Avoid holiday weight gain with our
exclusive pool workout from Julia Roberts’ personal trainer
If there’s no gym at your holiday
destination you might be worried that the beach body you worked so hard for
will disappear as fast as you can say all-you-can-eat buffet. Don’t fear! We
asked Julia Roberts’ personal trainer Kathy Kaehler (kathykaehler.net) for a
water-based workout you can do at the hotel pool, which combines swimming, cardio
and resistance moves that burn calories and strengthen your muscles. The author
of numerous health and fitness book, Kaehler has honed the hot bodies of other
LA stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Cindy Crawford and Kim Kardashian, so she
knows how to get the most out of a workout.
‘I’m a huge fan of water fitness,’ she
says. ‘You stay cool, your body doesn’t hurt, it tones your muscles and the
water makes you feel alive.’ Not only is it perfect for those days when it’s
just too hot to run or cycle outside, it’s also fits into your summer holiday,
Kaehler explains. ‘Usually people stay at hotels with pools, so it’s a perfect
time to do this work out. Plus, why not do something that keeps you in great
condition, so you don’t have any guilt when you return home?’
It’s easy to see why Kaehler is such an
advocate of water workouts. The water offers incredible resistance – roughly 10
times more than air – so you’ll get more out of your workout in a shorter time.
It minimises strain and injury – when you walk, your foot strikes the ground
with a force two to five times your weight, but in waist-high water, impact is
halved. Also, water’s buoyancy makes it easier to move your body, boosting
flexibility, especially if you have stiff or painful joints. The cooling, stimulating
effect of the water may encourage you to work out longer or harder than you
normally do, too. You may not move very fast, but we guarantee you’ll feel your
muscles burning.
Tone
Up In The Pool
The Hollywood pool workout
Warm up
In the shallow end, walk the width of the
pool 10 times, taking long strides and squeezing your glutes with each step.
Repeat, but this time walking backwards. Finish off with some side stepping.
The circuit
1. Lateral raise
Reps: 10
Targets: shoulders (lateral deltoid)
·
Press the water bottles or dumbbells into the
water and hold them down by the side of your body.
·
Raise your arms sideways, until they are
shoulder height. Pause for a second, then lower.
Lateral
raise
2. Running
Reps: 60 seconds cardio blast
·
Place the dumbbells on the side of the pool,
then, in the shallow end, run as fast as you can for one minute from one side
of the pool to the other.
·
Keep your body upright and use your arms to
power you through the water.
Running
3. Bicep curls
Reps: 10
Targets: Biceps
·
Press the water bottles or dumbbells into the
water so they are in front of your thighs, turn your hands around so your palms
are facing forwards then curl the weights up towards your shoulders.
·
Press back down through the water until the
weights are back in the starting position.
Bicep
curls
