A long and lean body is high up on every woman’s list of fitness goals, but surely you can’t actually elongate what the good Lord gave you? According to health and wellness coach Emma Seibold, who also happens to be a certified yoga teacher and the founder of Barre Body yoga and barre studios, it may sound impossible to get long and lean, but it really isn’t. ‘We are all different shapes and sizes,’ Seibold admits. ‘But there are certain things you can do to increase the length of your muscles and streamline your body.’
1. Make Sure You’ve Got the Right Diet: Seibold asserts, ‘My philosophy has always been that a healthy diet will get you to the right weight and exercise will help to tone and shape your body. Really simple ways to clean up your diet include reducing white stuff (white sugar, white flour, pasta, rice, cakes, pastries, etc), reducing saturated fat (but keep the good fat in moderation – it helps to fill you up and is much better for you than diet and low fat foods), avoiding packaged and processed foods and preparing your own meals (so much more delicious and healthy).’
2. Don’t Just Tone: ‘Combine stretching with toning work,’ Seibold instructs. ‘This is where the magic happens. Barre Body combines strengthening work to tone your muscles and long yoga stretches to lengthen your muscles. The stretching component is really important to create length and avoid bulk in the muscles.’
3. Pay Attention to All of Your Muscles: ‘Work both the large and small muscles,’ Seibold advises. ‘This goes hand in hand with combining stretching and toning work. Interval training is where higher intensity periods are interspersed with slower, more gentle rest periods. This results in increased cardiovascular fitness and fat loss due to the metabolic boosting effects of interval training.’
4. Give it a Go: Seibold suggests, ‘Try a barre class (of course!) Barre classes are gaining popularity with celebs like Madonna, Natalie Portman and Drew Barrymore all hitting the barre for a hot bod. Barre Body combines yoga, pilates and ballet barre conditioning and is loads of fun).’
Don’t believe Seibold? Just ask reader Holly. As an indoor-cycling instructor, 49-year-old Holly loved spinning so much that she taught eight classes a week. Yet Holly had to give up on her teaching schedule when she noticed that her jeans were getting ‘really tight, uncomfortable in the butt and thighs.’ In Holly’s case, dropping cycling and picking up barre classes and running resulted in a weight loss of 10 pounds. If you want to see how yoga poses can help you to stretch and tone your body, why not try the following pose courtesy of fitness experts Philip Knox and Devin Thomas?
- Bow Pose: ‘This advanced yoga pose can really burn fat while toning your arms, legs and abdominal area,’ Knox and Thomas explain. ‘Lie down on your stomach, bend your knees and reach around to grab your feet. Pull in your stomach and extend your feet upward, raising your upper body at the same time. Keep your shoulder blades down and back. Hold for several breaths, then relax.’
- Warrior I Pose: Knox and Thomas note, ‘This yoga pose can work your abs, thighs and arms, and is most effective if used as part of a sequence like Sun Salutation. Standing straight, step your left leg 4-5 feet to the left, then rotate both feet and your torso toward the left. Bend your left knee over your toes while keeping your right leg straight. Raise both arms high above your head with your fingertips pointing upward, looking up at your hands.’
Comments are closed.