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Spring fitness special
With eight weeks to bikini season, it's crunch time! ELLE rounds up the latest fitness trends and celebrity secrets for a hot bod.
By Alison Garwood-Jones and Dana Tye Rally
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Sitting pretty
Workout tips for those looking for a shortcut to perfection.
Tai chi
If you balk at the idea of physical and mental extremes, try the calm flow of tai chi postures. While you're achieving a stress-free state through gentle hand presses and shallow knee bends, you'll be burning more calories than a surfer and nearly as many as a downhill skier, not to mention increasing your longevity.
Shopping burns calories!
For every hour you spend weaving your way through the shoe aisles and lifting your arm to point at desired items on the mannequins, experts say you'll burn a total of 157 calories. (This applies to women who weigh 150 pounds.)
Shape shifters
Anti-cellulite products are tailormade for stylish slackers. L'Oréal Paris' PerfectSlim Patch contains concentrated Cx Caffeine and menthol to firm skin and reduce the appearance of stubborn cellulite. And because the patches should be worn for eight-hour stretches three times a week for optimum results, excessive exertion is discouraged.
Aromatherapy
A recent British study from St. George's Hospital in London found that certain scents, like vanilla, may help with weight loss. Participants wearing vanilla scented skin patches reported having fewer cravings for sweets. The aroma of vanilla beans and vanilla body products may help too. Similar studies are being conducted with grapefruit scent.
Having a pedicure burns about 10 calories, says Gibala. (By our calculations, that would include four tummy crunches to untie your shoes and then put them back on, four leg lifts to take your feet in and out of the soaking tub and two leg extensions to have your toes polished.)
Films to get you moving
Rumour has it that watching action movies elevates your metabolic rate, possibly helping you to lose weight. "You may get a shot of adrenalin," says Gibala, "but that will have a negligible impact on your weight-loss plan. Getting off the couch is a much better idea." But if that's not likely to happen, here are five films that should inspire you to work out.
Run Lola Run In this 1998 German indie film, Lola, played by The Bourne Identity's Franka Potente, has 20 minutes to collect and deliver the 100,000 Deutschmarks her boyfriend has lost before he's done in by mobsters. Warning: Plan on a nap after watching all those running sequences.
Footloose The '80s musical montages in this story about repressed townies will have you busting out into dance sequences and punching your fists at the sky. Everybody cut footloose!
Flashdance In 1983, this feelgood favourite starring Jennifer Beals as Pittsburgh's sexiest welder cum dancer had us believing in the fashion merits of permed hair, leg warmers and ripped sweatshirts. Those victorious taglines will live on forever: "Take your passion, and make it happen!"
Million Dollar Baby Actress Hilary Swank teamed up with boxing champion Lucia Rijker and gained nearly 20 pounds of muscle to play the part of Maggie Fitzgerald in 2004's Million Dollar Baby. Thirtysomething waitresses everywhere were inspired to hand in their notice.
Little Miss Sunshine This sleeper hit from 2006 about a neurotic family on the verge of a breakdown had an unintentional fitness angle. Don't knock the aerobic benefits of trying to jump into a moving Volkswagen van until you've tried it!
Image courtesy of Geoffrey Ross
What's your favourite work out movie? Chat about it in our forums!
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