Be beach-ready for summer

Summer is here and the beach beckons. At the first sign of sunny days, my golden friends and I planned a three-day excursion out of town. It was a good three weeks away from our marked date of departure, enough time to get into tip-top “bikini body” shape! We were all sighing over the fact that our once-upon-a time “beauty –contest-honed” bodies have morphed into shapes other than desirable. The plan was to enroll in exercise programs, diet regimens, and use machines to blast off unwanted fat. When youth is no longer part of the equation, and getting into shape requires a gazillion more effort than ever before, machines are a good option to help dissolve those unwanted fats away.  

I started my regimen first with a water therapy program. I started to drink 10 to 11 glasses of water a day. Water curbed my hunger pangs and kept my skin hydrated, aside from flushing away my toxins. I lost the three pounds that I wanted to lose. To tighten my abs, needless to say, I did a few sessions of the machines and coupled it with a lot of exercises. Having a bikini Brazilian laser was important just in case I mustered the guts to wear a sexy bikini.

Here are some exercises to make your body beach and bikini-ready — and they’re so easy to continue during your beach holiday.

For abs and inner thighs: Sit on ground, knees bent, feet flat, squeezing ball between inner thighs or knees. Beginners place palms on ground by hips, leaning back. Keeping knees still, engage abs and raise feet, fully extending legs diagonally. Lower feet, repeat. (To make it easier, alternate lifting one foot at a time.) Repeat 20 times.

— Source: Fitness of mind, body, spirit

Uneven push- up for chest, triceps and abs: Get into full push-up position, left palm on ground with arm extended, right arm on top of a ball with bent right elbow above wrist, legs extended behind you so your body forms a straight line from head to heels. Beginners can do a modified push-up position with knees on ground. Lower toward ground, bringing chest below top of ball, and press up to return to start. Do 10 reps, then switch sides, placing ball under left palm.