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It's Less Fitness Than Fitting - Into That Wedding Dress

Tribune photo by VICTOR JUNCO

Brides-to-be hit the gym early and often to make sure they look just right in their gowns.

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By MARY SHEDDEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 16, 2008

Nicole Seabury is sweating over her wedding, though the big day is still three months away.

She isn't panicking. She's hitting the gym and working out so she looks her best when she walks down the aisle Aug. 8.

"I rushed here right after work," the 20-year-old says about the new body toning workout class she's taking at the Shapes fitness center in Brandon. "It will show me everything I need to do to look great in the dress."

Seabury is like thousands of brides, bridesmaids and mothers of the bride who ramp up interest in diet and fitness right before a wedding. Most want to drop a few pounds, and tone the abs and arms so often highlighted in glamorous white wedding gowns.

Personal trainers will tell you long-term attention to fitness and diet are the best ways to get buff. But they also know there's a demand for short-term solutions. Shapes, a women-only gym franchise, developed "Bridalicious" a cardio-centric 12-session boot camp.

Shapes members who pay $15 a session for a Bridalicious session gather for high-intensity interval training several times a week. Shapes trainer and class creator Alice Monsaert says brides serious about toning up will get more out of individual or small group workouts because those classes are more focused. Still, they shouldn't expect to see a difference for a month.

"If you have a wedding day set, you really should be focused right away," she says.

Brides who didn't plan so well use some drastic, and incredibly short-term solutions to weight loss and muscle toning, says J.C. Santana, director of the Institute of Human Performance in Boca Raton and a board member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Santana, who also preps body builders for competition, says a bride can drop 10 pounds in a week under a high-protein, nutrient-dense, high-fiber, no-sugar diet. Working out is secondary to the amount, types of food and times you eat. "You don't need fitness for body alteration," he says.

At its most basic form. Santana suggests that a bride-to-be who wants a huge jumpstart should:

Eat 200 to 300 calories at a time, every three hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Avoid processed foods and sodium-rich deli meats, and drink a gallon of water a day.

Walk briskly for 45 minutes to an hour every day.

His advice for toning your upper arms and abs? Try 10 sets of weight work on muscle groups you don't usually pump. A few days of new shoulder and upper-arm work will inflame the muscles, which on the surface will look incredibly toned, he says.

Be prepared for the weight loss and the swelling to disappear soon after you say "I do."

"Go for it. Have two glasses of wine, some food and a little cake," he says of the wedding day. "Understand that come Sunday and Monday after the wedding, your body will be five pounds heavier."

Five pounds is the least of your worries, says not-so-new bride Jeanne Henderson. She's been married and staying fit for nearly 30 years, and says it's important to always work hard on both.

"You can't do it just for the wedding day," she says. "You have to commit to the workout and the husband."

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