try to blank out all the problems she sees in her life.

4) She doesn't do 60 minutes of steady state cardio.

5) Her cardio work isn't done sat on an exercise bike, reading a magazine or playing with her iPhone.

6) She doesn't decide what to do in the gym when she gets there.

Now let's look at what events Jess does before understanding the principles which you too can implement.

1) 100m hurdles - short burst, sprint and power based.

2) High jump - short burst, sprint and power based.

3) Shot putt - power based, throwing things

4) 200m - short burst, sprint and power based

5) Long jump - short burst, sprint and power based

6) Javelin - short burst, power based

7) 800m - Longer distance event but just lasting a little over 2 minutes.

Here are the principles she DOES implement DAY IN AND DAY OUT NOT JUST FOR A FEW DAYS PER WEEK.

1) She eats carbs all day. ERM...

We normally recommend not to so why am I telling you this?

I repeat. SHE TRAINS 6 HOURS PER DAY.

This energy will get burnt up constantly pretty much as soon as it goes in.

It is also reported that she doesn't eat carbs in the evening.

PRINCIPLE: Eat for fuel.

Eat what you need, when you need it. When you don't need carbs and are about to go into a period of inactivity, such as sleeping or sitting on your bum all day at your desk, you don't need to guzzle carbs.

2) Look at the basis of the events she does.

Short bursts, interval based, power training, with no event lasting more than 2 minutes.

It is unlikely that she runs more than 3-4 minutes at once in training if that.

So she is not going out doing 45-60 minutes of slow steady cardio 'to burn fat'.

PRINCIPLE: Your training must be short, sharp, intense bursts of work with rest in between.

3) She lifts weights and heavy weights at that.

To be strong and powerful and to sprint faster and throw further, you need to lift progressively heavier weights.

Some will be 'grinding strength', some will be lighter weights at an explosive pace.

PRINCIPLE: Stop messing around with light weights, avoiding the struggle at the end of a set and moving slowly.

4) She performs plyometric drills which are basically explosively bodyweight exercises.

These include squat jumps, box jumps, scissor jumps and bounding.

PRINCIPLE: Perform explosive exercises. These should be built up to gradually to avoid injury.

5) She throws things!

Most effective stuff is banned in commercial gyms.

Olympic lifting (like you see in the Olympics funnily enough...), throwing things, slamming things, pushing and pulling heavy things...

They all work very well for forging a great body, but nobody wants to do them anymore.

PRINCIPLE: Stop training at commercial gyms.

6) She trains for performance.

Jessica Ennis doesn't train to look better.

She trains to run faster, throw further and jump higher.

She eats to fuel this.

The result is she looks amazing!

Maybe if you start training to run faster, throw further and jump higher and eat to fuel that training, you too will look better!

BONUS TIP:

If you struggle with fat storage in high estrogen sites on your body such as the hips, thighs and back of the arms, you likely have a testosterone - estrogen balance (too much estrogen).

 

To help solve this issue, as well as eating a detoxification based fat loss nutrition plan, you need to life heavy weights.

This helps address the hormone imbalance.

Simply doing more and more spinning, aerobics and other such exercise will make absolutely no difference.

You will NOT bulk up by lifting heavier weights, but you might just start looking a bit more like Jess Ennis and see your legs and bum tighten up and get rid of toxins that get labelled as 'cellulite'.

Heavy training means using weights which you can only lift with good technique for anything between 3-8 reps with some exercises in the 8-12 range.

You might do say...

A: Squats 5 sets of 5 reps

B1: Push press 3 sets of 8

B2: Chin ups 3 sets of 10-12 (if you can't do these a band can be used for assistance)

C1: Reverse ab curl or hanging knee raise 3 sets of 10-12

C2: Medicine ball rotation slams

PRINCIPLE: Train to run faster, throw further and jump higher! And eat to fuel it!

7) She recovers very well.

Jessica Ennis doesn't go to train, turn up 2 minutes before, have a chat and a moan about how bad her day has been then launch into it half prepared.

She doesn't then go home, sit in front of TV straight away and eat crap 'because she deserves it'. You don't deserve a cake or pizza because you turned up at aerobics, had a bit of a sweat and burnt 200 calories.

Spend time on your mobility so you can train harder, prepare for training by visualising how you want the session to go and how it will make you look, train hard without distraction, cool down properly, have a cold shower (Jess will have an ice bath), then go home and eat inflammation-reducing food, and food that will help build muscle and avoid putting the fat you just burnt, back on.

PRINCIPLE: To look great, training is just part of the equation. You must get your eating, drinking and recovery spot on to look amazing.

So whilst you cannot train 6 hours per day and may have no ambitions to jump over bars or throw javelins, there are many ways in which you can implement the PRINCIPLES that help Jess Ennis to look amazing.

Commit, train hard, eat well and use the principles above.

Don't pick the bits you like - it won't work.

Do it right and you might just end up with legs like this....