Bottoms Up

Four great exercises to tone your butt.  As seen in Women's Fitness Magazine.

Trail Running: Good for Your Body

Heading off road os great for the scenery but also fantastic for your body and your fitness.  Find out more in this article I wrote for Women's Running Magazine.

How to get a toned back

This is Tank Top Toning. We all know summer vests can be revealing and there’s nothing worse than catching a glimpse of the tell-tale signs of a fat back. 

Time for some more fitness tips. Try these two exercises to tone your back and keep you looking shapely when your shirt is off. For maximum impact with these moves, concentrate on squeezing your shoulder blades together with each movement and keep your shoulders relaxed at all times to avoid feeling anything in the neck. 2 sets of each, 3 x this week will get the back muscles really working.

Rows with the Band

Find a post or piece of kit to wrap the band around at chest height

Take a step back and stand with your feet shoulder width apart, knees bent and shoulders relaxed

With your arms extended there should be a little bit of tension in the band

Squeeze your shoulders back and bend your arms to bring the band in towards you

Hold at the back of the movement for 2 seconds before straightening your arms

Keep the tension between your shoulder blades even when your arms are straight

Repeat x 15 reps

Ready for the next one?
Reverse Flys

Take a step closer to the post and straighten your arms out to the sides

Keeping your arms slightly bent, use your back muscles only to pull the band from just in front of your body to just behind it

Keep your eyes front and your body upright at all times

Repeat x 15

How To Tone Your Bum Part 2

This time last month I showed you a couple of exercises for toning the butt in time for summer. Hopefully you’ve been practicing them ever since. Today I thought I’d give you some more moves to target the same area in a slightly different way.

These two exercises work really well together so run through 3 sets of each with good technique and deep breathing throughout and you’ll feel the effects on your butt immediately. They’re both quite tough so go slowly and really focus on what body parts you feel working.

Bridge with Leg Lifts








Lie face up with your feet flat and knees bent

Tighten your stomach muscles and then lift your hips off the ground to make a straight line from your shoulders to your knees

Squeeze your butt really tight and then move your weight slowly to one foot so you can lift the other foot off the ground

Hold this position for two seconds. Lower the foot back to the ground and then repeat the exercise moving your weight to the other side and lifting the other leg

Keep the hips in the air until you’ve completed three leg lifts on either side and then lower your hips to the ground

You should now really feel like your butt has been working

Step Downs with Toe Tap













Stand on a step or bench with your feet hip width apart and knees slightly bent

Tighten your stomach and your butt and slowly bend one knee while lowering the other foot toward the ground

Control the movement with the leg that’s still on the bench and squeeze your butt to keep your hips level

The back foot should only tap the ground before you lift back up to stand on the bench. Do not be tempted to put the back foot completely on the ground and have a rest! This is what makes this exercise really work.

Repeat this 5 times before switching for 5 reps on the other side

How To Get A Small Waist

Following on from fitness tips on how to get rid of bingo wings or underarm cleavage (!), and tips on getting your bum into shape for the summer, it's now the time to pay attention to defining your waist.

Health benefits apart, a defined waist makes you look good, makes your clothes look great and apparently, makes you very attractive to the opposite sex. No time to waist then....

1. The Plank

• Lie face down with your body supported on your forearms
  
• Keeping your knees in contact with the ground, life your hips off the ground until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Then lift your knees from the ground so your body forms a straight line from shoulders to ankles.
• Hold your stomach tight to keep the bridge straight while breathing deeply and evenly
  
• 
  
  Hold for 10 seconds then relax
  
  
  
• Then hold for 15 seconds and relax
  
• The more you practice this exercise, the longer you can aim to hold the position - try aiming for 60 seconds off the ground by the end of your first week.

2. Lower body twists

• Lie face up with your knees and hips at 90-degrees
• Breathe deeply and tighten your stomach muscles
  
• Keeping your knees at right angles allow your legs to roll over to one side but make sure your body remains flat on the ground - both shoulders should remain in contact with the floor
• Keep your feet and knees together throughout the movement.
  
• Repeat x 15 each side
  
  

3. Cardio work

• 
  
  If you're flabby, all the abs definition in the world will barely show through so you must carry on doing cardio work to lose the weight around your middle. You want to do this quickly so here's how: -
  
  
  
• 
  
  Forget the fat burning zone, you don't have time for that right now. Instead, do short, focused work outs pushing yourself hard. 15 minutes really building up a sweat is better than 45 mins of going through the motions.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Think of it like this, if you work at 50% of your maximum effort, getting the results will take twice as long. So knuckle down to it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Coming Up tomorrow - 2 more waist defining exercises that target the abs!
  

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