Hello Beach Body: Part 1 Legs & Buttocks

Let’s go for our « Special Beach Body » series! One article per month with suggestions and easy fitness exercises to realize whether you are a beginner or confirmed to muscle, tone and refine your silhouette for the holiday and for the bikini you want to proudly wear!

We begin this month with exercises focus on the lower part of your body: legs and buttocks.

Who has never dreamed of having tapered legs, firm thighs and shapely buttocks as Jennifer Lopez? So we put our jogging, it’s ready for the session!

Step 1: warm-up

The essential step is to warm-up your body by accelerating your heart rate and preparing your muscles and your joints to work without hurting yourself!

Make rotational movements of the head, shoulders, wrists, pelvis and ankles.

Insist on the warm-up of the thighs and buttocks that will be particularly requested and prefer dynamic movements rather than the static one (steps left to right for example).

Step 2: The legs-buttocks program

4 exercises targeted on the legs and buttocks to performed 2 to 3 times per week.

Two tricks before starting:

Remember to breathe! Exhale through the mouth at the moment of the muscular contraction and inhale through the nose at the relaxation. Your breath should be synchronized with your movements.

Take a recovery time of 20 seconds between each set

Exercise 1: the famous squats

Stand up, with your legs spread to the width of your shoulders

The goal is to bend the legs at 90° keeping the back straight, feet flat and buttocks back.

Caution: knees mustn’t go over the tip of your feet when flexing. When you go up, align the hips and buttocks with your feet and think about tightening the buttocks.

4 sets of 20 repetitions

Exercise 2: the front lunge

Starting position: stand up, with your legs spread to the width of your pelvis, back straight.

Take a big step forward by flexing your legs to a 90 ° angle.

The weight of your body should be centered between your two legs, neither on the front nor on the back. The knee of the leg that is in front shouldn’t go over the tip of your feet! Push on your leg to return to the starting position and keep your back straight throughout the exercise.

2 sets of 15 repetitions

Exercise 3: leg lift

In the lying position on the right side and the body aligned, place your left leg in front of you forming a right-angle corner. Raise and go down your right leg which must remain taut and never touch the ground before the end of the exercise.

Change sideways to work the left leg.

2 sets of 20 repetitions

Exercise 4: The fire hydrant

Get up on all fours, arms extended in shoulder alignment and knees in alignment of pelvis. Your back should stay straight and not arch over the entire exercise.

The leg that works is bent at the knee, forming a right-angle corner, and slightly detached from the ground. You will now adopt a position similar at dog peeing on a fire hydrant (hence the name of this exercise!). Open the leg on the side keeping the bust parallel to the ground. Finally, bring your leg close to the other without resting it on the ground to keep the muscle tensioned for more efficiency.

2 sets of 15 repetitions

Step 3: to complicate the exercise

When you feel easy with this exercise, don’t hesitate to increase the level of difficulty in using accessorizes like weight to keep in your hand in the exercise 1 and 2 (bottle of water will be also good), and to hang on your ankle for exercise 3 and 4.

Step 4: Stretching

CONGRATULATIONS! You are at the end of the program! You have worked well, it stings, it burns in the muscles and you will probably have stiffness in the next few days!

Don’t forget to stretch at the end of the session to relax your muscles and to favour the recovery after the effort by emphasizing the muscles which mainly worked.

See you next month for our second article “Hello beach body Special Belly and Waist” for a flat stomach and get rid of your love handles.