Are you off on holiday? Or staying home to enjoy long sunny days? Wherever you'll be over the summer months, you'll want to enjoy wearing shorts, sleeveless tops and swimwear. It's time to step up your fitness regime to get your body strong, fit and healthy for summer.
What's Your Starting Point?
The first step in designing your summer shape-up plan is assessing where you are right now. Do you already exercise several times a week? Or are you new to exercise? Suddenly increasing your exercise intensity or frequency could do more harm than good. Aim to exercise 3-4 times per week if you're new to it. If you already exercise, think about increasing the intensity of some of your sessions, rather than adding more.
Exercise You Enjoy
It's really important to find an exercise activity that you enjoy. You're more likely to stick with it and put the extra effort in, ultimately meaning you'll reach your beach-body goals. If you don't like the gym, don't go. How about a group exercise class or outdoor fitness class instead? If exercise means me-time to you, try hiking or cycling. Or perhaps working with a Personal Trainer would be the best decision for you. Find what you like to do, and enjoy it!
Be More Active Every Day
As well as thinking about dedicated exercise sessions, focus on moving more every single day. Daily activity like walking, standing, carrying things and reaching a daily steps goal makes a significant difference to your caloric output. In fact, being more active during the day can have more of an impact on weight loss than exercise sessions.
Lift Some Weight
You'll want to add some sort of resistance training to your summer shape-up plan. After all, it's weight training which actually shapes the body you're about to reveal. Whether you choose to work out at a gym using barbells and dumbbells, or use your own body weight, make sure you add resistance to your plan.
The World Is Your Gym
The great thing about exercising at this time of year is that daylight hours, weather and sunshine are all on your side. So mix up the gym sessions with outdoor workouts, and fun lifestyle activity like hiking, cycling, kayaking, trampolining, and ball games in the park. It all counts!
Nutrition + Exercise = Success
Finally, don't forget that exercise is just one part of the shape-up equation. If you want to get in your best-ever shape for the summer holidays, you need to take a look at your nutrition, too. Focus on healthy eating, portion sizes, fresh home-cooked food and plenty of vegetables. We'll blog about healthy eating for a beach-ready body very soon!
We hope that these tips help you on your way to your fitness goals, if you really feel like challenging yourself, whilst helping other people to achieve their fitness goals as well why not check out our personal training courses? Before you know it you could have changed your passion for health and fitness into a rewarding career!