Naturally Intense High Intensity Personal Training™ Blog

The myth of spot reduction

It is a widely held belief that if you exercise one area, it will make the fat go away. I am often told that a personal training client wants to work their arms more or their stomach or butt more since those are their trouble areas and they want to focus on losing as much fat there as possible. Go to any gym and you will see people on the ab and butt machines for hours at a time, day in and day out. But try as you may it will make no difference in terms of fat reduction. Spot reduction, you see is simply a myth and is no more a possibilty than being able to turn lead into gold.

When you work a muscle- it has absolutely no direct effect on the fat that surrounds it. For example- if I had a big gut and worked my abs every day, it wouldn’t do anything to reduce the fat around my waist, only to strengthen and develop the muscles lying underneath. In fact, my experience has been over the years that many people end up with even biger stomachs from working their abdominal muscles too much. Muscles get bigger and thicker as a natural response to increased workloads and so many end up building big blocky abdominal muscles which do nothing but push the fat around them out even more! Unlike what most call show muscles like your arms and shoulders, few of us want bigger abs- the look most seek is a sleeker and tigher midsection, and training your ab muscles day in and day out is not always the best way to get it. The same rules apply to every other muscle in your body from your hips to your glutes, you can work them as much as you want, but you are not going to do anything about the fat around them unless you exercise correctly (which requires moderation and in most cases the assistance of an experienced professional personal trainer), and most importantly- you eat properly.

You lose fat pretty evenly throughout your body, be it from an increase in muscle mass from a properly executed weight training program and adherence to diet, (which will result in long term fat loss) or a caloric deficit from major dietary shifts and increased energy expenditure from significant amounts of exercise (which will make you lose weight, but only temporarily). In either case you will always see the fat loss mostly in the areas where you have the least fat to start with. So if you naturally have a high concentration of fat in in your lower abdominal area, (as is the case for most people- both men and women) that will will be the place that you notice the fat loss the least. That is not to say at all that you are not losing fat in that area, but if since there is more fat in that region of your body, it will appear that you are not losing as much in that area. You will however see fat loss faster in areas where there is less fat, which explains why you will always see a change in your face and lower arm areas when you being to lose fat before anywhere else.
Genetics does play a role in this as does gender. In my experience as well over the years some people are simply predisposed to having low fat concentrations in certain areas. I know of several women that naturally have well defined abdominals- but  have big problems getting the fat around their legs and hips under control. The bottom line is that you work the entire body to reduce fat everywhere and as time goes on, you will see those trouble spots going away slowly but surely! Remember, fat loss is always a marathon, not a sprint- so take your time and don’t try to rush it!

Kevin Richardson is the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training™ a lifetime natural bodybuilder and founder of Naturally Intense Personal Training NYC. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here.

Even the Material Girl needs a trainer to stay in shape

Do you need a personal trainer? Well, if you are serious about weight loss, improving your strength and overall fitness then I would say that you should indeed consider using the services of a good personal trainer, regardless of whether you are just starting off, or have been training for years. There is just so much that you can stand to learn from having a truly experienced personal trainer at your side that it is always a good investment.

My martial arts teacher always used to say that you should never seek to follow in the footsteps of successful men and women, but instead seek what they sought. Taking this into consideration, let’s take a look at the people that most hold up as having attained the perfect body.

For most women images of Angelina Jolie come to mind. As do others such as Madonna, Janet Jackson, Eva Langoria and Jessica Alba to name a few. These women grace the silver screen and pages of so many magazines with their toned and sleek bodies and yet even though many women would die to get themselves in such stellar shape they never really stop and ask ourselves how they are able to look so darned fantastic all the time.

L.L. Cool J doesn't look like this by accident- he has a trainer.

For the guys, Will Smith, Brad Pitt, L.L. Cool J., Christian Bale and immediately come to mind, and a lot of guys join the gym all fired up about trying to get themselves in that kind of shape, but fail despite their best efforts and using every supplement and weight loss formula under the sun.

But what do the stars have that everyone else don’t? You see impromptu photos of them off somewhere on vacation and they don’t look that, well, stellar. In fact sometimes they kind of look like everybody else, complete with flabby arms, sagging butts and pot bellies. However, no matter how badly they look before a movie role or concert, they always seem to pull it together for their public performances.

How do they do it? Is it a pill or magic potion? They definitely don’t follow the same diets everyone else does, or train they way everyone else does, because they get real results!

So coming back to my point on doing what successful people do to be successful, what do they all have in common? The answer is an experienced personal trainer. Think about it for a second, if you had to look really spectacular for a movie or a tour, one that would earn you several millions of dollars in income, are you going to leave your results to chance, or are you going to hire an expert that has been proven to be able to get people in shape consistently over the years?

The answer is an obvious one, and more often than you think highly experienced trainers are contracted to help some of your favorite stars into fighting shape (due to the nature of some of the contracts sometimes we are not allowed to disclose who we work with) but make no mistake that behind every buff body there is an veteran trainer overseeing both their diet and exercise program.

So there are no real secrets, and yet I am always amazed to see how much peoples invest in everything from fat supplements to liposuction to get in shape but are reluctant to hire an experienced personal trainer. Now a good one isn’t that easy to come by- and just because you are paying top dollar doesn’t guarantee that your trainer can really help you change your body. Always look for track record of success and equally important, your trainer should at least look like they belong on a magazine cover. Success follows success and you always want to work with trainers that practice what they preach.

With the right trainer, you can really realize your dreams and make a real and lasting difference in your body and your mind. It isn’t inexpensive, but then again, so is everything else in life that is worthwhile. You do owe it to yourself though and if you really want it- you’ll find a way. I promise you that it will be an investment that will pay off for the rest of your life.

Celebrity NYC Personal Trainer Kevin Richardson is the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training™, a lifetime natural bodybuilder and one of the most popular personal trainers in New York City. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here.