Show off poolside: flaunt a slimmer waistline with 3 must-try tips

The heat is on and as the layers of clothes become a burden, many people find themselves seeking a slimmer waist.

Fear not, here are some key tips on shedding the weight and, more importantly, keeping it off.

It’s time to tone up, slim down and enjoy the summer!

Working the core muscles is an integral part of any plan to shape up. Those include the deep muscles of the pelvic floor, abdomen and the lower back.

These muscles function to stabilize the body, or to be more specific the spine, so focusing on strengthening your core rather than building your superficial six-pack muscles will help greatly towards building a better posture, greater balance and to preventing injury.

The key to mastering your core strength and sliming down your waistline is having the ability to hold a pelvic tilt and simutaniously drawing your navel.

Once you have mastered this exercise, you can then move on to more dynamic movements.

Body weight squats

Few exercises work as many muscles as the squat, so it’s an excellent multi-purpose activity useful for toning and tightening your glutes (butt), core (abs) and of course your legs.

Step 1: Stand with your feet pointing straightforward, hip’s width apart.

Step 2: Bend your elbows at 90 degrees and pull back your shoulder blades.

Step 3: Slowly bend down trying to sit your weight back into your heels.

A good tip is to keep your toes lifted off the floor throughout the exercise, which allows you to target your butt and the back of your legs.

It is ok to allow the knees to come forward slightly past your ankles but the key point is that you feel the burn in your butt and back of your legs rather than just at the front of your thighs.

Step 4: Keep your chest lifted and upright and your shoulder blades retracted throughout.

Step 5: As you reach the bottom phase, squat at a 90 degrees (or slightly less if you’re a beginner and lack flexibility).

Step 6: Now, hold this position and whilst you do, tilt your pelvis (hips) under like your tucking your tailbone under.

Complete three sets of 8-12 reputations slowly

You should feel burn in your butt, core and the back of the legs.

The transverse hold

You will need a cable machine set, the pulley up with light resistance and a single cable handle for single arm grip.

Step 1: Stand lateral (sideways) to the cable machine and take the handle in both hands and bring towards your chest.

Step 2: Set your stance up with your feet a hip’s distance apart, then take a step back with the foot closest to the cable machine so your are in a staggered stance.

Note that the back heel should be off the ground.

Step 3: With the front heel placed firmly on the ground, push through the heel rather than the toes.

Keep your knees slightly bent and behind your toes.

The goal is to keep your hips nice and square.

Step 4: Rotate the resistance across the body, keeping your spine neutral.

It is important that your weight should be mostly distributed on your front heel.

Avoid brining your knees too far forward and rounding through the shoulders. Keep your thoracic spine (mid back) extended

There should be a slight bend in the arm, but not an excessive bend.

Most importantly, don’t allow your hips to shift from side to side as your pull the resistance across. If you feel you are doing this, then a key point to always refer back to is to posterally tilt your pelvis and keep your navel drawn in.

Complete three sets for 15-30 second hold on each side.

Myofascia release on the calf

We may find that when we attempt doing any type of stability exercise in the gym which involves our core muscles our feet feel fatigued first.

The role of core muscles is to keep our center of gravity so when these muscles are not working well, the calf region will typically be an area that then acts as the center point of stability. By incorporating some mysofascia release to help break down the tight muscle tissue in the area of the calf, it will help improve your stability whilst exercising therefore targeting the key muscles, those at your core, greater.

You will need a lacrosse ball or a baseball/cricket ball.

Step 1: Place the lacrosse ball directly underneath the highest point of your calf muscle.

If you do not find a tender area you can place the other leg on top to increase the pressure

Step 2: As you feel the tension releasing, you can slowly work your way down towards your achilles tendon which is just above the back of your heels.

Step 3: Breath deeply into each tender point which helps the muscle relax better.

Hold each point for two minutes.

Step 4: Repeat on the other leg

Myofascia release can be done anytime, but for best results it should be performed prior to your core workout.