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TVC'S BEAUTY TIPS Exercising your Femininity

How well you pass as a female has much to do with your body shape, size, musculature, and fat distribution. We inherit height, and much of our body's other characteristics have to do with what our parents handed down

to us.

But there are ways of im- proving your look. Fitness is always a matter of degree: how hard you work at it, the better the results (true of most things, isn't it). And exclud- ing heavy weight training (which will add bulky, unfemi- nine muscles), any exercise routine will give you a healthier, sexier, and more appealing look as a woman -

or a man.

I've never played competi- tive sports, but since high school, I've been almost fa- natically dedicated to being fit. I can list a multitude of reasons, but mainly it comes down to 1) it feels great, 2) relieves stress, and 3) keeps my body sleek, attractive, and, yes, even feminine.

After all, the top models, actresses, and most intriguing women are very dedicated to ex- ercise, "body sculpting", and aero- bic conditioning. And since this is my first column as the new TVC Beauty Tips columnist, I wanted to start with the most fundamental aspect of one's physical beauty: the body.

In future columns, I'll be cov- ering the gamut of how to achieve various aspects of male-to-female beauty. Consequently, I invite

by Shari

you, the reader, to send me any questions or topics you might have about cross-dressing, transsexualism, and related beauty tips, secrets, or ideas. I'll do my best to respond to any and all letters that are sent.

Now, let's get started with my first column, about how fitness can improve our look as a woman, and over overall health, so we can look and be our very best.

AN INTRODUCTION TO FITNESS

If you're already exercising, you can skip this section, since I want to talk about what happens when you work out. This is my way of motivating you. In a word, let's get slim, sleek, and toned. Diet is half of the equation, exer- cise should be the other 50%.

There are basically three com- ponents to being "in shape"" aero- bic fitness (your heart and car-

diovascular), flexibility (stretch- ing), and muscle tone.

When you're younger (under 25 or so), one's flexibility and range of movement is less of a problem. Tendons, ligaments, and muscles usually remain supple. But as we age, lack of use can cause joints to stiffen, ten- dons to tighten, and muscles to diminish (we lose about 10% of our muscle mass every ten years after age 30 with inactivity). Grav-

ity begins to shift body mass from the shoulders and breasts, down to the stom- ach, hips and butts. Fat has away of accumulating in ev- ery nook and cranny.

For us TV's and TS's, it would be great if the fat ac- cumulated in our boobs. Un- fortunately, without hor- mones, that seldom hap- pens. More commonly, bear guts, jowls, and double chins are what men develop. Women get "saddle bag" hips and "Thunder thighs"

But there is a solution. Even twenty minutes a day of aerobic exercise will in- crease your base metabolism for as long as twelve hours afterwards. And interest- ingly, aerobic exercise often decreases your appetite. In- creased muscle mass in your body burns calories at a much high rate than a body loaded down with the burden of fat.

If motivation is a problem, think of exercise as a way of de- veloping your female side, your feminine personal and look. Think thin, think pretty, think of glowing sex appeal. Think of you. EXERCISE AND LOOKING "MORE FEMALE"

This may sound like a contra-

TVC BEAUTY TIPS

diction. How could working out possibly give one

a more female look? Well, to start with, thinning and toning the waist can make a big difference.

Crunches are the exercise of choice for the abdominal. The "abs" (as they are often referred to) can be the most important ant aspect of one's overall naked sex appeal. Sit-ups are fine for your hip flexor muscles, but they really have little effect on the abs. And here's how to do a "crunch": lay on the floor with hands locked behind the head, feet flat and knees raised a foot or so. Raise your shoulders and head up toward (but not all the way to) your knees. And as you do it, you should feel the muscles in your abs, which are right beneath your belly button. Repeat until you just start to feel a little "burn", or strain, in the area. Rest for 30 seconds or so, and start again. Each group of repetitions (or "reps") is called a "set." Start with two or three sets, perhaps doing 10 to 20 "reps."

To really whittle on the waist size and shape, the same on-your-back position can be used. This time, however, you should focus and the side abdominal muscles, or the oblique. The idea is to cross the elbow (hand behind head) over to the opposite knee. Cross your legs so that if the right knee is elevated, the left elbow is touching over to it. Again, start with 10 to 20 reps, and two or three sets. For beginners, you can space your "muscle toning" workouts to three or four days a week. After one week or so, you can increase the number of

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repetitions. After three or four weeks, you should be able to double the number of reps.

Eventually, you can work up to a number of reps that will make a very noticeable difference in the way your figure looks. This may mean (gulp!) sev- eral hundred reps a day. With proper diet, (cutting out extra fatty foods) you can take inches off your waist and add definition and tone to the abs. You'll have a more "hourglass" shape, and perhaps even drop a few dress sizes. Also, there is much evi- dence that increased abdominal strength will help eliminate or decrease lower back problems.

Another strength exercise that can help with a more womanly appearance is the development of the breast or pectoral-muscles. It's the one area where bigger is definitely better.

Push-ups are a good way of developing the pectorals. Again, start with a set of 10 to 20 (much fewer is OK if it feels difficult). The farther apart your hands when you do a push-up, the more isolated are the pectoral muscles (closer together uses the tricep muscles of the arms). If you have access to weight lifting facilities, bench presses are good. In this case, you want bigger peck (breasts- right?), so try to keep your repetitions low (under 12 to 15) and your weight fairly heavy. If all of this sounds utterly (udderly?) unfeminine, then think of how those Schwarzeneggar-type body builders would look if they didn't have all those other muscles, and just had the huge pectorals alone, on a fit, toned body. They'd fit into, I think, a sexy, lacy, bra -42DD just would be fine.

AEROBIC AND BODY SCULPTING

Aerobics is generally thought of as cardio- vascular (heart and circulatory) fitness. If the truth be known, however, much of the aerobic fitness routines have "body sculpting" activities that are part of the overall program. The individual move- ments are much skin to dancing, and many incor- porate full-body movement to various degrees of intensity.

Here is an exercise that will certainly get you feeling more in tune with your feminine side. The reason is that the best routines are on video, made by women, primarily for women, and often speak to you "woman to woman." I have only seen a half dozen or so of these videos, but the best in my opinion are those by Cher or Kathy Smith. Cher's video, in particular, is not only very well pro- grammed with rhythmic dance music, but also covered all the bases: warm-up stretching, body sculpting with high repetition strength exercises, and, of course, a 45 minute aerobic routine. As Cher (and her fitness instructor, who is given substan- tial credit) go through each routine, it's empha- sized and shown how it can be done either as a "high-intensity" workout, or, for those just begin- ning or not able to do high-intensity, a low-inten- sity pace. It's fun, it's very much like being with a CONTINUED ON PAGE 57