Planning a wedding, the ensuing functions and activities are happy and exciting times for the bride and the groom. It is a special occasion which involves a lot of socialising, frenzied shopping and partying, all adding to exhaustion, sleeplessness and mental and physical stress with little time or motivation to worry about one’s personal health and wellbeing.
It is therefore vital that you plan your fitness regime or your weight loss in advance to combat the pre-wedding stress and to look vibrant and radiant on the eventful day. No doubt, a toned physique apart from making you attractive, also makes you confident, focused and less stressed. This is where a little planning of your exercises and diet comes into play.
—The writer is a leading global holistic health guru.
Full body exercises: Full body exercises include free hand squats, lunges, push ups, sit-ups and reverse or oblique crunches with two sets of 20 counts each.
Squats: Stand erect with your feet approximately one shoulder width apart. Push your hips back, slowly bending your knees to a 90 degree angle. Keep your back straight and eyes looking ahead. Slowly rise to starting position.
Lunges: Stand erect with your feet about one shoulder width apart. Take a large step forward with one leg. Return to starting position. Push the heel of your front foot to return to the starting position. Alternate with your other leg. Remember to keep your muscles tight as you perform the exercise.
Reverse crunches: Lie on your back on the floor. Put your hands on your stomach or palms down at your sides. Lift your feet off the floor. You can either have your knees bent at a 90 degree angle, or you can point your feet in the air with your legs as straight as you can get them. Lift your hips off the ground, using your abs. Be careful not to push down with your hands, back or head.
Get active: If you choose to exercise in your room, begin with a few minutes of warm up with light aerobic activity for 10 minutes like jogging, cycling, running, jumping jacks and climbing stairs. Then do stretches to prevent muscle and tendon injuries with exercises like forward, backward and sideways leg kicks, calf raise and shoulder shrugs. Jumping Jacks — Assume an erect position, with feet together and arms at your side. Slightly bend your knees, and propel yourself a few inches into the air. While in the air, bring your legs out to the side about shoulder width or slightly wider. As you are moving your legs outward, you should raise your arms up over your head; the arms should be slightly bent throughout the entire in-air movement. Your feet should land shoulder width or wider as your hands meet above your head with arms slightly bent. Quickly jump back and repeat.
Practice yoga: Do 30 minutes yoga with a few steps from the surya-namaskar to increase flexibility and make your skin radiant.
Here are a few steps that will help tone the body. They are a part of the Surya-namaskar but can be done singly as well: Stand facing the Sun with palms folded and both the thumbs touching the chest. Raise hands upward, with feet firmly on the ground, bend backwards, stretch arms fully. Slowly bend forward, hands touching the earth with respect, head touching the knees.
Bring the right leg back close to the left leg, keeping hands and legs straight. Stretch yourself fully on the ground in the Saashtanga Namaskar pose (all eight anga or parts of the body on the ground – head, thigh, eyes (sight), mind, word, feet, hands and ears (hearing)). Slowly raise the head, bend backward as much as possible, hands straight, in the cobra pose. Parvathasan, with the difference that the right leg is brought forward. Finally, relax your body by lying down in shavasan pose for 10 minutes. Remember not to overdo your exercise regime and get fatigued or injured before the D-day.
