Keep Fit with Corrie: the Exercise DVD awards

Over the last 10 weeks, Gemma and Michael over at Conversation Street, the Corrie podcast, have been keeping fit the Corrie way!  

• In week one, they did the Vicky Binns work out
• In week two, it was the Kym Ryder work out 
• In week three, it was the Angela Griffin work out  
• In week four, it was the Beverley Callard work out 
• In week five, it was the Debbie Rush work out  
• In week six, it was Tina O'Brien, Lucy-Jo Hudson and Angela Griffin
• In week seven, it was Salsacise with Tracy Shaw
• In week eight, it was Fat Brenda's Big Fat Workout!
• In week nine, it was Vicky Entwistle's Weight Off Workout 
• And the final week was Kym Marsh's Power Sculpt

Now that they've completed ten whole weeks of a Corrie Fitness Programme, they’d like to give out some awards, as follows:

Michael: The Unrelenting Enthusiasm And Dogged Determination Award For Always Trying His Best In Dance Workouts Even Though He Has All The Coordination Of Pat Phelan After Being Hit On The Head By A Brick

Gemma: The Roald Dahl Award For Best Imagination In Coming Up With Excuses As To Why She Doesn’t Have To Do Exercise Today

Fat Brenda: The Nobel Peace Prize For Not Suing Us When We Made An April Fools' Day Prank About Her Fake Fitness DVD

Kym Marsh: The Queen Of Hotness Award For Being Utterly Smoking In Two DVDs Filmed Nine Years Apart

Tracy Shaw: The Cecil B. DeMille Award For Costume And Accessories For Changing Outfit Every Section Despite There Really Being No Need For It

Nikki Sanderson: The Christina Aguilera Award For Making A Workout Look Dirty

Vicky Binns: The Outstanding Contribution To Science Fiction Award For Doing Her Routine In Spangly Silver Hotpants And Top

Vikki Entwistle:  The Mr Motivator Award For Best Enthusiasm Throughout A Workout, With Bonus Kylie Minogue Bursary For Looking Like The Green Fairy (Gone Yellow) Off Moulin Rouge.

Beverley Callard: Golden Teapot Award For Being The Celeb We’d Most Like To Be Our Mum, with additional Golden Handweights For Actually Being A Personal Trainer

To find out more about our podcast, search for Conversation Street on iTunes, or go to conversationstreet.podbean.com. If you want to follow Gemwww.foodfashfit.comma’s blog, all about her fitness journey, and her love of food and fashion, head to www.foodfashfit.comNow we’ve completed our Corrie Fitness Programme, we’d like to give out some awards:



To find out more about our podcast, search for Conversation Street on iTunes, or go to conversationstreet.podbean.com. If you want to follow Gemma’s blog, all about her fitness journey, and her love of food and fashion, head to www.foodfashfit.com

My heartfelt thanks go to Gemma and Michael for the last 10 weeks worth of Corrie exercise blog posts. They've been huge fun to read!

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Keep Fit with Corrie: Week 10 - Kym Marsh Power Sculpt

Gemma and Michael over at Conversation Street, the Corrie podcast, have been keeping fit the Corrie way!  

• In week one, they did the Vicky Binns work out
• In week two, it was the Kym Ryder work out 
• In week three, it was the Angela Griffin work out  
• In week four, it was the Beverley Callard work out 
• In week five, it was the Debbie Rush work out  
• In week six, it was Tina O'Brien, Lucy-Jo Hudson and Angela Griffin
• In week seven, it was Salsacise with Tracy Shaw
• In week eight, it was Fat Brenda's Big Fat Workout!
• In week nine, it was Vicky Entwistle's Weight Off Workout

And now we come to the final of their Coronation Street fitness journey, and this time it's Kym Marsh's Power Sculpt.

Hey you! Yeah, you! Put down that Easter egg, and stop stuffing your face full of chocolate. A bank holiday is no excuse for relaxing or enjoying yourself – in fact, it means there’s more time for exercising! And there’s no better proper hardcore workout for a Corrie fan than Kym Marsh’s Power Sculpt.

Just look at her. Look at those abs. Look at those toned arms. See how she wears makeup even when doing burpees. This woman is a goddess, and do you think she got that way by eating chocolate on a Monday and doing some gentle salsa? No! Kym is so hardcore she works out with not just one trainer, but two – Matt (primary school teacher on speed) and Sam (robot sent from the future to kill John Connor and get your glutes really tight).

All joking aside, this is probably the most well structured and modern workout we’ve come across when it comes to Corrie fitness – the method is called ‘intelligent fitness’, but it seems like a form of high intensity interval training, whereby you put in a maximum amount of effort for short bursts, then rest and work on a different group of muscles. HIIT is claimed to improve your metabolism so you continue to burn fat for hours after your workout is over. Fitness gurus like Joe Wicks and Jillian Michaels have used methods like this to great success, so it’s fab to see a Corrie star recommending it too. Of course, it’s no miracle cure, because you have to work HARD, but 30 minutes here is still going to be more effective than fannying around half-arsing it for an hour (looking at you, Corrie Funk Fit).

The DVD is divided into two phases, or levels, with second one being slightly harder than the first (read: they make you do burpees). Gemma has sworn off burpees for life, citing her shoulder impingement syndrome, but really it’s because they’re awful and were invented by someone who hates humanity – like a traffic warden, perhaps. The thing about burpees, though, is that they’re fantastic exercise, and like many of the exercises here, you probably won’t like doing them, but you will like the results.

Each phase has a warm up (although these are the same for both phases), then sections for upper, lower and full body workouts. Each section has supersets, where you have five exercises, which are performed for 40 seconds with a 20 second rest, one after the other – then you rest for 60 seconds, then you do the sets again for a total of three times. Of course, you don’t really get to rest all that much – you’ll be continuously badgered to ‘take on water’ like you’re a cruise ship refuelling at the Port of Miami. It takes around an hour to complete each phase, but you can dip in and out and do different sections on different days if you’d prefer a shorter workout.

This is a vastly superior workout to Kym’s first DVD, Kym Ryder’s Burn and Firm Workout, and she promises results in four weeks. Unfortunately for Gemma in particular, Ms Marsh was not available for the duration of our Corrie workout programme to slap takeaways, chocolate and G&Ts out of our mouths, so the results of our sessions have been less than stellar. As we keep banging on, weight loss is mostly diet – and even when you’re armed with all the knowledge in the world, it can still be tough to keep to a weight loss programme. Just because something is simple, doesn’t mean it’s easy! Even though we’ve probably only lost around 10lbs between us during the workouts, we’ve had a great time – and exercise isn’t just about losing weight, it’s about keeping fit and being healthy for you and your family. Preach it!

To find out more about our podcast, search for Conversation Street on iTunes, or go to conversationstreet.podbean.com. If you want to follow Gemma’s blog, all about her fitness journey, and her love of food and fashion, head to www.foodfashfit.com

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Keep Fit with Corrie: Week 9 - Vicky Entwistle's Weight Off Workout

Gemma and Michael over at Conversation Street, the Corrie podcast, have been keeping fit the Corrie way!  

• In week one, they did the Vicky Binns work out
• In week two, it was the Kym Ryder work out 
• In week three, it was the Angela Griffin work out  
• In week four, it was the Beverley Callard work out 
• In week five, it was the Debbie Rush work out  
• In week six, it was Tina O'Brien, Lucy-Jo Hudson and Angela Griffin
• In week seven, it was Salsacise with Tracy Shaw
• In week eight, it was Fat Brenda's Big Fat Workout!

It's the penultimate week of our Coronation Street fitness journey, and this time we're focusing on Vicky Entwistle's Weight Off Workout. 

We always loved a bit of Janice Battersby, but it's probably fair to say she wasn't the most svelte of Corrie ladies during some of her time on the show. This DVD makes no secret of that, with 'before and after' images gracing both the cover and the title menu, and we must say that Vicky's body transformation was pretty incredible!

You can tell by watching the DVD that she's rather pleased with herself, too, as she is smiley and positive throughout - we very much get a vibe of 'If I can do it, you can too!' from her. Congratulations, too, to Vicky for managing to keep herself falling out of her very low-cut top during the DVD - though it's certainly a close call more than once! Joining Vicky is Richard Callender, a gentle giant of a trainer and definitely one of our favourites thanks to his encouraging demeanour and obvious chemistry with Vicky.

Weight Off Workout is an easy to follow routine split over four sections lasting around 50 minutes in total: Warm Up, Fat Burner, Body Toner and Belly Shrinker. There are no gimmicks or dance sections here - it really is just a no-frills set of exercises that get the heart rate up and, if you do them right, do leave you a little sore the next day. The backdrop for the workout is an empty, fairly nondescript exercise hall, and aside from the accompaniment to the warm up, perhaps, the music isn't going to stick in your head either - it serves its purpose, giving you a beat to move along to, but that's about it.

"Think about someone who really gets on your nerves!" advises Vicky during the cardio box section of the warm up. We find that picturing Toyah Battersby going on for the umpteenth time about babies and IVF treatment helps us get through this one. The rest of the routine involves the usual V-stepping, squats, skipping and the like, and though it can get a bit repetitive by the end of its 10 minute run, it's a pretty enjoyable start on the whole.

Fat Burner is more of the same really: a selection of high energy punches, kicks, jumps and skips, lasting 20 minutes in total. You'll almost certainly be a bit out of breath and sweating (or 'glowing', as Vicky insists!) by the end of it, definitely feeling like you've been put through your paces. Vicky and her trainer keep that smile on their faces throughout, though, and are both incredibly encouraging for when the going gets tough.

Body Toner isn't quite so energetic as Fat Burner, with the focus being on controlled resistance activities that you can easily do at home. Slow squats on both one and two legs, press ups and bicep curls are what make up most of the eleven minutes here, though we'd recommend using a pair of hand weights for the curls, rather than just pressing into your palm with your opposite hand, as the DVD recommends.

Then, before you know it, it's time for the Belly Shrinker - a twelve-minute section that's really just five or six minutes of ab exercises followed by a cool down. This may not seem like much for some people, though we've made no secret in our past blog entries of not being big fans of these parts, so no complaints here! Besides, the exercises Richard gets you to do in the Belly Shrinker are no walk in the park and some of the positions he gets you to hold will certainly get you shaking with the strain!

Also included on the DVD are some behind the scenes filming bits, if you like that sort of thing, plus a basic, calorie-controlled eating plan. After all, if you're seriously planning to lose weight, counting the calories is a must!

All in all, we definitely enjoyed Vicky Entwistle's Weight Off Workout. For days when we wanted to feel like we were doing proper exercise rather than just having a dance, this was perfect for us. Nothing fancy, just a selection of easy to follow aerobic and resistance moves. Vicky and Richard make great workout partners, and we reckon that if you were to stick at this one properly, you'd definitely start to see results.

To find out more about our podcast, search for Conversation Street on iTunes, or go to conversationstreet.podbean.com. If you want to follow Gemma’s blog, all about her fitness journey, and her love of food and fashion, head to www.foodfashfit.com

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Keep Fit with Corrie: Week Eight - Fat Brenda’s Big Fat Workout

Gemma and Michael over at Conversation Street, the Corrie podcast, have been keeping fit the Corrie way!  

• In week one, they did the Vicky Binns work out
• In week two, it was the Kym Ryder work out 
• In week three, it was the Angela Griffin work out  
• In week four, it was the Beverley Callard work out 
• In week five, it was the Debbie Rush work out  
• In week six, it was Tina O'Brien, Lucy-Jo Hudson and Angela Griffin
• In week seven, it was Salsacise with Tracy Shaw

And this week, it's Fat Brenda’s Big Fat Workout!

"All this week, we’ve had the privilege of working out with Fat Brenda’s new workout DVD, Fat Brenda’s Big Fat Workout, seven days ahead of its release date of today, 1 April. Fat Brenda is best known for her work on Coronation Street, where she’s provided her skills for the switchboard at Street Cars, sharing her colourful personality with scores of punters over the years.

It’s recommended that you start slow with her DVD, as some of the sections are very intense – in fact, despite having worked out with stars for almost two months now, to begin with we found it hard to keep up with the action.

Even the warm-up was strenuous, as we employed one of her signature moves: guarding the biscuit tin. (Bear in mind you need two people for this one.) The ‘snatcher’ or ‘Steve’ stands one side of the room, while the ‘guarder’ or ‘Brenda’ is the other. Circling your arms in front of you, the guarder must spin in a circle, protecting the biscuit tin (don’t forget you need a real biscuit tin for this), while the snatcher runs from one end of the room to the other, attempting to grab the treats. Obviously this is a fitness regime and not a party game, so there’s no ‘winner’, but each round is ended when you both take a biscuit from the tin and eat it. Then reset positions and start again. This takes around ten minutes.

Next up is core strength, a series of exercises involving your stomach muscles. You need to make up three or four packets of jelly in advance, and set them into small bowls for this. Our favourite move was the press up over the jelly bowl – Fat Brenda ensures you work out properly by getting you to grab a mouthful of jelly on every dip to make sure you have proper form and go low enough. You also need a circular mould for the jelly to create a sort of Swiss Ball for some of the exercises, but we couldn’t find the correct sort  - please note the retail release comes with various items of equipment like that in the ‘deluxe’ package. This section is another ten minutes.

The arms routine was the most challenging, involving a series of bicep curls which you can adjust to your own level of strength. Seated at a table, with your elbow resting on the surface, you have to extend your arm and firmly grasp a cake, lifting it to your mouth and returning to grab the next one. We enjoyed this one because it was fully customisable – you’re advised to start with fairy cakes, but as you progress you can work your way all the way to heavier ones like fruit cakes. With minor adjustments, it can also be used to tone the triceps and get rid of those wobbly bingo wings – perfect for a night out at the Mecca hall with the girls on a Friday night.

Cardio boxing is another exercise which needs a partner. You also need alcoholic beverages, but the type is up to you – Brenda recommends slimline gin and tonic if you’re trying to lose weight, but in the video she uses pints of lager. Both people take a drink and then try to swing at each other – Brenda suggests imagining that your opponent is ‘that slapper from down the Dog & Gun’, but you’ll need to come up with your own motivation. Brenda employs moves like ‘the taunt’, ‘the stumble’, ‘the fall over and roll back up again’, and finally ‘the chunder’, although this is advanced and we only managed to pull it off once.

The final cooldown section was lots of fun – by this point you may be very near to losing consciousness from the G&Ts, so just allow yourself to get lost in the moment. Handbags are optional but we found it was helpful to have a focal point. As the cooldown music plays - Mika’s ‘Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)’ - sway back and forth with your eyes closed, moving in a circular fashion around the bag. Wave your hands around as you do so, just to release the final parts of the tension. If you like, you can even call out Brenda’s motivational phrases like ‘I piggin’ love this song!’, ‘I’m gonna hurl!’, ‘I’m sorry for being such a cow, Steve…’, and ‘Ugh, why did I eat all that cake?’.

It’s entirely down to you whether you eat the kebab at the finale, but we wanted to do the whole thing properly to get the real Fat Brenda experience.

We enjoyed our workout with Fat Brenda, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who doesn’t want to do the more traditional fitness plans. Fun, imaginative, and a great workout for your digestive system!

To find out more about our podcast, search for Conversation Street on iTunes, or go to conversationstreet.podbean.com. If you want to follow Gemma’s blog, all about her fitness journey, and her love of food and fashion, head to www.foodfashfit.com

 Follow Fat Brenda on twitter @FatBrenda

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