Prep for summer with Rodial’s new sculpt treatment
FIT IN THE CITY
This week I continue my search for the city’s best beach shape-up regimes.
TRIED & TESTED: THE POWER PLATE/RODIAL SUMMER SCULPT
Every so often a collaboration occurs that’s so sexy you sign up for it without really knowing what it is. This summer’s sexiest link-up is between Power Plate (www.powerplate.com/uk) and Rodial Skincare. Summer Sculpt is a series of dynamic, high-intensity Power Plate classes (think bouncy split squats on a vibrating platform) complimented by Rodial (www.rodial.co.uk) products such as their Tummy Tuck and Arm Sculpt cream.
Having always longed to be busty and dimple-free (highbrow goals, I know) I opted for the Boob Job and Body Sculpt creams and headed off to the Power Plate Academy convinced this was never going to produce the same results as a set of dumbbells and lots of exercise know-how. Wrong. Despite the fact that I like to think of myself as pretty conditioned, I still got up a sweat in the short classes as promised, and I do believe every last gluteal fibre (bum muscle) was recruited.
Not that surprising if you read the scientific evidence for Power Plate/vibration training – it’s believed muscular strength is increased via “the stimulation of tiny receptors in the muscle picking up the vibration and causing muscles to contract more fully than they would on a less turbulent surface”. Ah. So that’s why the likes of Serena Williams and Clint Eastwood swear by it (Clint Eastwood likes a PowerPlate before a round of golf because it helps him stay “loose and flexible”).
VERDICT
Rodial’s Boob Job cream I wasn’t so sure about – put it this way, I won’t be needing Katie Price’s hand-me-downs anytime soon, but the Body Sculpture cream does leave skin very smooth and fresh looking. As for Power Plate, consider me converted – it normally takes a lot longer than that to get me some good DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, aka that John Wayne walk) after a workout these days. It’s not a miracle alternative to eating less and moving more, but you will get great results in a much shorter space of time than with many other gym workouts.
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