Summer Body Sculpting Series - Lower Body Makeover

Lower Body Makeover
'Summer Sculpting' Part 2 of a 4 part series

Getting ready for bikini season means most ladies are doing their last minute cardio sessions and feeding on scant amounts of fruit with no fat yogurt yet avoiding weights because they are afraid of putting on too much muscle.

Unless you train very hard, specific toward this goal, eating toward this same goal then you will not get big because it is very hard for a woman to get big naturally.

Lifting weights will help tone and refine your shape helping you look trimmer if you train for that specific outcome. There is so much more to it and ladies need to know how to figure it out. The most common complaint women have is lower body size.

Keeping reps high and adding some weights to your exercise will bring you farther than cardio alone. Cardio is crucial in order to keep the body fat low but alone is not enough.
Starving yourself will only cause your metabolism to slow resulting in fat storage; your body will want to save everything you eat as fat for a rainy day since it feels starved. You will have a hard time getting the 'gas' to train or do cardio in turn defeating the whole purpose.

Try eating 6 meals per day at least, eat your fruit and yogurt but add some protein powder and nuts. Protein is one key toward your goals but balancing the diet is also missed since many women will go carb free losing out on nutrient rich foods which help you get the lean body goals. Food such as quinoa, yams, brown rice, oats and millet are excellent carbs. Fats are good too but mainly omega fats like avocado, olives and nuts. By all means cut out sugar and bad fats!

Circuiting the below exercises by doing them back to back with high reps in the range of 20-50 with very light to no weight is a sure fire leg thinner.

• Lunges are very popular and come in various styles such as stationary, forward lunge, rear lunge, lunge knee up, walking lunges, side lunges and lunges on a step. Use these and vary them every few weeks in the program to keep things fresh.
  
  
• Hamstring exercises such as ball bridges, leg curls both seated and lying, stiff legged deadlifts and ham rippers are all excellent choices for thigh tightening.
  
  
• Single leg squats with a ball behind your back against a wall is very tough and when done right, great for the ankle and knee joint as well. You cannot go heavy and must keep the middle of the knee aligned with the outer foot for this to be effective without causing knee injury.
  
  
• Step ups done with weight or no weight at all. These will really get your heart rate going to work up a great sweat. These can be done alternating legs or one leg at a time. Height choice can also be varied from using a low step to a workout bench which is advanced.
  
  
• Lying Butt Bridge combined with glute kicks are a great combo which I like to do by going for 50 reps on one then go straight toward 50 reps doing the other, back to back, what a burn!

Many of these can be done at home so there really is no excuse so get working ladies and quit complaining about that lower body - sweat that fat off!!!

By Linda Cusmano