Fitness fans will know that having a workout buddy not only makes exercise fun, but gives you even more motivation to get your butt to the gym.
‘Twice The Health’ bloggers Hannah (H) and Emily (E) seem to have that down to tee with their joint fitness brand and social media following.
The pair met at university and, once freshers’ year was out the way, started to train together and step away from the jägerbombs into the world of health and fitness.
With their love of health and all things matching, the pair post both workout videos and food inspiration to their following of more than 40,000 fans.
We caught up with the girls to find out what a typical week looks like and why adventure challenges keep them motivated.
Training 💪
Talk us through your week in fitness.
“Our weeks tend to vary. We love routine, but often it’s difficult to stick to. During an average week, we both train five to six times, incorporating sessions from the strength programme we designed together and two cardio sessions.
“One of these is often a HIIT class at F45, and the other focuses more on endurance. Most recently we’ve focused one of our strength sessions on full body at Foundry Fit - we’re a sucker for their ‘Strongman’ classes.
“For us it’s all about those early morning workouts. We find nothing sets us up better for the day ahead. We aim to keep sessions to no more than an hour to ensure we put everything in, working at the highest intensity possible.”
What are your favourite types of workout and why?
“That’s a tricky one as it totally depends on our mood. Sometimes we’re fired up and ready to put everything into a tough strength session, and other days we find ourselves ready to unwind with an hour running the roads.
“It’s all about forming healthy habits that you can stick to, so making fitness work around your lifestyle is important to keep it up.”
What are you favourite ways to spend your rest days?
“With the level of training we do it’s vital we incorporate rest days to let our bodies and, more importantly, muscles recover.
“Rest days for us are spent snuggled on the sofa with endless cups of tea and cheesy chick flicks with something like a bag of almond Bounce bites. It’s all about those nibbles and Netflix.”
Food 🍳
What do you both eat throughout the week to complement your training schedule?
“For E it’s all about her home-cooked wonders, whipping up dishes to pack and prep ready for the week ahead. H gets the majority of her meals from a London meal delivery service, Fresh Fitness Food, who tailor her meals to her macros.
“E tends to have three meals with a mid-morning snack, afternoon snack and some pud in the evening, whereas H is more of a four meals gal... of course finishing the day with pud too.”
What are your pre and post-workout snacks?
“We train early, so most mornings we tend to eat after our session. Our go-to post-workout meal is porridge. We like to add a dollop (or three) of nut butter too. We also like to add an egg white, chia seeds or a scoop of protein to aid muscle recovery.
“If we’re training later in the day, we love to refuel with sweet potato jacket, served with plenty of greens and an abundance of roast veg. We try not to get too technical with our nutrition. We simply stick to wholesome fresh food.”
What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned about food?
“We’ve learned that nothing is particularly ‘naughty’ about some of our favourite foods (for H it’s all about the cheese and E is a sucker for spoonfuls of peanut butter straight out the jar).
“We don’t feel guilty when we eat them, we just know that they need to be consumed in moderation, and maybe not with every meal.”
Motivation 🙌
Do you both have a motivational mantra that keeps you going?
“Not so much a mantra, more a feeling. We ran The Grand Canyon and it was the greatest feeling. Not only was it the greatest challenge we’ve ever completed, it was what sparked our passion for challenge, and inspired us to do the Great Wall of China adventure later this year.
“We remind ourselves that overwhelming happiness is what keeps motivation high, and training strong.”
Do you both always have fitness goals you are aiming for?
“We’d be lying if we said no. Everybody has goals, it’s human nature. However, these don’t have to be purely aesthetic, ours certainly aren’t.
“We strive for power and strength, enough to allow us to conquer those steps and complete the 50k climb that continues to creep ever closer.”
What’s your ultimate workout track and why?
“It’s got to be ‘Cheerleader’ by Omi. H sang it to E for the full three hours and 45 minutes it took us to complete the London Marathon, and despite thinking we’d be totally sick of it, it still sparks incredible memories of those many miles.”
‘Twice the Health’ are running Buddy Events with Bounce, so stay tuned here: http://uk.bouncefoods.com/.
The pair will also be making an appearance at Be:Fit London on Sunday, 30 April talking about how to set yourself challenges away from the scale.
‘Fit Fix’ is a weekly dose of fitspiration from leading athletes and fitness fanatics. Each week we chat to stars about their weekly workouts, the food they eat and what keeps them going.