Former Miss SA and TV personality Melinda Bam is in the shape of her life! Crazy to think…after all, she was in pretty hot shape to begin with. But after she spent three gruelling months getting into kick-ass shape for the eighth season of Tropika Island of Treasure, Melinda says she’s stronger and fitter than ever.
All About The Gains
Melinda weighs more now than she did when she won Miss SA – proof, once again, that it’s not the number on the scale that counts. “I weighed five kilos lighter than I weigh now, but I feel strong and healthy…I can pick things up and run and squat and throw things and climb things and I can carry my own body weight,” she says. Melinda trained six days a week for three months. And while she was already cardio fit, she changed up her routine to get ready for anything TIOT8 might throw her way. That meant weight training and swimming became part of her routine for the first time ever. “I thought heavy weights were a girl’s arch-enemy, but it ended up being my best friend!” she says.
The Secret Behind Those Abs
Melinda has always enjoyed training her abs. In high school and university she would bang out a couple hundred sit-ups every day! (Explains a lot.) But these days she mixes things up. “I have probably about ten different ab moves that I do,” she says. “So, hanging leg raises – but not hanging from your elbows, hanging from your hands so I can train my wrists and forearms as well – sprinter crunches, toe touches, double crunches, pelvic lifts, leg dips, Russian twists with weights and hammer chops…you take your cable with the ropes and you’re on your knees on the floor and you pull it across, so you twist and get a nice oblique line.” Sjoe! Anyone else feeling tired just reading that list?
Melinda picks five moves and does three sets of twenty for each move:
