It's time to thaw out, lose the layers, and get up off the couch because summer is on its way! Don't wait until you're two weeks out from hitting the beach or about to grab a pair of cutoffs out of your closet. Start your summer feeling confident, and looking your best, by committing to a workout routine now!
Here is an awesome workout that was put together by my friend and personal trainer, Valerie Petersheim. I love her approach to fitness, her belief that "strong is the new skinny," and that everyone can find a workout that fits into his or her lifestyle.
This workout consist of six exercises, most of them using hand weights, that can be executed in three different ways. You could also exchange these exercises with others that you find or are familiar with to keep the workout fresh and challenging.
6 Exercises:
1. Tricep kick-backs with reverse lunge: Keeping your upper arms still, straighten your arms behind you until your entire arm is parallel to the floor and one end of the dumbbell points toward the floor, while you step back into a lunge. Then on the next rep, lunge on the opposite leg.
2. Uppercut punches: With feet shoulder width apart, rotate making an uppercut punch with each arm. Weights can be used but not necessary.
3. Sumo Squat/Regular Squat: Rotate between a sumo (or wide leg) squat right into a regular squat, as fast or as slow as your fitness level allows.
4. Shuffle Punches: Hold hand weights and shuffle to the left and punch with your right arm, then shuffle to the right and punch with your left arm.
5. Static Lunge with hammer curl: In a static lunge your feet stay in the same position throughout the exercise. Start with right leg forward and with each lunge, drop your weights to your side and then using your bicep curl the weight up to your chest as you go back to your original position. Then change legs, putting the left leg forward.
6. Oblique twist with dumbbell: Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet on the floor, or off the floor for more difficulty. Contract abs and sit at a 45-degree angle. Hold the dumbbell in front of you and twist from side to side.
3 different workout styles
1. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training): Do each exercise for one minute without stopping, and after each minute take a thirty-second break. It is a one-minute-on, thirty-seconds-off routine. Go through the exercises this way as many times as you want.
2. Tabata: Do each exercise for twenty seconds, with a ten-second break in between. Again go through this routine of exercises that way as many times as you want. There is a fantastic app called Seconds Reps that is helpful when doing a Tabata workout.
3. Repititions: You could simply do a certain number of reps for each exercise. For example do three sets of all six exercises ten times each for the beginner, or five sets of twenty times each for the more advanced.
So go have some fun and remember it's far better to be sore now than sorry later, when the beach is beckoning you!
By Carey Bender, Photography by Lauren Meloy of Diamond in the Rough Photography