Bottoms Up! by Joyce Vedral, Ph.D. is the first selection for our Cellulite Book-of-the-Month (BOTM) research group.
Next month’s selection is Cellulite Solutions (52 Brilliant Ideas): Tips and Techniques to Lose the Lumps
The Bottoms Up! Workout Plan
The real value of Joyce’s book is found in the section on weight training. As I mentioned in last week’s BOTM post, the Bottoms Up! workout program is a two day plan. Day One covers the lower body and abdominals. Day Two covers the upper body and calves.
Each exercise is coupled with a second exercise for a complimentary muscle group, allowing the whole routine to be accomplished in 20-30 minutes since little rest time is needed.
Many of the exercises Joyce includes in the Bottoms Up! plan will be familiar. She starts with squats, leg lifts, and lunges and continues to vertical scissors, butt lifts, and leg curls. The photos remind me of the Pilates workouts I’ve tried. If you’ve ever tried Pilates (or Marine Corps boot camp), you know how effective these types of calisthenics can be.
Did You Ever Wonder, How Do Muscles Grow?
Joyce includes a brief description of how muscles and bones grow, which made me realize I have no idea how this actually happens –just another example of all the ways the human brain accepts mental shortcuts to simplify the complexity of the real world
When a muscle contracts against significant resistance, the cells adjust to the strain by synthesizing protein, causing the muscle cells to grow larger and stronger. Tendons and ligaments go through a similar process.
Within our bones lies hundreds of concentric rings called haversian canals. These canals surround blood vessels and nerve cells that run throughout the bone. When a muscle attached to the bone experiences significant resistance, increased blood flow is sent surging through these canals, bringing added nutrients to the bone-building cells and essentially feeding the bone. This is why weight training can reverse bone loss. Joyce claims she has thicker bones at age fifty than she had at thirty. [See the before and after picture at left].
The Typical Anti-Cellulite Diet
As much as I identify with any women who’s doing her best to rid the world of the dreaded blight, I must confess my reservations when it comes to the diet portion of the Bottoms Up! plan.
Joyce recommends the Typical Anti-Cellulite Diet (let’s just call it TAD). Lots of complex carbohydrates from vegetables and whole grains. Lots of fiber to help “move the fat out of the body.” She recommends limiting servings of refined sugar to three times a week, but she is more adamant with restricting fat. No butter, lard, beef, lamb, mayonnaise, chocolate, CHEESE, etcetera, etcetera!
The TAD diet is common in cellulite books (hence the “T” in TAD). I have yet to find a cellulite book that incorporates the latest research on fats and weight loss. So let’s not blame Joyce for any diet disagreements. After all, she was writing in 1993 and this life-saving information is just starting to hit the mainstream over fifteen years later. <
How to Maximize Your Twenty-Minute Bottoms Up! Workout
Throughout the exercise descriptions, Joyce reminds her readers to “squeeze the entire muscle as hard as possible” and to “flex the entire muscle throughout your exercise.”
When you’re working with light weights or no weights at all, it’s easy to breeze through the movement without getting much out of it. Tightly flexing the muscle is a key point in Joyce’s style of weight training. Her book includes a detailed description of each muscle, so you can visualize and target the individual muscle you’re working on with every exercise.
If you find it difficult to perform the exercises as described in the book, Joyce recently released a DVD version of her Bottoms Up! workout. Bottoms Up! Gold Plus
Both the book and the DVD include therapeutic alternatives for people who have difficulty with certain exercises, such as squats or crunches. With so many options and weight variations, the Bottoms Up! workout has something for everyone. What do YOU think? Is the Bottoms Up! workout worth a go?
**Tomorrow, we’ll conclude our first Cellulite Book-of-the-Month research effort with a final letter from Joyce Vedral. She promised to share her best workout scheduling tips with CI readers, so if you’re having trouble fitting weight training into your day be sure to check back tomorrow to read Joyce’s advice!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hum. This was very interesting. I'm not sure I want to look like a muscle weight trainer in my 50s.
Point taken, Corrie. But are you picturing a graying bodybuilder with strapping muscles hidden under mom jeans? I was thinking more along the lines of vibrant hottie who's constantly mistaken for thirty-something, even in a bikini. (for example, check out the picture of Joyce from a previous post. I can't believe she's 66 in this one!)
A Personal Letter from Fitness Expert Joyce Vedral to the Cellulite Investigation
{ 1 trackback }