July 8, 2021
NewsSummer is right around the corner. It’s the time of year when we’re all thinking of how our body look. We’ve all heard the saying ‘summer body’ and ‘suns out, guns out’. While that might make you think of your arms, it’s usually our legs that we’re most conscious about. Most of the year, our legs are covered by jeans or tights. Once the temperatures start to rise, it’s shorts and skirt season.
During the summer, you want to look and feel amazing. You can get your legs summer-ready by helping to lift and tone what you already have. It’s all about smoothing and defining your legs. We’re sharing our top tips on how to get your legs ready for summer 2021.
If you asked a personal trainer what the most common question that they get is, most of them will tell you that it’s about how you can get your legs ready for shorts season. The secret to toning your legs – or anywhere on your body – is to reduce your body fat, while maintaining the lean tissue.
What you need to do to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit. You only need a small (and sustainable!) calorie deficit to start to see a difference. Alongside your diet, you want to be incorporating training to preserve the leaner tissue. Diet and exercise go hand-in-hand to give you that toned look that everyone is trying to achieve,
You want to start by incorporating lower body workouts that focus on movements in every direction to engage all of your major muscle groups. You need to be activating everything from your adductors in your thighs to your quadriceps in the front of your leg, and the hamstrings.
Before you think of heading to the gym and doing nothing but lunges and squats, take a step back. You don’t want to be focusing solely on what you can see in the mirror. Focusing too much on squats can end up causing lower back and knee issues. You need to be working out the back of your legs as much as the front, otherwise you’ll have an imbalanced look. Most fitness trainers spend twice as long training the back of your leg as the front.
If you’re someone who wears high heels, you want to be focusing on boosting the balance between your hamstrings and quadriceps. When you’re standing in heels for long periods, it pushes your centre of gravity forwards, which means that your quadriceps are doing most of the work to keep your body straight and upright.
When you’re coming up with your fitness routine or workout plans, you want to be training your legs three times a week with two low-intensity cardio sessions added in.
Here’s an example of a sample workout that you can do:
• 3x 6-8 reps of goblet squats
• 4x 10-12 reps of sliders/hamstring curls
• 3x 8 reps of step ups
• 3x 12 reps of hamstring bridges
It’s never too early or too late to start your fitness journey. If you’re looking to get your dream summer body, it’s usually a god idea to start right away. You won’t lose weight or tone-up overnight, so it’s always better to start now than wait until the time is ‘right’. Summer starts earlier and lasts longer than ever, meaning you want to start and keep up your summer workout routine for longer.
It’s not just exercise that you want to be focusing on. Toning your leg is as much about adding definition as it is about exercising. While you want to be incorporating toning exercises, there’s plenty of other steps that you can take to boost the tone and definition of your legs.
Body oils are a staple of the summer to give your skin a dewy glow. The Sunday Fridays Pool Time Glowing Body Oil is being raved about as the must-have for summer. It leaves a healthy sheen on your skin, making you look and feel more confident. What we love about using a body oil is that it adds an extra layer of fragrance to your skin. The Sunday Fridays body oil has a sweet vanilla, coconut, and warm almond scent that lingers on your skin. It’s sweet enough to eat!
Don’t forget about hydrating your skin! During the summer, you want to make sure you’re boosting your water intake – both for your body and skin. We all know the importance of using a body moisturizer, but it takes on a whole new importance during the summer. No one wants flaky or dry skin during the summer.
Add a lightweight and silky body moisturizer to your routine to deeply hydrate your skin and help it maintain its elasticity. Our top choice is the Black Rose Beautifying Emulsion moisturizer by Sisley, powered by black rose, camelina oil, and white ginger.
We all know that it isn’t safe to get your tan from the sun or a sunbed. It’s always safer for your skin to indulge in a fake tan than a genuine one. When you find a fake tan that you love and that gives you a golden glow, then you’re set for life.
One of the most popular fake tans is the Isle of Paradise’s new Self-Tanning Butter which hydrates your skin and is beginner friendly. The Glow 20 Tan Mousse by James Read is our go-to choice when we need a last minute fake tan as it starts to show a subtle glow within 20 minutes, giving you deeper results within 90 minutes.
Hear us out. While a body cream alone isn’t enough to tone your legs and get them summer ready, it can be a gamechanger to how your legs look. You want to choose a body cream that nourishes your skin and gives you a natural shine.
If you’re looking to make a splurge purchase, the Restoring Toning Body Cream by Susanne Kaufmann is a must-have. It contains an innovative formula with boldo, caffeine, and tiger grass that boosts the metabolism of your skin and supports your collagen production. Using this product consistently will help to plump your skin to give you a toned and healthy look. It also contains jiagoulan plant that helps fortify your skin’s protective barrier to smooth your skin.
If there’s anyone who is our inspiration for a summer body, it’s Rihanna. She’s the queen of a glowing tan and has mastered the art of body tints to help streamline your body and give the illusion of slimmer legs. The Body Sauce Body Luminizing Tint
by Fenty Beauty is our go-to this summer. All you need to do is roll the transfer-resistant formula over your legs to give you a natural-looking tan and a subtle shimmer that leaves an airbrush effect on your skin.
Just like your under eyes, you want to depuff your legs. As the temperatures start to rise, it’s not unusual for your limbs to start to swell up. You want to use a serum for your legs to help depuff your limbs.
Our top choice is the Legs Eleven Cooling Leg Serum by Bloom and Blossom. It’s packed full of peppermint leaf oil for a refreshing effect, while the aloe vera works to soothe and hydrate your skin. You can massage it into your legs to help promote your lymphatic drainage, de-puff your skin, and boost your circulation.
If there’s one secret to summer-ready legs, it’s exfoliating. Before you can even think of adding fake tan and using a moisturizer, you need to remove the dead skin cells from your skin. You won’t be able to get a natural-looking and even coverage with your fake tan unless you’ve exfoliated first.
Choose a body scrub with sea salt and use it on damp skin before showering as a way of prepping your body before applying your fake tan. If you want to save time, find an exfoliator that also includes oil so that you can buff away the dead skin cells, while also hydrating your skin. You can exfoliate during your morning routine and then apply your fake tan later in the day.
Speaking of fake tan, you need to moisturize your body before applying your fake tan. At a minimum, you want to add moisturizer to anywhere on your body with dry patches, especially your ankles, elbows, palms, and knees. During the summer, it’s a good idea to moisturize your legs twice a day. With hundreds of body lotions and creams on the market, you’re guaranteed to find one that works for you and your body.
No look is every complete without a fresh coat of nail polish. The summer brings with it open-toe shoes and flip-flops. Take the time to indulge in a pedicure or give yourself an at-home nail treatment. Don’t forget to add a moisturizer to your feet to give them a natural shine and to keep them hydrated.
How are you getting your legs summer-ready? Let us know in the comments below!
Along with skipping the gym, we’ve all been guilty of forgetting about our beauty routine. When was the last time you put on a full face of makeup? It’s all gathering dust at the bottom of our vanity drawer. Getting your pre-lockdown body back is about more shedding the extra weight. Don’t forget about getting back into your tanning routine or jumping back into using skincare products. Whether you’re looking to get your body ‘summer ready’ or help shift a few pounds, we’re rounding up our top five tips for getting back your pre-lockdown body.
Fake tans always come in handy when you want a sun-kissed look, but the question is how to choose the perfect shade for your skin type? There is a lot of fake tans available in the market for different skin type. Choosing which tan will compliment your natural skin color is the real struggle. Before we jump into the basics of fake tan let's take a look at what is made of.
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