Pre-Bed Exercises That Work While You Sleep
We don’t find time to sweat it out all that often.
Sleep is our most precious commodity, so the snooze button and a few extra hours of shut eye always wins out over exercise. But apparently fried halloumi doesn’t burn itself off, and our buns can’t turn themselves into steel, so we needed a plan B.
Enter Jordan Ponder, a.k.a the maker of model rigs (we’re talking Bambi, Montana Cox, Shanina Shaik and more) and quite frankly our new favourite person. Why? Because he told us how we can work out while we sleep. Ok, not exactly, but he did give us a few pointers on how to keep our metabolisms pumping through the night (and keep excess baggage at bay, yay).
Ponder says it all comes down to two things: lean muscle mass + what you eat and when you eat it. Ponder says having 5-6 smaller meals (instead of 2 – 3 big meals) throughout the day will help to keep your metabolism active around the clock.
Then, in the PM, you can give it an extra boost by doing certain exercises that help with that other thing they call ‘lean muscle mass’.
Oh, and you can do it in 10 minutes or less.
Yeah, we thought you’d like that.
By Carmen Hamilton.
The glute activation
Start on your hands and knees.
Make sure your stomach is engaged and your back isn’t sinking.
Now lift your heel towards the ceiling (with your leg still bent the same) and then lower back to its original position.
Make sure your back doesn’t sink down as you do this, and your leg isn’t moving to the sides.
Now repeat for 1 minute on each side.
The ab workout
Lay on your back with your hands under your head and your legs out straight.
Raise your head, then begin to bring one knee back towards your chest and twist so that your elbow is reaching towards the opposite knee. Alternate.
Do this for 30 seconds.
The ab workout (part 2)
Get into plank position.
Make sure your stomach and tailbone are tucked so your body is straight.
Now straighten one arm (placing your hand where your elbow was), then repeat with the other arm.
Then lower the first arm back onto the elbow and follow with the other arm.
Think ‘up, up, down, down’.
Repeat for 30 seconds.
Plié toe squats
Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
Turn your toes out (just to where it feels comfortable) and put your arms out straight.
Lift up onto your toes.
Now squat down (so your knees are directly above your toes) and lift back up again.
Make sure your tailbone is tucked-under the whole time.
Do this for 30 seconds.
Now repeat the whole thing 2 – 4 times and burn baby, burn.
P.S. Sweet dreams!
