Love handles

[Bodine6]

My body is in great shape exept for one part, my love handles and my lower abs. I can not seem to get my lower abs in shape and it throws everything off. Does anyone have any advice, maybe a certain excersise or some sh*t.

[murph]

Welcome to AR, and you could try alot of cadio, that seems to bring them out for me, and a good clean diet aswell.............

[Bodine6]

thanks bro!

[Fat4Now]

http://www.tcnj.edu/~marion4/cardio.html

[NightOp]

also.. do a search for saint808 's posts and look for a thread about his cutting period focusing on his love handles (i think he used yohimburn/ECA/cardio ... not sure, just search by user name and "pics" or "handles" or something like that)

[bex]

If you've hit 30, or 40, you may have started to notice the formation of these little alien creatures on the sides of your waist—commonly called "love handles." Stupid name, of course, but the real point is: what are you going to do about them?

Generally, people attack them with sit-ups. This may tone the front section of the abs a bit, but it leaves the handles unfazed.

Someone who knows a little more about abdominal anatomy (just enough to be dangerous!) may try doing twisting sit-ups and side-bends to target the external obliques—the muscles that wrap along your sides and perform twisting motions.

This is not a good idea at all, and here's why:

There are two layers of obliques, internal and external. Both wrap around the sides of your waist and cause various twisting motions of the torso. They also assist the front portion of your abs (the rectus abdominis) in flexing your spine.

In daily life, your obliques act as stabilizing muscles, which just means they help brace the torso while other muscles are working. Certain sports such as wrestling, boxing, and the discus throw require extra-strong obliques and call for a strength-building routine But for most of us, the obliques get a decent workout just by stabilizing our torso, and by contributing to trunk flexion during the regular upper and lower ab exercises we do aimed at the front portion of the muscles.

In fact, when we designed Legendary Abs, we found it was necessary to include only one exercise, Cross-Knee Crunches, that focuses on both internal and external obliques. One was enough. Along with the stabilization demands of the other exercises, Cross-Knee Crunches will provide ample oblique development if appearance, as opposed to athletic strength, is your main goal.

But, getting back to those little blubber rolls... Many people make the mistake of trying to "spot reduce" fat bulges from the sides of their waist by doing twisting exercises and side bends, often using weights. This can actually make the bulges worse, by building up muscle beneath the fat layer.

The upshot is this: unless you're training for athletic performance, avoid any twisting or side bending WITH WEIGHTS. Using weights creates overload, and overloading the obliques virtually guarantees a size increase.

If you find yourself developing muscular love handles from too much oblique work, the best thing to do is to stop doing any twisting ab exercise or side bends. The muscles will eventually reduce in size, though slowly.

FAT'S FAT

So what about those love handles? Well, fat is fat, no matter where on your body it sits. Whether we're talking about love handles, a spare tire, a paunch, pooch, pot, beer gut, belly, or any other euphemism, it's all the same stuff. Reducing excess fat calls for calorie-burning exercise and dietary measures.

It's that old, tried-and-true formula of expending more calories than you consume in fuel, creating what's called a calorie deficit. Here are some tips:

1. Choose a form of exercise that involves major muscle groups. Examples include walking, running, cycling, swimming, jumping rope, and cross-country skiing.

2. Make sure the exercise you choose can be sustained for up to 45 minutes. Burning fat requires medium-to-long duration continuous exercise. Ideally, you should exercise for at least 30 minutes, with 45 minutes as the recommended goal.

3. Choose exercise you enjoy. If you're fond of an activity that doesn't lend itself to calorie burning, try to find ways to increase the intensity level. If you love to play golf, for example, the only way you'll really burn many calories is to forego the motorized cart, sling your clubs over your shoulder, and walk the course carrying those extra 20 pounds. In some cases, you may have to supplement your favorite sport with another form of exercise, but in the end, doing what you enjoy will keep you going.

4. If possible, choose a weight-bearing exercise. Research shows that weight-bearing exercises such as running or cross-country skiing burn more calores than non-weight bearing exercise. This does not mean that swimming and cycling are bad choices, especially if you enjoy them, but they're less efficient calorie burners.

5. Consider supplementing your aerobic exercise with some strength training exercise to build new muscle. While aerobic exercise burns calories during the activity itself, resistance training aimed at strength building leads to changes in your body that let you burn more calories all the time. Each pound of muscle you gain raises your basal metablic rate by about 50 calories a day. Ten pounds of new muscle on your frame would consume an extra 3500 calories a week just by being there.

6. Limit the amount of fat you eat. The mere presence of fat in your bloodstream triggers enzymatic activity around your fat cells that predispose them to store fat more readily. Limiting your fat intake has the opposite effect--fat cell metabolism shifts its emphasis away from fat storage and your body prepares to RETRIEVE fat from the cells for use in energy production. As far as how much you should restrict your fat intake, I think it's best not to be too austere. Since the average American's diet is nearly 40% fat, a reduction to anywhere under 30% would be a significant improvement. I suggest dropping initially to 30% and then gradually lowering the percentage over a period of months until you find the lowest level you can live with comfortably and still feel satisfied.

7. Do not crash diet. Restrict your caloric intake by no more than 10% of what you normally eat. Heavy cutbacks in caloric intake signal to your body to throttle back and conserve fuel. Your metabolism drops and the fat stays put. Any results you might get from crash dieting disappear when you go off the diet. The idea is to adopt a moderate plan that you can stick with long-term.

8. Don't be perfectionistic about weight loss--everyone has good and bad days. No one gains all their fat overnight, and you shouldn't expect to lose it all overnight. The secret is to integrate subtle, positive changes in your life that create a TREND in the DIRECTION of fat loss. Be patient and the results will show.