The Ultimate Bikini Body Shape-Up Plan
Happens every year: You're all gung ho in the beginning of the summer, hitting the gym like it's your job and dutifully counting calories. After all, you have the big bikini reveal to prepare for! But once the season hits its stride, it's easy to fall off the wagon and onto a lawn chair--and before you know it, the heaviest thing you're hoisting is an icy cocktail.
Fortunately, tearing off that cover-up with confidence doesn't mean choosing between having fun and staying fit. The key to scoring a hot body? Committing to a plan that's easy to fit into your busy summer schedule (we're talking 30-minute workouts here) and lasts exactly 21 days. Why? Experts say you can start to form a habit in as little as three weeks, and as anyone who's ever been hooked on something knows, habits are hard to break. In other words, once you complete this program (which has built-in days for rest and recovery--yay!), you'll be motivated to keep going.
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How the Plan Works Each week, you'll do six workouts: two total-body toning routines, two fat-blasting interval workouts, and two easy, results-enhancing recovery sessions. It doesn't matter what order you do them in, as long as you do them. (The goal is to get used to penciling in a little exercise each day, which helps you form a workout habit.) The remaining day is your no-excuse-needed day off--enjoy it!
Total-Body Toning Workouts (two per week)
These fast-paced strength circuits are designed to target multiple muscle groups at once so you can build lean muscle, rev your heart rate, and torch a ton of calories in a short amount of time. Best of all, you'll fire up your metabolism and continue to burn calories 24 to 48 hours after your workout is done.
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Fat-Blasting Interval Workouts (two per week)
This is your cardio fix. These interval-training workouts utilize high-intensity body-weight exercises to get your heart rate up, burn calories, and supercharge your metabolism.
Results-Enhancing Recovery Workouts (two per week)
This quick, stretch-focused routine is designed to balance your high-intensity strength and cardio days and help create that enviable long and lean look. These moves will stretch your chest and strengthen your upper back (to improve your posture), as well as activate your glutes, engage your core, and stretch your hip flexors (all of which help to correct postural imbalances and flatten your belly).
Watch fitness editor Jen Ator in the video how-to below for the entire workout.
Get a printable version of the entire workout!
TELL US: How much weight are you looking to lose this summer?
--By Rachel Cosgrove, Women's Health
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Need more workout ideas? Buy The WH Big Book of Exercises and you'll never get bored again.
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