Swimsuit Ready – Part Three

BLOCK THREE: The last four weeks of training. If you’ve been following the exercise routines so far, you will be able to see the difference by now. Fat deposits should be melting away. Your skin should have benefitted from eight weeks of inside and outside care. You have a swimsuit, or several, in your size and in styles that suit you. What’s left?

Getting even lovelier. How are you sleeping? I don’t know what’s going on in your life, but getting the sleep you need is at least as important as any of the stuff we’ve covered so far. It’s going to be even more important when we ramp up the resistance training for these last few weeks.

Cut back on the evenings out. And consider going to a gym two nights a week. If you know what you’re doing, concentrate on these five whole body exercises:

• The squat
• The deadlift
• Bent over rows
• Bench press
• Shoulder press

If you don’t know what you’re doing, ask the gym staff to show you how to get on. DON’T MAKE IT UP AS YOU GO ALONG; that’s a recipe for all kinds of trouble. And only lift as much weight as you’re capable of lifting. These five exercises work your whole body and keep burning calories long after you’ve stopped working out. Don’t worry about getting muscle bound – it’s really not that easy. What they will do is work muscles all over your body, which will respond by growing. Muscle mass a) burns calories, and b) looks good.

If you do these five exercises, you won’t have to worry about any problem areas you might have. You’ll notice I haven’t even mentioned sit-ups or crunches. If you do whole body compound movements like these, they burn off excess body fat in ways that no amount of sit-ups or crunches can touch. The bench press, like press-ups, will target your upper arms and tighten them up. The squat will tighten your butt and thighs and make them shapely. The deadlift works your whole body. If you do these exercises twice a week, three sets of six repetitions for each exercise, you’ll be in the best shape of your life by the end of the last month.

Ready to knock them dead on the beach. And that’s what all the effort was for.

It’s shallow. It’s vain. It’s the thoughtless acceptance of body fascism, when looking good is equated with being acceptable as a person. But admit it, you want to look your best. We all do. And no matter how shallow or vain we might think it, looking our best is hardwired into us, for sound genetic reasons. Repeat after me: ‘There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best.’ You comb your hair before you go out, right? Looking your best is only an extension of that. You pick clothes that suit you, you pay attention to your grooming. If it was your sole reason for living, it would be wrong – but it’s not. If it occupied your every waking thought to the exclusion of all else, it would be dreadful – but it’s not. It’s just part of the way you present yourself to the world.

That’s it. My three part guide to getting beach ready in time for the holidays, which breaks down into a handy ten point guide you can follow easily.

Here are the steps:

• 1 – Start doing some light cardio every day.
• 2 – Take the naked mirror of truth test and find out what needs fixing.
• 3 – Set a target. Don’t make it a number, make it the way you want to look and feel.
• 4 – Start the skin care regime now. Today.
• 5 – Pick the right swimsuit.
• 6 – Do a little jogging.
• 7 – Start resistance training, and add some stretches to the mix to keep from getting stiff.
• 8 – Go to the gym
• 9 – Get some sleep
• 10 – And generally look lovely.

Filed under: Diet Plan by admin