Get your butt into shape with all the tips you need from international celebrity trainers- guru’s of the fitness industry.
1. TONING TIPS
Want to know how Jessica Biel sculpts her butt? How Jennifer Garner slimmed down post pregnancy? Valerie Waters spills the secrets of her A-list clientele. Follow her balanced diet and exercise plan and you too can have a star-quality body.
Q: What are your tips for getting bikini ready in a short period of time?
A: Committ. Plan Ahead. Eat Clean. Eat Breakfast. Make your workouts count. You make them count by strength training your whole body 3 days a week. Focus on the big muscles: legs, chest, back, arms. The other 3 days you do interval training. That’s how you’re going to burn the most fat. You can run or do intervals on the bike or the elliptical: 2 minutes hard and then ease up for 2 minutes. On the seventh day, you can rest or do an active rest like yoga, Pilates or hiking.
Q: You’re also a food coach to your clients. What’s your healthy eating philosophy?
A: I abide by the 90/10 rule. That means 90 percent of the time you’re going to fill up on healthy foods like lean proteins, low-fat diary, fruits and vegetables, such as Florida grapefruit, spinach and broccoli. That leaves room for treats 10 percent of the time. I believe we should have something that satisfies us each day. It may be a piece of dark chocolate or slice of pizza. That will sustain us in the long term. I believe diet is 70 to 80 percent of it, but you need to exercise cause exercise changes your shape.
Q: You’ve worked with Jessica Biel, who is known for her shapely butt. Can you recommend some booty-firming moves?
A: The Val Slide is the secret weapon for a lot of celebrities because it will change your butt faster than anything you’ve seen. It’s like using a slide board except that’s it’s smaller. So you can slide into a reverse lunge and because it keeps continuous tension of the muscles, it creates more shape faster. It feels like it’s fun and easy, but it kicks your butt. You can do so much to work your butt with no equipment: squats, lunges, step-ups. My clients don’t want big quads, so I don’t do a lot of heavy weights or leg presses.
2. EXERCISE ADVICE
Mike Alexander, owner of MADfit training studio in Beverly Hills, has worked with some of Hollywood’s hottest celebrities, including Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, Kristin Chenoweth and Amanda Bynes. He gives us his insider tips for getting red-carpet ready. Turns out, you don’t have to be famous to flaunt an A-list body!
Q: How do you prepare a client for a role or concert tour?
A: “It’s specific to the role. When Jessica [Simpson] was playing Daisy Duke, she had to wear those super-sexy jean shorts, so we put a lot of focus on her butt and legs. She’s done other roles where she had on pants the whole time, but was going to be wearing a tank top or a wife beater, so we put more focus on the shoulder and arms.
“If I’m training someone for a concert or tour, I focus more on cardiovascular exercise because they’re going to be singing and dancing and running around. So it’s less about how they look and more about conditioning.”
Q: Speaking of getting Jessica Simpson ready to don Daisy Dukes, what suggestions do you have for reshaping your backside?
A: “I can’t promote squats and lunges and step-ups enough, because those are all exercises that you can do with your own body weight and you can do them anywhere with very little or no equipment.”
Q: What tips do you offer clients who want to slim down for an event in a short period of time?
A: “Diet is very important. You have to eat really clean because every calorie counts at that point. At the same time, you don’t want to cut out too much. It’s important to eat because if you don’t your body’s going to hang on to the calories it does get and go into starvation mode. For exercise, I’d recommend doing two-a-day workouts: In the morning do cardio and in the afternoon do a quick weight workout with high reps. That will burn fat and create muscle tone.”
Q: What are common mistakes people make when starting an exercise program?
A: “You can have the greatest trainers in the world get together and devise a workout plan for you, but if you only do it once a week, you’re not going to get the same results as someone who works with a mediocre trainer, but exercises four days a week. Also, the more consistent you are with your workouts, the less intense your sessions have to be. And again, diet is very important. I think people start to work out and they see it as an excuse to eat whatever they want. Sadly, that’s not the case.”
3. RUNNING TIPS
From triathlons to marathons, endurance sports have become a popular challenge for celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Oprah Winfrey. Of course it helps to have a top-notch coach to guide you. Wes Okerson has trained and run with some of Hollywood’s brightest stars, including Katie Holmes, who he prepared for last year’s New York City Marathon. He tells us how he gets his famous clients ready for race day and what you can do to accomplish your training goals.
Q: How do you prepare clients for marathons?
A: “I’ve dealt with people who have little or no experience in long distance running, which is the first challenge. When you prepare for a marathon, it’s mainly about building up mileage to a point where your body–and mind–can handle 26 miles. After a couple months of increasing your mileage, I recommend doing two short runs (4 to 5 miles), two intermediate runs (6 to 8 miles) and one long run (10 to eventually 18 miles) per week. Completing 40 to 50 miles a week puts you on track.”
Q:What suggestions do you have for fitting training into a busy schedule?
A: “Mapping out a schedule each week is crucial. Pick a day of the week when you know you’re not busy and make that when you’ll do your long run. Sunday is usually good because people are off from work. Make an effort to fit in short or intermediate runs before or after work, but be sure to space them out so you’re not running late in the evening and then early the next morning. You want to give your body about 24 hours to recover between sessions.”
Q: What do you say to those who don’t think they can finish a marathon?
A: “It is doable. For first-timers, running 26 miles sounds like an eternity, but your body gets to the point where running becomes second nature. If you’re healthy and willing to train for it, you can do it.”
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