Living in the south I can already see summer peeking around the corner. This is great; however, I definitely need to get my beach body ready. I am going to do this using my never-fail three part plan.

Part one of the plan is calorie reduction. I vacillate between calorie counter apps, but usually always go back to the Lose It! app on my iPhone. This app has everything you need to count your daily calories and only takes a minute each meal. This is a very important part of the plan, because too many calories is counter-productive and not enough can prevent your body from recovering after working out in part two and three.

Speaking of part two, whole body workouts are ideal. In my previous article, 6 Full Body Exercises to Get Your Beach Body Ready, I discussed the importance of a whole body routine. Working out all of your muscles three times a week is a fantastic way to build and tone muscle in a short period of time. I have found many other full body routines with a simple Google search. I am a fan of doing basic routines that really hit each muscle group like in the workout I listed. However, what I do to make it even more challenging is pick one of the six exercises and max out on that one for that routine. The next time I do the routine, I take it easy on that exercise and choose a different one to max.

The last part of this three part plan is intense cardio. You need to do cardio at least three times a week and for 40 minutes each session. Our goal is cardiovascular health, but we want to burn fat and strengthen our bodies. 40 minutes to 90 minutes is the target fat burning range. This range allows us get the body eating away at the fat and boosting our metabolic rate that allows us to burn calories even when we are not working out. This is like getting paid to stay at home! You can get to this level by doing a very long run, bike ride, or whatever exercise you can handle for 40 minutes straight. Anything less than 40 minutes is just going to get the heart pumping and not truly burn the fat.

Doing all three parts each week will have you beach body ready before you know it!