Team USA athlete workouts

With the Summer Olympics in London only a few short months away, hundreds of Team USA athletes are preparing by logging countless hours in the gym. But for the rest of us, we’d prefer to see the sunnier months while sitting by a body of water and sipping umbrella drinks. Unfortunately, we still need to work out if we want to look good in our bathing suits. So we sneaked a peek at training sessions of everyone from Misty May-Treanor to Natalie Coughlin and snagged a couple of their favorite exercises that require no equipment at all. That means you can do them at the beach and not even sacrifice tanning time. Now you have no excuses.

LOWER BODY

Athlete: Beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor 
Exercise: Hot-bottom Shuffle 
Works: Hips, thighs, calves, butt 
How-to: From a standing position, Misty starts with her feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent, and elbows at her side with hands up in front of her. Staying low, she steps out to the right with her right foot and then follows with the left foot — side-stepping three times to the right and then three times to the left. Initially she starts out slow so that she engages her quads, but after a few turns she picks up the pace, exploding off the balls of her feet. 
Misty says: “You can take this exercise anywhere. You don’t have to be in the gym. Just get out there. Have at least an hour activity. Get out of the house. Bring the kids along. Even if you can’t get workouts in, go for a walk in the sand, go for a walk at the beach, walk hills, just have fun with it. Don’t make it a job, but enjoy what you’re doing when you’re working out.” 
Watch it here

UPPER BODY 
 
Athlete: Wrestler Henry Cejudo 
Exercise: Lat raise jacks 
Works: Lats (a.k.a. back muscle), shoulders 
How-to: Henry starts by standing with his feet shoulder-width apart and his elbows by his side, with his hands out in front of him, parallel to the floor. With his hands clenched in a ball and his legs performing a jumping jack motion he raises his elbows out and up so that his arms are in line with his shoulders. He lowers them back down and repeats, performing the jumping jack motion the entire time. 
Henry says: “Working out is power, strength and flexibility. That’s why I’m successful. I have this heart; this will; this passion to train this hard. To push my body to a place it’s never been.” 
Watch it here

GLUTES

Athlete: Track and field sprinter Allyson Felix 
Exercise: Hip abductions  
Works: Glutes (a.k.a. buttocks and hips) 
How-to: Allyson starts on the floor, making sure her hands are directly underneath her shoulders and her knees are directly underneath her hips. Without shifting her weight, she starts by flexing her right foot and lifts her right leg out to the side and up. She brings it back down for one set before moving on to the left side. She makes sure to keep her abs tight and her back flat throughout the movement.
Allyson says: "I spend a lot of time in the weight room … doing things that help me stay explosive and powerful. I think the main thing is the work ethic,” she says to Stack magazine. “You need to get that under control so that you can take it to another level.”
Watch it here

ABDOMINALS 
 
Athlete: Swimmer Natalie Coughlin 
Exercise: Isolations with upper body 
Works: Abdominals 
How-to: Natalie starts sitting on the ground with her feet and her knees shoulder-width apart. Placing her hands behind her knees, she rolls down with tight abs until she reaches the small of her back onto the floor. With both hands by her side, she extends one arm up to a 45-degree angle, followed by the other. Now starting with the right arm, she pulses the arm down so it’s parallel to her body. Once her right arm is down by her side, she starts to bring the left arm down at the same time while raising her right arm up. She continues to pulse her arms in a rotating fashion for 60 seconds. 
Natalie says: “I love being a professional athlete more than anything. Even if I weren’t competing, I would be training hard – at least just to stay fit,” she tells Yahoo! Sports. “But I love having an excuse to train four, five, six hours a day. I just love the feeling of being fit.”
Watch it here