Think of a muffin. More specifically, think of the top part of a muffin that bulges over its paper case. If this at all reminds you in any way of yourself wearing a tight pair of low-cut trousers, then you might be sporting an unfortunate case of urban muffin top.
It’s time to hit the gym if you don’t want your weak spots on full display over summer
But wait a minute, you’re not getting off that lightly; offensive modern slang doesn’t just stop at your waistline. How about saddlebags or bingo wings? Are you sporting any of those too? Let’s see.
Think of a pair of saddlebags flung over a horse, and then a lucky winner on bingo night waving her untoned arm in the air shouting Bingo!” Now, examine the outline of your hips and thighs while standing square in front of a mirror.
You know you’re packing saddlebags when you can see familiarities to the former image. If you wave your hand in front of the same mirror and look at the flesh that hangs from underneath your upper arm, revert to the latter image and you’ll know why they’re called bingo wings.
When others are scrutinising our most embarrassing bodily defects and even coining fun and funky terms for them, we cannot help but feel the pressure to get in shape, and fast.
So forget the muffin and let’s start puffin’. It’s time to hit the gym if you don’t want your weak spots on full display over summer 2013. When it comes to sorting out specific problem areas, there’s good news: exercise will tone up not only the areas you really hate, but everywhere else too.
Sounds too good to be true? Well it isn’t, and here’s why. When the body has exhausted its supplies of stored sugars during any physical activity, it will switch to stored body fat for fuel.
Body fat is mobilised from fat stores all around the body, taken to the liver, converted to sugars and finally sent on to the working muscles that need it. So in order to fuel, say, a one-hour abdominal training session, fat will be taken from everywhere in the body, not just the abdominal area.
By performing exercises just for one specific area, the fat immediately surrounding that area doesn’t somehow seep directly down to fuel the specific working muscle, and this is why the practice traditionally known as spot reduction simply doesn’t work.
Even if we were to perform exercises for one specific area with the view of losing fat all over, which is more realistic, we still wouldn’t get the best results because exercises targeting only select areas and individual muscles won’t burn a significant amount of calories. We need big moves targeting big muscles for optimal results.
With only a very simple strategy and just a select few staple exercises, we can sort out not only your muffin top, but your saddlebags, bingo wings and every other area you’d rather not become the latest subject of hip urban satire.
Reduce your overall calorie intake from your eating plan and eliminate sweets and junk food from your diet. Split your daily food intake into small frequent meals spaced evenly throughout the day every two hours.
Increase your activity levels wherever you can throughout the day to burn more calories, and if you have access to a staircase in your home, why not try this simply routine every morning before breakfast?
Sprint up a flight of steps making contact with each and every step on the way up. Walk back down and repeat three times. Now perform a set of saddlebag-smashing squats. Stretch your arms out in front, stay on your heels, and sit back and down until your thighs are lower than parallel to the ground, repeat 20 times.
Repeat the three stair sprints and move on to a set of bingo-wing-busting press-ups. Position your hands only shoulder width apart, and keep your elbows close in to your body throughout the press.
Keep your knees on the floor if you need to make it easier at first. Repeat another three stair sprints and finish off with some muffin-top-terminating torso twists. Grab a broomstick and rest it across your shoulders behind your head.
Keep looking to your front and twist each end of the stick to your front 30 times. Perform this entire sequence without any rest, once at first, and when you feel ready, double it up.
If you’re working out in the gym, ask your instructor to show you some circuit training options. Circuit training workouts consisting of big moves are an excellent way to build muscle, enhancing shape, as well as burn large amounts of calories and therefore body fat.
If you enjoy lifting weights, select compound movements like squats, lunges, chest presses and upper body rows. Instead of performing them in sequence with rest between each set, try supersetting.
A superset involves pairing up moves, training two exercises immediately in succession without rest, usually opposing muscle groups. You could follow your squats immediately by deadlifts, and your chest press immediately by upper body rows.
There are a number of strategies you could choose, but think global, think holistic. Remember, you could perform abdominal crunches all day every day and still not get a flatter stomach than you would by indulging in a few short and sharp bursts of vigorous, full-body activity.
Goodbye muffin tops and bingo wings and hello summer 2013!
info@noble-gym.com