Toning on a low budget
Our expert Lucy Wyndham-Read discusses the importance of being active, and suggests some simple exercises we can do anywhere to help us get into better shape as the holiday season approaches.
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Transcript
Presenter - Ok Lucy, got another one here from Gemma Harrison, Gemma thanks very much for getting in touch with us, she says "I'm wanting to lose weight for my holiday in October, can you suggest some ways to exercise to lose the extra bits around my waist and my hips, also what exercises can you suggest for toning up the top of my arms, all on a low budget?" I think we know a bout that one, a low budget
Lucy - Ok definitely, definitely and of course I'm going to say the walking again. Low budget, because you know she can go and walk from home, walk from work and also if she's wanting to lose weight sort of around the hips, the abdominals, we tend to do that when we're walking because you take a really big stride through the legs so you're working through the hip as you're taking the leg forwards and backwards, and when we run it's more that the leg is coming up so actually the walking would be really good for her, and I would say to invest in some little hand weights so when she's walking she can tone her arms as well, that's not going to cost her anything and as I say that's great for working through the abdominals and if she's got the little hand weights she could do a really simple exercise for the back of the upper arms, and you just hold onto one of the weights and just literally where you just bend and straighten the arm, and that would be really good for toning this area
Presenter - That's an easy one, I could do that
Lucy - It's really easy so you just want to have the weight on there and try and get the arm as straight as you can and after you've done a few of those you'll sort of start to feel that working. You know if she doesn't have any weights sort of a small, full bottle of water would be really good and then alternate and take it onto the other arm. So walking
Presenter - How important are setting goals with the whole exercise regime?
Lucy - Really, really important. As a personal trainer I would never turn up to a client and not discuss goals, because you know because we need to have a purpose, we need to have a plan, we need an incentive, so I think they are essential, and I think it's good to do a short term goal and a long term goal, and the short term goal may just be, for example, that you just train 3 times a week and your long term goal is that in a month you've dropped a dress size, you know or it could be that you reduce every 3 weeks you set a goal where you go and run if you're doing running, or walking, you make sure that your little circuit, you can reduce the time by 20 seconds. Because you want to feel like you're achieving something, you want to see results and if you think about it, it all comes from here doesn't it?
Presenter - Yes
Lucy - It's all about motivation – it's all about the mind, so you've got to train your mind as well so I think goals are essential. Absolutely
Presenter - I think the moment you start realising that you're not out of breath so much then you know the results are kicking in aren't they?
Lucy - Totally, absolutely. And the body reacts to fitness so quickly. You know, after you've done your first session, you know you'll feel out of breath so you're going to feel positive, mentally you feel fitter and I say it's just a positive spiral, so I think it's really essential, and you know goals you could do could be to drop one to two pounds of weight a week, no more than that because actually that would be too much, or it could be that you just you do achieve training 3 times a week, or that you're drinking 6 glasses of water a day. There are loads of different things you could do
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