Having
spent well over a decade as a personal trainer and having been an adjunct
instructor for the last six years, I have had the pleasure of working with
thousands of people and hundreds of students. I also enjoy having countless
amounts of conversation with family members, friends, and strangers about
fitness-related topics. One of my main focuses as a personal trainer is to
educate my clients, as well as anyone that is willing to listen to me talk
about fitness. Yet, there has been one fitness fallacy that seems to always
come up when talking to someone about working out – spot reduction.
In
my opinion, the number one lie when it comes to working out is when someone
targets an area on their body in order to reduce excessive body fat at that
area through exercise, which is called, ‘spot reduction’. For an example, if a
woman wants smaller inner thighs she will work her thighs using a Thigh Master
or do hundreds of Scissor Kicks.
The
main areas that are targeted for spot reduction are the abdominals, buttocks,
and thighs. These areas began being targeted in the mid-80’s, which led to a
study conducted by the University of Massachusetts in which subjects were to do
5000 vigorous abdominal exercises over the course of 27 days. Fat biopsies were obtained from the
subjects' abdomens, buttocks and upper backs before and after the exercise
program. The results of the study revealed that fat decreased similarly at all
three sites—not only in the abdominal region. Simply put, there is not
sufficient research supporting ‘spot reduction’ – it just does not work.
Proponents of spot reduction often
ask ‘If it doesn’t work then why did their fat decrease?’ It decreased due to
the abundance of exercise, which burned the sufficient calories to see a
reduction. Research conducted by the American College of Sport Medicine found that
spot reduction training could lead to over training, which can be
counterintuitive and can cause an increase in body fat. So in this case more is not always better but
rather can be worse.
Spot reduction is a fallacy, so do
not get caught up in the trap of practicing spot reduction!
Thigh Master, machine weights...they do the same thing; target one specific area. I am not a fan of machine weights, or other equipment that only targets one area. When in life will we ONLY use our bicep....ONLY use our hamstring muscles? Never!
ReplyDeleteClients lose fat by using their entire body.
Spot reduction seems to me like it is building the muscle underneath in that particular area BUT is not burning that fat just in that area. In other words it seems like in order to burn fat cardio is better because it is not targeting that one area but all of your body fat, so then your not overworking one area. I think people misinterpret spot reduction because they think the fat will just come off that particular area but instead they are overworking the muscles in that area. In order to reduce fat on top of those muscles cardio on a treadmill or elliptical seems like a better option.
ReplyDeletePeople have had a misconception of exercise and nutrition for a very long time. This is due to people not being educated and therefore, they just believe in what they hear. Spot reduction seems like the miracle to peoples' problem areas. However, the true secret to getting fit or losing weight is diet AND exercise. Someone who eats whatever they want and works out seven days a week wont have the same results of someone who changes their diet and works out. I feel like workouts that target the whole body are better to lose weight.
ReplyDeletePeople who want to see results in their body need to be educated on what they are doing and correctly what needs to be done or they are just going with whatever and hoping to see change. Just do exercises that work everything and begin eating healthy and I feel results will be more successful.
ReplyDeleteThose who want to see results need to use their whole body in a work out. I have never felt like those machines have ever helped me when ever I've used them. But when we did cross fit last week, now that I felt the next day haha! Its because we were using all of our muscles at once to do these exercises as well as combining it with cardio. Getting the body you want isn't easy, but then you wouldn't be as proud of it if it was. =)
ReplyDeletepeople wanna see how great you can wrok them out and get the results back to get a better shape of body and eating right. its all about the structure of working out
ReplyDeleteThere is no way to work out just one part of your body. No matter what area of your body you are trying to tone or lose fat in you are not just working that one spot. Sure that may be the spot that you are trying to work on, but in the process you are really working many other spots as well. I feel like when you work your whole body you get the results you want better and faster.
ReplyDeleteThis is true I always used spot reduction. When I wanted a result on one part of my body I would lean towards machines that would help me lose the fat. However, when a friend that a trainer started helping me work out we didn't use machines. We used our bodies and got the result I wanted and never really did using machines.
ReplyDeleteSo in this blog you are saying that if I want to get rid of the fat on my inner thighs I don't need to just focus on that I just need to exercise my all around body? Cause I feel like my legs are pretty toned but my inner thighs are just fatty. Is it due to my diet?
ReplyDeletemuch needed article.Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete