“Just In Time to Slim, Shape, and Sculpt Your Body For The Season of Shorts, Shirts, Swimsuits…And Just Being Comfortable In Your Own Skin. Let’s Sex Things Up For Summer!”

Body sculpting with explicit instruction in my body shaping secret weapon: Fit Quickies™

Conference call workouts and guidelines to build your best body sculpting routine ever.

Lift and Shape your seat, thighs, abs, and arms.

Coordinate targeted sequences with your favorite full body workout.

Get your gams, glutes, abs and arms ready for summer!

May is my birthday month and here’s my gift to YOU: Gams, Glutes, Abs, and Arms for Summer.

I’ll not only be sharing how I personally and successfully implement Fit Quickies™ in my workout rotation, but I’ll teach 8 of them to you as well.

These deliver big time in terms of body shaping, keeping you trim, flexible and energetic. And in concert with my dietary plan, you have a winning ticket.

Click HERE for the entire scoop, and reports from students in the February Class AND to jump to Earlybird Registration (save $75)

Including, from my FitDream Files:

• Top Ten Muscles to target for body sculpting – and specific exercises to do just that. If you’ve read my Special Report “The ‘Forgotten’ Body Shaping Secret That Gives You Results in the Places You Want Them”, then you’ve got a jump start on this topic; in May, you’ll learn specific exercises to target these areas.

• Research-proven, most effective exercises for glutes and hamstrings. Learn my customized combination for lifting the seat, sculpting beautiful hamstrings, and creating beautiful shape through that tough-to-target zone, the “bu-thigh”.

• Research-proven, most effective exercises for the abdominals. My customized combination for taking the melt off the belt and cinching in with your natural-girdles, the obliques.

• Topless Muffins: my secret weapon for taking the top off the back of the muffin. I do this move several times a week to lift the seat, make that cute little dent in the side of the seat, and create a flow from the back into the seat. It’s fun, effective, and it feels good, too. I promise you’ll likey!

• More 7 Seconds to a Flat belly: advanced variations on this move to target that place below the belt.

• Inner thighs: squeeze and tease, chair squeeze, and thigh mistress – it’s a favorite triple play for tightening up this tough-to-target area. I make it simple.

• Triceps: Take the “never ending wave” out of YOURS with my triceps challenging sequence. They’re tough, but they don’t take much time and they get the job done. Isn’t that what we’re looking for?

• Dietary Plan: what I do and tips to get your summer skinny on.

Join us!

Click HERE for the entire scoop, and reports from students in the February Class AND to jump to Earlybird Registration (save $75)

Am I primed, motivated, and eager to work out each and every time that I do?

Guess again.

Yet there isn't a day that I wake up feeling strong, fit, slim, and energetic that I don't absolutely, thoroughly, completely relish and enjoy the fact that I am.

You better believe it.

THIS my friends is the real deal.

What keeps me going

You know what keeps me going with healthy practices?  This means

• regular exercise
  
• a whole foods, plant-based diet
  
• stress protection and management (don't leave it to chance)
  
• flexibility training, and
• activities for practice of mindset and mastery.

What keeps me going is that there is nothing like feeling fit, toned, energetic, and slim.

No matter what else life brings your way.  (Trust me on this one, I know.)

But being resilient, full of vitality, and FREE of the remorse and dissatisfaction with extra weight, sluggish energy, and bad health due to choices has been more than a blessing.

It's been a life saver AND a life maker.

Make no mistake

Being healthy and fit bring enormous benefits for your quality of life.

This means how much vitality you have each day as well as physical and mental resiliency for all that we find ourselves amidst as part of the human predicament.

You will live better and more productively if your body and mental training are cultivated intentionally.

Don't leave it to chance.

Make it a priority.  Get support if needed.  Put on your own oxygen mask first.

And enjoy what the fit enjoy.

© Lani Muelrath 2009 All Rights Reserved

The long awaited opportunity to work out in the headquarters of the Bar Method Workout studios in the San Francisco Marina District finally presented itself today.

And all expectations were (ouch!) fulfilled.

Keep in mind, this is ouch in a GOOD way.

The kind where you leave an hour- long workout with spring in your step.

The kind where you feel like your "backyard" is already an inch higher off the ground than it was an hour before.

And the kind where you emerge strong, stretched, and feeling beautiful in your own body.

Instructor Kate's careful cues

Kate's keen eye was deeply appreciated as I received some Bar Method form tweaks that brought my practice up a notch.

For example, during the signature "folded seat work" (Bar Method fans know exactly what I'm talking about!),  Kate coached me in 2 key adjustments:

1)  the leg lifted in back, with toe turned out to the side wall, should be only bent a teeny tiny bit.  Mine had been bent too much.  But when you straighten it out just a smidge – and Kate kept reminding us all to keep it almost straight (your body just wants to cheat on this one!)  – ZOOM it's right there in the saddlebag area. Which is maybe why women who do the Bar Method don't seem to have them.  Saddlebags that is.

2)  while that leg is up in back, and belly is pulled in and hips square/shoulders square, keep the lifted leg close in to the other – Kate's cue was "keep the glutes pulled in to eachother".  BOOM – right there in the bum.

This new dimension I am sure I will be feeling the effects of tomorrow.  And I"ll be trotting back into the studio then for another round, so I'll know for sure.

Stretch challenge!

I don't know how it happened, but somehow I landed in class next to the MaryLou Retton-esque Susanna, as flexible as they come.

You know, the one who always lands flat into splits whenever the instructor suggests "if you would like, you can open up into more of a split!"  Well, Susanna was there before the words were out of Kate's mouth.

Speaking with Susanna after class, I learned she is a well-rounded athlete, who (in her own words) does "crazy 24 mile hikes and kick-boxing (for starters!)  She had been at her recent Bar Method studies for about a month and has found the definition in her arms and legs responding like crazy.  Obviously a happy ( and flexible!) camper.

Wish there were a picture of my instructor Kate to show you.  I asked, but as she is several months pregnant (6 months along) she declined.

Just the same Kate, thanks for a great class, and next time – picture!  Promise?

As for me, the "backyard awareness" is starting to kick in.  But I still can't wait for tomorrow morning's class.  I hear I may even have the pleasure and honor of having Burr Leonard, creator of the Bar Method workout, as instructor.  Stay tuned.

© Lani Muelrath All Rights Reserved

I don't know about you, but I love lower body work.  Good thing, because you NEED to challenge those lower body muscles to give the seat a lift. 

Seeing as in the thighs, butt, and hips we find the largest muscles of the body, maybe that's why when we give them a focused, intense challenge there is an  immediate connection with strength and shape.

It's almost a guarantee:  feeling glumpy, lumpy, and low energy?  Snap out some lower body work and in a few seconds you are ready to literally spring into action!

Not only that, but when you really challenge these large muscles big time, you get about the best calorie burn possible during – and even after – your workout.

Here's one of the all-time bests for building great muscle density and shape in the lower body.

But take care to watch the video and pay attention to important form and alignment details!  They are critical for:

~ preventing injury and "owies"

~ maximizing body shaping properties (note posture, alignment of knees, activation of abdominal wall)

Unless you have contraindications for this exercise, such as knee injury, you can work this successfully into your rotation for building lower body strength and shape and giving the backyard – the butt or "booty" especially – a nice lift.

And if you are already doing squats, this lunge is a great move to work into your lower body exercise rotation.

S-T-R-E-T-C-H after!

An essential component of muscle shaping and strengthening is stretching.  Take time after this split lunge to stretch quadriceps and hamstrings.

And of course, always warm up first!

© Lani Muelrath All Rights Reserved

Note: To modify, you can keep position number 1 with the leg bent until you feel you have the flexibility to move into the extended leg.

© Lani Muelrath

P.S. Let me know how you like the stretch!  When I am regular in doing this several times a week, I get excellent results with increased comfort and flexibility.

Are you looking for the truth about when best to stretch?

Do you hear conflicting advice about stretching before or AFTER a workout?

There are two central issues to consider when approaching flexibility training via stretching.

These two highly related issues are:

1.  Thermo-Elasticity, and

2.  The Stretch Reflex

My recommendation, and the practice I have followed personally and in coaching and training for years, is to follow this protocol on the trail to enhancing your flexibility via stretching:

1)  perform light activity to warm the muscles

2)  proceed to more intense activity, depending on your goals for that particular training session (1.e. strength or endurance)

3)  decrease exercise intensity as needed at the end of the intensity phase (#2 above)

4)  proceed to stretching, or muscle elongation, such as the this hamstring stretch.

These considerations are essential for not only enhanced flexibility, but injury prevention as well!

To simplify things, let's look at what I call "the science of the stretch:"

All soft tissues (muscles, tendons, joint capsules, fascia, skin) are more extensible when they are warm.

Think about it.  What do glass blowers, blacksmiths, and taffy pullers do before they s-t-r-e-t-c-h their product?

They warm it up!

Your muscles are the same.

Muscles Are Thermo-Elastic

We need to respect the fact that muscles are "thermo-elastic".  When cold, muscles are rigid and inflexible.  For this reason, all stretching is ineffective if it is performed when the body is cold, and should therefore be preceded by a series of warm-up exercises to increase tissue temperature.

There is another related characteristic of muscle tissue that needs to be considered as well.  That is what I call the stretch reflex.

The Stretch Reflex

Muscles and tendons have a neural reflex arc that prevents excessive stretching, or tension developing. You can connect with your own experience of this neuromuscular inhibitory response to demonstrate this phenomenon:  have you ever noticed the tightening effect that occured when you have gone too hard, too quickly into a stretch?  It's as if your body "freezes up" and locks you out of the stretch!

This is actually what is happening.  Here's how.

There are receptor nerves within your musclesthat are very sensitive to changes in muscle tension and length.

When you move into a stretch on a muscle, spindles within the muscle send a message to the central nervous system. This message causes a reflex reaction, specifically the contraction of the muscle in order to prevent stretch damage. The exact opposite of the muscle elongation that you are trying to achieve with the stretch!

Heat And Time As Your Stretch Allies

However, you can use heat and time as your allies.

The first priority is heat – and that you achieve by moving the body to warm up the joints, muscles, and fascia tissue that are a protective sheath around the muscle.  When the body temperature is raised via overall activity, blood flow to muscles, muscle sheaths, and all connective tissue is inspired.  This then creates a state of readiness for more intense exercise, as well as stretching.

Next on the list is time!

If you gently maintain the stretch for more than 6 seconds the Golgi tendon organs respond to the change in muscle tension by sending a signal to the central nervous system which causes the muscle to relax. Basically, this means that stretching exercises should be done slowly with a gradual increase in the range of movement every few seconds.

I like to think of it as "inviting" the muscle into elongation through gentle persistence and coaxing, honoring the need of the muscle to not only be warm prior to stretching, and with all due respect to the reflexive response of the muscle to the stretch itself.

More Considerations

Injury prevention, strength building factors, and a variety of other considerations need to be taken into account with an effective and safe stretching program as well.

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© Lani Muelrath All Rights Reserved

© Lani Muelrath