The Easter long weekend means indulging in good food, drink and lots of chocolate! After all, that’s the joy of holidays and you deserve to relax and give yourself a break. But if you’re going to play hard, you need to work hard and now is the perfect time to start working towards your fitness goals.
Indulging is fine but in moderation. My philosophy is that it’s all about balance. However most of the time we over indulge and then don’t work hard enough to get rid of that extra weight that’s hanging around after our period of indulgence, like when we go overseas and spend weeks eating beautiful foods and relaxing, or when we spend days in a food coma over the Christmas break. The problem is that the weight we gain during these times usually clings to us in the form of dreaded love handles or muffin tops.
So the booty challenge might be just the thing you need to get motivated to lose any unwanted Easter eggs and bunnies. Here’s week four of the booty challenge to help you get your butt in to shape so you can work off that unwanted Easter weight.
We’re going to mix things up this week with a circuit.
Bodyweight Glute Circuit
Aim for at least 3 rounds (which works out to be 360 reps of glute exercises) and keep rest to a minimum.
20 x Squats (see week one for a refresher)
20 x Glute bridges
20 x Squat jumps
20 x Bulgarian Split Squats (10 each leg)
20 x Lateral lunges (10 each side)
20 x Plyometric lunges
Glute Bridge
Lay on the ground with your knees bent, and your feet flat on the floor in front of you. Squeeze your glutes as you raise your pelvis high enough off the floor to create a straight line between your knees, hips, and shoulders. Focus on really squeezing your glute muscles to really get the most out of this exercise.
Squat Jumps
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Start by doing a regular squat, then engage your core and jump up explosively. When you land, lower your body back into the squat position to complete one rep. Land as quietly as possible, which requires control.
Bulgarian Split Squat
Stand facing away from a chair/bench, extend one leg back and place your foot on the chair/bench. Squat down by flexing knee and hip of front leg until knee of rear leg is almost in contact with floor. Return to original standing position.
Lateral lunge
Begin with both feet standing together. Take a wide step out to one side while bending the knee to create a squat like position with the extended leg, whilst ensuring you keep the foot still placed in the original position so it’s flat on the ground. Drive through your leg to bring your foot back to the original position.
Plyometric lunges
Start by standing with feet shoulder width apart. Next, step forward with your right foot. This is the starting position. Begin exercise by lowering body down until your forward thigh (right thigh) is parallel to the ground and back knee is almost touching the ground. As soon as you reach this point, explode back up as high as you can off the ground. Land softly on your feet with a bend in your knees, immediately drop back down into a lunge and explode back up.
Have you been keeping up with the booty challenge? Check out week one, two and three so you can start to build your dream booty.
See more fitness tutorials on Your Dream Body!
__
Photo: Amelia Bidgood
