The sun is shining, the flowers are in bloom, your mood is elevated as Summer is finally here. Warm days, evening barbeques with your family and friends. What is missing? Well, how about catching up those fitness goals that you may have made with this year’s New Year’s resolution, and getting your body into summer shape. It’s not summer if you can’t head to the beach or your neighborhood pool, without that summer body ready to hop into a swimsuit in a moments notice. With a good workout routine and healthy habits, you will feel extremely comfortable and proud in that swimsuit, even uploading photos of yourself with that summer body to your social media app of choice.
Fitness Goals
What are your fitness goals? Are you looking to focus on cardio for weight loss? Perhaps, building lean muscle and burning body fat? Are you looking to just shed body weight and fat loss? Or maybe your goal is strength training? Working out the major muscle groups in your body, which would build muscle, burn fat as well, and have that full body workout utilizing weights or even stretch bands.
Whether you are a beginner to working out or you are, as it is often referred to as a “gym rat” or “workoutaholic”, the health benefits of staying in shape are vast and astronomical.
Hiring a personal trainer can also greatly assist in establishing your fitness goals. When meeting with your personal trainer, explain to them what you are trying to accomplish in your workout routine, they can then steer you and train you as befits your goals. They can create a workout routine, teach you eating habits to get healthy food into your regular diet. We will discuss later the vital importance a good diet is to fat-burning and increasing your energy levels.
Stretching
Before we begin the actual workout, you need to properly stretch your muscle groups to loosen up your body for ease of movement and getting your BPM’s (heart rate) slowly warmed up. Stretching exercises, prior to a workout and during the cool down period after a workout will help you up your workout routine and overall wellness. Lunges are a great way to stretch those glutes and lower body in addition to arm stretches for upper body. Say you are pumped and ready to knock out a great workout, well without the proper stretching, your muscles will tighten up, you will ache and not get the results you are looking for.
Cardio
Cardio can mean many different things in the world of getting in shape and working out. Cardio, whether it be light from walking to heavier cardio, like running on the treadmill or using a stationary bike like the Marcy Deluxe Club Revolution Cycle. Besides for the cardio benefits this is also a great lower body workout as well. You glutes should see a marked improvement as well. It is rated to be used by one person at a time being able to carry a weight of up to 300 pounds. When in the seated position on the bike, you’ll find a water bottle holder just below your torso for instant refreshment and hydration, which is key.
When working out, especially with higher intensity cardio, make sure to have plenty of water. As cardio will help you burn fat, it will also require that you have the necessary caloric intake so you can complete your workout without your energy levels falling off to quickly.
Golfing is also a great way to get a light cardio workout in while having fun trying to hit that hole in one. Here are some great accessories from Garmin for golfing, which will take your golf game and workout past par and onto a birdie or even an eagle.
Strength Training
When it comes to strength training and building your core muscle groups, make sure that you have the right equipment. From free weights, to a great workout bundle like the Deco Gear Home Gym 7-Piece Fitness Kit, which includes a weighted jump rope, full body stretch cord, grip strengtheners, and an activity ball and more. There are many avenues to get that full body workout while also setting a schedule for different days for upper body and lower body workouts.
For lower body workouts especially focusing on those all important total body workouts, take a peek at the Leg Master Workout System Leg Master Slim. The gliding motion of the leg master allows you to utilize your own body weight to workout your muscle groups. Try using this handy system for quick, easy and enjoyable workouts.
Within each of those workout different muscle groups are targeted. Our first piece of advice when strength training is to change things up. What we mean by that is one of the golden rules of working out and getting into shape using a strength based routine, which is simply don’t workout the same set of muscle groups two days in a row especially when using free weights like dumbbells. For instance, maybe two days a well you will focus on biceps and chest exercises, two days a week on triceps and back muscles like the lower back (a common ache area for people). Triceps and back muscles can be grouped together into one workout.
The reasoning is pretty straight forward. Because when we perform strength training for upper body, lower body or on your core, your muscle fibers will actually tear during the workout. In order for the muscle to grow (which is done as the fibers heal and repair themselves), we recommend alternating days and changing up your routine. Whether, your strength training consists of using weights like dumbbells, barbells for curls or deadlifts, kettle bells, weight machines or just utilizing your body weight while doing squats, or push ups, change it up and keep hydrated.
In addition, as you workout, your body may become accustomed to your set workout routine. Take a look at the amount of reps you want to do. The amount of reps you may take with dumbbells, or how may push ups or pull ups you may do will greatly depend on your fitness goals. Lighter weights with a higher rep count will help you build lean muscle and heavier weights with a lower rep count will help build muscle.
Healthy Diet and Breathing
Having a healthy diet rich in proteins is absolutely crucial to getting that summer body swimsuit ready. Eating healthy fats, like fatty fish, nuts, whole grains for good fiber intake will not only compliment your workout but will actually make you feel better, get your energy levels up and burn fat. Stay away from simple carbs as there are healthier options available. Stay away from heavy starches like too much bread or fried foods. If you eat unhealthy carbs, which the body burns quicker and does not convert to muscle like proteins, your cravings for more food will constantly be a thorn in your side. This will cause you to overeat as your hunger is not properly satiated.
Foods that are high in proteins like fish and chicken will help you to burn fat quicker and build muscle faster as well as they lose calories coupled with a good workout routine quicker than eating eating unhealthy carbs.
Without having the proper diet, you can workout as much as you would like, however you won’t achieve the results that you are looking for. You can run, lift weights and workout in a abundance, but your belly will have a tough time burning off those carbs. So stick with a high proteins and whole grains in your diet for those healthy eating habits. Don’t be afraid to pop in a protein shake usually within the first hour after a workout. Those are quick and nutritious ways to get the intake you need to build muscle and burn fat.
When working out, be it cardio, strength training or a combination of both, you must breathe correctly during your workout to get the best results. Improper breathing or even holding your breath during workouts, will cause your motion to be off, loss of energy and can possibly have negative medical effects like an increase in blood pressure.
If you are performing strength training exercises, try and breathe in as you lower the weights and breathe out as your raise the weights. Diaphragmatic breathing (which also helps to reduce anxiety) engages your diaphragm muscles. Breathe in through your nose, fill your abdominal area, and then slowly exhale. Diaphragmatic breathing helps activate your core muscles while promoting muscle recovery. There are even smartphone apps to help you time and properly execute these breathing routines.
Time for that Swimsuit
Now that you have a plan to get that summer body you have always wanted. Don’t hesitate to contact a local personal trainer or nutritionist for extra tips that may be geared towards your body type and fitness goals. We also recommend contacting your doctor prior to establishing a workout routine to ensure that you have no medical restrictions preventing you from performing some of the workout we discussed.
Pop in that music player, turn on your go-to playlist and let’s get into Summer shape!!
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