Fitness Mythbusters: Part III

Truth: As with any exercise, any bit of activity that you could squeeze in during the course of the day is beneficial in the long run. However, many people try to do certain exercises for their trouble areas, like the buttocks, abdominal muscles or thighs. Since the body does not put fat on in one particular area, it is unrealistic to use spot exercises to get it off in one area. While doing many repetitions of any exercise is bound to create some muscle, it is most important to get rid of fat while exercising.

We have all been there. If we do an obnoxious amount of crunches each day, we will have washboard abs. Sadly, that is not the case. Doing ab work is good for strengthen the muscles of the ab wall, but they wont melt away the fat that is covering those ab muscles. By doing crunches only, you are strengthening the muscles under the fat and that's about it. Losing abdominal fat is done by cardiovascular activities like jogging or other intense workouts. In order for the muscles to emerge through the fat, the percentage of body fat must be lowered. By decreasing the amount of fat on the body, muscles and their tone will be more prominent.

Women generally carry more fat in their bellies, so it is harder to get rid of it. When exercising, the body burns fat from within, causing the areas with the most amount of fat to be the last where it is lost. The best way to lose belly fat is to do an allover fitness routine that incorporates cardio activities with resistance training and eating a healthy and balanced diet. Drinking water throughout the day has also been shown to rev the metabolism, as well as help shed toxins. Using all of these methods to lose belly fat is more ideal than getting burned out by hundreds of crunches a day.

Any exercise is good of course, but to make it work efficiently is needs to be done over time, and with allover toning and exercise. Instead of spot reduction or isolating certain body parts to make healthy, why not tone everything at the same time? A total body workout is much more efficient and brings more satisfying results in a decent amount of time.