Photography by rf._.studio
As the warm weather, tan lines, and sunny beach days approach us, it’s not too late to get your body ready for summer. Everyone has a different metabolism; therefore you should never focus too much on the numbers you see on the scale and exercising too much with little balance of food intake. Whether you’re dedicating yourself to spending hours at the gym, or simply want to do an at-home workout, these transformation exercises from our lifestyle and wellness forum are here to help you lose weight fast and effectively!
Drinking water: Numerous apps allow you to measure your daily water intake. The benefits of drinking a bottle of water in the morning help your skin get hydrated, and become more energized as soon as you wake up. This is also important throughout the day to drink a lot of water and quickly you’ll see the results within your complexion and body.
Cross-Body Mountain Climbers: When doing three sets of these, you’re bringing your knee to your opposite elbow and your core will remain very tight during this. You need to use both legs and arms to do this exercise.
Burpees: Reaching up with both arms, you’re jumping and then going down into a pushup position. Jumping back up into reaching your arms above your head, you continue to do this for about 30 seconds, slowly.
High Knees: Bringing your knees up almost reaching your stomach, you jump and alternate from one leg to the other for 30 seconds at a moderate speed.
Squat jumps: Your back needs to be straight; jump into squat positions with your hands together. Continue to do this for 30 seconds and you will feel this exercise especially in your glutes.
Push-Ups: Just like mountain climbers, to switch it up you can get in a pushup position and bring your knees to your elbows, do this at a medium-paced speed for 30 seconds. If you want to do classic pushups, just put your hands on the ground, feet in a tiptoe position on the floor as well and bend your arms slowly until your chest almost reaches the floor, bending your elbows, then continue to do this.
Plank: To work your abs, place your elbows on the floor and your feet must remain at the tip of your toes touching the floor. Staying in this position for 25-30 seconds is great for the core.
Reverse Lung: To work your legs, engage your center and core by bringing one leg stretched out to the front of you bending it and make sure your knee does not pass the front of your toes. Alternate by moving to the next leg and keep your arms up, holding your hands together while doing this for about 30 seconds.
Triceps Toe Touch: Sit on the floor and with your opposite hands and legs, you will be reaching towards your feet alternating from one leg to the other. Raise one leg and bring your opposite hand to your feet then switch. Your core will remain tight during this exercise and continue for about 20 seconds.
Heisman: An effective leg exercise is to jump to one side and bring your opposite knee up. If you jump left with your left leg, bring your right knee up. When you jump right with your right leg, bring your left knee up for about 30 seconds back and forth.
Butt Kicks: Bring your feet switching from left and right to your glutes. Left leg up then right and continue doing this for about 25 seconds. It’s much easier said than done and is a huge benefit to toning up stomach fat.
Once completing these workouts, and you’re consistently doing this every day and still not seeing results you may need to alter what your body is taking in. Forming a strict diet won’t help but you can eat certain foods containing less sugar and high trans-fat. You should also watch your carbs because although our body does need carbs for energy, you should never consume an unhealthy amount. Alcohol consumption is also linked to belly fat and gaining weight as well. High fibers, beans, peas, soluble fibers, will help decrease belly fat and protein such as tofu, dairy and soy will increase the release of hormones. More proteins allow you to have much less abdominal fat compared to someone who consumes a low protein diet. Certain teas will also promote and help you breakdown fat cells. Use these tips correctly and you will be ready for summer with confidence in no time!