When you’re trying to lose weight, everything tries to draw you towards gluttony. It feels like every person suddenly wants to meet you over a meal. However, when you’re about to tie the knot, these little temptations seem to fade out and you feel more motivated than ever. If toning up for your wedding is on your priority list, with the help of this workout plan, you will become as fit as a fiddle!
Three months prior to the wedding is a good time to start with your fitness routine along with a healthy diet. Workouts not only help you lose weight and give you a toned look but also improve your posture, poise and deportment. Moreover, it gives you a glowing complexion as you sweat out all the toxins and get your serotonin and endorphins—‘the happy hormone’—levels soaring high. Here are some exercises that are guaranteed to help you shed those inches in a few days. But whatever regime you pick, you need to do it for at least 30 minutes daily.
Warm-up
Use kettlebells; kettlebells are cast-iron balls fitted with a single handle unlike traditional hand-held weights. The weight of the kettlebell isn’t evenly distributed, which means your body has to stabilise and counterbalance the weight of the ball. It not only burns up to 400 calories in a mere 20 minutes, but also strengthens your core. It improves balance and posture and target the major muscle groups, as well as the stabilising muscles. As it involves the whole body, a kettlebell workout will rev up your metabolism to help your body burn fat faster, and it will get your heart pumping so that you get an aerobic workout as well.
Cycling
Bicycling is another low-impact, high-reward activity for losing weight. It can burn 300 to 1,100 calories per hour, depending on your weight, your speed and the terrain you’re biking across.
Elliptical trainer
Elliptical trainer at home or at the gym enables you to get a low impact, full-body workout. Elliptical trainer mimics the action of running while eliminating impact, saving your knees and joints from wear and tear. You can hold on to the moveable handles rather than static ones to increase the number of calories you burn and to help tone your arms.
Running
High-intensity interval training or HIIT offers amazing benefits. Not only will you progress much faster to your desired fitness level, you will also improve your aerobic capacity. It can be done with many forms of exercises and consists of short, but intense bursts of activity followed by a lower intensity period or a period of complete rest. A standard interval workout of biking, swimming, and running, lifting weights or even walking for 20 minutes burns far more calories than 20 minutes of steady exercise.
Start out by warming-up for five minutes. For the sixth minute, push yourself as hard and as fast as you can. The seventh minute is all about catching your breath. Repeat the fast and slow cycle (minus the warm-up) five times. After this, cool down for three minutes.
CrossFit
It is like high-intensity training, which is suitable for those who have been exercising on a regular basis. It is a workout regimen that involves weightlifting, endurance exercises, pylometrics, strength and speed training, and kettlebell exercises routine among other activities.
It’s designed to target all the major components of physical fitness, including endurance, flexibility, speed, power and cardiorespiratory fitness. An example of CrossFit routine is five repetitions of pull-ups, 30 push-ups, 40 sit-ups and 50 squats. These are all performed one after the other with a three-minute rest between repetitions.
Watch what you eat and follow a good diet, but do include a fitness regime guided by a good fitness instructor to look the fit and glowing bride on your D-day.
Walk your way to fitness
• Studies show that walking for an hour every day, at a pace which leaves you breathless, is enough to maintain health, keep your muscles toned and reduce the chances of heart disease.
• Walk tall. Shoulders down, back relaxed, chest forward. Always walk with a good posture.
• Quicken your pace, take shorter, faster steps. Keep on increasing the distance that you walk at regular intervals. This will help you burn off more calories and improve your cardiovascular fitness and endurance.
• Breathe normally. As you walk, take deep, rhythmic breaths, to get the maximum amount of oxygen through your system.
• Have a good pair of walking shoes. They should be flexible with the heel no more than an inch higher than the sole.
