The summer strip down will be here before you know it. It’s time to turn up the heat on your training!
Our Shape and Burn Workout is a fat-burning, plyometric, lower body blast that will help tighten and shape your legs and butt. This fast-paced workout will keep your heart rate high so you can burn, baby, burn.
Demonstrated by IFBB Bikini Pro Dianna Dahlgren, this workout is a perfect complement to a traditional lower body weight-training day. Add this workout into your training week as a second leg day or as a conditioning alternative. Or, switch up your lift and perform this plyo-based workout in place of your usual routine. Ready to shape beautiful athletic legs by summer? Let’s get to work!
Benefits of Plyometric Exercise
Plyometric exercise is a no- or low-resistance training that involves rapid explosive movements— like jumping, bounding and hurdling for the lower body. It is consistently used in athletic training to build strength, power, agility, speed and endurance. In the process, it helps to shape muscles and burn fat.
Learn the Exercises
New to plyometric exercises? No problem. Here are detailed instructions, so you can get to work!
REVERSE LUNGES
Using an aerobics step, begin with left foot on step and right leg back in a lunge position. Bring the right leg up to the aerobic step and then step right leg back into a lunge. That is one rep. Repeat all reps for one leg and then repeat on the other side.
SPLIT SQUATS
Get into a wide lunge position with back foot on the aerobics step. Keep upper body centered over hips and bend the back knee down until it almost touches the floor. Then return to starting position to complete the rep. Repeat all reps for one leg and then repeat on the other side.
STEP-UPS
Using a bench (or aerobics step or mid-thigh platform), start with one leg on bench and the other on the ground. Shifting your weight to the leg that is elevated, step onto the bench and kick back the opposite leg, squeezing the glute. Make sure to not lean forward too much and focus the work in the hamstrings and glutes. Step down, returning to the starting position. Repeat all reps for one leg and then repeat on the other side.
SIDE SHUFFLES
Bend down into a squat position with your weight in your heels, glutes back and shoulders in line with your knees. Shuffle feet to the right while maintaining the squat position. After completing all reps to the right, repeat exercise to the left.
POP SQUATS
Stand on aerobics step, such that your feet are parallel with the step rather than perpendicular to it. Jump off step with both legs and land in a squat position, straddling the bench. Then jump back up to the starting position to complete the rep.
PRINCESS LUNGES
Stand on aerobics step, such that your feet are parallel with the step rather than perpendicular to it. Step your right leg into a modified lunge position where your foot crosses behind and to the left of your front leg. This curtsy-type position will get your glute and adductor firing. Step back up to starting position and repeat lunge on the opposite leg.
HIGH KNEES
Run in place, bringing your knees up as high as you can.
BUTT KICKS
Run in place, kicking your legs back so that your heel strikes your glute with each kick.
SQUAT JUMPS TO STEP
Squat behind aerobics step and then jump up, landing on top of step in a squat position. Finish rep by jumping off step and returning to the starting squat position.
SIDE-TO-SIDE SQUATS
Stand to the right of the aerobics step, place left foot on step and the right foot on the floor. Get in a squat position and then push through both feet to propel yourself into the air and over the step. Land in a squat position, with your right foot on the step and the left foot on the floor. Immediately upon landing, jump up and back over to the starting position.
SWITCH LUNGE JUMPS
Beginning in a lunge position with the right leg forward, jump in the air and switch legs landing in a lunge with the left leg forward.
Dianna’s Favorite Supplements
Thermo Heat Daytime: “I use my Thermo Heat Daytime fat burner before my HIIT conditioning sessions.”
Thermo Heat Nighttime: “I love Thermo Heat Nighttime— my whole family loves it too because it gives you such a great night’s sleep. Something I can definitely use when I am on the road.”
AML Preworkout: “I use my AML Preworkout whenever I lift. It’s the best pre-workout taste I’ve ever had and it gives me the right about of focus and energy.”
Dianna Dahlgren Profile
Professional Model
IFBB Bikini Pro
Five-time Miss Supercross
AML Athlete
DiannaDahlgren.com