Warm-Up for Strength Training & Dancing

Ok, so before you get started with your bootylicious strength training...and shaking your hips & booty...

You need to warm up your body and your muscles first.

AND you need to "wake up" and fire up the muscles that will be asking to werk!

Specifically your booty muscles...your gluteus maximus, minimus and medius...and your mid-back muscles.

Each part of this warm up only takes a few minutes...and be sure to do all 3 parts to have the most fun & sexy success.

3 Part Dance & Strength Training Warm-Up:
1. Beauty Walk or Funky Dance Walk (3 to 15 min)
2. WarmUp your Mid-Back (30 reps) 
3. Activate your Glutes (10 reps each)

Part 1: Funky Dance Walk...OR...Beauty Walk

Part 2: Activate your Mid-Back & Chest

Activate your Mid-Back
Be sure to wake-up and activate your Mid Back...because you'll be asking this part of your back to squeeze and engage with in the upper body strength training moves…And if you want to have graceful, powerful arms when you dance too.

And just like your booty muscles (more about this soon), the muscles between your shoulder blades, also actually get "turned off" and hyper-extended by sitting and working on the computer…and by driving.

That "laptop" reach position is not doing your back any favors! And these muscles actually get stretched out & inactive from this position, and just like your glutes, they don't just "turn themselves back on."

So if you want to get hot results from upper body compound strength training moves, like dumbbell rows and lat pulldowns, you need to get these muscles actively squeezing & releasing…and you can do just that with this exercise.

I've seen this exercise called the "Assisted Band Mo' Money" move…and hey, I think that's pretty descriptive 'cause if you get this part firing away, this is going to be key to increasing your ability to do a bodyweight pull-up (and get there faster and safer…and look really great while you do. Umm, and key in getting a nice lifted chest too, ahem.)

This exercise activates the scapula retractors and depressors and strengthens the external rotators.

Do 30 - 50 of these in every warm-up and they're safe to do every day too...You can do these with a resistance band or just your body weight. Imagine squeezing a pencil in between your shoulder blades as you move.

Activate your Chest
Next, you want to be sure to activate your Chest muscles on the front of your body too...this is fast & simple to do by doing 10 Regressed Knee or Bar Push Ups.

*Key Tip for PushUps: Instead of thinking about pushing yourself up and down...instead think about Pushing the Floor AWAY from you. Breathe deeply, lower slowly...and push the floor away from you as you move.

Do 10 Regressed PushUps from your knees or using a wall or bar.

Part 3: Activate your Booty

Ok so next you need to activate and fire up your Booty...your gluteus maximus, minimus and medius. These muscles can get "turned off" by too much sitting, and if you've had an injury in another part of your body...and they don't automatically turn themselves back on again.

When you do these exercises, you'll build a stronger neuro-muscular connection with them and get them ready to "fire" during your strength training & your dancing...

Helping you get the sexy Hip Moves...and also learning how to squeeze and then completely release your booty muscles...so that you can get the best sexy fitness results & freely shake it...

And so that they actively do most of the work with your Strength Training, too.

In the video I break down 2 of my favorite exercises...that I think get the best Glute Activation & are the most fun to do 🙂

Fire Up Your Glutes with:
--Glute Bridge (10 reps)
--Single Leg Glute Bridge OR Bent Leg Booty Raises (10 reps, each side)

And you can also download this fun 2 Moves to Fire Up your Booty pdf cartoon handout by clicking here.

Do 10 repetitions for each move...and if it's a single leg exercise, be sure to do 10 reps for each leg.

I really LOVE starting with the Glute Bridges (10 Reps)...

And then pick 1 Single Leg Exercise to do:   I personally prefer to do the Bent Leg Booty Raises myself (but sometimes I like doing Single Leg Glute Raises too!)

I find it's really important to get your booty muscles independently firing...so that's why it's important to do single leg/single glute warmup & workout moves ('cause who wants an uneven booty?)