Work the bigger muscles

Today the fitness industry is in a bit of a shambles. There’s a lot of money to be made from people who want to get their ideal body, particularly from women who are constantly exposed to celebrities and other people who look in amazing shape.

In this third instalment, let’s look at another myth that surrounds women’s training which are often simply stated as fact.

You can spot reduce fat: When we exercise, our muscles work in order for us to perform. Different exercises work different muscles.

This seems obvious, right?

Read it again, you see the word muscle? What about the fat?

Exercises work muscles, fat provides the energy for these muscles to work (or recover from working). We cannot choose what area of fat is burned for this energy, it comes off the body as a whole, not from the area that the muscles are working.

Stomach exercises do not burn stomach-fat, arm exercises do not target arm fat.

Fat burns off from the body as a whole and we cannot burn fat from a specific area of the body. It just cannot happen, if you’re overweight and doing crunches then I’m afraid that you are wasting your time.

Let me approach this from another angle.

I don’t really do any stomach exercises. Why? Because they burn small amounts of calories and make no difference on strength.

Look back to earlier in this report, what are the two main goals of training? Say them out loud. Now with the knowledge that the abdominals are much smaller muscles than the majority of our other muscles, think where most stomach exercises belong with these goals in mind, at best they are an accessory. Stick to working the bigger muscles.