Half way through the first week of my 4-Week Walk for Weight Loss! And today is all about body shaping, according to my personalized walking calendar from Prevention.com.
Hey, no one told me that we’d be doing any other kind of exercises! I’m in this for the walking…
{sigh}
Prevention has all the how-to details on the 10-minute body shaping circuit, but here’s the basic scoop:
The Curb Liftoff is just a matter of standing with one foot on the curb or a low step, and bending into a graceful squat. (Can a squat ever be called “graceful”?)
Bench Press sounds ambitious, but it’s for the all-important chest area… Grab the back of a bench, standing away from it a bit, then bend your elbows to lower down towards it. I think it feels like doing a push-up, for those of us who can’t do push-ups (and probably don’t want to try).
You may want to go where no one can see you, for the next bit.
The Walking Lunges with Knee Lift are like something straight out of Monty Python‘s classic comedy sketch on the Ministry of Silly Walks, and Pivot Squats, while no doubt excellent for trimming the butt, are not a move that most of us really want our neighbours to be watching…
But hey, the final exercise, Standing Crossover, is one I already know! It’s a bit like marching very slowly in place, moving the left knee toward touch the right elbow and then doing the same on the opposite side. It works the oblique abdominal muscles that help to give you a waistline, and you’ll feel it working too!
So, not so bad…
And then we go for a moderate walk for 5 or 10 minutes, and move on with the day!