It would be nice if spot reduction worked, but it doesn’t. While most of us know this, sometimes we can’t resist the temptation to believe it does. Stronger abs is your goal? Abdominal work is the way to go. A smaller waist? Work on the diet and overall fitness. Is it your bottom half you’re frustrated with? Doing 50 lunges everyday won’t “spot reduce” your thighs. A combination of regular cardio, strength training and nutritional changes is the only tried and true answer. Not spot reduction.

An article I recently read pointed out that if spot reduction worked, professional tennis players would have one arm that was smaller than the other. It would make sense that the circumference of the dominant arm would be less if this logic were correct. We know the facts do not support this (the dominant arm may be a little stronger, though). Why then do we often fall for the myth that says that if we do more elliptical, we will have a smaller bottom half? [Read more…]