While enjoying the beautiful weather that Wellington has to offer, the last thing you want to be worrying about when heading to the beach is cellulite.

Cellulite is the fat beneath the skin, making the skin look dimply and soft. Unfortunately women tend to suffer more from this than men do, we especially get it around our bums, thighs and hamstrings. Men don’t tend to get cellulite that often due to the fact that they have thicker skin which makes it harder to actually see the cellulite. The most common place a man gets cellulite tends to be their abdomens.    

What causes cellulite?

• Poor diet
• Fad dieting
• Slow metabolism
• Lack of physical activity
• Hormone changes
• Dehydration
• Total body fat

Tips to Fight Cellulite

Avoid Too Much Salt and Sugar
By eating a healthy diet, you can help reduce cellulite. Sugary foods gets stored in fat cells and causes them to expand. Limit your salt intake since sodium causes fluid retention, making cellulite appear even worse. Consume no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar each day, and stay away from foods containing more than 200 mg of sodium.

Drink Plenty of Water
Water helps flush out toxins that hide in the fat layers beneath the skin. Drink 8-10 glasses of water every day. Hydration also works to plump the skin and make it look less lumpy.

Regular Exercise
Ensure you are doing both cardio and weight training.  Cardio will help to strip the extra body fat off, and weight training will help to tone and tighten up the softer areas on your body.

Best Exercises to Fight Cellulite

1. Cardio
   Running is not only an awesome form of calorie-burning, heart-pumping cardio, it also doubles as a strength training workout for your lower body.

   Top Ride – this will help you build muscle and tone. The workout will focus on your glutes, hamstrings, thighs and calves. A 45min Top Ride class will also help you burn up to 500 calories!

2. Walking Lunges
   Targets your glutes, quads and hamstrings all at the same time
3. Plyometric Training 
   Fat burning workout and tones your body 

Squat jumps

Lunge jumps

Frog hops

Box jumps

4. Stiff Leg Deadlifts with Dumbbells/Barbell.
   Best exercise for your “butt smile” – the line where your glutes meet your hamstring

These are all tips and exercises that I follow myself and with great results!

For improved gains and faster results contact me for more advanced exercises such as Barbell Squats. Or if you would like some help and advice on reducing overall body fat please get in touch with me for a FREE consultation.

Email: sashatemaru@hotmail.com
Phone: 027 222 7660

Shoulders (deltoids) are often overlooked in training, especially by females.

Before I got started with a proper strength training plan, I only did cardio so I had very little muscle definition. But once I got started and saw the changes to my body I really began to enjoy training my shoulders. Not only for the overall look it gave me, but also because it helped with everyday tasks as I got stronger.

 Here are some benefits of shoulder training:

• Prehab

Growing and developing your strength and the muscles in your shoulders will prevent future injuries as you are improving the stabilising muscles whilst training them.

• Aesthetics

Growing your shoulders will make your waist look smaller – without doing 100 crunches!

Make sure to focus on endurance (high reps/low weight) deltoid exercises in the beginning months of your shoulder development as the deltoids are made up of many fibres, most of which are slow twitch fibres.

Training Tips

• Do not do fast or uncontrolled movements – our shoulder joints are delicate (weak at the start, but once you build up the strength the movements should feel a bit more stable). Support comes from regular exercises that help train those shoulder muscles.
• Make sure not to shrug your shoulders when doing any of these exercises and keep your neck relaxed.

Here are my top shoulder exercises to target the deltoids:

1. Lateral raises

Isolating the lateral deltoids – make sure the movement is originating in the shoulder. Keep your torso solid. Using a dumbbell in each hand raise them out to the sides, no higher than shoulder height. Have a slight bend in your elbow. Keep the weight light.

2. Shoulder press

Make sure your back is kept straight, if you have an arch in your back you will start to use other muscles, e.g. pectorals (chest). Best to start with a seated shoulder press – use the support of the seat to help balance you whilst pressing the weight above your head. Try the shoulder press machines or dumbbells.

3. Front raises

This can be done with a barbell weight plate, hold the plate at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. Slowly raise the plate from your “thighs to your eyes”. You don’t want to go too much higher than shoulder level. Do not swing the weight or have more than a slight bend in your elbows.

4. Rear delt flys / Reverse flys

These are important for good posture (more for males – as they tend to train chest more than females so it will pull them back instead of rounding shoulders) and for a full rounded deltoid workout. Sitting with your chest against the vertical pad (facing the Pectoral Fly machine) place your arms at shoulder height out front, pull the handles (with arms remaining straight – with a slight bend in the elbow) outward and back – working the rear part of your shoulder.

If you haven’t already got a strength training plan then get in touch with one of our Fitness Consultants for a FREE workout programme, or contact our Personal Trainers for 1-on-1 training.

There is no time like today to get started!

Small changes add up over time and can often lead to big changes in lifestyle. So if you’re thinking about making some changes, make one right now—write it down and implement it immediately!

• Try a new recipe. Cooking healthy foods can be fun and it never has to be bland.
• Drink your water. Try to aim for 8 cups each day and you’ll feel the difference!
• Share your goals. Whether you post them online or share them with a friend, that way you’ll be held accountable.
• Create a motivational collage. Include pictures of your goal and reasons why you want to get there.
• Take a walk. Don’t worry about how long or far you go—just get out there!
• Check the nutrition facts before you go out to eat. That way, you can make an informed choice.
• Say the words ‘I can’ and ‘I will’ often. The word ‘I can’t’ will often translate directly into ‘I didn’t’, so try to replace your vocabulary with positively charged words. Set a positive intention for each day and believe that you can do it. A positive approach often leads to positive results.
• Be Goal-Driven. “I want a big bench press” is a lousy goal. “I want to bench press 120kgs” is better, but “I want to bench press 120kgs in 16 weeks” is best of all. See, for a goal to be effective it must be specific, and more importantly have a deadline.
  

   

Good luck and don’t give up. Remember – change doesn’t happen over night but with persistence it will happen.

Your glutes are the largest and strongest muscles in your body, and yet often overlooked in training.

Strengthening your glutes decreases your risk of back, hip and knee injuries as well as improving posture.

Furthermore, weak glutes may also contribute to pulled muscles in your hamstring or groin.

Here are my top exercises for building glutes!

	Squats These are a must-do move to build those glutes.  The most important part of this exercise is posture. Your squat form is influenced by your hip anatomy so everyone will squat a little bit differently.
	Lunges Another must-do move to tighten your glutes! If you want to make it harder try adding some dumbbells or adding in some pulses.
	Glute Bridge Keep your feet close to your butt, and then raising your hips nice and high – holding for two seconds at the top of the movement. Make sure you engage your glutes throughout the whole movement.
	Donkey Kick This works your lower back, core, legs and glutes! With every lift you tone all 3 glute muscles. Make sure to push through your heel to activate your glutes.

If you would like to get a “Building Glutes with Tessa” programme or some advice then contact Tessa today on Tessak.pt@gmail.com or 022 678 6244