TONUS BONUS = Spot Reduction
Hello Dear One!
If you’ve ever salivated over someone’s flat, or washboard, abs – this might be a useful breakdown of items to check off the list if you’d like to have more of that for yourself.
BONUS = Spot Reduction
Ok! So many believe this is a total myth, but based on my research that’s not the end of the story.
IF you’ve ever noticed the areas on you that tend to have more fat (or your loved one) are generally COOLER to the touch than leaner segments.
The reason for this is that fat has poor blood supply.
We need oxygen to burn fat. Exercises that get your heart rate up will raise the level of oxygen in your blood stream and aid your body in burning fat for fuel.
Typically when we raise our heart rate, and increase our circulation, that happens EVERYWHERE and affects ALL things.
However a way to amp up where you’d like to deliberately whittle a bit more away is to increase the circulation even further!
How do you do this?
By contracting the muscles that are adjacent to the area you wish to melt more fat off of.
“But Michaela! You just told us that ab exercises were NOT the best way to reduce fat on top of them!”
CORRECT!
BUT when you add contraction in CONJUNCTION with increased cardiovascular output that = Spot Reduction.
***Disclaimer: If there’s currently a LOT of you to love, this is NOT the best use of your time. But if there’s a stubborn area that has yet to quit – this might be a good approach.***
So what does this even look like?
The 3 parts of Spot Reduction are:
1. Getting/keeping the desired area to be reduced warm.
2. Contracting adjacent muscles
3. Strategic timing of cardio and contraction exercises (Ideally doing this in the morning in a fasted state).
**Ahem! Fat burners easily workout before eating their first meal. To find out more about a program that will get and KEEP you in that state, read more here.***
Ok, so if it’s your tummy that’s the focus wear something that will make that area warmer (something synthetic, perhaps a wrap or weight belt – not cotton that breathes).
Do your cardio session (example: walking briskly on a treadmill for an hour).
Halfway through get off and do two rounds of a handful of your abdominal exercises of choice.
Get back ON the treadmill and finish your session.
Do another two rounds of ab exercises sequence when done with cardio.
And that’s it!
To read about this in more detail, and more about the science behind it check out the full article here.
So try out Spot Reduction if you’re close to the shape or size that you desire and could use a little extra help.
AND if you’d like to be able to use this best (or working out best!) by being able to exercise in a fasted state check out Fat Burning Mastery to take advantage of being set up to use your fat for fuel.
Hope this was useful!
And if you need more guidance or advice around exercise, injury management or prevention – there are a series of discounted coaching programs that might be worth a gander as well.
To getting you clearer on how the body works, & how to make it work for you.
xox, M