When I was trying to get tight and toned arms I came across many workout programs and methods that failed. Instead of leaving me with sleek, sexy arms, they left me with batwings that couldn’t take me anywhere but a world of frustration.

I found various training methods that worked - following a tempo and lowering the reps on each exercise – making these two small changes to my workouts helped me see progress that I was desperate to see. Read the full story

There is always a reason why you aren’t getting the results you want – especially when you are trying to get a tight and toned, cellulite free butt.  Its figuring out WHY you aren’t getting these results after working out week after week that becomes the challenge.

When you don’t see results you want – in this case you’re butt just doesn’t seem to get firm no matter how many lunges you do – it becomes frustrating. This frustration can often lead to you giving up on your goals – never really getting the butt that you want.

But no more – there is something you haven’t taken into consideration yet and there is one muscle group that is prohibiting you from getting the butt of your dreams.

Your hip flexors are preventing you from getting a tight and toned butt.

How?

Your butt is the biggest muscle in your body – made up of three different muscle groups. In order for the glutes to work properly you need to make sure that your hip flexors are not tight.

When your hip flexors (located in the front of your hip) are tight your glutes basically shut down.  When your glutes shut down it is nearly impossible to get a tight and toned butt.

Why?

If you have tight hip flexors it prevents your glute muscles from firing properly.  This means that your glutes to work to the best of their ability. The tightness of your hip flexors causes your glutes to become weak as you cannot work your glutes properly.

Not only will tight hip flexors not get you a cellulite-free butt – it can also increase the risk of injury as your hip flexors start to take over some of the jobs that your butt is suppose to do. Such injuries include back injuries, knee injuries or even injuries to your hamstrings.

You can do squat after squat, lunge after lunge or even bridge after bridge and you will not get the butt you want.

What to do?

The only way to get rid of tight hip flexors – to prevent injury and get a cellulite-free butt is to stretch them.

The best stretch? The Warrior Stretch.

• Kneel on your right knee – with your left foot on the ground in front of you.
• Place your hands on your left knee.
• Without moving your body – tilt your pelvis forward so you feel a stretch in your right hip flexor.
• Hold for 10-15 seconds.
• Switch sides and repeat for opposite side of your body.

The Warrior Stretch is an important stretch to end to the end of your your workouts to get your glutes working again. This one simple move – to fix the one little muscle that has been preventing you from getting the butt you want – will help get your but working again so you have the tight and toned butt you want in no time.

Today I had one of the worst training days I’ve had in a LONG time. I got to the gym – thought I was ready to go and as soon as I walked up to the free weights – I started yawning and did not want to be there.  This is usually not me – I LOVE training and lately I’ve been feeling great in the gym.

I pushed through my yawns and desire not to be at the gym and then spent a few minutes walking on the treadmill before I couldn’t handle it anymore and just HAD to get out of there. Instead of leaving the gym energized and feeling the ‘pump’ of a good workout – I was SUPER frustrated, in a complaining mood (sorry to those I talked to on the phone afterward) and couldn’t figure out WHAT went wrong.

I know I’m not the only one who’s had this experience and personally I’d do anything to make sure it doesn’t happen again!

So instead of blasting the music (couldn’t find anything that I wanted to listen to anyways) I opened the windows (not impressed with the blast of fall air that came in) but enjoyed the sun and reflected on my day to see just WHAT went wrong to cause all this frustration.

I find that personal reflection is a GREAT way to take a look at what you are doing – if things aren’t working out for you (as in this case) it gives you the opportunity to see what you did and what you can change to make sure the day is better. Or in a positive situation reflection gives you the time to see what went right and what went well so you can make sure to do it again and get the same results or even better ones!

In my case, my major problem was the adjustment to a new schedule. I had to be up earlier and instead of making my lunch before I went to bed last night, I was lazy and decided to make it this morning on my way out the door. By rushing my lunch making I didn’t pack enough food so I ended up going to the gym hungry and without having a meal before I worked out. This then led to my lack of energy causing me to not want to workout.

I also didn’t plan my workout before I walked in to the gym. I knew what I wanted to do and thought I’d written it down before – however – I didn’t have the workout in my notebook and that totally threw me off. I felt like a complete newbie and didn’t know which way to go or what piece of equipment to use.

I was probably a bit dehydrated – no good! That comes from not properly planning my meals the night before and assuming that water would be readily available to me (where I was going) and it wasn’t – which led to me drinking not enough water.

By the time I got home – I knew what I did wrong and where I had slipped up. Yes, adjusting to a new schedule is going to take some time (as the activity before I’m able to workout increases and I have to workout later in the day) – but I know what I need to work with now. I can now make the proper adjustments and plan accordingly to make sure that I don’t feel this way again because honestly I’ve worked WAY too hard in the last few months to let poor planning get in the way of my own goals.

Did you have an awesome workout today? Did you have a bad day at work? Before you go to bed tonight -take a minute to reflect on your day – write about it in a journal even – and see what you can do to make it an even BETTER day the next time around.

Not seeing the results you want towards your weight loss goals? Are you ready to start working out and lose weight but aren’t sure where to start?  I’ve been in the exact same place.  When I was trying to lose weight there were plenty of days that I just wanted to give up because I didn’t know what to do next.  I was doing all this hard work and the weight loss results I wanted were not coming.  The frustration it caused wasn’t worth the additional stress to my day, so I took a step back, and took a look at my training to find what was going wrong.
That was the easiest and best thing I could’ve done for myself.  When I took a step back I realized   that I wasn’t doing all I could be doing to successfully lose weight.  So I decided to make some changes, and when I did, the results were amazing.  I was more energized and ready to train and my weight loss results came even faster. What did I do?  Just four simple things…

Read the full story