Not every woman has a gym membership, and those that do don’t always have the time to get out of the house or away from work long enough to give the treadmill any great length of attention. This is when it comes in handy to have a few tricks up your sleeve as far as home exercises are concerned. One of the most important parts of exercising when it comes to resistance training, cardio, or any other method of fitness is to try and work a little bit of each body group so that you get an all-over workout. Some women prefer to work on one region per day, and this is fine if you’re working on a specific program that will eventually get to each muscle in your body, but when you’re trying to speed things up, there are faster ways of doing things.

Full Bodyweight Squat

Working your lower body, squats give particular attention to the glutes, thighs, and hips, which really helps to tone and tighten all of those bottom extremities that will be seen when bikini season hits. If you’re doing a squat the most important thing to do first is make sure that you’re standing properly, because using the improper form to complete an exercise could have terrible results for you later in the form of muscle soreness.

“Keep your torso as upright as you can for the entire movement, with your lower back slightly arched. Brace your abs, and lower your body as far as you can by pushing your hips back and bending your knees.” – Oprah

As you do this you want to mimic sitting in a chair, but your butt will never touch the chair; instead, this will force you to hold your own weight in this position and as you give yourself a count of five and rise again, you’re going to really begin to feel the burn.

Ballet Burners

Believe it or not classical dance can teach you a lot about what the female body should look like, just take a peek at ballet dancers; all that lean toned physique doesn’t just happen by chance. Stand with your feet turned out and braced about shoulder length apart, and begin to lower your body by bending knees outward away from yourself. During this motion raise your arms, roll your shoulders back and after a count of five, straighten your knees without losing position.

“This ballet move sculpts the inner thighs as well as tones the gluteus minimus (side of butt) for lean legs like a dancer.” – Shape

Once you get the basics down you can try adding more of an arm workout by adding a set of five or ten pound weights.

Try A Plank

One exercise that works more than just your legs and rear is called the plank, and of all the positional fitness techniques you’ll try, this is one that you won’t forget anytime soon. For the best form, lay down a yoga or exercise mat and rest your stomach on it with your elbows bent beneath you and your legs straight. Press your toes down like you’re about to do a pushup, but instead of lifting yourself up onto your hands with arms extended, push yourself up on your forearms with bent elbows, and keep your weight away from the floor. You’re going to feel this in your core, back, legs, arms, and shoulders.