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7 Tips For a Tighter, Sexier Midsection
- By Callie Durbrow
- Published 10/26/2009
- Wellness, Fitness and Diet
- Unrated
Callie Durbrow
Personal fitness expert Callie Durbrow runs small group personal training programs for individuals in Boston. Her programs are designed for fat loss and developing tight and toned bodies. Visit http://www.durbrowperformance.com for more information.
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A major goal for many women is to develop a tight and toned midsection. It is often one of the first things that I hear when people begin personal training. Most women want this look just for the aesthetic appeal, but having a lean midsection can also reduce the risk of many health issues such as diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and even cancer. The less body fat you have around your mid-section, the healthier you can become. In order to achieve this look, there are many factors that need to be established and a healthy lifestyle needs to be developed.
Spot reduction of fat is completely impossible; so many aspects of fitness and training need to be combined to get a nice lean and toned midsection.
1. You must incorporate strength training: Using very light weight for 20 repetitions will do nothing for your metabolism and fat loss abilities. Strength training must be a vigorous (yet safe) program. A proper strength training plan will incorporate large movements such as squats, lunges, push ups, rows, overhead presses, and chin ups. These large movements will burn a lot of calories both during and after the training session. This process leads to an elevated metabolism, which transfers into fat loss and overall fat loss will lead to a leaner, tighter midsection.
2. Perform interval conditioning training sessions: Avoid long, slow cardio training if you really want to burn calories and fat. An interval based training plan will torch calories and that will lead to fat loss throughout your body, in a very similar fashion to strength training. These workouts are intense, short, and fast. Choose exercises such as sprints, bike sprints (30 second sprint/1 minute recovery), jump rope, hill sprints, and body weight circuits such as mountain climbers and burpees. Incorporating this type of training will help you lose excess body fat and for most women, the excess sits in the midsection.
3. Eat a well balanced diet: We all hear this phrase thrown around every day. What does well balanced mean? It means focusing on fruits, vegetables, lean meats, natural protein sources, healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, nuts), and whole grains. It also means avoiding starches, sugars, and simple carbohydrates (white bread, p
asta, cereal). Eat 5-6 small meals and snacks per day to keep your metabolism elevated. If you are eating infrequently, your metabolism will automatically slow itself down, thus burning a lower amount of calories when you are at rest.
4. Drink plenty of water: Many of my personal training clients think they are drinking enough water when in reality they are way below the desired levels. Try to drink a gallon of water per day, that way if you get a little less you are still in business. Have a glass or two in the morning, keep your bottle with you at work, and try to drink a bottle or two during your training sessions.
5. Focus on the entire core region: When you are training and a major goal is to slim down your midsection, doing a ton of crunches will not help this cause at all. Developing a healthy, strong core will help you to avoid injury and also give you great posture. You can do crunches until you are blue in the face but if you have high levels of fat in the abdominal region, you will not see any changes. Focus on the four tips above to lose this excess fat. When you do train your core, focus on larger movements such as medicine ball rotations, planks, ball roll-outs, weighted sit ups and hanging knee raises. These movements all incorporate the majority of the core and will burn more calories and give you a bigger bang for your buck than hundreds of crunches.
6. Train your upper and lower back: Having great posture can give you a slimmer look, so movements such as chin ups, dumbbell rows, body rows, back extensions, and rotations will all train the posterior chain (upper back, lower back, hamstrings, gluteals). When you have nice, tall posture you will automatically look leaner and you will be much less prone to injury.
7. Focus on overall fat loss: As the tips above all discussed, you cannot spot reduce your body fat. If you want to train for a lean midsection, you must lose body fat. Strengthening your abdominal and core region is great, but you will be wasting your time if you don’t strength train for the rest of your body and torch excess fat with interval work.
Try these seven tips for a lean, tight midsection. If you have the opportunity, sign up with a group personal training program for extra motivation, exercise prescriptions, and accountability. You can learn all of the exercises and tips in the world but if you do not put them into action, you will never see results.
Spot reduction of fat is completely impossible; so many aspects of fitness and training need to be combined to get a nice lean and toned midsection.
1. You must incorporate strength training: Using very light weight for 20 repetitions will do nothing for your metabolism and fat loss abilities. Strength training must be a vigorous (yet safe) program. A proper strength training plan will incorporate large movements such as squats, lunges, push ups, rows, overhead presses, and chin ups. These large movements will burn a lot of calories both during and after the training session. This process leads to an elevated metabolism, which transfers into fat loss and overall fat loss will lead to a leaner, tighter midsection.
2. Perform interval conditioning training sessions: Avoid long, slow cardio training if you really want to burn calories and fat. An interval based training plan will torch calories and that will lead to fat loss throughout your body, in a very similar fashion to strength training. These workouts are intense, short, and fast. Choose exercises such as sprints, bike sprints (30 second sprint/1 minute recovery), jump rope, hill sprints, and body weight circuits such as mountain climbers and burpees. Incorporating this type of training will help you lose excess body fat and for most women, the excess sits in the midsection.
3. Eat a well balanced diet: We all hear this phrase thrown around every day. What does well balanced mean? It means focusing on fruits, vegetables, lean meats, natural protein sources, healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, nuts), and whole grains. It also means avoiding starches, sugars, and simple carbohydrates (white bread, p
4. Drink plenty of water: Many of my personal training clients think they are drinking enough water when in reality they are way below the desired levels. Try to drink a gallon of water per day, that way if you get a little less you are still in business. Have a glass or two in the morning, keep your bottle with you at work, and try to drink a bottle or two during your training sessions.
5. Focus on the entire core region: When you are training and a major goal is to slim down your midsection, doing a ton of crunches will not help this cause at all. Developing a healthy, strong core will help you to avoid injury and also give you great posture. You can do crunches until you are blue in the face but if you have high levels of fat in the abdominal region, you will not see any changes. Focus on the four tips above to lose this excess fat. When you do train your core, focus on larger movements such as medicine ball rotations, planks, ball roll-outs, weighted sit ups and hanging knee raises. These movements all incorporate the majority of the core and will burn more calories and give you a bigger bang for your buck than hundreds of crunches.
6. Train your upper and lower back: Having great posture can give you a slimmer look, so movements such as chin ups, dumbbell rows, body rows, back extensions, and rotations will all train the posterior chain (upper back, lower back, hamstrings, gluteals). When you have nice, tall posture you will automatically look leaner and you will be much less prone to injury.
7. Focus on overall fat loss: As the tips above all discussed, you cannot spot reduce your body fat. If you want to train for a lean midsection, you must lose body fat. Strengthening your abdominal and core region is great, but you will be wasting your time if you don’t strength train for the rest of your body and torch excess fat with interval work.
Try these seven tips for a lean, tight midsection. If you have the opportunity, sign up with a group personal training program for extra motivation, exercise prescriptions, and accountability. You can learn all of the exercises and tips in the world but if you do not put them into action, you will never see results.