Inches to Lose! - What exercise is best?

  • Hello! I just bought my wedding dress yesterday and I had to have one shipped to me from Florida. When I was in the store, they had me try on a 14 which is too small and they recommended that I try to lose about 2 to 4 inches prior to my wedding in August to be absolutely positive the size 16 dress I purchased will fit me properly.

    So I guess my question is, what kind of exercise can I do to help reduce inches all over? Right now I work and go to school full time so I'm finding it hard to exercise for extended periods of time. I tried the PUSH dvds for a few weeks but I can never seem to find the time (or umph) to do them.

    Here's some of the equipment I have avaliable to me:
    Resistance Bands
    2 yoga balls
    1 5lb hand weight
    2 5lb ankle weights
    1 yoga mat
    2 20 lb weights
    lots of neighborhood to walk around

    Any advice is appreciated! Thank you so much in advance!
  • chellez when I lost the most inches around my waist I was doing rolldowns and sit ups.
  • Cardio and weights will help you lose the inches all over.

    I'd recommend doing some form of exercise every day. Go walking one day, do weights another. Since you have resistance bands, check out the Ladies who Lift forum. There is a sticky regarding resistance band workout. You can also do body weight exercises such as pushups (wide for chest, narrow for triceps), squats, lunges, etc.
  • I went out to Dick's last night and purchased another 5 lb weight and an 8 lb weight so I can take one to work with me. I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day and it gets really slow sometimes.

    Thanks for the advice ladies. I had a friend tell me I should just hit the treadmill for an hour everyday but I was thinking thats just cardio so theres no toning in there. She lost a lot of weight on south beach and walking on the treadmill but she never did weights or situps. She also has a lot of extra skin/fat around her midsection so I'm thinking that may be the reason.

    Jen - how exactly do I do rolldowns? I'm an exercising newbie
  • Chell, do you have a Curves in your area? A lot of those places do a month to month thing and it's only 30 minutes per day, 3 days a week, or more if you'd like, but a lot of people have lost a lot of inches there. I know I did when I went. I actually lost more inches than I did weight, but my body fat % went down too, so you may want to look into that.
  • A rolldow ~ you start in a sitting position with your knees bent then tighten you abs and slowly roll down to the floor keeping your abs engaged at all times. Do not let your shoulders touch the floor (abs still engaged) and roll back up. I could barely do a set of 8 whe I first started but I kept at it and then I was doing 2 sets of 12 now i do sit ups.

    Also keep your core engagd when doing cardio will help with your core strength. (I still have to remind myself st times)