Perk Up Ladies!

For the two years between age 27 and 29 I seriously craved a boob job. Not the silicon Speidi kind, but the "up lifting, people you knew wouldn't be able to pin point what was different about you" kind. This is surprising because I am not only afraid surgery and all that goes with it, but I have never really been all that girlie. Or at least, girlie in the way that one would crave a perky set of ladies. But after having the amazing experience of having and nourishing my children with my super human girl body I was left with two kids and a sense of disappointment in my upper half. However, boob job was never really an option... but push ups were. So at 29 I really started committing myself to revamping my upper body: Chest, Back and Shoulders. And the amazing thing...  I have completely changed the way my ladies look. (Shut the front door!!!!! I know, amazing.)You may already know this but by increasing the muscle tone beneath the fatty tissue which are your breasts, you actually pull them up (think of a fit male pectoral, how firm and lifted they are - now imagine that holding up your girls), combined with the fat loss that usually comes with muscle gain, the breast firm up slightly. Oh wait... yes... um...that is the downside. The first thing to burn off when you begin kicking fitness into high gear is the fatty tissue of the breasts. That is why those muscle hulk women have implants... because to look that ripped, well, you have NO body fat... and what are boobs anyway, but fat. However, that kind of amazing is not really for most of us... so you will still have your ladies, they will just be smaller... like you will be. Though I do often joke of my twelve year old girl boobs (and they really are not THAT small) I would not trade my fit smaller set for my larger sadder set. I have said before you can't evoke change by doing one thing, and you can't give yourself a homemade boob job just by zoning in on them... You need to remember cardio and and core. Yes, I said core. Many core exercises use your upper body, your abdominal muscles stabilize you, but your chest, back and shoulders support you. BACK-tastic Batman! So here is my Chest-icle Circuit ( I like to dedicate one day a week to a "zone" so this would be done on "Chest day" I try to engage my abs every work out and don't always have an "Abs day"):  Feel free to give it a try, and remember to warm up and cool down (5 to ten minutes each)! You do the circuit all the way through and then repeat depending on your fitness level! After warm up do mountain climbers (1min or 30 sec: depending on level), bench press (with the bar or with a dumbbell in each hand) 12-15 reps, Plank (1 min or 30 secs), bench fly- 12-15 reps, Side plank (1 min or 30 seconds), push ups (if you are on your knees I want you to try alternating lifting one leg so that you are balancing on one knee) 12-15 - Rest for one minute and then repeat the circuit beginning with the mountain climbers. You should be doing three reps of the entire circuit and with the warm up and a cool down (and stretching) this work out should take you about 30 mins. If you are shooting for an hour long work out try a little yoga for the remaining 30 minutes to stretch out those uppers. If you really want to work your abs - do the resistance moves on a balance ball! My Chest-ercise mantra : "You've got to push it to perk it!"