Lunchtime: The time to step away from your laptop, grab some food and maybe nip in to Topshop and get those shoes you've been thinking about all day.

Not for the ELLEFit team it's not.

On a cold winter's afternoon, we descended upon St. James's Park and met our match in the form of special forces instructor and Break-Point founder, 'Ollie' Ollerton and winners of Chanel 4's, SAS: Who Dares Wins, Freddie and Moses.

All three men have gone through Special Forces training and now work for Break-Point who provide the SAS training for the channel 4 programme and fitness courses for the public.

We knew we would be put through our paces and for safe measures, we prepared for the worst.

From scrambling up trees to hostage situations, we were ready...ish.

But why surely the easier option would have been buying those shoes ?

Well, there was reason behind our madness.

The men's health charity, Movember - which usually encourages men to grow a moustache throughout the month of November - has collaborated with Break Point, to encourage men and women to get active in the name of raising awareness for men's wellbeing and health.

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Robin Boot
Squat jumps

Our session began with a warm up of jumping jacks, high-knee running on the spot, wide-knee squats and a few stretches to limber us up .

Feeling slightly smug that we had managed to keep up during the warm up without breaking a sweat, we began the main workout feeling confident.

The workout that had been prepared for us was a HIIT based session that would be broken down in to two main parts that would see us doing a continuous flow of exercises and increasing reps with each round.

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Robin Boot
Ollie Ollerton putting the team through their paces

The ELLEFit team are no strangers to a good old HIIT session but little did we know that the workout we did is aligned to a session that qualified SAS operators would do when deployed and looking for a quick workout to keep them in shape.

The 'Battle Ready' workout as this is frequently known relies on you and your comrades pulling each other through.

When fatigue set in and all hope seemed to be lost, we dug deep and got the job done.

Does this mean we are now SAS qualified too?

Break-Point share their top tips for getting through a gruelling workout:

  • 'Breathe, recalibrate, deliver' - This is the action which helps slow everything down in the brain. It's excellent if you feel overwhelmed or under stress.
  • 'Break it down in to small steps' - Don't get overwhelmed with the scale of the workout or the task at hand. Just think about the most immediate exercise/step and concentrate on that alone.
  • 'It's not about how you start, it's about how you finish'

Take On The Workout At Home:

WORKOUT 1:

Increasing reps by one each round - 1 to 12 rounds

  1. Squat jump
  2. Push up
  3. Mountain climber
  4. Alternate pistons
  5. Reverse lunge

WORKOUT 2:

Every minute increase rounds by one with one minute to complete each round. Continue until the last man is standing.

  1. High knees running
  2. Squat thrusts
  3. Jump lunges

It's not too late to raise funds for Movember – you could take on a physical challenge or host a Move event like a yoga-a-thon or dance class. https://uk.movember.com/

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Rachel Macbeth
PA to Editor-In-Chief/ Editorial Assistant
Rachel is the Personal Assistant to the Editor-In-Chief and Editorial Assistant. She manages the Editor's full diary and travel arrangements, as well as contributing features in print and online. You will usually catch Rachel dressed in navy and she never leaves the house without her 'Mocha Matte' blusher.