Is Spot Training Possible?  

(Jayne Freeland - July 2009)

You want your arms to look like a marathon runner, your thighs to look fantastic in skinny jeans, muffin tops to disappear from your hips, your bum to be rock hard and your tummy to be flat. Can you concentrate on each area with specific exercises and achieve this ideal body? 

That depends. Are you overweight? Are these areas floppy or flabby? You have to consider that the only way to achieve most of the items in the above list is to build the muscle under the skin.  

When I say build, I’m not speaking of “body-building” physique. I’m only referring to building the muscle enough so that you have definition and tonality of the muscle. If you don’t, the body part in question will not appear firm. Your skin “shape” will only reflect what it covers.  

So, first, you need to lose any fat because fat lies on top of muscle. If there is excessive fat in any area on your body, the skin will reflect the shape of fat. It may appear mottled (cellulite) or just loose and bulging. Spot training will not reduce fat per say, but if you do exercises that are meant to tone and burn calories, then you may just kill two birds with one stone. 

Cardiovascular exercise is what burns fat, but you don’t have to submit to hours on a treadmill to accomplish cardiovascular exercise. Cardio merely means you are raising your heart rate and putting your body in a state to burn fat and increase physical endurance by moving your large muscle groups (mainly the extremities) for a certain period of time. So, think about what types of activities accomplish this and resistance training at the same time. 

Kick-boxing is a great example. When you punch, you are strengthening your arm muscles. When you kick, you are strengthening your leg muscles. Another good example would be various dance or aerobic programs. You can also do circuit type training that has stations set up for jumping rope or using cardio equipment intermittently with lifting weights.  

You’ll be burning the fat off the top of the muscle and firming up the muscle underneath. You need to continually challenge your body by increasing weights, repetition and alternating between long distance type cardio and more intense cardio training. Your body adapts and adjusts quite nicely. It’s a survival mechanism. So, you have to change things up a bit to keep improving the situation or you’ll hit a plateau. 

If you’ve already lost the weight, and still have areas that could use some toning, you should still incorporate some cardio (to improve health and endurance) into a more advanced strength training routine. Eat plenty of lean protein, whole grains, veggies and fruit to fuel your muscles and create an environment that supports plenty of lean body mass and very little fat. 

Committing to an exercise program is easier when you begin to empower yourself to make healthful choices out of desire rather than “have-to.”  

 
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