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It's bikini time: Buff up that body and butt

Proper form, heavy enough weights and plenty of repetition will get you well on your way to show off rock hard abs and more.

By DAVID NORRIE
Published April 21, 2006

In 1946 the United States tested the atomic bomb on an uninhabited tropical oasis in the Pacific Marshall Islands. The weather remained between 80-85 degrees all year on the island called Bikini Atoll.

Later that year when Louis Reard's midriff-baring two piece swimsuit was taking the world by storm, it appropriately became known as the bikini. Sixty years later Reard's insight into fashion still has men turning heads.

While he created the style, it's my job to make the body.

I hope last week's column started you on a good diet with regular cardiovascular exercise. Keep these habits as we incorporate weights.

While the entire body is important, your beach body makeover will focus on the essential areas to help you wear that bathing suit. While some garments can cover up parts of the upper body, I don't know any that can hide bad legs or a bad tush, so that's where we'll go first.

Walking lunges

In my opinion, this is the best overall leg and butt exercise. You rarely look forward to it but it has to be done.

I prefer clients use dumbbells (begin with 15-20 pounds in each hand) but you can use a barbell (20-30 pounds) at your back. Proper form is to take one step forward with your lead leg, letting the leg behind drop as you bend to a 90-degree angle between calf and hamstring with your lead leg.

Posture is important as you want your upper body to be rigid and come straight up as you push back to the starting position with the lead leg. Keep your center of gravity and the weight directly above your hips.

Basically it comes down to taking exaggerated steps with each leg, one following the other, walking with the dumbbells and dipping down with each step. It helps to find a space that allows 10 in a straight path, then 10 to return. As in most leg exercises, lower is better. The trailing knee should come within 3 to 4 inches of the ground. Make sure the knee on your lead leg does not go beyond your foot; remember, 90 degrees.

That's one set. Repeat three times and you should feel an intense muscle burn in your quads, hamstrings and gluteus (butt). The most intense feeling should come at the top of your hamstring where it meets the gluteus. You'll know if you did them right when you wake up the next day and have a hard time sitting down or walking the stairs. But that's good!

The next essential leg exercise is stiff-legged dead lift. Taking a bar (40-60 pounds) with an overhand grip, place your feet directly under your shoulders in the standing position. With the slightest bend in your knee and your back flat, lower your shoulders and the bar slowly, keeping it as close to your legs as possible, until it passes just below the knees.

Once there, begin to raise your upper body back to the starting position using your hamstrings and butt, not your lower back, to pull. Remember, you're bending only at the hip joint and your back remains flat with the shoulders pulled back. The knees should be steady.

A good pointer is to keep your eyes focused high on the wall or ceiling to keep your back in proper placement. Once at the top of the motion, you can push your hips forward slightly, squeezing the buttocks in for extra contraction of the glute muscles. Again, perform at least three to four sets averaging 15-20 repetitions.

The difference between good form and bad form on this exercise is the difference between using your back, which we don't want, and using your legs and butt, which we are aiming for. Please consult a trainer as this is crucial.

These should be staples of your leg routine and be done twice a week with at least 48 hours rest in between.

Rock hard abs

Moving on to the mid section. We know crunches and situps work the abs, but what about the lower torso just above the bikini line? We'll target this area by doing leg lifts.

Begin by lying flat on the floor or a bench. Place your arms by your sides, hands flat, framing the buttocks. Push your lower back into the mat or bench by lifting your head slightly and looking at your feet. This eliminates the gap in your lower back and the floor and engages the upper abdominals . With your ankles and knees both touching and your knees just slightly bent, begin to raise and lower your feet at a slow, consistent pace.

They should begin about 6 inches off the ground and finish at the top no higher than 3 feet off the ground. This maintains pressure on the muscle. For a more advanced version, you can do leg lifts with your legs pointed down on a decline bench, holding on the top of the bench with your hands. This exercise not only targets the lower abs, but the hip flexors as well.

I suggest starting with sets of 10, then advance with a goal of 20-30 reps.

As we move toward the upper body, I'll make a time saving and muscle toning recommendation. Combine complementary muscle groups with machines or exercises that hit at least two at a time.

For instance, a close grip chest press will target your inner chest (cleavage) area as well as the triceps (back of the arm). Taking a curl bar with approximately 25-30 pounds, lie flat on a bench, with a double thumb length between your hands. Bring the bar to the chest, making sure to keep your elbows close to your side on the way down.

Apply the same principle to the back and biceps. Instead of a regular pull down with hands over the top of the bar and wide, instead take an underhand grip, about shoulder width, and pull the bar down toward your chest.

Remember to keep elbows close to the body on the way down, eyes focused upward toward the top of the machine and lower the bar until it almost touches your chest, in a slow and controlled motion.

This engages the bicep muscles as well as the back, two areas definitely exposed in the summer. Again, I recommend another bicep exercise to isolate the muscle but doing this type of pull-down for four sets (40-50 pounds) should work well .

These are only a few exercises but I feel they can benefit you the most in a short amount of time.

The two most common mistakes I see when women lift is (a) they do not go heavy enough and (b) fail to go through a full range of motion. You must challenge the muscle, get it to the point of failure to see results. Keep weight up and reps low (12-15). You won't build bulky muscle; that takes testosterone. And watch your form. In lunges and squats the lower the better.

Now get out there and bust your butt. Make Reard proud.

[Last modified April 20, 2006, 08:13:20]