Short Stories and Tips
Let’s Build a Bikini Body - Pt. One
1.) Banded Bicycle Crunches
Step 1: Place the band just above your knees.
Step 2: Bring your right knee to meet your left elbow
Step 3: Alternate your left knee and bring it to meet your right elbow
Step 4: Repeat step two & three for 15 reps each leg
2.) Banded Kickbacks
Step 1: Place the band just above your knees.
Step 2:Get in a table top position with your hands directly beneath your shoulders and your knees parallel to your hips.
Step 3. Kick your right leg straight back keeping your left knee on the ground.
Step 4. Repeat exercise 15 times.
Step 5: Switch to your left leg and repeat the exercise with your left leg 15 times.
3.) Banded Elevated Bridges
Step 1:Place the band just below your knees.
Step 2: Lie on your back on the floor, and place your feet on a couch or chair.
Step 3: Lift your hips up to create a bridge from your knees to your chest.
Step 4: Push your knees outward resisting the band.
Step 5: Drop your hips back to the floor.
Step 6: Repeat steps 3-5 for 15 times.
4.) Single leg Banded Bridge Kicks
Step 1: Place the band just above your knees.
Step 2: Lie on your back on the floor, and place your left foot on the floor and your right foot straight.
Step 3: Kick your right foot up towards the ceiling while lifting your hips up to a bridge position. Repeat 20 times.
Step 4: Switch legs and repeat Step 3.
5.) Banded Frog Pumps
Step 1: Place the bands just above your knees
Step 2: Lie on your side and bring your knees towards your chest till they are parallel to your hips.
Step 3: Push your top knee outward towards the ceiling 15 times
Step 4: Switch to the other side and repeat on the other leg 15 times.
Repeat circuit 5 times.
Sustainable Fabric and your Bikini
At Sun Patrol Swimwear we manufacture sustainable swimsuits that are environmentally friendly and manufactured ethically. But have you ever wondered what exactly makes a sustainable bikini, and what the difference is between the standard bikini and an eco-friendly one?
To answer some of these questions, lets take a look at what goes in to making a bikini.
Most swimwear is made from virgin polyester or nylon. This kind of material not only sheds micro-plastics into the water with each wash, but it’s also a waste of natural resources.
Thankfully, there are several innovative, sustainable swim fabrics out there that swimsuit companies can use in their swimwear.
One of the best eco-friendly materials is ECONYL – it’s regenerated nylon from pre and post-consumer products.
To make ECONYL, waste like fishing nets, fabric scraps and carpet flooring are used in a regeneration and purification process. Then, the nylon is processed and turned into new swimwear products.
There are other types of recycled swimwear fabrics, such as REPREVE, which is made from recycled plastic bottles. Yet another material is EcoLux, which is just another term for recycled nylon fibers. Sun Patrol has swimwear made from both REPREVE and ECOLUX manufactured in an ethical Columbian factory.
Most sustainable and ethical swimwear brands will limit the collections they release each year to ensure the quality of their pieces. Not to mention, less collections also means less materials and resources needed to make the swimwear, keeping it sustainable.
Ideally, swimwear production should be energy efficient, value water, contain recyclable fabrics, and support ethical working conditions. We should all me mindful to do our part to care for the environment and support business who take care of and treat their workers and staff in a humane and kind way. You can do that by shopping for ethically sourced clothing, shoes, household items, and products when given the opportunity. :)
The Origin of The Bikini
On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Réard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris, European women first began wearing two-piece bathing suits that consisted of a halter top and shorts in the 1930s, but only a sliver of the midriff was revealed, and the navel was vigilantly covered.
In 1946, Western Europeans joyously greeted the first war-free summer in years, and French designers came up with fashions to match the liberated mood of the people. Two French designers, Jacques Heim and Louis Réard, developed competing prototypes of the bikini. Heim called his the “atom” and advertised it as “the world’s smallest bathing suit.” Réard's swimsuit, which was basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by string, was in fact significantly smaller. Made from a scant 30 inches of fabric, Réard promoted his creation as “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.” Réard called his creation the bikini, named after the Bikini Atoll.
Before long, bold young women in bikinis were causing a sensation along the Mediterranean coast. Spain and Italy passed measures prohibiting bikinis on public beaches but later capitulated to the changing times when the swimsuit grew into a mainstay of European beaches in the 1950s.
In prudish America, the bikini was successfully resisted until the early 1960s, when a new emphasis on youthful liberation brought the swimsuit en masse to U.S. beaches. It was immortalized by the pop singer Brian Hyland, who sang “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini” in 1960, by the teenage “beach blanket” movies of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, and by the California surfing culture celebrated by rock groups like the Beach Boys. Since then, the popularity of the bikini has only continued to grow.
According to French fashion historian Olivier Saillard, the bikini is perhaps the most popular type of female beachwear around the globe because of "the power of women, and not the power of fashion". As he explains, "The emancipation of swimwear has always been linked to the emancipation of women.” By the early 2000s, bikinis had become a US $811 million business annually.
References: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bikini-introduced
