The ELLE Best Body Bootcamp
Dalton Wong is the founder of Twenty Two Training and personal trainer to the stars. He helped leading actress Jennifer Lawrence get fit for her role in Xmen First Class and he is now sharing his ultimate guide to getting fit, lean and strong with ELLE readers.
Perform 10-20 of each move
Start each exercise session with these warm up exercises to prepare your muscles for the work out and avoid muscle stiffness and injury. A good warm up session will increase your blood flow and will even boost your metabolism.
Hamstring 90/90
Tight hamstrings will have a negative impact on your posture and movement. This move will limber up and engage the muscles so you can get the most out of your exercise.
Lie on your back, head on the floor, with one leg extended straight out resting on the ground. Ensure you engage your stomach muscles by sucking your belly button in towards the floor.
With your other leg, bend the hip and knee to 90 degrees. If you find this difficult you can extend the stretch by holding your leg with both hands. Use this as the starting position for the move.
Extend your leg straight into the air at a 90 degree angle and hold this positio
Hip Extension
Lie on your back with your head resting on the floor. Keep your arms stretched out by your sides with your palms facing the sky. Bend your knees and put your weight on your heels, toes off the ground.
Now it’s time to lift your bum to tone the gluteus muscles, abdominals and thighs. Lift until your body is straight from knees to chest, hold and then resume position one.
Kneel on your mat with your toes curled under for support. Face down and put one hand on the floor and the other to your temple. Make sure your back is straight and keep your stomach muscles tensed.
With the arm that is against your temple begin to rotate your body so that your elbow reaches for the sky and your chest is stretched out.
From this position return to stage one and repeat the stretch.
Brace the lunge position so that you are kneeling with one leg in front resting on a flat foot and one leg behind resting on the ball of your foot, heel to the sky. Start with your back straight before you begin the stretch.
Bend forward and try to get your fingers to the floor, spreading them out for balance.
Now lean back into the stretch so that your bum goes towards the back heel and your front leg stretches the back of your leg muscles and thigh muscles. Keep your hands on the floor for an extra stretch up the arms.
Bend forward again before straightening out pose and repeat the stretch.
These are your exercises for your first week and will one focus on all over toning. Dalton suggests doing these exercises 3 times in the first week if you are a beginner, moving up to everyday for those with more experience.
Squat x30:
This one is a standing squat and will tone the backs of the thighs and gluteus (the muscles in your bum).
Stand tall and place your hands on your hips. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and keep your toes pointing forward.
Keep your feet planted on the floor and your hands on your hips and begin to move into a sitting position. Keep your descent controlled whilst tensing your stomach and gluteus.
Rise from your sitting position with the same control manor that you used in step two, pushing up evenly through both heels and squeezing your gluteus as you rise. Repeat this 30 times, do either one or two sets.
Begin the exercise with your feet hip-width apart and your toes facing forward. Keep a straight posture and brace your abdominal muscles.
Bend your knees so they are resting on the floor one in front and one behind at 90 degree angles. Make sure your knee doesn’t go too far past your toes and make sure that toes and knee are in line with one another.
Keep control with the lunge and push back up to your starting position to complete one rep. Do this 15 times on each leg and choose whether you want to do one or two sets.
To begin, get into a press up position using a raised surface to place your hands on (such as a chair), so that your elbows are bent and your chest is next to your hands. Put your weight on to the balls of your feet and make sure your body is as straight as possible. A classic mistake with this exercise is to stick your bum too far in the air.
Now perform the classic push up keeping your body streamlined.
Once your arms are straight take one hand off the surface and sweep your arm 180 degrees so that your fingers are pointing towards the sky. Look up at your fingers. Make sure your hips don’t dip towards the floor when you are rotating
Return to your starting position by sweeping back to two hands on your raised surface.
Place your hands flat on the raised surface with your back towards it. Keep a straight posture and bent knees, resting your weight on your heels.
Now for the dipping. Control your arm muscles as you bend your elbows into the exercise to reach a 90 degree angle, your bum goes towards the floor but stops before sitting down.
From the sitting position control your movement back up so that your posture is straight again. Repeat this exercise 20 times before resting. Repeat again if you wish after a 30-45 second recovery.
Stand hip-width apart with your toes pointing forward. Tilt your upper body slightly towards the floor at a 30 degree angle. Keep your arms down, directly in front of you, and your palms flat.
Bring both of your arms up to a 90 degree angle with your fingers pointing towards the floor and keep your palms flat.
Rotate your arms from your shoulder so that you resume the same 90 degree angle but facing towards the sky.
Now lift your arms towards the sky, palms flat and return the process to step one going from straight to 90 degrees. Turn 90 degrees and then straighten up.
Brace yourself in the sitting squat position feet hip-width apart with your toes pointing forward. Your knees should be bent and your arms slightly behind you ready for step two.
Bend your knees and launch yourself into a sideways jump. Bring your arms up with you for more power.
As you land bend your knees to help absorb the impact, and allow your arms to resume their starting position behind the body. Repeat this 15 times jumping each way (so a total of 30) repeat again if you wish.
Resume the classic (effective but uncomfortable) plank position facing downwards. Keep your weight on your toes bend your forearms at a 90 degree angle. The essential part of this move is core stability to make sure you keep your body streamlined and as strong as possible.
Once stable it’s time for reaches. Keep your head facing down so you don’t put extra pressure on your neck and reach forward with one arm outstretched. Hold this for 20-30 seconds before returning your arm to the floor. A top tip for this stage is to keep your core stable, not letting your hips droop or your bum too high.
Alternate between arms and control your focus and breathing by picking a point on the floor. Do these exercise 6-8 times for each arm and repeat after 30 seconds rest if you wish.
To make the most out of your workout and take it that extra mile try these stretches.
Key stretches for posture perfect
Flex stretch: Use your exercise ball to help this stretch. Take up the lunge position but rest your back leg against the ball at an angle to really increase the intensity of the stretch. Place your hands on your knee in front of you to stabilise yourself and keep your posture straight. Hold the stretch for 45-60 seconds and repeat.
Chest Stretch: Kneel next to your exercise ball resting your weight on your knees and the balls of your feet. Bend towards the floor at a 90 degree angle and place one arm on the ball elbow so your hand hangs off the end. This will make a great post workout stretch for your back and arms. Hold the stretch for 45-60 seconds and repeat.
Keep your back on the floor making sure your tense your core muscles and rest your feet at an angle against your exercise ball.
Keeping your shoulders on the floor lift your bum and back off the floor to create a slope and tense your bum as you lift. Hold the stretch for 45-60 seconds and repeat.
Return to the floor but try to hold just before your bum meets the ground and hold this for extra toning.
Position yourself so your weight is resting on your shoulders and the rest of your body is off the floor with your knees bent towards you and your heels are secured on the edge of the exercise ball. Now extend your legs so that the ball moves away from you and hold before bringing the ball back towards you and repeating the move. This targets your bum for toning and lifting.
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