Real lingerie models, unreal underwear lines and righteous abs

 American Eagle’s new campaign for lingerie line Aerie features models who have not be air-brushed. The campaign has generated a lot of positive interest on twitter, and a spokesperson for the campaign said, “We left beauty marks, we left tattoos, what you see is really what you get with our campaign.” It’s a very laudable aim, and we hope they’ll keep going with it, rather than having just a single campaign that champions the cause of natural beauty. We like to think everybody (and every body!) is gorgeous in his or her own way, and making the most of what we have should be enjoyable and exciting, not painful and punishing, so we’re totally behind the images, in every sense of the word!

Murray Mound given a whole new meaning!

Sadly not. It did make our hearts beat a little faster and our breath flutter a little more when we heard that everybody’s favourite tennis player, Andy Murray, recently registered his name as a trademark to cover knickers, suspender belts, boxers, socks and dresses! We’d love to see Andy in his skivvies, no doubt about that. But his PR company claim that Andy Murray isn’t going to launch is own underwear line, rather, this copyrighting process is to prevent anybody else from doing so. Shame. But to cheer us up after that disappointment, we thought we’d share one of our favourite pictures of Murray in action … boxer band and all!

And if that’s whetted your appetite for more man-candy, we’d like to bring the side action, fast release, sheer Pistola by Sensualle to your attention – just right for your man for Valentine’s Day!

So … abs in undies?

Time’s moved on from the days that women were considered to be perfect when they were cuddly. Today, women are as likely to have flat, or even six-pack abs, as their menfolk. Just like Aerie Real, we believe the sexiest body is the one you live in and love, so whether you prefer curvy, pillowy, ironing board flat or fully six-packed, here are our tips on having a happy, healthy tummy!

Do your Kegels. While Kegel exercises are fantastic for your sex life, and will help you be comfortably continent in later life, they also help to engage the transverse abdominal muscles which surround the core and give you a tighter, and therefore stronger, torso.

Be ab-happy. Core muscles shouldn’t be worked until they are warmed up. Because the core takes some of the strain placed on the spine when properly activated, it’s really important to ensure that you warm up well before starting any ab-crunching activity. Fun ways to warm up the abs include floor-work (both prone and supine bringing knees to chest or heels to buttocks), some upbeat dancing and big hip and belly circles, bellydancer style.

Half of ab-work happens on the plate. No amount of sit ups and crunches will deal with a poor diet, so focus on getting lots of lean protein, fruits and vegetables but be careful about too much fibre – whilst natural fibre (that found in raw or lightly cooked fruit and vegetables and whole grains) is generally great, many ‘high fibre’ processed snacks are stuffed with forms of fibre that may be more difficult to digest – some that contain high levels of inulin, can actually make you more bloated as inulin is difficult for some people to digest. So read those labels carefully as you might be undoing all your good work with that ‘healthy high fibre’ snack!