5 moves to target your waistline for summer
These are exercise moves to target your love handles and strengthen your core.
Stephanie Mansour is a private health coach for women and a certified personal trainer. For the past decade, Stephanie has been helping people “Step It Up,” every day in their lives with weight loss tips, lifestyle hacks and fitness secrets to up their game.
One of the most common questions I get in the spring is how to get rid of love handles for the summer. The hourglass figure that we see on celebs from Kim Kardashian to J.Lo may have you wondering just how they get such a defined waistline.
While there’s no such thing as spot reduction when it comes to losing fat on the body, there is such a thing as toning and targeting specific areas to make them stronger, tighter, and more defined. Enter my side waist sizzler workout.
These are exercise moves to specifically target your love handles and help strengthen your core.
This exercise routine is designed to use your own body weight instead of any weights, balls, or equipment. Perform these moves in every other day for two weeks for the best results.
Do 10 repetitions of each exercise, and then start over again at the first exercise to complete a total of 3 rounds.
The best part? You don’t need ANY equipment!
1. Laying Side Crunch
Laying down on your back, bend your knees with your feet flat on the ground about hip distance apart. Place your hands behind your head, with your elbows open wide. Then engage your core by pulling your naval in towards your spine.
Slowly curl up with your neck and upper back lifting off of the ground while your head is supported in your hands. Crunch the right elbow towards the right knee, and then come back through center. Crunch the left elbow towards the left knee, and then come back through center. Focus on cinching the side waist and keeping the hips stable. Repeat 10 times to each side.
2. Laying Side Slice
Starting from the same position as above, place your hands together at the center of your chest instead of on the back of your head. Pull your naval in towards your spine and curl up with your neck and upper back off the floor.
Reach and extend the arms to the outside of the right thigh as you crunch up on a diagonal. Think about slicing your hands through water as you reach to the outside of that right thigh. Come back through center, and then slice over to the left side. Repeat 10 times to each side.
3. Side Plank Hip Taps
Now it’s time to move into a forearm plank position!
Coming into plank on your forearms with your shoulders over your elbows, pull your naval in towards the spine to create a flat back. Reach through your heels towards the back of the room, and reach forward through the crown of your head towards the front of the room. Turn to the right so that you’re in a right forearm plank. From here, tap the right hip down to the ground, and then come back up to the full side plank. Repeat this 10 times, and then switch to the left side.
4. Standing Side Crunch
Standing up with your feet as wide as your hips, place your hands behind your head. Tilt your pelvis so that your low back is not arching and your naval is pulling in towards your spine.
Then crunch the right elbow down and bring the right knee up towards the elbow. This is working the right side waist. Repeat this 10 times on the right, and then go to the left side.
5. Standing Ballerina Twist
Standing up with your feet as wide as your hips just like in the starting position above, we’re going to keep the lower body as still as possible while we rotate from the torso. Bring the arms up into a T, or if you’re familiar with ballet bring them into second position.
Pretend that you’re holding a big beach ball in front of your body as you twist to the right engaging the obliques. Then come back through center and twist to the left. Repeat this 10 times to each side. You can look in the mirror and make sure that the legs and hips are not moving with you as you do this twist!
These core exercises strategically target the side waist. Do these in order, starting with the ground exercises, plank exercise, and standing exercise, and you’ll be on your way to feeling tighter and smaller in your waist.
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