Dealing With Problem Areas
Late February already and apparently the ground hogs say spring is just around the corner. By now those of you pursuing New Year’s goals should be seeing significant progress. Belts should need new notches; skinny jeans should be nearing trade in for skinnier jeans. This is also the time that those troublesome areas become stubborn and apparent, you know the ones I mean the fat that resides around the belly button in men and the proverbial “saddle bags” for women. These areas can really become a negative focal point for your currently successful endeavours, our discussion today will be a little coaching on what to do about them.Unfortunately the bad news is that these particular areas are kind of our body’s cruel aesthetic joke when it comes to fat loss. Our body loses body fat from the ground up and the head down leaving these areas in the middle with the slowest progress. There is unfortunately no physical way to “spot reduce” or “target” these areas. So forget the extra crunches or all those weird butt moves. Instead reaffirm yourself with your balanced nutrition. Generally by the 7-8 week mark of nutritional consistency with good physical progress I see a slight lean more toward nutritional inconsistency. The next tip is the real gem but it will require you to think differently about your training, in the words of my favorite author Stephen Covey you will need to make a paradigm shift.
I recently returned from attending a personal training conference in Los Angeles, CA. It was a really neat experience. The personal training field in the land of endless summer is certainly much more advanced and generally accepted than here. It’s also rich with ideas. I had the opportunity to meet and listen to a number of fitness professionals, celebrities and authors. One such person was Dr. Bruce Nadler plastic surgeon and author of “The Nip Tuck Workout”. A quote from his presentation that I quite enjoyed was, “spot reduction isn’t possible, but spot enhancement is.” This is a wonderfully true statement and makes for an excellent approach to deal with those stubborn areas.
Where belly fat is a problem work on developing more muscle in the thighs, pecs and shoulders. By developing these areas the waist will appear smaller and more trim. In addition you may inadvertently burn off more of that stubborn fat because the new muscle will use approximately 15 times as many calories in a 24 hour period as the stubborn fat. For the women struggling with hips and upper thighs try to develop your shoulders and lats (the large wing like muscles of our back) these are the key areas for development for fitness, swimsuit and lingerie models to achieve the perfect proportions that they display.
Shift your paradigm and acknowledge that too much attention to problem areas only leads to negative reinforcement and frustration. Instead focus on developing the areas that will compliment the overall shape of your body as compliments and stares from our friends, family and co-workers are much more likely to keep you on track.
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