Wedding Workout Countdown – 12-Months until I walk down the aisle (although I must admit, I love to say ‘runway’)

Ok bride’s-to-be, want to look flawless for your wedding day, then follow me!  The first workout will target all your major muscle groups, and then as we get closer to walking down the runway we will spend more time targeting specific areas of your body.

If you are getting married in less than 12-months, no problem, you can still do this workout.  In fact, you don’t even have to be getting married to do it!

This workout is designed to get you comfortable lifting weights that are heavier than 2-3-lbs so that you can start developing lean muscle mass and start seeing RESULTS!

Step 1:

Warm-up for 5 mins on any piece of cardio equipment.

Step 2:

Now we are going to turn the heat up a bit, you have 5 more minutes on the same piece of equipment and every minute you are going to make it a little harder.

Examples:

• If you’re on a Treadmill crank the incline up to 5 to start with and end up on an incline of 10.
• If your on a Bike get your RPM’s up to 80 to start with and increase in increments of 5 RPM’s each minute

Step 3:

Here comes the Circuit workout!!! You will complete all SIX exercises in a row, the only rest you get is moving from one exercise to the next.  (don’t worry there is a rest coming up in Step 4)

How Many Reps per exercise?  Do 12 reps

How much weight? Pick a weight that is heavy enough so that you are struggling to keep perfect form by the last rep.  If you finish 12 reps without breaking a sweat and could have kept going, increase your weights next time – I will give you a starting weight for every exercise.

STABILITY-BALL CHEST PRESS

Targets:  Chest, Core, Shoulders, Triceps, Hamstrings and Glutes

Starting weight?  10-lbs if you are new, otherwise try to get to 25-lbs or even heavier.

• Sit on a stability-ball with dumbbells resting on thighs.
• To lie on the stability-ball, slowly walk your feet out, rolling your hips down and lying back on the ball while bringing the dumbbells to your armpits.  Stop when your shoulder blades are on the ball.
• Lower your head to the ball and contract your glutes while you raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from knees to shoulders.
• Extend the dumbbells directly over your head with arms straight and palms facing away from your face.  This is your starting position.
• Slowly bring dumbbells towards body by bending elbows, hold for 1 count, then extend arms back to starting position while contracting the chest.

DUMBBELL BENT OVER ROW

Targets:  Upper back, biceps

Starting Weight?  10lbs if you are new, otherwise aim for 15lbs and heavier!

• Grab a dumbbell in each hand and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent.
• With your arms at your sides, palms facing your body, bend over from the hips until your back is almost parallel to the ground.  Allow your arms to hang straight down under your shoulders.
• Pull the dumbbells up towards your armpits, squeezing your shoulder blades together.  Pause, then lower dumbbells back down.  That’s one rep.  Complete all reps without standing up.

SIDE ARM RAISES

Targets:  Deltoids

Starting Weight?  3lbs if you are new, but remember if you can do 12 reps easily move up to 5lbs next time.  Your goal is to be able to do 12 reps with 8-10lbs dumbbells.

• Grab a dumbbell in each hand and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent.
• With your arms at your sides, palms facing your body, raise your arms straight out to the sides until your wrists line up with your shoulders so they are parallel to the ground.  Pause for 2 counts, then lower dumbbells back to sides.

STABILITY-BALL TRICEPS EXTENSION

Targets:  Triceps, core, glutes, hamstrings

Starting Weight?  3-5lbs if you are new, but try to work your way up to 10lbs or heaver!

• Sit on a stability-ball with dumbbells resting on thighs.
• To lie on the stability-ball, slowly walk your feet out, rolling your hips down and lying back on the ball while brining the dumbbells to your armpits.  Stop when your shoulder blades are on the ball.
• Lower your head to the ball and contract your glutes while you raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from knees to shoulders.
• Extend the dumbbells directly over your head with arms straight and palms facing each other.  This is your starting position.
• Without moving your upper arms, slowly bend your elbows and lower the dumbbells until your forearms are parallel to the floor.
• Straighten your elbows to return to the start

SQUATS

Targets: glutes, quads, hamstrings, calfs

Starting Weight? Body weight – keep reading the blog as I will show you in a later post how to make the squat more challenging!

• Begin with feet shoulder-width apart, and pointing straight ahead.
• Slowly begin lowering your body while pushing your hips back behind you and bending your knees.  Stop when you get to 90 degrees.
• Keep your chest up and weight in your heels.
• Pause at the bottom for 2 seconds, then slowly push yourself back up to the starting position by contracting your glutes and placing pressure through the heels.

PLANK

Targets:  The core

How Many?  Hold for 60 seconds!  Too difficult – hold for as long as you can then rest for a few seconds by placing your knees on the floor, then try again until the 60 seconds is up.

• Lie prone on the floor with feet hip width apart and forearms on the floor so that your elbows are under your shoulders.
• While drawing abs in, lift your entire body off the floor so that your weight is on your forearms and toes.
• Your body should form a straight line from head to toe, make sure your not dropping your hips or raising your butt.

Step 4:

It’s REST time, take 1-2 minutes to catch your breath and take a sip of water.

Step 5:

Complete all the SIX exercises again from Step 3.

Step 6:

It’s REST time again – remember to re-hydrate.

Step 7.

Time to jump back on a piece of cardio equipment, either the same one you warmed up on or a different one.

For the next 10 minutes I want you to push yourself on whatever piece of equipment you are on to the point where it is difficult to hold a conversation.

Step 8.

It’s time to stretch, pick 3 stretches and hold each of them for 30 seconds.

JUST SO YOU KNOW:  Several recent studies have compared the effects of circuit weight training with traditional endurance forms of exercise, such as treadmills, jogging, and bicycling, in relation to energy expenditure, strength and improving physical fitness.  It was demonstrated that circuit weight training was just as beneficial as traditional forms of cardio respiratory exercise for improving or contributing to improved fitness levels.