Exercising your Love Handles

Also commonly referred to as the dreaded “spare tire,” “love handles” is the slang term used to refer to the fatty deposits that often accumulate around a man’s or woman’s midsection. Located on the sides of the torso above the abdominal external oblique muscles, love handles are one of the most challenging areas from which to eliminate excess fat when working to achieve the widely coveted six-pack.

As a general rule, men have more trouble eliminating love handles than women, since fat tends to deposit more in this area of the midsection for males. The spare tire effect tends to worsen as we get older, due to a reduction in lean muscle mass, a slower metabolism, and an overall waning of the amount of regular exercise. Genetics also plays a factor: if your mother or father had a propensity for flabbiness in that area, you may be more inclined to inherit excess fat storage around the waistline.

If you’ve been feverishly exercising your oblique muscles with little to no results, you may need to step back and re-evaluate your diet and lifestyle. The most effective way to rid your body of that pesky spare tire is to increase your overall level of physical activity and to incorporate a sensible, low-calorie diet into your lifestyle. An effective cardio routine will help to burn more fat calories and increase your metabolism, both of which help to reduce pockets of fat in all areas of the body. In tandem with that, the healthy diet will reduce the number of calories being stored as fat by your body, culminating in a recipe for weight loss and trimmed inches.

While it’s impossible to spot-reduce just a certain area of fat through targeted training, it’s important to exercise the oblique muscles as part of your overall abdominal routine. Often, people focus only on the middle stomach muscles, the Rectus abdominis and the Transversus abdominis, but to obtain a sleek, sexy midriff, the obliques (also referred to as the side abdominals) shouldn’t be ignored. Each of your obliques are composed of two muscles, the upper external and the lower internal.

To achieve strong core strength, all of your stomach muscles must be toned and well-developed, including the obliques. Your side abdominals are essential for upright posture, as well as flexibility when bending or twisting. A reduction of flabby love handles also helps to reduce back pain and eliminate the chances of future back injury. And, of course, there are the aesthetic rewards -- you’ll feel much more confident without those unsightly pouches of fat peeking over the sides of your jeans or swimsuit.

If working your obliques for the first time, it’s important to start out slowly, gradually work up to moderate exercises, and only introduce the most challenging routines after you’ve developed core strength in those muscles. Since your side abdominals are rarely utilized in everyday activities, it’s easier to strain them by trying to do too much too soon.
To eliminate love handles, some of the most effective routines include standard oblique crunches, oblique side twists, lying oblique leg raises, and dumbbell side bends.

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