Written with love, by Jennifer Dene
Hey there you Beautiful Bride!
Are you ready to take your wedding fitness up a notch?
Over the coming three weeks I’m sharing new variations on some classic workout moves, which you can easily add into any of your current exercise routines. Challenging your muscles keeps them strong and toned, and brings you closer to your bridal body goals. The more lean muscle you develop, the better your metabolism and ability to burn excess body fat becomes. It’s also vital to mix up your routine so you feel inspired to continue to workout.
Today I’ll walk you through three variations on the basic squat, and next week we’ll tackle planks and then it will be all about the abs!
Read on to learn about the importance of each of these new moves and then watch the video tutorial below.
How To Do The Basic Squat
Before we start playing around let’s perfect the basic squat, because no matter what variation you do it all starts with the same setup.
The squat is a full body exercise that particularly focuses on the legs and backside. It also mimics movements you do in real life, such as sitting and crouching, making it a really functional move to have in your workout repertoire.
Step one: Stand with your feet slightly wider than your hips. Your toes should be pointed slightly outward. Look straight ahead and keep your gaze focused throughout.
Step two: Pull your abdominals in to your spine, bend your knees and sit your hips back as though you are sitting in a chair. The weight is more in the heel of the foot than the toe and your knees stay aligned with the second and third toes.
Step three: Keeping your abs engaged and your knees in line with the center toes, squeeze your butt and return to standing.
Simple yet wildly effective! Now let’s have some fun …
The Squat Kick
This move adds a plyometric element as you lift one leg and kick it forward. It also helps to improve your balance and relieve pent up tension … “Take that, you expensive florist!”
The Squat Side Step
This move incorporates muscles on the outer and inner thighs and gives you even more of a booty burn as you stay low in the legs and travel from side to side. If you want to increase the challenge add a jump at the top of each squat.
The Squat Jack Plank Jack
That’s a mouthful! This move is more dynamic and becomes a full body workout as you hop forward and back between squatting and plank. Your goal is to never stand up until the end of your repetitions.
I recommend starting with 5 repetitions for each of these new moves and adding on once you feel confident. Press play for the quick video tutorial to see exactly how to do these moves, and then let me know which one is your favorite and why by leaving a comment below!
I can’t wait to workout with you!
Jennifer Dene
