Losing More Of Your Love Handles

There are very few of us who aren't or haven't fought the battle of love handles. It is almost a fact of nature that the toughest body fat to lose is that around your middle, particularly that which covers your oblique muscles.

Your winning strategy should include more than just waist exercises. Your fitness regimen should be a total body training program. Strength training should be the focus of your efforts since stronger and fitter muscles require much more energy, even while at rest. Energy usage is the name of the game, too, since your love handles (and other body fat) are stored energy.

An effective fitness routine, at the minimum, should encompass three days a week of pumping iron for your entire body and three days of an interval training program like Dr. Al Sears' PACE (progressively accelerated cardiopulmonary exertion), coupled with your waist exercises. Your workouts don't have to be long, but they do have to be intense.

Intensity is the key word here. If you are not challenging your body with every workout, you are not going to progress with your bodybuilding. Also, if you are not varying your routine by incorporating frequent changes in exercises and weight increases, you are going to reach a plateau and stop progressing.

A Sample Training Program

The strength training exercises should be performed on alternate days while the interval (PACE) and waist exercises should be performed on the other days. Sunday you may rest.

As your strength increases, you should raise the weights so that you are still struggling to achieve ten repetitions.

Weeks One through Five - This is not "set in stone," so you may substitute others of your favorite exercises and achieve the same results. Each exercise should be performed for three sets after a muscle warm-up set.

Chest - Use weights that you can barely achieve ten reps with after your warm-up.

• Bench Press - free weights or machine.
• Incline Bench Press
• Decline Bench Press
• Dumbbell Flies or Pec-Deck Flies

Shoulders

• Erect Military Press with barbell
• Erect or Seated Behind-the-Neck Press with barbell
• Seated Alternate Dumbbell Press
• Bent-Over or Incline Bench Flies
• Barbell Shrugs

Back

• Lat Machine Pull-Downs
• Seated Rowing with cable-and-pulley or Bent Over Rowing with a barbell
• Chinning Bar Pull-Ups

Biceps and Triceps

• Barbell Curls
• Supine (French) Presses on Bench
• Preacher Bench Curls
• Triceps Press-Downs with cable-and-pulley
• Dumbbell Curls, seated or standing
• Dumbbell Triceps Press
• Concentration Curls with dumbbell or cable-and-pulley
• Bent Over Triceps Press with a dumbbell

Thighs and Calves

• Barbell Squats
• Leg Extensions
• Hamstring Curls
• Abductor-Adductor Exercises using a cable-and-pulley or machine
• Calf Raises
• Donkey Calf Raises
• Lunges with Dumbbells

PACE and Waist - Perform the waist exercises described in a previous article. For the PACE portion of your routine, select a cardiopulmonary exercise using a machine like a treadmill, elliptical or stationary bicycle. Set the machine for the maximum resistance and fastest pace you can maintain for three to four minutes. Perform the exercise until your breathing is labored and your heart rate is at the maximum. Then pause until your breathing and heart rate are lowered considerably and then repeat for another set. Do this until you have performed at least twelve minutes of intense exercise, not counting the resting periods between sets.

Weeks Six Through Ten - Perform all the same exercise, but super-set and triple-set the muscle groups. An example of an upper body triple set routine is:

• Chest, Shoulders and Back - Select one exercise for each muscle group. Perform the chest exercise first, then immediately move to the shoulder exercise, then immediately to the back. Allow one minute rest and then repeat for a total of three sets. Select three more exercises for the same three muscle groups and perform the triple-set routine again. Again, select three more exercises and perform the routine a third time.
• Biceps and Triceps - Superset your arms by performing a biceps exercise immediately followed by a triceps movement. Allow one minute rest and then repeat. Perform all of your arm exercises in this manner.

Weeks Eleven Through Fifteen - Return to the same routine as for weeks one through five, except you should select different exercises for each muscle group.

Weeks Sixteen Through Twenty - Super set and triple set all the exercises from the previous period.

The whole point of this regimen is to continually shock the muscles into growing and conditioning. You may develop your own program, but this one is a good starting point until you learn what it takes to condition and grow your body.

Carol Winberg is a fitness and nutrition expert and understands exactly what is required to lose weight and more importantly, keep it off, while living an active, healthy lifestyle. Carol and her husband James have just released a brand new e-book that explains exactly why your love handles appear, and what you can do to get rid of them forever. "Losing Your Love Handles" is available at http://LoveHandles.com.au