A Beach Body: Bingo

Add explosive power to your arsenal this season with these four total-body drills

Perform these moves in order, resting only as long as it takes to set up between exercises. Then break for 30 seconds and repeat the circuit once or twice. Rest a day between sessions, but stay active outside the gym.

Stair Shuttle

Stand at the bottom of a staircase. Place one foot on the first step, with your opposite arm slightly bent in front of you and your other arm behind your torso and slightly bent, as if you're ready to sprint up the staircase. Begin switching your feet and arms  so you're sprinting in place. Go as fast as you can for 30 seconds.

 

Crab-Walk Pushup

Assume the classic pushup position. Perform a pushup, then squeeze your abs forcefully and slide your left leg and left arm out to the side as far as possible. Do another pushup, then bring your right arm and leg over so you're back in the starting position. That's one repetition. Do two or three reps in each direction.

 

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Agility Run

Place three cones or small objects 5 yards apart in a straight line. The first marker is your starting point. Sprint to the nearest cone and back. Then sprint to the farthest cone and back. That's one repetition. Rest 10 seconds and repeat for five reps. Mix it up to include backpedals, side shuffles, and skips.

Interrupted Pullups

With an overhand grip, place your hands slightly more than shoulder-width apart on a bar. Pull your chin over the bar, then lower slowly. Perform two or three pullups, then rest for 10 seconds. Continue this sequence until you can no longer complete two pullups

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Beach Body Workout

Burn fat and tone your trouble spots in 4 weeks.

5 Body-Sculpting Rules for Faster Results

Stand tall
To maintain your posture (read: beautify your body in seconds), keep your chest open, shoulders down and back, head level, and spine long.

Contract your core
Engage your abs, back, and obliques (side torso muscles), keeping them taut at all times.

Keep your muscles active
Focus on contracting the muscles you're working throughout the move.

Remember, quality beats quantity
Perform only as many reps as you can do with good form. As soon as you get sloppy, call it quits.

Perfect your breath
Inhale and exhale deeply and evenly throughout each move. Don't hold your breath or gasp for air.

Calorie-Sizzling Cardio Plan

To get a beach-ready body, "you need to bounce the heart rate--get it out of your comfort zone for short bursts," says Jan Griscom, an elite trainer at Chelsea Piers in New York City. By turning up the intensity in short bouts, you'll burn about 40 percent more calories than you would if you worked out at a moderate but even intensity.

This cardio plan works with any type of aerobic exercise, including walking, cycling, and swimming. For the best results, do this 25-minute routine 4 or 5 days a week and choose activities that target your most troublesome body part. To slim your hips and thighs, try walking on hilly terrain, inline skating, or cycling. For belly-flattening cardio, choose rowing or swimming.

Warm up by performing your activity of choice at an easy intensity for 4 minutes, gradually increasing your effort to a moderate intensity level of 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 for another minute. (1 is not much harder than reading; at level 10 you're running so hard that you can't speak.) From there, ramp up and perform the following bounce intervals at an intensity of 7 to 9:

30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds. Between each bounce interval, recover for 1 minute at level 5 or 6. Cool down for 4 minutes when you're done.
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Beach Body Workout

Burn fat and tone your trouble spots in 4 weeks.

Ballet Lifts

(Trims hips, glutes, and thighs)

A. Stand straight with hands on hips (or one on a wall for balance), heels together, and toes and knees turned out to sides as far as comfortably possible. Keeping torso and hips steady, brush right foot against ground as you lift right leg (toes pointed) straight out in front as far as possible without moving hips. Return to start.

B. Using same technique, lift leg out to side. Return to start.

C. Lift leg behind you. Return to start; that's one rep. Do 3 reps. Switch legs and repeat.

Ball Hug

(Sculpts chest and shoulders)

Hold large, firm beach ball (or exercise ball) between hands. Lift breastbone, contract chest muscles, and squeeze ball as firmly as possible for a count of 5. Release ball slightly, then squeeze again. Do 16 reps.







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