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Spot Reduction: We Can Stop Believing

September 1, 2009 by Shelli

This is POST 8 of my “fitness journey” blogging. For backstory, see Post 1,
Post 2, Post 3
, Post 4, Post 5, Post 6 and Post 7.]

So, I’m at my personal training session with Steve Bechtel at Elemental Gym, in Lander, WY, yesterday. I’m hard at work on my last exercises of the session. They are abs-related. Incline situps to be exact.

Hiking up Cyclone Pass during a monster day hike from Sinks Canyon to Shoshone Lake to Baldwin Creek, above Lander, WY. According to my personal trainer, hiking hard up hills can help with fat loss.
Hiking up Cyclone Pass during a monster day hike from Sinks Canyon to Shoshone Lake to Baldwin Creek, above Lander, WY. According to my personal trainer, hiking hard up hills can help with fat loss.

I tell Steve that I’m actually able to see some of my abdominal muscles now, but not all of them. “I still can’t make them out near the bottom,” I explain, pointing to my pooch belly.

To this, he says, “Well the only way you’re going to get rid of that is with intervals.”

My training includes two days a week of intervals. This is one of my workouts.
My training includes two days a week of intervals. This is one of my workouts.

He must not have heard me, I thought. What do intervals have to do with my mid-section? (After all, “Don’t Stop Believing,” by Journey was blaring from the satellite radio…)

“No… I mean my abs, the bottom front part of them,” I add, this time pointing more directly to my stomach.

It was then that Steve asked me if I was asking about “spot reduction?” Spot reduction, meaning when you exercise and focus training on specific regions of your body so as to hopefully burn the fat off that area specifically.

“Yes, exactly!” I said.

“Spot reduction is a myth!” he exclaimed. Well, maybe not exclaimed, but he said it pretty emphatically. He explained how there have been countless machines built to promote spot reduction. Think of the ab devices we see on TV informercials during bouts of insomnia in the wee early morning hours. Also I think of the inner thigh and outer thigh machines you often see at gyms. I know as a woman, I’m the target audience of such machines.

“SPOT REDUCTION IS A MYTH,” IN STEVE’S WORDS:

As we wrap up my training session, Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing has (ironically) been replaced by Another One Bites the Dust, by Queen. Just great…

Elemental Gym is a fantastic gym and has some terrific programs and classes that will help you achieve better fitness, and some great personal trainers, including Steve Bechtel, Ellen Bechtel, Jagoe Reid, and Sophie Mosemann.

Filed Under: Fitness Tagged With: diet, elemental gym, exercising, fat loss, nutrition, personal training, spot reduction, weight loss

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About Shelli

Hi. My name is Shelli Johnson. I live on the frontier in Lander, Wyoming. I’m a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur, certified life/leadership coach, wellness coach, keynote presenter and inspired speaker, leadership development facilitator, personal development strategist, writer and adventure guide. This blog mostly includes stories about adventures and travel, but other passions are reading/books, technology, fitness, nutrition, and national parks, so you’ll find a wide range of articles here. I am founder of Yellowstone Journal and YellowstonePark.com, and NationalParkTrips.com, which was my first business. My current company, Epic Life Inc., is in its 7th year, and going gangbusters. If you’re interested in learning more about my current work, I hope you’ll jump over there and learn more about that. I have a more personal blog, more directly related to life and living and leadership, at YourEpicLife.com/blog. I’d love it if you’d also check out that collection of my writings. Thank you for stopping by! Finally, if you’d like to connect with me directly, please email me if you’d like to connect.

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