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If you’re just starting with your weight loss or muscle building journey, you might feel tempted to focus on exercises that target the specific body parts. For most people who want to lose weight, these body parts often include the abdomen and the arms. After all, doing crunches and bicep curls should help you achieve your goals, right? This concept is called spot training, also referred to as spot reduction. While it might seem to make sense, the truth is that spot training is anatomically impossible.
The science behind spot training
When you want to have bulging biceps, you perform isolation exercises involving your arms such as pull-ups and bicep curls. When you want to build huge pecs, it follows that you need to bench press or do push-ups. This is one of the reasons why most people feel inclined to do sit-ups when trying to lose their belly fat. While it’s possible to see some improvements over time, the reason for those improvements isn’t what you think.
Fat forms a layer between your muscles and the skin. You probably know that the body converts fat into energy, but do you think the body cares where exactly it burns fat? The human body just doesn’t work that way. Even if you burn enough calories by doing crunches exclusively, it doesn’t mean the body only burns fat in the area immediately surrounding your abdomen.
There’s also the fact that humans are genetically predisposed to store fat in certain areas of the body. This explains why when most people accumulate fat, they develop larger bellies and arms. These two body parts are the most common problem areas, but targeting them with isolation exercises wouldn’t help you reach your fitness goals any quicker.
What you should do instead
Ever wondered why people who do nothing but run or jog experience noticeable weight loss? It’s all a matter of understanding how the body works. Running and jogging are just two examples of aerobic exercises, which are known to aid weight loss as they help the body burn a lot of calories in a short period. As long as you stay consistent with your exercise routine and make healthy eating choices, you should be able to reduce your weight over time. According to doktorfit.edu.pl, this can even help people who want to build muscles since the layer of fat that hides the muscles is removed, thus enhancing muscle definition.
There’s also a good reason why many fitness experts keep saying that “abs are made in the kitchen.” Even if you do circuit training, resistance training, aerobic and anaerobic exercises, you might fall short of expectations if you fail to eat the right types of food. It’s also vital that you stop depriving yourself of food in an attempt to lose weight quickly. Instead, make it a habit to eat whole foods, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein. Foods rich in carbohydrates and sugar aren’t helpful in your journey, so it’s best to keep them to a minimum.
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This content is sponsored by Jim Bevin.
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