"What exercises can I do for a flatter stomach?"
"How can I get rid of my belly?"
This might be the most common type of question clients and acquaintances ask me. Usually, it's as if they are expecting a one-minute answer and an easy, simple solution. Sorry! There isn't one. No magical crunch variation will make abdominal fat disappear.
As with any body part, you can't "spot reduce," or eliminate fat at one region in particular - i.e. belly, back of the arms, inner thighs, etc. - by simply doing exercises to target that body part. Your body is composed of muscle tissue covered by a layer fat tissue. You cannot turn fat into muscle tissue. Period. It's impossible. You definitely can't put in a few sets of crunches every now and then and expect to turn a pot belly into a 6-pack. Exercises like sit-ups, crunches, and planks will strengthen and grow the abdominal muscles but they still will not appear toned if they are covered with a layer of fat tissue.
Reducing fat at a particular body part requires reducing fat on the body overall. This can be done most efficiently with a combination of:
1) Strength-training. Perform exercises for the entire body. Choose exercises that have a core stability component (typically for these your feet will be on the ground) over those that don't: squat over leg press, push-up over lying chest press, pull-up over lat pulldown. This way your abs are at work all the time. Include ab-specific exercises but don't obsess over them. Spend about 10 minutes three times per week doing abdominal exercises that fatigue your muscles in 45-60 seconds. PS - The people who say they do 1,000 crunches are foolish. First of all, I would LOVE to see anyone do 1,000 crunches with correct form. And second of all, you'd still have to figure out a way to reduce body fat for those PHENOMENAL abs to rip through...
2) Cardiovascular exercise. Make sure you are regularly doing some form of exercise that elevates your heart rate and keeps it elevated - i.e. walking, running, biking, boot camps, etc.
3) Balanced caloric consumption. If you are taking in more calories than you are expending, your body stores those extra calories as fat. Most people I talk to know exactly what they are eating that is causing weight gain or delaying weight loss. They are simply not making any changes. You don't need to count points or go on a cleansing cocktail fast to moderately adjust your areas of indulgence. You might reduce your portions, avoid processed foods, eat more fruits and vegetables, stop buying takeout, stop going back for seconds, cut down on soda and sweetened beverages, limit fried foods, or - horror of horrors - reduce alcohol consumption (No!).
Get the idea?
It's a commitment.
If it were easy, more people would be running around with rock hard abs.
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6 comments:
'regularly doing some form of exercise" in the cardio section means what? Is it the 30 or 40 minutes a day? Does it mean 4 days a week of running/jogging for 3-4 miles is not enough? I feel like I hear such conflicting messages about how much cardio is good. I certainly don't do cardio every day (more becasue I don't love it, not 'cause I don't have time) yet if I have lifted for a good 40 minutes is it okay to not run and do some cardio the next day?? - thanks for this post - I am one who obsesses about the mythical spot-checking!!
You're right that there is a lot of conflicting advice about how much cardio to do. I left the "instructions" pretty vague for a reason...if you are someone who wants to reduce body fat (abdominal or other), you need to really up your cardio OR make modifications to what you are eating. Sometimes I hear a sort of complacency from people regarding their cardio - i.e. "I run 3x/week for 30 minutes, isn't that enough?" Maybe that's enough if you're willing to make changes to the diet, but if not, you may need to run 4x/week for 45 minutes to see the changes you'd like in your body. The best thing you can do, although it's tedious, is journal what you actually do for cardio AND where you err from the healthy way that you plan to eat. Write down when you have seconds at dinner, or a dessert you weren't expecting to eat, or happy hour drinks, or when you only did 20 minutes of cardio and had planned to do 40. These little things add up to the unwanted body fat, but it's hard to believe if you can't see it in front of you.
So do you have to do cardio on days that you lift? No. But it is certainly misleading to think that since you lifted, you are "off the hook" when it comes to being aware of all the other things that go into improving body composition.
Can you speak to the metabolic effects of cardio done at a comfortable level vs. intense activity? I think diet is important regardless but if you are looking to reduce fat or get ripped don't you have to get out of the comfort zone and push yourself harder at least a couple times a week? Is the literature about metabolism levels being raised and for a longer period of time (post-exercise) valid in your opinion? And does it depend more on the intensity than the frequency?
I hope this is clear as I'm having trouble expressing this succinctly.
Do you have to get out of your comfort zone to get ripped? I have to point out that this is an extremely vague question as "comfort zone" and "ripped" are open to interpretation. However, with that said, every person I know who I consider to be ripped works out at a vigorous pace (as opposed to low or moderate) at least 3x/week for at least 30 minutes. At least.
And the other question, is the research valid about an increased state of metabolism post exercise? Yes. When you place stress on your body, it has to use energy - after exercise - to repair and make adaptations. The more stress, the more repair. This is a silly analogy but think about it like this...you're throwing a dinner party. You decide to order hoagies because they are easy for you to prepare, and afterwards, there is little clean-up, but your friends aren't very impressed with the food. Compare this meal to low intensity exercise like a walk around the neighborhood. It is easy to complete, but has little to no lingering effect on metabolic elevation. And, like the friends who aren't impressed with your food, you probably won't find yourself in a lean body if this is all the exercise you do.
Now let's say you decide to make a 3-course meal - the clean-up is quite demanding, but your guests think you're an amazing host. This meal is comparable to a high-intensity form of exercise like a boot-camp or circuit class. It requires much more exertion to complete, but the pay-off is that your body stays in an elevated metabolic state to rebuild the tissues you broke down during exercise - i.e. you burn more calories even after you're finished exercising. And to take it further, just like your guests find you a spectacular host when you put in more effort, your body will make more adaptations the more you stress its limits.
Do these adaptations and post-exercise effects depend more on intensity than frequency? Yes. If you walked around the block every day, your body still wouldn't have to work very hard to repair itself after each walk. However, I don't mean to say you can become super lean through one boot camp class per week - just that your body will have a higher post-exercise metablic elevation from that class than if you had gone for a walk.
The dinner analogy was helpful!
In spite of my open-to interpretation phrasing you figured out what I meant and got to the heart of the matter with your answer. I have to go back to your blog about what it means to be "fit" and be more precise or maybe just ditch the buzzwords.
Thank you for the thoughtful response and the excellent analogy.
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