For you mother’s, don’t try to get skinny! Shape your body by building your assets better–curvy and lean. This takes more time but it will be a body built to last…..
Don’t try to lose your curves. Shape and tone those curves to bring out your best body.
Here are 6 training tips to tone those curves:
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1. You will need to burn total body fat. When your body shrinks and loses inches, your curves are displayed at their best. Don’t concentrate too much on the weigh scale. You could be the same weight and have a totally different body. For example, its not uncommon for voluptuous women to lose 20 pounds of fat mass and gain 20 pounds of lean mass over time. Even though you would weigh the same on the scale, your body would be much leaner. So, you should have your body fat percentage measured weekly to see if your body is changing to lean and toned.
2. Don’t make the mistake of “spot training” your body parts. It won’t work. Focus on full body circuit weight training (including bodyweight exercises) to tone your upper and lower body in general. Always take a full body approach to exercising and use specific exercises to target your problem areas.
To tone and shape your curvy lower body, do the following:
3. Tone your butt, hips and thighs with these three bodyweight exercises: steps ups, lunges and squats.
Notice that these exercises are all done standing up…..you will burn more calories and body fat doing standup exercises rather than sit-down or lay-down exercises. Your core muscles will also be worked more with standup exercises.
You want your butt, hips and thighs to look good in 3-D space right? Then, you need to do different variations of these exercises such as:
a. Front step ups, lateral step ups, transverse step ups. Try to do step ups on a platform that is at least knee high to work the butt and hamstrings more.
b. Front lunges, side lunges, reverse lunges, transverse lunges, lunge step ups, etc.
Step out further on your lunges to work your hamstrings and butt more. A smaller step will work your quadriceps more (quads are worked enough during other exercises).
c. Standard squats, lateral squats, one-leg squats, Bulgarian split squats, prisoner squats, Y squats, etc. Repeating squat jumps is also a great leg toner exercise.
Note: Romanian deadlifts, glute/ham raises and good mornings are great hamstring exercises.
4. Tone your legs faster by doing mainly fast interval cardio and very little long, slow cardio sessions. Too many long, slow cardio sessions will waste away your precious muscle mass. More muscle mass helps you burn more calories and fat during the day and at rest. What do I mean by fast cardio?
Its really pretty simple….cut down your cardio sessions to about 20 minutes of high intensity interval cardio training (HIIT)….all it takes is 2-3 days a week (combined with 3 days a week of strength training).
An example of HIIT would be running outside on grass for 20 minutes:
Sprint 50-60 yards and walk back. Repeat this routine for 20 minutes. Running on the ground forces you to provide all the momentum with no help from machines. So, you will burn more fat.
Never run on concrete, asphalt or other hard surfaces to prevent injuries.
Take your interval cardio one step further by progressing to incline or hill running. Just run as fast as you can and walk back down….do this for about 20 minutes a session.
5. Another effective exercise technique for curvy women would be to do cardio blasts. Between each strength exercise set (like step ups, squats or deadlifts), do 30-45 seconds of an exercise like jump rope, mountain climbers, butt kickers or squat jumps full speed.
Rest about 1 minute between sets. Rest 2-3 minutes after completing the circuit and repeat the circuit 1 or 2 more times. The combination of using strength exercises with full speed plyometric or running exercises burns fat like crazy. This type of workout is very intense and should not be done more than 2 times a week.
6. Jump training (plyometrics) and other high-speed exercises are a must for voluptuous women. Plyometrics and high-speed training will give your body better definition and give you faster results. That is why athletes’ bodies are so well defined. Good jump training exercises are squat jumps, pike jumps, jump rope and box jumps.
Burn fat and shape your curves leaner and meaner. You will look and feel great!
If you need more help…..
Download your Free Curves, Abs and Upper Body Fat Burn Manual and start shaping your body faster!
Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
