With your Big Day fast approaching, it’s time to add those all-important final touches. Assuming you have the dress, shoes and make-up sorted, there’s one last accessory that will ensure you wow on your big day… body confidence.
Barreworks classes are designed to work out your whole body with low impact, high intensity movements that help to lift bottoms, trim thighs and define arms. Because classes promote increased muscle mass and metabolic rate, you’ll even burn calories at rest.
We never advocate a ‘crash and burn’ approach to any kind of exercise but three months is a reasonable time-frame to work with so long as you can make last minute dress adjustments as your physique changes. Here are a few techniques and at-home ideas to try so that you walk down the aisle (and through the rest of the Big Day AND honeymoon) with style and sass.
Barreworks workouts (and any ballet movement done correctly) promote beautiful posture, so you can work towards the entrance of a lifetime. But here are our top 5 tips for at-home improvements you can make without the need for a barre or any equipment.
1. Shoulders back and down
This is the quickest way to perfect your posture and will immediately give the impression of a narrower waist (in proportion to your shoulders). Imagine you have pieces of string to the tips of your shoulder blades. Imagine these pieces of string being constantly pulled gently down your back. Your collar bone should open and your neck lengthen. Use a resistance band and pass the band in front and behind your body with straight arms to engage the musculature at the back of the shoulder.Perfect if you have a scoop neck dress or a beautiful necklace to show off.
2. Work through your feet when you walk
When you see some elderly people ‘shuffle’ as they walk, it’s because the muscles in the feet have weakened so much that normal gait is difficult. Remembering to regularly use the muscles in your feet is vital for a youthful stride (and for enduring heels all day/night long!). Calf raises, or relevés are perfect for not just strengthening ankles and calves, but also supporting knees and overall developing leg strength.
3. Activate your glutes
This is about more than just emulating Pippa. You’re unlikely to make any glute gains in just a month, but what you can do is learn to ‘switch’ your glutes on on a low level, consistently. This will help overall with your posture, will give the appearance of your seat being ‘lifted’ and crucially will stop you sinking into one hip while you are on your feet all day (terrible for photos and bad for your hips!). Glute bridge work (lying on your back with hips lifted) or kneeling glute work (lifting one leg up, while balancing on hands and one knee) will really help you isolate into those muscles. Add a small weight behind the knee or a band around the thighs and you’ll accelerate results in no time.
4. Put your back into it.
Did you know we have nearly 3 times more muscles in our posterior chain (back) than the front of our bodies? And yet usually we are only interested in how we look from the front. Switch it up. Start doing daily dorsal raises (back extensions) from a prone position on the floor and in no time, you’ll start to see definition (perfect for a backless bride) and you’ll find that you stand taller and look leaner.
Find out more about Barreworks wedding package here: http://www.barreworks.co.uk/wedding-package/
Written by Vicki Anstey
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