We've all seen the posts on Pinterest: "Do These 10 Exercises for a Flatter Stomach." "What You Should be Doing Every Day for Leaner Inner Thighs." "5 Exercises to Keep Your Bat Wings at Bay." Always accompanied by a super skinny and scantily clad woman doing said exercises. The implication is clear: if you do the prescribed number of these exercises every day, you'll look just like this svelte model.
Oh, how I wish all I had to do for a flat stomach was a one minute plank and 30 bicycle crunches every day! Unfortunately, that's just not how it works. Most people who set off on a mission to get thinner thighs or a six pack fail. How can that be? They did everything Pinterest said they should do, so why does it not work?
Doing exercises targeting a specific muscle for the sole purpose of making that particular part of the body smaller, leaner or more cut is what is called "spot training." The best example of this is when people who want a flatter stomach or a six pack focus all their efforts on doing crunches. It happens all the time when I'm teaching a class. We'll be doing some total body exercise at the end of class when one person decides she wants to do crunches instead. After class, she tells me it's because her stomach is too big and she needs to work her abs.
What this person doesn't understand is that you can't spot train - you can't tell your body where to take fat from to burn as energy. It takes it from wherever it sees fit (and that's usually not from where you want it to come from... at least at first!). So while she may be getting some benefit from the crunches she's doing in terms of stronger abs, she is most certainly not telling her body to burn the fat that is covering her midsection. Since crunches are such a small movement that do not involve many large muscles and do not generally require a large amount of energy, she is not really even burning many calories or much fat at all. She would have been better off doing the total body exercise everyone else was doing. Why? Because it involves large muscle groups and requires more energy (i.e., calories) to complete (and is probably working the core more effectively than crunches). The more calories she burns during her workout, the closer she will get to her ultimate goal: a flatter stomach and less bulk around her mid-section because her body will eventually get around to using those fat stores for energy. That's probably not true if all she does is crunches...crunches don't require that much energy. Sure, her abs would be strong (at least if all she needs to do is trunk flexion), but if that's all she's doing, she would likely still have a lot of laundry on her washboard abs and nothing to show for her efforts.
So what's a person to do if she wants a flatter stomach (or lean arms or a smaller backside)? Something that causes you to move your entire body, something that uses large muscles, something that gets your heart rate up, and something that makes you breathe hard. For a six pack, work your legs. For lean inner thighs, do high intensity interval training. For shapely arms, go for a fast run.
Does this mean that you should never work your abs or other smaller muscles since working them by themselves doesn't really get your heart rate up? No, of course not! You still need to work all of your major muscles on a regular basis, including muscles like your triceps, rear deltoids, abs, lower back and calves. Just don't expect that these exercises alone are going to get you where you want to be. These types of exercises will ensure that once you start to shed that layer of fat what's underneath is toned and strong, will increase your overall muscle mass (important to a fast metabolism), and will help improve overall strength and functionality. But the money exercises - the ones that will reveal those lean muscles - are those that leave you dripping sweat and breathing hard.
Next time you're tempted to do an hour of abs, why not get more bang from your workout and try one of my favorite types of workouts: cardio and core. Here's what it could look like (the cardio portion could be anything that gets your heart rate up: walking, running, stair climber, elliptical, mountain climbers, burpees, rowing machine, etc.):
5 minute warm up (fast walk)
1 minute plank (drop the knees to make it easier)
30 second side plank (each side)
20 back extensions (lay on your stomach and raise your upper and lower body off the ground at the same time)
30 bicycle crunches (lay on your back, head up chin to chest, one knee pulled in towards your chest, other leg extended out, reach the opposite shoulder across the body towards the knee that's pulled in, then quickly switch legs and arms)
5 minutes cardio intervals (30 seconds high intensity, 30 seconds low intensity x 5. The high intensity portion should be just that - super high intensity! 30 seconds should be all you can do at that intensity level without a break. No cheating...this is the most important part!)
Repeat the core and cardio segments above 3-5 times (with no breaks in between, if possible)
5 minute cool down (walk)
I know it seems counter intuitive at first, but I promise if you can incorporate this type of workout into your routine, you will see greater results than simply doing the exercises targeting specific muscle groups. Give it a try! You may be sweaty and tired, but you won't be sorry you did!
