Summer bodies are made in winter, says Kurtis Stacey, so
get off the couch and get to work

Over the past month, the winter conditions and festive period will have tempted some of us to skip those morning runs and let those cheat days become increasingly regular…

Ok, so maybe I’m just be speaking from experience, but after meeting with my good friend Marc Hall I realised there are no excuses. Winter is
the perfect time to grab your gym gear and get back to it. After all, summer bodies are made in winter!

I’ve known Marc for just over a year but I recently noticed he had started to gain some lean muscle mass. I was curious to find out why, so when I asked him his reply was “Oh, I’m climbing Everest”, like it
was some kind of fun run! Giving all of us proof that we can’t blame the snow for skipping a workout!

Marc’s body had transformed dramatically in such a short space of time, so I was eager to find out what his workout consisted of. He was kind enough to put me through a basic workout and allow me to share it with all of you, but first let’s find out his reasons behind climbing Mount Everest.

“I’m climbing Everest with a friend of mine, Alex Kenning,” explains Marc. “We both served in the RAF for seven years and we have decided to do all we can to raise money for the RAF Benevolent Fund. We are hoping to raise £5,000.

“At the moment, our workouts are consisting of long incline interval training sessions on the treadmill and outdoors, cycling, 25kg back pack runs every other day and sessions
of circuit and weight training. As you can imagine, this challenge is going to be mentally difficult as well as physical, so our sessions must be of a high intensity and varied to prepare our bodies for the worst conditions we’ll face.

“In preparation we will be doing the three peaks twice within a matter of months, hiking and a number of outdoor events. However,
none of this will compare
to the final 120km trek,
6,000 metres above sea level, which we have planned!”

Here is one of Marc’s basic workouts for you to try:

Burpees 1 minute

Squat jumps 1 minute

Press-ups 1 minute

Goblet Squats 1 minute

Straight leg dead lift (barbell) 1 minute

Alternating Lunges with dumbbells 1 minute

Bent over barbell row 1 minute

High knees 1 minute

Repeat until failure!

You can find out more about Marc’s work and the charity on their Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/GrahamPurnellMarc-HallEverestBaseCamp