Spot Target Training

With summer here, people have specific areas they are wanting to improve, define and reduce. Common goals I hear frequently from a lot of my clients and friends are:
“I really want to get toned arms”
“I want bigger back muscles”
“I really want to lose my stomach”
or “If I could just drop 10lbs in my hips I’d be happy” and the list goes on.

What they all are asking for is spot target training. While in theory this sounds like a great way to train and accomplish your desired results, in reality, it just doesn’t work.  You are not able to select which cells your body burns fat from. Factors outside of your control do, like genetics.

If you are looking to tone and lose weight, then you need to be burning more calories than you are consuming (remember is takes a deficit of 3500 calories to drop 1lb!) Most of the exercises that target specific muscles are not necessarily high calorie burners by themselves. Therefore, to see good results you need to incorporate a more well-rounded exercise program, one that includes complimentary cardio-based exercises to increase heart rate and calories burned. For example: if you are looking to tone your legs perform a leg press for 12 to 15 reps then pair that with jump squats for 30 seconds.

On the flip side, if you are looking to build muscle mass (getting more size or more defined) you need to target more muscles than just the ones for aesthetics. By only targeting the bigger muscles, you will likely end up with a lot of muscle imbalances and put yourself at greater risk of injury. A house is only as strong as its foundation, if you target only one area of your body or one muscle group, you will have a weak foundation. So, while the house may look like a gorgeous mansion on the outside, the inside has cracked boards, missing walls and no floor. As an example, a lot of people shoot to have ‘boulder shoulders’.  While the seated overhead press is an effective exercise to help accomplish this, if not done properly it can lead to injury. You may want the boulder shoulder look, but if you only do the overhead press you will have over developed deltoids and under developed supporting muscles (back, core, chest, triceps and rotator cuff). Therefore, it is vital to incorporate other exercises that will help support these stabilizing muscles and not solely perform the overhead press.

Any kind of body transformation is a balancing act of proper exercise selection, and calories in verses calories out.

When you have a goal of a specific area to change, it is most likely an area you feel where you gain all your weight; you eat a bowl of pasta and you say to yourself, that went straight to my hips. You have to keep in mind that while you want that area to change the quickest, it most likely will change last. The areas that you first put weight on are the areas you are likely to lose it last. Changing body physique takes time, patients and dedication. Remember you didn’t develop that ‘problem area’ overnight, you are not going to lose it overnight either.

The solution you ask? Variety. Simple as that.

Variety with exercise! Humans are creature of habits, we like what we like and don’t always want to try new things. A common gym goer will show up to the gym, pick the same cardio machine, choose the same program option and do the same amount of time day in and day out. They will also choose the same 4 or 5 exercises to perform and call it a day. Then get frustrated with not seeing any results.

The key thing to remember is your body is a very smart machine, it does not want to work harder than necessary. So, after several weeks of performing your same cardio and weight exercises, your body has adapted, it has learned what to expect and how to manage the increased load. Therefore, the same workout that was burning 500 calories – four weeks later is now burning less than 300 calories. You have over 600 muscles in your body, don’t get hung up on working the same five every time. The key to physique results is variety, not just working different muscles, but also working the same muscles in different ways.

Exercise machines are a great place to start for any new gym-goer. They teach your body how to properly move without putting you at a high risk for injury. If you are new to the gym give it three to four weeks to just find your workout rhythm. At this point you should not be concerned with specific areas of improvement, you should be more concerned with making exercise a part of your weekly routine. Most gyms have a machine circuit set up for you. These circuits are arranged to target each muscle group and be used in a rotating fashion. Perform 12-15 repetitions on one machine and then move onto the next. Repeat this through every machine in the circuit for two to three sets. Once finished, end with cardio. The first four weeks is the time that your neuromuscular system is becoming more efficient. This is where the foundation is built. Get the body to learn how to properly move while on machines so when you are ready to move to free weights your body will be able to do it with proper form and less risk of injury. For example, the leg press machine will teach your body how to properly execute a squat, which muscles need to be working, which muscles need to be supporting and range of motion – then when you go to perform a standing squat, your body will already have the ground work built for the correct movement.

The next four weeks will be about adding in more cardio based exercises to improve the heart and increase calories burned.  After every machine you could add in 20 to 30 seconds of jumping jacks or squat hops or mountain climbers. At 8 weeks into it, you are starting to notice changes, strength improvements, stamina/energy improvements and you may be sleeping better at night. Now you want to start adding in more free weights, more stability based exercises and maybe even breaking your workouts into body part specific training. There are a lot of different ways to get your results. If your main motivation of exercise is to get a flatter stomach, incorporate core exercises into your workout routine, don’t make it your only routine. Remember that song:
“The toe bone connected to the foot bone,
the foot bone connected to the ankle bone,
the ankle bones connected to the leg bone….”
Well it’s true, your core can only be as strong as your back, and your back can only be as strong as your hips, and your hips can only be as strong as your legs and so on! The whole point is you need to build a strong foundation, get in the habit of exercise, get close to the results you want, and then you can start adding in isolated exercises to achieve specific areas of improvement. Overall health improvement, increase in movement efficiency and ease of daily activities of living should be the main focus of any exercise program. If you want to live to be 100, might as well be sure your body can move with you.

However, exercise isn’t the only piece of the puzzle. To see those results, you’ll need to watch your food intake. I’m sure we’ve all heard the sayings:
“abs are made in the kitchen” or
“you can’t out exercise a bad diet” or
“70% of results are from diet alone” and
“what you do with the other 23 hours in the day is what matters”
Well, I hate to break it to you but they are all right. You should always be trying to eat foods that are healthy for you, nutrient rich, and as natural as possible. Your body is your machine, if you fuel it with low grade processed food, it will be working at a less than optimal level.

Your food choices will make or break your hard work. While it is important to work the targeted areas of improvement, you also need to work the fat off so you can see results. Building bigger muscles without burning the fat will just lead to looking larger overall.  I recommend that my clients start using food tracking apps or websites to help keep them accountable to not only calorie intake but also their macronutrients (carbs, fats and protein). I like to use My Fitness Pal for the sake of it appearing to have the largest food database and a lot of my friends are on there to help keep me accountable.

You can lose weight with diet alone, but it won’t just be fat loss, it will also be loss of muscle mass and bone density. That is why it is so important to incorporate exercise into your weekly routine. As you are losing weight (fat loss) you want to be sure you are also building muscle mass. This way as you drop weight, you will start to get a nice toned figure. A diet that is not balanced in carbohydrates, fat and protein will make the results you seek a lot harder to accomplish, if at all; and if achieved they certainly won’t last long term.

Ultimately, it all comes down to finding what will work with your lifestyle so you can stick with it. Following an exercise program and mindful eating takes work every day. If you enjoy the work, the results are endless.

Now go get some results!