Step 1 – Cardio Exercises

A health diet can help you prevent cellulite, but it will not get rid of it. The only way you can remove cellulite and have a smooth bum, tummy and thighs is by exercising regularly!

Exercise will not only help you to remove cellulite, but it will also help you to lose some inches on the waist and hip area and get you toned, fit and slimmer.

The more you sweat better results you will get! When you exercise your body circulation speeds up and increases the levels of oxygen in your blood. This stimulates the lymphatic system to work and dispose of internal body waste more effectively, helping to break down the fatty deposits that can cause cellulite.

Exercise regime targeted to fight cellulite

Go running – To help the body to remove cellulite you have to do some cardiovascular exercise to boost the circulation. So, you can do a 20 minutes session of intensive running on a treadmill three times a week. Start the session according to your fitness and increase the intensity of the running time as you get fitter. If you can talk comfortably while exercising you are pacing yourself correctly. At the end of each session do a quick sprint for the last couple of minutes until talking becomes difficult.

Aerobic exercise – Start a cardiovascular activity that you enjoy such as running (as above), dancing, skipping, cycling or brisk walking. The idea is to improve your cardiovascular fitness, helping the body to tackle cellulite.

Aerobic workouts

Choose a workout that you like and go for it. Some breath-taking exercises include:

• Kick Boxing: This exercise is great to shape the bum and burn some calories.
• Cross Trainer: Go for a 3 to 5 percent incline to really work on the bum and legs and switch direction every 5 min if you can to work the muscles all around.
• Power Yoga: If you are into yoga, practice the Sun Salutation, as this will keep you moving and help your body to detox, which also helps to improve bumpy skin due to cellulite. Also try poses such as the warrior and the chair to work your thighs.

Step 2 – Dynamic Exercise Routine

After each 20 minutes cardiovascular session, start a five minutes exercise routine workout with 10 to 20 repetitions each, as follows:

Shrinking Squat – Stand with your feet hip-width apart, hold a 5lbs weight on each hand, toes pointing forward. Bend your knees down into a squat position, keeping the body weight on your heels, leaning forward slightly and keeping the back straight. As you straighten the legs and stand up from the squat, lift one foot and extend one leg at a time sideways in a slow movement, tensing your bum muscles as you do it.

Dead Lift – Stand with your knees slightly bent and feet hip width apart. Hold a 5lbs weight in each hand, clutch the tummy muscles in and lean forward hanging down the arms by the outer thighs, rolling the shoulders back and bending from the hips. Stand back up again in a slow movement.

Side Lunge – Stand upright, bend the elbows and hold the weights pulled in against the chest. Bend the right knee and take a long step straight out to the side with the left leg, toes turned out. Pressing the hip back and leaning forward slightly, lunging down to the right.

Pelvic Tilt – Lie down on your back, bend the knees creating a 90 degree angle to the floor. Keep the arms straight by your sides, palms facing down and touching the floor. Tilt the pelvis up and raise the hips, then open the left thigh out to the side, with a step movement bring the knee back in line with the hip, repeat with the other leg.

Stepping – Stand behind a low bench or step, position the right foot flat on the step, keeping the hand by the sides. Clutch the right bum and stand up onto the step. As you go up lift your left leg out to the side with a slow and controlled movement. Return to the initial position and switch sides after completing a set.

These five exercises should be performed with a slow and controlled movement to work the muscles correctly. In case you don’t have 5lbs hand weights, you can use two half-litre bottles of water.

As always, the best exercises for the thighs come in the form of free-weight or bodyweight exercises. You really need not look any further than various forms of exercises like lunges, squats, deadlifts, and step-ups to get those toned thighs that you want. In addition, there are plenty of variations of these basic exercises to choose from, so in reality, it is simply a waste of time messing with all of these inner-thigh gadgets and fancy thigh machines.

Here is an example of one of the most effective thigh exercises that you can do. I’m sure you have done some variation of lunges before. There are probably about 20 different versions that you can try and they all kick butt!

One of the best variations of lunges is the walking lunge (there are a couple of ways to do it slightly different to change the emphasis of the workout). Instead of the standing lunges, where you either lunge forward or lunge backward 1 step and come back, with the walking lunges you keep travelling forward on each step, anywhere from 10-30 steps, and then you turn around and come back that same distance.

Muscles of the Body

It is essential to become familiar with the major muscle groups if you plan to start weight training or any other serious fitness regime. Knowledge is power, so study these muscle diagrams and learn what exercises help to build each muscle.

A couple ways to improve on these and get better results over time is to increase your distance each time or start carrying dumbbells to increase the resistance. Walking lunges done right are a real thigh-burner!

Here you find a couple of tips to keep in mind when performing walking lunges:

1) Step far enough forward so that your front shin stays approximately vertical and your front thigh is approximately parallel to the floor at the bottom of the lunge.

2) Your leg behind you while lunging should have a bend in the knee at the bottom, but your knee should come just short of touching the floor. Try not to touch the back knee to the ground during walking lunges.

3) Pause for a second at the top of each step before you lunge forward again for your next step.

Ok, now that you have mastered the basic walking lunge, let me give you a couple of ideas for lunge variations that change the emphasis a little bit for working the outer thighs, inner thighs, and buttocks in a slightly different manner.

One variety is to step at an outward angle on each forward step. A second variation is to step at a slightly inward angle on each forward step. The inward stepping version of the walking lunge is also called a cross-over lunge, and it really stretches out the buttocks and hips.

Go ahead and give these lunge variations a try and I guarantee that you will be firming up those thighs in no time. Whatever you do, please just say no to the fancy thigh machines and inner thigh squeezers. Use these more effective bodyweight and free weight exercises, and you’ll be much better off for it.

See below for more innovative exercises for the thighs and workouts that will have you showing off your new sexy toned legs.

About the Author: Michael Geary (CPT) is a recognized International Fitness Expert, contributing writer for Muscle & Fitness Hers Magazine, and author of the internationally selling book, The Truth about Six-Pack Abdominals. Another recommended resource for fat-loss is Lose Fat and Build Muscle

This is where the “core four” comes into play. All you need is some free weights – just a bar and a bench – although only the bench press is done on the bench.

The Core Four Workout:

“Core four” are the four key weight training exercises to kick start you into building a better, fitter and stronger you. The four core exercises are:

1. Squats – 3 sets of 10
2. Bench Press – 3 sets of 10
3. Bent-over row – 3 sets of 10
4. Barbell Curl – 3 sets of 10

Start with a light weight, or no weights on the bar (bars weight from 5kg to 10kg, 10lbs to 20bls), which is plenty if you have never done any weight training before.

There are many other weight training exercises that can be added to these four at later stages, but just performing these four exercises once or twice a week will tone your muscles and strengthen your core, helping to firm up your thighs and upper body. The main reason that these are the core four is that each of these is a compound exercise, meaning that it works more than one muscle at a time.

The Core Four forms a part of the Motley Health Fitness and Weight Loss Plan, soon to be available on eBook from Motley Health

See Our Sister Site: GooglePages – Fitness and Weight Loss

Weight training routines are generally broken down into repetitions (often shortened to reps) and sets. A set describes one exercise done repeatedly for a specific number of repetitions (or until muscular failure) and repetitions are simply the number of times the weight is lifted through its full movement.

Basic Weight Training Techniques for Women