Slim your thighs in record time!
Monday 17 May 2010
Good morning readers. If you’re new to Closer's Team Bikini campaign, we’re bringing you the best diet and workout tips to achieving a bikini-ready body (hence the name) before the summer. Last week, sculpting your arms and tum were top of Team Bikini’s agenda, and today we’ve decided to focus on toning those thighs.
Unfortunately we all have to face up to the fact that at some point during the summer, we will have to appear in public in a bathing suit and reveal our thighs to the world - no, there's no escaping it unless you fancy smouldering away in the heat.
The upper leg is usually hit hardest by excess flab and they're also the last areas to show improvement. Fortunately, you still have time to do something about it.
The bottom line is this: to really lose fat, you need to be on a weight-loss diet as well as being physically active. You cannot spot reduce your thighs with exercise alone. Just because you are doing exercises specifically for your thighs, doesn’t mean the fat is going to fall off your legs.
The best way to motivate yourself is to visualise how you want your thighs to look. Put a picture on your fridge as a reminder and really concentrate on the image when you grit your teeth and persevere with the exercise. You WILL see results.
As an extra motivation why not measure the girth of your thighs with a tape measure once a week and track your progress and you will soon see that what you are doing is making a difference.
Here are some of the best ways to tame those thighs this summer!
LEG EXTENSIONS
This exercise trains the quadriceps, which are the muscles to the front of the thighs.
*Sit on the chair with both legs bent in front of you. Extend your right leg out straight in front of you, even with the thigh.
*Point your toes upwards and squeeze your leg at the top of the movement. Hold for one second.
*Lower the leg back down to the ground. Repeat 8 to 10 times.
*Then do the same for the left leg. Exhale on the upward movement and inhale on the downward movement. To increase resistance, add ankle weights
LEG CURL
This exercise targets the muscles that constitute the hamstrings.
*Start on the floor on all fours. Lift your right leg to the back and hold it straight out from the hip, parallel with the floor.
*Bend your leg and bring it towards your body till your heel hits your bum. Squeeze your leg at the top of this movement.
*Repeat 8-10 times. Then do the same for the left leg. To increase resistance, add ankle weights.
LEG ABDUCTORS
*Stand erect with left hand on a chair or table for balancing. Place right hand on hip. Keep right leg straight while moving that leg away from your body towards the right.
*When the leg reaches a point where you feel a contraction in the area of the buttocks, stop the motion and hold for one second. Then return the leg to the starting position. This will constitute one repetition.
*Perform 10 to 15 repetitions, then switch legs.
For 24/7 healthy eating advice, a choice between 16 delicious meal plans and guaranteed weight loss of at least 2 lbs a week, head to Closer Diets.