Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a fantastic summer so far. I am, well...8 1/2 months pregnant, so I'm just trying to get through it. But hopefully you are all taking advantage of the beautiful weather, going outside, and being active!
This health blog has some pretty big news: we are moving! Kind of. My sister, who is an Exercise and Wellness major from BYU, has agreed to partner with me on a health website that we'll be launching at the end of the summer. We will let you know when we have a more specific start date. This website will be all about us helping you to be a healthier individual. We will have workout videos, recipes, more candid blog posts, and tons of helpful tips to get you started living better...get excited!!! It's going to be rad! Wait, does anybody say "rad" anymore? Ok, it's going to be FANTASTIC!
So today, this blog post will feature an article written by my sister, Kelly Matsunaga. I love her funny writing style and blunt honesty. I think you will too. Not only that, but she is an expert when it comes to exercise and definitely has the background experience to talk about it. In this article, she talks about the myth of spot reduction, which is the idea that you work out a certain part of your body to lose fat there. So, for example, doing arm exercises to lose flabby arms. I see those kind of things on Pinterest all the time and it drives me c-r-a-z-y. Allow me to allow Kelly to explain why. Enjoy her wisdom, I always do!
"I always crack up when I see workout videos on youtube titled “Four ab exercises to burn belly fat” or “get rid of flabby arms with these arm exercises”. HA!......HA! I never click on these videos because the instructors have no idea what they are talking about. But let me educate you so that you will be wise to their ways. Today, we are talking spot reduction. Spot reduction is the idea that you can burn the fat on one part of your body (hips, butt, under arms) by doing specific exercises that target that body part. For example, to burn belly fat you do sit-ups/crunches, to get rid of jiggly arms you workout your triceps (muscle in back of arm). I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but spot reduction is a myth. Don’t feel bad. I fell for it in high school too. I remember I would always do butt exercises when I thought it looked too big. I would think “It’s exercise so it must work”, right? WRONG!!!!!!! Doing target exercises on a specific part of the body like this will NOT reduce any amount of the fat there. What you are doing with these exercises is building muscle, which is good. Strong muscles are important for optimal health and functionality. However, people who solely rely on these toning exercises are simply building muscle under their fatty tissue. I know, I know. This can be depressing news. It was to me. But guess what?! There IS a type of exercise to burn that body fat and the answer is....
CARDIO!
I am guessing that most of you aren’t jumping up and down in your chair right now. This may be because you know that cardio exercise, at least in my opinion, is way harder than toning exercise. Then again, some of you might not know the difference, and some of you might not even know what cardio is. Here is your exercise 101 crash course:
There are two types of exercises. One is cardio (aerobic) and the other is strength training (anaerobic or toning). Strength training is the stuff I mentioned above such as lifting weights, doing calf raises, squats, ab exercises, etc. It is exercise that is designed to build strong muscles by putting them under stress and making them lift weight (actual weights or body weight). Cardio, on the other hand, is strenuous on your heart and lungs. It is the type of exercise that makes you breathe hard and gets your heart pumping a lot. Usually, cardio will make you sweaty, and it will be hard to talk and breathe comfortably. Some examples of cardio exercises are running, jump rope, swimming, dancing, and cycling. (Click here for more cardio exercises)
The great thing about cardio is that it is great for weight loss, because this is the type of exercise that burns calories. Calories are basically energy from food that can be stored in our body as fat, which is a good thing unless you store too much. Burning these calories is the key to weight loss, and cardio exercise is the BOMB for burning calories. Toning exercises, not so much. I know what some of you are thinking. Yes, strengthening exercise burns some calories, but not nearly as much as cardio. For example, you would have to do 100 crunches just to burn 5-10 puny calories, whereas you can burn 100 calories by running for 9 minutes! See my point?
So, back to spot reduction, the only way to burn that belly fat, (through exercise) is by doing cardio. If you are trying to lose weight on any part of your body, this is the answer. Unfortunately, this means that we can’t be choosy about which part of our body will lose the fat. We can’t declare “Today, I will use cardio to burn my booty!”, even though that would be totally awesome. Some parts of your body will just lose the weight faster than others, and this is mostly determined by genetics. You may notice your tummy, hips, thighs, or butt getting smaller sooner than other body parts as you begin to lose weight. But don’t despair, if you commit to a good workout plan and stick with it, you will eventually lose weight throughout your whole body.
Just a side note, this does not mean that strength training is not important! It’s still great for your body to do the squats and bicep curls. I actually recommend strength training twice a week. That way you will have strong, toned muscles to show off after losing weight.
One last thing.
You should love your body. No matter your shape, color, or size, you should love it. It is such a beautiful gift that we have and allows us to do so many things and have wonderful experiences. In society today we always wish we could nip & tuck certain parts of our body because we compare ourselves to airbrushed models and computer images that aren’t real. I guess this is why people advertise the “spot reduction” so much. But there is no need for this. If I could change one thing in this world, it would be to help people see how truly beautiful they are, no matter what they look like. With this said, it’s important to exercise and its ok to want to look your best, but don’t be a perfectionist with your body. My body has inherited genetic traits that the world says aren’t attractive, and it used to really get me down because I felt like I never looked right. But we are all different. Some of us have bigger butts, some have flat chests, some have long arms, some are short, and some have wider hips. We just can’t control a lot of these things. So take a deep breath, enjoy that amazing body you have, and love it because its yours :)
Also, you should put this quote in your bathroom like I did, “They say that you are what you eat. That’s funny. I don’t remember eating any sexy beasts this morning.” "
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