6 Toning Tips, Becoming Fashionably Fit

Kevin Shepard, a personal trainer at the DC Ranch Village Health Club and Spa, and Chance Pearson, northwest district manager for Core Concepts Personal Training, offer tips on toning and becoming fashionably fit.

No late-night binging

“You don’t fill up the car and then turn off the engine,” Pearson says. “Don’t fill up late in the day when you’re less active. The body just stores than energy. That translates into weight gain.”

Cut back on sugar

“Sweets are a calorie torpedo,” Shepard says. “Attacking sugar consumption alone and doing nothing else will help you lose inches. If you need to satisfy your sweet tooth, eat a piece of fruit.”

Don’t get fancy

“Lunges are a great exercise that you can do anywhere and any time,” Pearson says. “On vacation, when I’m overindulging, I do lunges on the beach. It’s a great exercise to tone the butt and thighs.”

Maintain balance

“Isolation creates imbalance,” Shepard says. “Do exercises that improve your overall fitness.” Shepard recommends multi-joint exercises like deep and full squats, step-ups, step-backs and step-forwards to shape up problem areas like the butt and thighs.

Get well-armed

“Seated triceps dips, which can be done anywhere using your own body weight, are the perfect way to tone the shoulders and backs of your arms,” Shepard says. “If you do 100 two times a week — you don’t have to do all 100 at once — you will see amazing results in a short amount of time.”

Make cardio count

“Most people do cardio for long amounts of time and make little or no progress,” Shepard says. “That’s because they don’t push their limits. Twenty minutes of high-intensity cardio three times a week will result in serious progress in eight weeks.” To know that the intensity is sufficient, Shepard says sweat should be running down to your underwear line. If it isn’t, you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough.

Scottsdale Living Magazine Winter 2012