Blooming flowers, singing birds, and warmer days are welcome reminders that summer is right around the corner. But, if you have yet to shed your winter wardrobe for fear of exposing your non summer-ready body, thoughts of tank tops and bikini bottoms might have you wishing it were still November.

The following yoga poses will help tone your arms, core, hips and thighs so you can sport a fit summertime physique.

Plank Pose

Better than doing a bench press, practicing plank pose tops the list as one of the best yoga poses to do for overall strength and tone. Practice at least one set of plank every day, and work up to holding your plank for up to one full minute. If you need to modify, practice plank pose on your knees until you can work up to practicing it on your toes.
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Whether you’re female, male, a fan, or not a fan of the Bachelor’s Sean Lowe, it may have crossed your mind a time or two how this hottie got that amazing body of his. From what we’ve dug up, it looks like he’s putting in a lot of effort in the gym and the kitchen.

Sean has been working with his personal trainer, Sagi Kalev, since before he was cast on The Bachelorette for Emily Maynard’s season. Kalev put Lowe on his three-part body beast regimen that consists of high intensity interval training, fast and heavy weight lifting, and some serious focus on proper nutrition.

When Sean’s not spending all of his time filming on the show, he’s putting a lot of focus into eating a year-round healthy diet. His nutrition is based on eating 5-6 portioned meals a day with lean proteins, low glycemic carbohydrates, and essential fats (with some pizza and whoopie pies thrown in every once in awhile).
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Let’s be honest: Everyone wants flat, sexy abs, but it’s easier said than done, right? While roughly 90 percent of sculpting flat abs has to do with your diet – eating the proper foods to slim your middle – the other 10 percent has to do with fitness. So once you have your diet on track you can shift you focus to manipulating your abs with exercise, which is way more fun in our opinion.

In this week’s Saturday Morning Drill we’re focusing on just that: Amazing abs. The workout is comprised of seven simple moves that will not only get your heart rate up but sculpt every ab muscle you have (even the ones you didn’t realize you had). All you need is a yoga mat or a soft floor surface  - you don’t even need shoes or equipment! Going through the workout once will serve you well, but try completing it several times for even more of a challenge.

Also Read:

15 Reps in 15 Minutes: Full Body Workout 

Fit in Five: Off the Ground Core Exercises 

Jersey Shore’s JWOWW Shares Her Bikini Body Workout Secrets

Depending on the number of unsatisfied Ab Circle Pro customers who come forward, the fitness gimmick brand stands to pay out $15 million to $25 million in refunds, per a settlement between the brand and the FTC. The government agency has cracked down on over-hyped health claims in recent years to protect citizens from idiotic, empty promises like the Ab Circle Pro delivers. 

Honestly? Three minutes a day of mild exercise to lose 10 pounds in two weeks should be filed under “too good to be true,” and it is. The FTC isn’t having any of that noise.

According to the announcement on the FTC.gov site, “the defendants promised that a three-minute workout on the Ab Circle Pro – a fiberglass disk with stationary handlebars and two knee rests that roll on the edge of the disk, allowing consumers to kneel and rotate side-to-side – was equivalent to doing 100 sit ups. In the infomercial, pitchwoman Jennifer Nicole Lee compared the Ab Circle Pro to a gym workout, saying, “You can either do 30 minutes of abs and cardio or just three minutes a day. The choice is yours.”

Nothing is ever a substitute for hard work, not even a nearly non-existent workout. With a calorie-reduced diet and exercising at least 30 minutes moderate to high intensity workouts most days of the week, a healthy rate of weight loss is one to two pounds each week. A claim of 10 pounds in 2 weeks is not only not realistic but it isn’t healthy either. As far as toning your abs goes, well, that takes a lot more commitment to overall lifestyle than three minutes a day. If your entire workout regimen can happen in less time than a TV commercial break – you’re doing it wrong.

“Three minutes time is less than a warm up. Your muscles don’t even get loose in 3 minutes time – it takes about 5 to 10 minutes,” commented fitness expert Kelly Turner. “But let’s assume you did 5-10 minutes of light exercise before you hopped on. I can do 71 crunches in a minutes. Three sets of 71 crunches isn’t even an entire ab workout. No exercise, no matter what you are doing, is intense enough to create massive changes within your body in three minutes- even if done every single day.”
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If you’ve got 15 minutes, you’ve got time to do this quick-yet-intense full body workout. The easiest part about it besides it requiring no equipment is that each exercise is completed a total of 15 times. This means that once you learn the moves, you can get straight to it, counting 15 reps all the way.

We integrate simple moves like high knees and jumping jacks with more challenging exercises like split squat jumps and push ups with a leg raise to get your heart rate pumping and add some serious tone to your figure. Get through the exercises as many time as you can in 15 minutes. Let’s get started!