Get A Hot Body... In Eight Weeks
Our model Alicia Marie shares her five no-fail abs and glutes moves to help you tighten your belt and boost your bottom line.
BY PEGGY HALL | PHOTOGRAPHY TERRY GOODLAD
If you’ve been doing the same old squats, lunges and crunches but they just aren’t paying off like they used to, then it’s time to up the ante with fitness supermodel Alicia Marie’s solid-gold glute and ab routine. Merge these moves into your existing exercise portfolio and you’ll soon see a healthy return on your investment! “I do this workout once or twice a week,” Alicia says. “It’s meant to be incorporated into an existing fitness plan. If you do the moves correctly – don’t cheat yourself – you should see results, especially in your core strength, in about six to eight weeks.”
A self-confessed workout fiend, Alicia knows what she’s talking about when it comes to making capital gains. Although she holds a lot of muscle naturally from her early days as a gymnast, she still trains five days a week, managing her shapely assets through a balanced index of cardio and strength. “I lift heavy for back, and I love lunges!” she exclaims. “But a lot of what I do is to maintain and enhance – not necessarily to build.”
But build she does – her professional career, that is. A known commodity in the entertainment field as well as the fitness world, Alicia has partnered with longtime mentor and figure/fitness coach Cathy Savage to launch The HotBody Project™, a series of one-day workshops where the two will share their tricks of the trade with eager up-and-coming competitors. Their approach to asset management includes routine prep, stage presence, posing and beauty tips along with diet and nutrition basics. Their first stop was completely sold out. Talk about a hot commodity!
Now if you’re ready to develop your own precious assets, simply take stock of your current physique, set some new benchmarks, and follow Alicia’s rally to increase the value of your holdings. Perform the exercises in the order listed, following a circuit format. Alicia’s top stock tip? “Exercise, rest, repeat!” Now that’s an investment you can bank on.
Get Precious Assets
skater side lunge
Start with your feet together and hold a five to seven kilo dumbbell in each hand. Take a large step to the right, bending your right knee directly over your ankle and keeping your toes pointing ahead. Shift your body weight and shoulders over your right thigh with your arms on either side of your knee. Press through your right foot to straighten your leg and come back to the starting position. Repeat on the left and keep alternating until you’ve completed 15 reps total on each leg. This move targets the quads, glutes and inner thighs.
lunge-curl-press combo
Alicia calls this move, “all that and then some!” Holding a pair of five to seven kilo dumbbells at your sides, lunge forward with your right foot, bending your right knee directly over your right heel (not over your toes). Now straighten your right leg, push your weight back up and onto your left foot, and draw your right knee toward your chest, coming into a one-leg “stork” position. Simultaneously curl the dumbbells to your shoulders and then press them overhead. Once again, lunge forward with your right leg and repeat for 15 reps in a fluid, continuous motion before switching sides. Primarily targets the glutes, quads and abs; also hits the biceps and shoulders.
one-legged ship’s mast
Hug a five to six kilo medicine ball to your chest, shift your weight to your left foot and prop the toes of your right foot on a bench or step. Lunge deeply through your front leg, keeping your knee lined up directly over your heel. Straighten both legs, keeping your weight primarily over your front foot “to resemble a ship’s mast leaning forward,” says Alicia. Repeat for 12 to 15 reps before switching sides. Hits the core muscles of the abs and back as well as the quads and glutes.
weighted side kick
Hold a five to six kilo medicine ball to your chest and stand on your right leg. Angling toward the right, bend your left knee and arms in toward your chest, touching the ball to your knee. Extend your arms overhead toward the right, and at the same time extend your left leg out to the side (without touching it to the floor). Continue for 15 reps, balancing on your right leg the entire time, before switching sides. Targets the obliques, quads and glutes.
Insider Training Secrets
OMEGA-3s
Found in leafy greens, walnuts, flaxseed oil, tuna and salmon.
FIBRE
“In today’s high-protein, low fibre diet era, we aren’t getting enough, especially because so many people are terrified of carbohydrate in any form.”
SUPPLEMENTS
“BSN are my supplements of choice. I’m addicted to their Endorush and Dessert protein powder. It keeps me going and going.”
DIETING
Be careful not to overdo it. “Some people need 12 weeks [to diet before an event]; some need only eight. You have to go with what your own body needs. I like to keep a picture of Monica Brant on my refrigerator, and it keeps me focused. While I do have cheat days (dark chocolate is my weakness), I also know that my body likes being healthy, eating healthy and living healthy.”
TRAINING TOOLS
Plyometrics, speedwalking on the treadmill at an 8.0 incline and the leg blaster. Also, “bent-over rows with squat-rack barbell should be a staple. Go heavy! Jump rope workouts are supplemental cardio blasts that can tone up your body in weeks.”