This may come as a shock to you, but spot reduction is not possible. This means the countless side crunches and side bends you do on a daily basis to reduce your love handles are completely ineffective. As a matter of fact, by building up your oblique muscles without burning fat, you will make your love handles look even more prominent. The solution is running. This type of cardiovascular exercise burns fat throughout the entire body, including the fat on your sides.
Step 1
Perform five minutes of dynamic stretching before you go out and run. While you run, multiple joints and muscles are being activated in your upper and lower body. Stretch these areas out through a dynamic range of motion to prevent connective tissue injury while you run. Alternating toe touches, arm circles, leg swings, side bends, spinal rotations, ankle hops, walking lunges and knee highs are examples.
Step 2
Start with a fast-paced walk or light jog. This will increase your core body temperature and further loosen up your muscles and joints. Do your warm-up for five to 10 minutes.
Step 3
Increase your speed to a point where you are breathing heavier and sweating. This is considered a moderate-to-high intensity, and it is the pace you need to set to burn calories efficiently. Remain running at this pace for your whole workout and finish with a light five-minute cooldown jog or fast-paced walk.
Step 4
Exercise long enough to get the fastest results. You need to do cardio for 30 minutes to reduce your chances of chronic disease and 60 to 90 minutes to lose weight, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Aim for the 60-to-90-minute recommendation to lose your love handles, and work out four to five days a week.
Step 5
Mix hills and intervals into your workouts to increase the intensity. Interval training is simply alternating bursts of intense activity with intervals of lighter activity, according to MayoClinic.com. Add intervals into your runs to boost your caloric expenditure and to raise your resting metabolism hours after exercise. Jog for your lower intensity bouts and run at about 80 percent maximum effort for your high-intensity bursts. Have your lower-intensity bouts be twice as long as your high-intensity bursts.
Tips and Warnings
- Lift weights two days a week to build muscle, which is metabolically active. Target all your major muscle groups; and mix in oblique exercises like Russian twists, bicycle crunches and windshield wipers. Perform windshield wipers by lying on your back, raising your legs and lowering them back and forth to your sides.
- Make sure you have clearance from your doctor to exercise if you have not worked out before.
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