Happy Friday! And welcome to this total body strength workout. It’s super important to incorporate some type of resistance training into your workout plan. Not only is it amazing for working towards the results you want, but it has a ton of other health benefits including promoting bone density, which is super important for women! It’s also great to incorporate single sided movements into some of your workouts, which is what we’re doing here. Most of us have one side that is strong than the other and it’s easy for that dominant side to pick of the slack for the weaker side in bilateral movements. Here, since we’re isolating one side, it has to do all of it’s own work, making it pick up it’s own slack and get stronger.
Something super important to realize is that you are not going to turn into a body builder by picking up the weights. Even if you’re challenging yourself with heavy weights, it takes tons of planning and time to sculpt those types of bodies. Even then, they don’t usually look massively jacked while just walking around, that still requires a bit of flexing! What you’ll get from workouts like these (and those in The Get Fit Guide) is the results that you want from your workout plan. A strong and lean body. When we say we want to ‘tone up’ what were refereeing to is muscle tone. Having muscles is what gives that ‘toned’ look. So pick up some dumbbells and let’s go! 🙂 I promise this is a good one.
Another thing to keep in mind, rather than focusing on just being thin, or having the unattainable thigh gap, it’s so much more empowering to focus on being strong and capable. Building strength takes time but it’s an amazing process where you can continually surprise yourself with what you can do and how far you can go. It’s an awesome feeling completing a workout with heavier weights than you ever thought you could. On another note, it also helps me to carry in all the groceries at once and that in itself is worth it right? 😀
Below the total body lean and strong follow along, there are some quick tips for each move! Enjoy!
20 Minute Total Body Lean & Strong
Anterior Reach Row R&L – Hips should be square here. Keep your core nice and engaged and pick a spot a foot or two ahead of you on the floor to help keep your balance. Really press back through your heel/ball of your foot so that you’re actively using the glute here more than the quad. Keep the weight out of those front toes!
OVHD Pulse Switch R&L – Keep your core tight and engaged here for balance! Again, picking a spot in front of you on the wall of a few feet ahead on the floor will also help. I start to lose my balance at one point in the video when I try to look at the camera! So keep focused for better balance. Keep your arm straight up in the air, trying not to let it wave around too much, you can brace the upright arm with your other arm, this will also help with balance.
Side Lunge Kick R&L – During your side lunge, really focus on sitting back like you would in a squat. So step out and push back as you sink down. Again, keeping those abs working will help strengthen the movement!
Shift Squat Curl to Press R&L – You really want to put most of your weight in one leg here. The other one is there to help you balance. So shift that weight to one side and position the other leg in whatever way helps you be most comfortable in your squat. For me, shifting the leg I’m not using into more of a wide squat position with my toe turned out a bit helps to remind me to really shift into the other leg.
I hope you enjoy this one! Let me know what else you’d like to see!
Sweat, Smile, Repeat!
xxNiki
