Toning Up for Your Boudoir Photoshoot: A Complete Guide
Everyone knows they should exercise if they want to be healthier and look more attractive. That said, many women who reach out to me for a session confide in me that they haven’t worked out in a while and would like to start before their photo shoot.
In an effort to help set you up for success, this post is going show you the foundational exercises and habits everyone with an amazing body does.
The number one excuse everyone gives for why they don’t exercise is that they don’t have enough time.
In this post I’m going to save you an immense amount of time by giving you all the information you need to know to start making improvements to your body today. With these recommendations you can expect visual results you will notice in one month, and changes other people will comment on in 3 months.
Exercise Plans and Coaching
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all this exercise stuff and just want someone to lead you through the process, I recommend hiring a coach.
Just like anything else, there are good coaches and bad coaches out there. The following coaches all provide great info and would easily be the best money you spent in preparation for your photo shoot.
You Can’t Out Work a Poor Diet
Before we begin talking about the exercises you should do, it’s important to note that no one has ever out exercised a poor diet.
Put another way, even if you put in maximum effort at the gym, your body won’t be able to capitalize on your hard work if you don’t give it the building blocks it needs to repair itself.
For the purposes of this post we’re going to keep this very simple so you can effectively fuel your body without getting bogged down in the minutia of nutritional science.
The main idea you should get comfortable with is that there are three macro nutrients that all foods are composed of:
Proteins
Carbs
Fats
To build muscle and loose fat in anticipation for your photoshoot you should focus on consuming enough protein first and foremost. You can calculate your protein, carb and fat targets using this macro calculator.
Eating enough protein is the key to seeing the results you want from your workouts! The easiest way to achieve this, is to consume the most bioavailable animal products you can. The following list shows the most bioavailable proteins at the top of the list and moves down to less bioavailable protein sources.
If you consume your protein target and don’t over eat on carbs and fat, your muscles will grow and your body fat will decrease. If you’d rather not deal with calculators and charts, simply focus on consuming .7g-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight and don’t over do it on the carbs and fat. This is the most effective diet to lean out for your photo shoot.
Notes for Vegans and Vegetarians
Vegans and vegetarians should also focus on protein intake, but it should be noted that these diets are inherently much more challenging for consuming a protein target. This is because no plant contains a compete amino acid profile (complete protein).
It’s not impossible to hit your protein target on a vegan diet, but it will require additional thought when planning your meals so you can consume the complementary proteins your body will need. Additionally, you will likely also need to supplement: B12, iron and calcium as these are common deficiencies among people with plant based diets.
Due to the additional complexity of plant based diets, I recommend all vegans and vegetarians hire a nutritionist to help them come up with a meal plan so your effort in the gym isn’t wasted.
Cardio
Cardio is a necessary part of any balanced exercise plan and will play an essential role in your overall health. Cardiovascular exercise includes activities like: running, biking, swimming, hiking and walking.
Although critical to maintaining a healthy vascular system, cardio alone might not get you to where you want to be visually for your boudoir session. This is because although it’s a fantastic way to burn fat and lose weight, It’s not a good exercise for building muscle.
If you love cardio workouts and hate weight training, by all means do the exercise you love! Consistently exercising is better than not exercising at all. Just understand that a balanced exercise plan should include both cardio and resistance training, however the visual results will mostly happen from the ladder, not the former.
Strength Training
Women just learning about exercise commonly shy away exercises like weight lifting because some think this will lead to them looking too bulky and unattractive to men.
This is silly of course because men are attracted to healthy women and all available data shows that there are unique health benefits to resistance training. Thus, if you want to visually look more attractive, you’ll need to include at least some resistance training into your exercise routine.
The following are all the mandatory compound movements everyone should do to maintain a healthy body. The following 5 movements will work all of the muscles in your entire body so you can train your entire body proportionally.
Chest Press
Overhead Press
Pull up / Lat Pull Down
Squat
Dead Lift
Chest Press
This exercise targets the muscles beneath your breasts, the anterior shoulder muscles, and the triceps. Its primary advantage for your photoshoot is twofold: first, it enhances the perkiness of your breasts by strengthening the underlying muscles, and second, it defines the central chest line. This results in a more toned and sculpted upper body appearance, which will be especially beneficial for your photoshoot.
The dumb bell press (shown above) is the most common way to do the chest press. Beginners should stick with dumb bell presses on a flat bench or bodyweight pushups from the toes or knees. Intermediate lifters can use a barbell and other variations of the press (such as inclines and declines) to further develop different regions of the chest.
If you don’t have access to equipment, the pressing movement can be trained with push ups. It can also be regressed to incline push ups against a wall or eccentric pushups if you can’t quite do a regular push up yet. This video will help you get your first push up if you can’t quite do one yet.
Overhead Press
This exercise is primarily focused on strengthening your deltoids (shoulder muscles), with additional engagement of your pectoralis (upper chest), trapezius (back), triceps (upper arms), and serratus anterior (sides of the torso).
Many women tend to shy away from overhead presses due to a misconception that it will result in overly large, "masculine" shoulders. However, it's important to dispel this myth. The hormonal differences between women and men mean that women naturally have a harder time building large muscles. Therefore, unless you engage in extremely heavy overhead presses consistently over many years, the likelihood of developing excessively large shoulders is quite low.
Instead, training with overhead presses is an excellent way to sculpt and tone your shoulders, upper back, and collarbone area. This has a significant aesthetic benefit, especially for photos highlighting your upper neckline, shoulders, and upper arms.
In simpler terms, incorporating overhead presses into your workout routine will enhance your appearance with just about all of the outfits you’ll bring to your boudoir photoshoot.
Pull Up / Lat Pull Down
This is the opposite motion as the overhead press and is also an exercise I see many women neglect.
Part of the reason for this is because pull ups are hard especially if you can’t do one yet. This video will help you get your first pull up if this is a movement you struggle with.
Pull ups primarily build the muscles of your back including: the trapezius, rhomboids, teres major, infraspinatus, erector spinae and of course your latisimis dorsi; the sides of your torso (external obliques) and even your upper arms (biceps). Thus, this exercise will improve any photos taken from behind that expose your back.
For those that tend to crane their neck forward or have a hunched upper back, this exercise will be the most efficient way to correct your posture. This is a common area of concern for women that work at a desk or computer. Getting better at pull ups will completely correct this poor posture and will likely alleviate middle or upper back pain if you have it.
Squat
Squats will build your quads, thighs and of course your butt. If you’re worried about cellulite in any of these areas, squats will be practically magical to improve this, when paired with a good diet.
If you’re just starting out, make sure and get comfortable with bodyweight squats and or goblet squats through a full range of motion (hamstrings covering calves with heels flat on the ground) before attempting heavy loads with barbell back squats.
If you’ve been training bodyweight or goblet squats for a while and can comfortably complete the full ass to grass squat for 3 sets of 12-20 reps, you are ready to train with additional weight using a barbell.
The following video gives some great form tips to help get you started with heavy barbell back squats.
Heavy barbell back squats will improve your the front of your thighs more than any other exercise so it’s important to progress to this AFTER you master the body weight and goblet squats.
For maximum muscle growth, train with weight challenging (one rep shy of failure) between 8-12 reps. This should be done for 3-4 sets at least once, but not more than twice a week.
Heavy lower body compound exercises, such as squats, engage the largest muscle groups in our body. This type of training stimulates your body to release hormones that boost your metabolism, leading to more efficient fat burning compared to traditional cardio exercises.
In simpler terms, if your objective is fat loss, incorporating heavy lower body compound movements like squats into your workout regimen can be more effective than cardio alone. These exercises not only help in burning fat but also do so more efficiently, assisting you in reaching your fat loss goals faster.
Dead Lift
The dead lift is often referenced as one of the single best exercises you can do to improve your posterior chain (the backside of your body).
If you want to improve your butt and the back of your legs, especially for bent over poses for your boudoir session, this exercise should be at the top of your list.
The deadlift will improve all of the muscles along the back of your body but primarily your hamstrings, glutes, abs and back. If you’re just starting out, you should train this movement using dumb bells or kettle bells and lighter weights referencing the video above.
Once dumb bells or kettle bells are no longer challenging in the 8-12 rep range, you should progress to heavier barbell deadlifts for maximum results. The following video gives some great form tips to help you train this movement safely.
Similar to heavy squats, the deadlift is classified as a heavy lower body compound (multi joint) exercise. Thus, it's another key exercise to prioritize if fat loss is your goal.
Moreover, if toning your abdominal area is one of your fitness goals, heavy lower body compound movements such as deadlifts and squats are more effective than targeted exercises like crunches and planks for visually sculpting your core.
Mobility
As we get older our joints don’t have the same range of motion that they used to. This is something I honestly never really thought about for boudoir until I started photographing more mature women.
From roughly the mid 40’s on, the overwhelming majority of my clients have very stiff joints most notably in the shoulders and hips. Strength training though the full range of motion will prevent this loss of mobility. Lifting though partial ranges of motions will lead to mobility issues and stiffness over time.
When mobility is limited in the hips and shoulders, this will greatly limit the variety of poses I can direct you into during your photoshoot. Therefore you’ll get a greater variety of photos that look better if you have greater hip and shoulder mobility.
If you want to improve your mobility in your hips and shoulders, I strongly recommend incorporating the exercises featured in the following videos. These exercises will have a profound impact on the variety of poses I will be able to direct you into for your boudoir session.
How Much Time Should I Devote to Exercise Per Week?
According to the Mayo clinic, everyone should aim for roughly 3-5 hours of exercise per week with a mixture of (wait for it) aerobic activity and strength training.
If you’re just starting out, aim for the lower end of this recommendation and slowly build your way up as you progress. 3 hours per week should be thought of as the minimum for everyone, and 5hrs+ should be your ultimate goal you work up to.
If you’re a beginner and looking for a good place to start, I recommend the following routine outlined below. Beginners can start with the resistance trainings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Friday.
As you progress, you can add in the mobility and cardio work on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. This will be the most efficient way to improve your body visually before your session.
Monday | Upper Body
Tuesday | Lower Body
Wednesday | Rest, Mobility Work or Cardo
Thursday | Upper Body
Friday | Lower Body
Saturday | Rest, Mobility Work or Cardo
Sunday | Rest, Mobility Work or Cardo
Note that these days are only a suggestion. The important thing is to give yourself at least one rest day after the first two resistance sessions (Monday, Tuesday) and preferably at least two rest days between the second two resistance sessions (Thursday, Friday).
If “one week” bleeds into two, that’s totally fine, just keep track of where you are in the plan and continue without skipping workouts.
For example if you strength train Monday & Tuesday and rest (or don’t get to your workouts) Wednesday & Thursday, simply start your third resistance training of the week on Friday and then the 4th day of resistance on Saturday EVEN IF THIS CARRIES OVER INTO THE SECOND WEEK.
Conclusion
Exercise is one of the corner stones for looking more attractive and slowing the aging process. By doing a combination of cardio, strength training and mobility work you will achieve your body goals if you focus on the things mentioned in this post, and do them consistently long term. Remember to pair your exercise plan with good nutrition and adequate sleep to maximize your results.
If you’d prefer a workout plan that is more focused on toning your butt, you can check out this lower body glute focused workout plan here.
If you found this post helpful, please like and share it using the buttons below. If you have any questions about anything mentioned, please leave a comment below and I’d be happy to help!
