August 2, 2010

Spot Reduction Formula…Well Sort of…

Not all exercises are created equal, as you very well know. But how do we decipher and weed our way through the millions of exercises to find the ones that best work for our goals of fat loss? There are several ways but perhaps the simplest way is to recognize that the exercises that will give you the biggest bang for your fat loss buck are exercises that involve one area on the body that will guarantee results (with good nutrition of course).

It’s more of a region of the body than one specific part. The hips and torso region, or the middle of the body must be incorporated for it to be considered an effective fat loss exercise. Consider these exercises for example: Squat, push ups, and burpees. Each of these exercises focuses on different muscle groups as their primary mover, but the one common thing among all of these movements is that they involve the hips as well as the torso whether it is involved in stabilization or primary movement. In fact many exercises start off as not being a good fat loss exercise until a combination of movements are put together to maximize work in the same or less amount of time. A great example of this is a Squat Press. This is two exercises, a squat, than an overhead press put together to make a new highly effective fat loss exercise. Another example is a push up then adding rotation to make it a T-Stabilization Push up. The possibilities are endless but one rule applies; it must incorporate the ‘middle’ region of the body, ie the hips and torso.

Take a look at the exercises you are now doing in your routine and do a check to see if they are incorporating the middle region. A quick helper here is to eliminate any sitting exercises, because they eliminate the hips and most of the time eliminates the torso. A fantastic place to start is with bodyweight exercises and expand from there. Your bodyweight will train you to incorporate the middle region very quickly and assist you in reaching your fat loss goals.

Some of you may have already seen this but here is a sneak peak at our home DVD Fat Loss Bootcamp. Check it out: