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5 Ways to Build a Beach Body Fast
Everyone wants to look and feel their best when doing summer activities. With summer being such a hot season, most people dress in clothing that is shorter than it would be during winter, like t-shirts, tank tops, and shorts.
Summer is also when people go to the lake, beach, pool, etc. to cool off and swim. However, many people don’t enjoy any summer outings due to not feeling confident about their body, therefore not wanting to go out while wearing shorter clothes or swimsuits.
You can use the five fast action tips below to build a healthier, beach ready body so that you can enjoy the summer season without feeling anxious or insecure. You can create a daily schedule incorporating some or all of these tips, or work on building good habits by practicing some of these things every day.
You can also create a plan or challenge for yourself for as many days as you’d like it to go on. For example, if you have a trip in 25 days, you can create a 25 day challenge for yourself to get as close to your dream body as you can in that time period using these fat-melting, body-toning tips.
Make Cardio a Regular Habit and Increase Your Time and Effort
Cardio exercises are some of the best types of workouts you can do for a beach body. These types of exercises will help you burn calories and get rid of extra unwanted weight.
Exercises like running, fast-paced walking, and burpees are all cardio exercises you can do at home with no equipment. Biking and jumping rope are two more great cardio exercises you can do if you have the equipment.
One great thing about cardio exercises is that while they are tiring, they don’t have to take up much of your day in order to be beneficial. Studies show that even just regularly partaking in 30 minutes of cardio a day will make a difference in your body, mentally and physically.
The benefits you can get from cardio exercises aren’t only physical. Regular exercise and cardio will increase your energy and boost your mood due to the release of endorphins.
Cardio will also help improve your sleep, which is crucial to having a healthy body and mind. If you want to fast-track your weight loss and get beach body ready, you can increase the amount of time you’re engaging in cardio each day, or the number of days each week that you do it.
You can also make it more difficult, and burn more fat by increasing the incline on your treadmill or increasing the resistance on your rower, for example. Making little adjustments like these will help you get more out of your cardio workouts.
Don’t Neglect the Importance of Strength Training
Many people tend to shy away from strength training because they think it’s only something bodybuilders do, so they misunderstand that these types of exercises won’t automatically make them bulky.
Strength training is an amazing way you can shape up your body to be beach-ready. When working towards a more fit and toned body, it’s not possible to reduce fat in specific spots.
Meaning, if you do a bunch of sit ups, you won’t just lose fat around your belly area. Instead, you’ll grow your abdominal muscles and the exercise will benefit you all over in terms of weight loss.
Cardio will help you lose fat all over your body. Once you lose enough body fat, the muscles you’ve built up with strength training will be visible, giving you a toned and sculpted look.
Strength training is important if you want to avoid the “skinny fat” look. Skinny fat is when someone has a low amount of muscle mass, making their percentage of body fat higher.
While this would result in a slimmer figure, the majority of your weight being body fat with little muscle mass would give an unfit and untoned look. Muscle building strength exercises can be done at home.
While a gym would offer a wider variety of options machine and equipment-wise, it’s not a requirement to strength train. If you don’t have any workout equipment at home, you can do bodyweight exercises like push-ups, squats, and planks.
There are plenty of beginner friendly workout plans on the Internet that are meant for home workouts with no equipment. You can follow one of those plans exactly or create a custom routine that targets what muscles you’d like to focus on most.
If you do have a gym membership, You can use the equipment for deadlifts, barbell squats, bench presses, etc. Before you go to the gym, do a bit of research to find out what machines would help you achieve your goals.
Doing a full body strength training workout every single day would be too taxing on the body and make you more susceptible to injury. Because of this, most people make a plan of what areas they want to focus on training each day.
For example, your plan may make Tuesdays and Fridays lower body day, where you focus on exercises that will strengthen your calves, quads, glutes, etc. You should include one or two rest days to give your whole body time to recover.
Many of the exercises you can do at the gym can be replicated at home with dumbbells or kettlebells. You can also use resistance bands for a variety of workouts. You may also want to have a yoga mat to provide a soft area to exercise on.
If you don’t have this equipment already and don’t want to spend money, you can do bodyweight workouts or use weighted items around your house like bags of pet food or milk gallons.
Always be cautious to avoid injury when using weights at home, especially if you are exercising alone. It’s better to take time and care in doing things with proper form than to suffer an injury and be unable to engage in strength training for a longer period of time.
Fill Your Diet With Body-Sculpting Protein
Exercise is obviously crucial to sculpting a beach-ready body. Building muscle is vital when it comes to achieving that toned appearance. You need to make sure your diet includes enough protein to make that happen.
You can do all the workouts in the world for as many days as you’d like, but without eating the right amount of protein, you won’t ever achieve the full benefits of your exercise.
When you exercise, your muscles lose protein. To make up for this and help rebuild the muscle stronger, you need to eat more protein than you lose. Since everyone has different bodies, everyone’s protein needs will be different.
Generally, your protein intake should be 0.36 grams per pound of your weight. This may increase based on how much you work out or how intense those workouts are. There are many calculators you can find on the Internet that will help you determine how much protein you need with your individual workout intensity and weight.
Filling your diet with protein doesn’t have to include nasty protein bars with funky aftertastes or protein shakes that taste inedible. You also don’t have to force yourself to eat bland chicken breast or ground beef and rice every day like many people looking to put on muscle do.
There are plenty of highly nutritious and appetizing foods you can include in your daily diet to get a higher protein intake. Some of these foods include fish, yogurt, eggs, chicken, avocados, and nuts just to name a few.
With practice and good recipes, you can easily transform your diet into a protein-packed plan with these ingredients. Make yourself a meal plan that incorporates those ingredients and calculate how much protein that will provide you with per day to make sure you’re getting enough.
Many protein powders leave behind an unpleasant aftertaste. If you’d like to include a protein shake in your diet, shop around for the best type that will fit your dietary needs and personal preferences.
Check out the reviews of those protein powders and see if the general opinion is positive or not. You can also add things to protein shakes to make them taste better, and you can even add more protein by doing this.
You can add fruits or vegetables for added nutritious value and flavor, like banana, mango, and pineapple. Some people even add other nutritious things like peanut or almond butter to give their shake an even better taste.
Regulate Other Areas of Your Diet
Once you ensure that you’re getting enough protein per day, it’s important to look at the other areas of your diet and see if anything is lacking. Protein isn’t the only aspect of a body-toning diet.
Your diet will also depend on your goals. Whether you want to gain weight or lose weight, muscle gain is always good for toning and sculpting your body. But in order to see that toned physique, you need to have a somewhat low fat percentage.
To get to a lower fat percentage, you need to eat in a calorie deficit. This means you’ll have to eat fewer calories than your body burns each day. This will depend on a few different factors, such as your age, weight, activity level, etc.
You can easily find resources online that can calculate your personal calorie needs such as MyFitnessPal, the American Cancer Society’s, and the Mayo Clinic that all have resources for calorie counting.
Calorie deficits are also good for those who struggle to stick to an extreme diet. It allows you to have more freedom in the food choices you make and the only restriction is to keep it under your basal metabolic rate, which is how many calories you burn naturally per day just existing.
If you’re the type that enjoys the responsibility of taking on a more extreme diet, some good fat-burning options may include the ketogenic diet, a low calorie diet, and intermittent fasting.
Those who are looking to gain weight or muscle mass should focus on eating in a calorie surplus. Eating more calories a day than your body burns may seem like an opportunity to stock up on junk foods, but that is not what you’d want to do if you’re trying to achieve your beach body.
Overly sugary foods and foods with high levels of saturated fat should be avoided. These will make you gain weight in an unhealthy way. Instead, load up on foods that are high in calories, while still being high in nutritional value.
Avocados, quinoa, fish, and eggs are a few examples of foods that are healthy but still good for gaining weight. If you find it difficult to eat three big meals per day, break up your diet into more, but smaller plates.
For a healthier body and mind, you should try to make sure you’re getting enough fruits and vegetables in your daily diet. Four to five servings of fruits and veggies every day is recommended by most health sources.
There are many studies that show getting your daily dose of fruits and vegetables can help boost your mental health and reduce depression. Having a good mindset is crucial for the fun, summer season.
Something many people also don’t do is drink enough water. Water is crucial for your health and diet. Ditch the two-liter sodas and 24 packs of cans for around 64 ounces of water per day.
Of course, your diet depends on many personal aspects, like health conditions you may have, allergic restrictions, being vegan or vegetarian, religious food guidelines, etc. This step will take some self-reflection and patience to figure out what will work best for your body and mind.
Have the Right Mindset for Pulling Off a Beach Body
The most important thing when building a beach body is your mindset. Without a solid and motivated mental state, you’re more likely to give up on a diet or exercise plan. No one wants to be unhappy or miserable during the sunshine season.
Firstly, you need to ensure you’re getting the right amount of sleep. Your brain can’t function properly if you aren’t getting good sleep, which will drastically affect your mindset.
Sleep deprivation can lead to higher chances of developing disorders like anxiety and depression. It also has detrimental effects on your physical body, leading to things like obesity and high blood pressure.
Get at least 7 hours of sleep to avoid these issues. There are also other things you need in order to keep a healthy mind and body. A good mindset can boost your confidence and your motivation to improve your lifestyle.
Work on not allowing yourself to give in to negative self talk. When you speak about yourself, be positive. Use affirmations that reassure your subconscious mind that you’re in the process of reaching your goals and that you will not quit. Research shows that positive thinking leads to a healthier weight.
At the end of the day, summer is to be enjoyed by everyone. It’s a great thing to work towards a healthier version of yourself, but at the same time you have to be able to live your life while you’re in that process.
Don’t beat yourself up if you’re still not where you want to be yet. You can’t do anything more than your best, so if you’re consistently doing what needs to be done, allow yourself happiness and confidence in that time period knowing that your goal will come.
If you really want to kick things into gear, you have to have a well-rounded approach to slimming down (or bulking up) and toning your muscles while shedding the fat that covers them.
Keep in mind that nutrition and exercise can’t be done in the absence of the other to achieve great results. If you’re only exercising, but still eating poorly, you won’t have a beach body appearance.
Likewise, if you manage to eat better and lose weight, but you aren’t working on your muscles, you’ll just look thin but not the beach body firmed up shape most people try to achieve.
You want to make sure that regardless of what nutrition plan or workout program you’re choosing, you do it with safety and health in mind. Risking your health isn’t worth looking good in a swimsuit.
Once you achieve your beach body goals, make a long-term plan to keep your fitness and nutrition plan modified year round so that you don’t have to scramble at the last minute, trying to fit into a bikini or shorts.
All in all, you want to feel good and look good, and be healthy at the same time. Be mindful about your choices and the way you’re approaching this goal and power up your self-image with realistic expectations, depending on how much time you have to contribute to your journey.