Forget about spot reducing...

Monday, December 13, 2010
I’m sorry to disappoint any of you who think you can spot reduce fat on your body. You can’t and any video, equipment ad, club, or person who tells you that you can…is full of shit.

Look…if spot reducing worked, what guy would walk around with love handles and a gut or woman would have hips and thighs larger than they wanted? If you answered “um…I wouldn’t for one” …you’d be spot on. I’m mean really…don’t you have a dominant hand and don’t you use that hand/arm to do more things than the less dominant one? Well…if you could spot reduce, wouldn’t it stand to reason that there would be less fat on the dominant arm since it’s ‘exercising’ more throughout your day? Guess what…the fat content of each arm is identical. Spot reducing is all about false hope…trying to get you to buy something or join somewhere for the quick fix. It ain’t happening…so don’t waste your money or fall for the line.

I read an article in the PD health section comparing the equipment at two women’s only health clubs. ‘Curves’ features hydraulic weight resistant equipment while ‘Contours’ features more traditional weight training equipment featuring stacks of weights. The author was suggesting…and correctly…that both will do the job to tone and strengthen muscles if used correctly…and here’s the rub. Hydraulic equipment meets your effort with resistance. If you push or pull easy…it doesn’t fight you too hard and the resulting workout is…well…less than optimum. Select a given amount of weight on a plate-loading piece of equipment though and either you put in the effort…or it ain’t moving. Improving your strength is all about challenging yourself and taking muscles to failure…you know…the point where they’re too tired to lift any more. I’m all about measuring and setting goals and frankly I think it’s so much easier as both a trainer and as a person working out to have the amount of weight known to me. Now I can see how hard I’m working and how much I’ve improved over the last workout or since I began my program. At best, this is more challenging with hydraulics.

The snows came hard and I had to shovel three different times. In between shovelings, I headed for the park and took a long hike through the deep snow off-trail. I came upon a deer bedding area and scared up over 15 slumbering animals. I’ve never seen so many in one place in the park and couldn’t help but think ‘what are all you guys going to be eating this winter?’

I returned from the park to find that the bottom of the driveway had been plowed in by the city…again. I grabbed my shovel and had pushed some of the heavy mess to the side and was lifting it when a pick-up truck with a plow attachment came to a stop in front of the drive. He quickly dropped his blade and pushed the mess up over the curb and off my drive. He rolled down the window and said “that should save your back some.” I called my thanks as he drove off. Nice guy.

Hike duration: 70 minutes
Training Heart Rate: 80
Calories burned during workout: Maybe 500