Hi Beauties!

Welcome to Day #4 of the 30-Day Pilates Body Challenge. I’m super excited to introduce you to our first guest-instructor today.

Meet Whitney English.

Whitney English is a healthy living blogger, NASM Certified Personal Trainer, and soon-to-be Registered Dietitian Nutritionist living in Los Angeles.

Here’s a little more more about her…

Whitney writes the blog To Live & Diet in L.A. where she provides easy to follow nutritional advice, fun fitness videos, and delicious, simple, original recipes. When she’s not working out (or nose deep in a textbook), you can find her eating sushi or hiking the Hollywood Hills with her dog Mr. Chow.

Today she’s leading us through a 7-minute High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) routine.

HIIT is a system of organizing cardiorespiratory training which calls for repeated bouts of short duration, high-intensity exercise intervals intermingled with periods of lower intensity intervals of active recovery.

HIIT routines provide great results in a short amount of time. Since we’re all about efficiency here at The Balanced Life it’s a perfect fit. 🙂

Why is a HIIT workout included in our Pilates challenge you may ask?

For 2 main reasons:

1. It’s good to change it up to keep our mind and muscles challenged.

2. Most importantly, I want you to take what you learn your body in Pilates off of the mat and into other activities. While it’s great to focus on proper form/alignment/muscle activation while doing Pilates, it’s just as important to focus on these things in other areas of your life too.

Here are few Pilates cues to keep in mind as you attempt this cardio + toning workout:

Keep your belly button drawing in, abdominal muscles engaged.
Keep your shoulders relaxed (don’t wear them like earrings!).
Breathe.
Move with intention. If you need to slow down to maintain good form, be sure to do so!

You may find this workout to be challenging, and that’s okay! Modify as needed and don’t beat yourself up. This is only Day #4 and we’ve got a lot of time left to build strength, endurance and confidence.

So without further ado, enjoy your beach workout with Whitney!

You can also connect with Whitney through her blog / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / and Snapchat: whitskitch

Daily Check-In: Show me your Daily Workout Checklist! 4 days down, 26 to go. Snap a photo of your Daily Workout Checklist so I can see that you’re staying on track! Use the hashtag #30daypilatesbody on Instagram and Twitter so I can cheer you on.

Cheers to the weekend!

xo,

PS – A quick reminder that tomorrow’s workout assignment will either be to go back and re-visit a favorite routine from the week (for non-Sisterhood members) OR complete the 30-minute “Waist-Whittling Workout” designed to sculpt and shape your midsection (for Sisterhood members). If you’d like access to the 30-minute routine simply CLICK HERE. See you tomorrow!