Natasha Soligo, a personal trainer, says, “Target your concerns. But don’t set unrealistic goals; just be a healthy, toned version of yourself.” You must enjoy your workouts or you will be a dropout. Here are a few options suggested by Natasha.
Slim down
Natasha’s advice is to to lose more weight and burn more calories through high intensity interval training: a 20-minute workout where you switch from one kind of cardio to another every 30 seconds – start with jumping jacks, then burpees, then sprinting. You shouldn’t be able to talk and you should be huffing and puffing. You’re tricking your mind – just when you think you can’t do one more second of something, you switch to something else.
Check out a cardio workout called Tabata, which breaks up high intensity cardio with short periods of rest: for example, after warming up, sprint for 20 seconds, walk for 10, and repeat that eight times. It increases your metabolism and burns more calories.
Get “wedding arms”
To get long, lean arms and a toned upper body, weight training with light dumbbells works best. You need three or five pound weights – seven at most. Do one minute of bicep curls, followed by one minute of tricep extensions, followed by a minute of front raises and a minute of side raises. If you don’t have weights, do pushups. Start with modified pushups (from the knees) if full pushups are too challenging.
Lower stress level
Yoga is a great way to keep calm and focused. There are loads of yoga DVDs out there, and free websites like doyogawithme.com. Any form of exercise will lower your stress level. It releases chemicals in your body that give you more energy and help you sleep better.
Get a little extra
You can work your upper and lower body at the same time. Do a chair-sit against the wall while you are doing your bicep curls, or do a lunge or squat while doing arm raises.
Another good tip!
Wear your wedding day shoes around the house before your wedding day. If you’re not accustomed to wearing high heels, your calves and shins will ache after a few hours. Wearing your shoes will tone those muscle groups so you’ll be able to dance until the last song!
