Build Your Beach Muscles

While your desire to impress fellow beach goers is only human, it may not be totally safe or healthy. Men and women who think that they can spot train and only work the sexiest muscles on their bodies drive personal trainers and doctors nuts. If you really want to be fit, you need to work all of your muscle groups. Only choosing to work your favorite muscles can lead to eventual problems such as asymmetry or even sports injuries. This doesn't mean that you need to spend hours in the gym for months before you hit the shore, though. It's okay if you do a few extra sets of any of these exercises if you want to concentrate on specific parts of your body over the short term as long as you don't forget to continue exercising your less visible muscles.

Work Your Legs

Whether you are a man or a woman, doing tons of squats will have great results. Squats work your thighs, hips, and butt. If you're a guy, squats will make your quads huge. If you happen to be a woman, lots and lots of squats will make you have a round, firm butt. Either way, squats are vital to your beach body workout. To do squats properly, stand with your feet parallel to one another, shoulder width apart. Place your hands on your hips or extend your arms straight out in front of you, parallel to one another if you want to simultaneously work on your upper arms. Keeping your back perfectly straight, lean forward a bit and bend your knees until you are squatting. Then slowly rise back up. If you want to make your muscles big rather than just sculpted, you can do squats while holding weights.

Tone Your Abs

Your abdominal muscles are probably the first thing you think of when you imagine a beach body. A six pack seems to be the golden standard for being hot on the beach, whether you are a man or a woman. Unfortunately, a six pack is not so easy for everyone to obtain. Some people are just more genetically blessed than others. You can do your part to have a good looking stomach by doing lots of sit ups though. Try both regular sit ups and the type where you cross one leg over the other. Just make sure that you work each side an equal amount. Do as many as you can every morning before you hop into the shower and you should see results in a few weeks.

Trim Your Waist

There's a secret to getting a six pack that's actually not so secret to people who are knowledgeable about exercise and physiology. Doing all the sit ups in the world won't guarantee you a six pack. Instead of building abdominal muscles, if you want your stomach to look hot, you're really going to have to trim fat from your waist. Otherwise, your belly is going to conceal your abs no matter how strong they are. If you want your ab muscles to be more prominent, take up running or swimming so that you can trim fat off your stomach.

Sculpt Your Shoulders

Ever heard the term skinny fat? Skinny fat is when you look pretty thin in your clothing, but then when you take it off, your slender limbs actually look kind of flabby and shapeless. During the winter when you're covered up, no one's the wiser. If you want to look hot on the beach, though, you are going to have to shape up. Your shoulders and upper arms are probably the most noticeable part of your body that is out of shape if you are relatively slim. If you want to give your arms and shoulders a great shape, work with dumb bells or do yoga. Try lateral raises, front dumb bell raises, or reverse flys if you want to build bulk. If you just want to shape and tone, a yoga class will probably be more your speed.