The How to Get Rid of Love Handles Blog

I admit it. There are days when I just feel lazy and don’t feel like exercising. I try not to skip my workouts but sometimes I lie to myself and say I’m just too tired. Well guess what? Just to make sure I stay on track and keep my mind focused, I signed up for a marathon today!

This isn’t my first time, but it’s been a few years since my last one. These events are a lot of fun. There’s a the training you do before the big day, the actual event, then a closing ceremony full of free samples from sponsors! I’m not too sure what they are raising money for but it’s probably a good cause!

Anyways, here’s today’s tip on how to get rid of love handles. Sign up for a marathon or some event that will force you to do some training. It’s great motivation and a lot of fun. Especially if you get some friends to join too.

 

Next time you feel like you’re starting to slack off, look for something to participate in that will encourage you to train!

Set yourself a realistic goal. Then figure out how to achieve that goal. For example, my goal is to beat my old time by 5 minutes. To get there, I will have to work on my stamina, my endurance, and speed. I will have to train my legs, my heart, and my lungs. I will have to practice running faster for longer periods of time, and I will have to eat healthier! In the end, it’s all going to pay off - big time. 

Good luck everyone. Melt the love handles off your body. Get out there and find your motivation!

Tags: how to get rid of love handles, marathon, motivation, training, weight loss

I just got back from the gym. I did 225 squats. That’s 9 sets, 25 reps each. I can barely walk right now. My legs are like noodles! It was crazy. About halfway through my heart was already beating like I had just sprinted a marathon. I swear I was seeing stars near the end too.

Next time you guys do squats, try doing an insanely high number of reps per set. Why? Well you walk around on your legs all day so they’re used to taking punishment. You have to push it beyond it’s normal limits and shock them if you want to see some insane muscle and strength gains. It’s also really good cardio. You’ll blast away those love handles at light speed!

Talk about hardcore! Where is this?

Traffic on this site has jumped up quite a bit since my last post. Everyone remember to subscribe to my RSS feed. I’m working on something fun and I’m going to post it up as soon as it’s ready. If you want to learn how to get rid of love handles, don’t miss it. You’re going to love it!

Tags: exercise, Legs, Love Handles, squats

I’m going to reveal to you one of the best tips I learned from a great friend of mine.

Here it is … Squats!

The story starts off with me complaining about some extra body fat that I just could not seem to get rid of. I had been running on the treadmill quite a bit the few weeks before but it wasn’t working for me. My friend suggested I try changing up my workout by adding squats to my workout routine. Now to tell you the truth, up until this point in time, I had rarely worked out my legs aside from running and doing the Stairmaster machine. I was in for a treat.

Now for those of you who don’t know what a squat is, I’ll spend a bit of time describing the exercise. It’s a compound lower body exercise that focuses largely, but not exclusively, on the quadriceps and the glutes (that’s science talk for thighs and butt). You place a barbell across the back of the shoulders and descend in a sitting motion into a crouch or squatting position, bending the knees. Hence the name: squats. There are many different variations of the squats which I won’t go into here as that can be a whole other article on its own, but as an example, you can change the focus and target muscles just by changing to a close, shoulder, or wide stance. So basically, with a weight on your back, squat down, stand up but don’t lock your knees, and repeat. Put in the effort to keep your heels on the ground, to maintain balance. If you feel your legs burning with joy, congratulate yourself. You’re one step closer to a beach body and you are going to learn to love that sore muscles feeling all the bodybuilders crave.

Now you must be wondering: why are squats so great and how are they going to help me lose weight? I’m so glad you asked.

• Firstly, your legs are a pretty much half of your body. In fact, your thighs are the biggest muscle in your body! This means when you do your squats, you’re going to use up a lot of energy and energy = Calories!
• Working out your legs will also make your legs stronger so you will perform well in any activity requiring leg strength. It will also make your legs more firm and toned. Who doesn’t want a pair of great legs?
• Squats are a great cardio exercise, especially if you’re doing a very high number of repetitions. Give it a try and monitor your heart rate. You’ll be surprised as you feel your heart rate jump up to speeds on par with the rate you get when sprinting.
• During resistance training, studies have shown that our bodies naturally increase testosterone and growth hormones. This increase is more significant when squatting. This is beneficial because it promotes muscle growth throughout the rest of our body and not just our legs! We want muscle growth because the more lean muscle we have, the less flabby we look and the higher our metabolisms are. And don’t even worry about turning into a huge muscle head body builder. It’s VERY difficult to become big and bulky. It takes years of planning, eating, and dedication to become like that.

Now here are some squatting tips you can take to the gym.

• Make sure that you go for depth. You want to get as low as you can get at the bottom, and stand as high as you can up at the top. Never use a weight that you cannot handle. I see a lot of people using more weight than they should. They only go down about 4 inches and come back up. From afar it looks as if they aren’t even moving. I rather you use less weights and do a full squat than use heavy weight and do a third of a squat.
• Place the bar on the back of the shoulders across the trapezius muscles region. Use a cushion on the bar to reduce pressure on the neck area.
• Keep your motions controlled and use proper form. You don’t want to hurt your knees, your back, your neck, or any part of yourself for that matter.
• Use a spotter (someone to watch you), and make sure you use a squat rack equipped with safety bars in case your legs decide they’ve had enough. It’s always best to keep safety in mind when doing any type of exercise, and this one is no different.

Never allow your body to get used to a workout. It’s a good practice to change your workout every so often to keep your muscles confused. That way your muscles will always be working it’s hardest to keep up with the exercises you throw at it. This will ensure your progress and eliminate your chance of hitting a plateau.

• Power / Heavy / Low rep - use the heaviest weights you can mange to do a squat with (with a spotter of course). Aim for 6 sets of 3-6 reps each
• Endurance / Moderate / High rep - use a moderate weight, something you are completely comfortable lifting for maximum reps. Aim for 5 sets of 20 reps each
• Explosive / Light / High rep - use lighter weights, control your speed on the way down and give each rep a small hop on the way up. It helps to have a cushion to reduce impact on the back. A towel works just as well. Aim for 6 sets of 10-15 reps each.
• Stability / Medium light / Low rep - exactly like a kung fu horse stance, squat down halfway and hold the pose when your legs reach the 90 degree angle. Hold the rep for as long as you can.

Make sure to have a healthy, high protein meal as soon as you can, following a workout - especially after doing something as intense as squats. Without proper nutrients your body cannot repair its muscles, so eat your vegetables and bottoms up with the protein shake!

Remember, I don’t care what the infomercials on late night TV say, doing crunches and using special machines won’t get rid of stomach flab. Spot reduction is a very common myth and the only way to get rid of unwanted fat in a particular area is to get rid of fat everywhere. In other words increase your lean muscle mass and lower your body fat percentage by eating healthy and exercising regularly. Get your metabolism high and it will work FOR you - not AGAINST you. The higher your metabolism, the more calories your body naturally consumes daily, the more fat your body will burn away.

So there you have it boys and girls. That’s how you effectively and efficiently use the largest muscle group in your body to promote lean muscle growth, raise your metabolism, and get rid of those bad boy love handles. For more information and other great exercise tips, visit http://www.HowtoGetRidofLoveHandlesBlog.com/ .

From the How to Get Rid of Love Handles Blog 2009
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence .

Tags: calories, exercise, fat, Love Handles, metabolism, squats

I was at the gym today and I overheard a very interesting conversation between two women at the gym. One was a flabby woman exercising on an Elliptical . I’ll call her Flabby. The other lady works at the gym. She’s very fit. I’ll call Gym Lady.

Flabby:  “I’m working out almost every day and I just can’t seem to lose any more weight. What am I doing wrong?”
Gym Lady: “What are you eating?”
Flabby:  “I’m eating very healthy! I’m eating some grapes in the morning, some soup at lunch time, and some veggies in the evening.”
Gym Lady: “I know why you’re not losing any weight. You’re not eating enough !”
After that, Flabby had on the most confused face !

Is Gym Lady Crazy? Less food = Less calories = lose fat …. right? Not necessarily !  When your body is hungry and you starve yourself, it puts itself into a survival state where it will begin to store fat and burn muscle.  Why? Because it thinks a famine is coming up so it preserves all the calories you eat into fat storage and eliminates muscle because muscles eat up calories!

This is exactly what happened to Flabby. Since muscle weighs more than fat, Flabby’s muscle loss made her weight drop so she thought she was losing fat but in reality she was getting weaker and flabbier.  Eventually the weight loss stopped because her body couldn’t get rid of any more muscle.  Guys, learn from this. Starving yourself does not work.

I’ve heard of some crazy diets before. For example, the only drink liquids diet or the don’t eat after 8′oclock diet . Then there’s guy’s eating baskets of bacon saying they’re on the Atkins diet. What’s wrong with old fashioned eating healthy ?

So here’s today’s tip : Eat what your body needs and don’t go overboard. Most importantly, eat healthy .  Drink water instead of soft drinks. Add spices instead sauces.  You don’t need a crazy fad grapefruit diet to burn fat. For some good tips on healthy eating, check out Urban Healthy Kitchen .

Tags: Diet, Healthy Eating

It’s time to get in shape. There’s no better time to get started than right now. Everyone wants to look good and live a long healthy life. Get that body you deserve ! Stick around and I’ll show you how to lose fat fast.

First of all I just want to point out that spot reduction does not work. What’s spot reduction you ask? It’s bodybuilding jargon for when you try get rid of fat from one specific part of your body. It’s a myth and our bodies just don’t work that way. So how to get rid of love handles then? We have to reduce our body fat from our ENTIRE body. Sounds complicated? Not at all. Don’t worry, I will show you how get that beach body you want and how to get rid of love handles.

Everyone already knows there’s no magic cure, yet we all keep looking for one. Really, we just need to exercise and eat right. Yes, it’s that simple. Pick a program and stick to it. Eat the salad instead of the fries but stay away from the dressing! Buy a membership at your local gym or get a home workout DVD.

A lot of people think the best way to lose fat is to run. It can work but don’t be afraid to lift weights. Let me explain why. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns in a day. The more calories you burn per day, the more fat you will burn off ! Running can also make you look ’stringy’. In fact, it can cause you to lose muscle. I’m not saying don’t run. Running is awesome! Just make sure you have a good mix of exercises.
Here is a sample workout routine you can try following:

Sunday - Chest (Bench Press)
Monday - Back (Pull Downs)
Tuesday - Cardio (treadmill)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Shoulders (Shoulder Press)
Friday - Legs (Squats)
Saturday - Rest

So how to get rid of love handles? Well try not to eat out too often. Restaurants don’t exactly help. Especially when it comes to fast food. Of course, it’s okay to treat yourself once in a while. When choosing meals, here are some simple rules to follow. Keep your proteins high and your fats and simple carbs low. Try to stay away from starchy foods like bread and rice. Leafy green veggies are good! Watch out for fatty foods. Bacon is a NO!

Our metabolism plays a huge part when it comes to burning off body fat. As we get older, our metabolism slows down meaning we become more sensitive to the unhealthy foods eat. I can’t eat as many donuts compared to when I was 15. Fortunately there are ways to increase our metabolism.
For example:

• Put on some muscle
• Eat six small meals per day instead of 3 large meals.
• Increase your physical activity.

I recommend finding a workout buddy. It’s really helpful to have somebody with similar goals. You can motivate each other and share tips. Like any other hobby, it just makes the experience a whole lot more fun.

It can be a challenge to get rid of love handles, but it can be FUN and EASY. Stick with me and we’ll get our ripped beach bodies in no time!

Tags: Abs, Diet, fitness, Healthy, Love Handles, Muscle, weightloss