Appleton Temptation Isle (ATI) marks its 10th anniversary this year, so it is expected to be the biggest, baddest event in its history. These parties bring more and more tourists back to the beaches to boogie down over the Emancipation weekend (July 30 – August 2). Each year, the event draws travellers from Japan, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, USA and the Caribbean to party at seven events over four days. The revellers range from 18-30 years old, 70 per cent of whom are female! Truthfully, no one wants to hit the beach unless they are looking and feeling really good.

We’ve got nine days to countdown your ATI beach body, and you CAN still improve on your assets and see results with these wicked, fast-track firm-up exercises.

Isolating Key Muscle Groups

The key to reducing the size of a particular area of your body, or making fat deposits disappear is to cut calories, add a cardiovascular activity into your daily life and target-train. Isolating the problem areas is the solution. Here’s how to tone up your buns and your belly in time for the main event!

Get A Beyoncé Butt

Voluptuous and sensual are the descriptions given to many curvaceous females whose soft body contours and deep curves create an allure like that of Beyoncé Knowles. Many of us Jamaican women have a gynoid or pear-shaped body type and let’s face it, girls… we’re beautiful, but everyone wants to firm up. Get this Booty-Lifting Workout in at least FIVE times this week until the main event and you will be so shocked at how much your body can change in just over a week.

For a Bay Watcher who wants to tighten and lift the butt, the idea would be to target the major muscles in the back of the leg; the hamstrings (back of the thigh) and the gluteus minimus and maximus muscles, also known as the buttocks. What is important to know is that when trying to tighten and lift the butt, one does not literally LIFT the butt. You have to visualise the area just below the butt disappearing, which will make the butt itself look higher in placement, but instead what you are really doing is displacing (or reducing) the fat at the top back side of the thigh. So, the key words here are SPOT TRAINING.

Resistance training exercises such as lunges, hamstring curls and reverse leg lifts, to name a few, target the above mentioned area very effectively and aid in “posterior displacement”. By working the hamstrings and the glutes in combination with aerobic training, you can lose FAT from your lower body. If you are doing one without the other, you are not reaping the full burning capacity and benefit of your workouts.

I have put together some of the most effective butt blasting moves in one programme to lift, shape and tighten your toosh ….in a flash! You may only have nine days until PARTY TIME, but there is a lot that you can still do STARTING NOW. So put your sweatbands on because we have some work to do!

The Workout:

Intense Cardiovascular Workout for 45 minutes per day. My top picks:

Swimming, jogging, power skip rope

Key tip for maximum cardiovascular workout benefits:

o Push your intensity to where your breathing rate is so heavy that you would prefer not to carry a conversation. You would have to pause and breathe between words.

o Engage your abdominal muscles throughout the workout.

Buns

Do this routine immediately following your cardio routine as a circuit, going through it three times in row.

1. Kickbacks: (a) Up on hands and knees, keeping the right leg bent and foot flexed, raise the leg up behind you, positioning the sole of the foot towards the roof and then lower it back down to the other knee x 25.

(b) Then keep that leg up in line with your tailbone and pulse the foot up the roof x 25. (c) Go straight into hamstring curls with the leg in line with the tailbone, bend at the knee, pulling the heel towards the butt and extending it straight back out x 25. (d) Hold the leg out straight and lift and lower the straight leg x 25. Repeat on other leg.

2. Kickbacks II: hands and knees, (a) Lift a bent knee up behind you and straighten the leg out as you approach the top, then lower it back down to the other knee and repeat 25 times. (b) Take the straight leg out to the side at a 45 degree angle from the body and lift and lower it up and down x 25. (c) Pulse for 30 at the top. Repeat on other side.

This series is even more effective with 2-5 lb ankle weights. Progress into weighted exercises gradually.

Get Bikini Ready Abs In Two Weeks

Immediately after completing your aerobic workout, you want to hit the floor and really focus on your abdominals. When posing on the sand, the eye is always drawn to the midsection, so the core is a must over the next few days. Visualise… “alligator back” abs here, guys….every crunch is progress!

Abs:

o Lying flat on your back on a mat, lift your legs straight up above your hips and leave them there, steady. This engages your core muscles. Lift the shoulders up towards the legs, supporting the head with your hands and making sure to clear the floor with your entire upper back and shoulders. Exhale on the ascent, inhale on the descent. Do 35 slow reps and 30 fast pulses.

o Place the feet flat on the floor and lift the shoulders up on two counts, down on two counts, repeat 25 times. These are small and intense movements. Repeat this move while holding your hips slightly off of the ground, a subtle pelvic tilt intensifies the exercise tenfold. Hold at the top on the last one for 15 counts.

o Crunch into a ball, bending the knees up at 90 degrees, lining them up with your hips, lift the head off the floor pulling up towards the knees and lowering back down for 30 counts. Go right into the next 30, this time pull the knees in towards the chest simultaneously, crunching your entire body into a ball position. Hold together on the last one and pulse for 20 small crunches breathing out fast on the crunch, and hold it all together on the last count for 15 seconds.

Go Through This Series Twice In A Row

Tip: If your neck begins to hurt whilst crunching, cross your hands behind your neck and place the opposite fingertips on the tops of the shoulders. This way, you can let your head rest on your forearms, giving your neck full support.

Breathing through each crunch allows oxygen to enter the bloodstream, which is “gas” for maximum fat burning.

Do It For Yourself

You can make big progress in a small amount of time as long as you stay focused. Some people respond better to short-term goal periods, so use this week as an opportunity to start a long term fitness plan. Most importantly, when you hit the beach, no matter what — always have a great time and hold your head up!