Just wondering how to get rid of my love handles. My gut is getting smaller but the spare tire seems like it's in it for the long run. Any exercises I can do or just cardio?

Hi there
Yes, you can abolish those love handles ! You need to do ab work...and a lot of it.The video series I use works well...its tough...but there are many good ones out there.
I use The Firm ab sculpt. There is a series that targets your obliques ( love handle area) and doing the video religiously got rid of mine.

Good luck, and WORK HARD

Love handles, spare tire, big gut or belly.......it's all fat. And I have it, too Doing ab exercises will help firm and build shapely abs, but until you melt away the fat covering them, they will remain unseen. The only way to melt that fat, is by dieting. Typically, ab fat is one of the LAST places to go, but eventually, it does. Just keep plugging away!
BTW, one should train abs the same way as any other muscle group.......work hard and intense, with at least one day of rest.

try doing windmills. they're GREAT for your abs/obliques. I am always sore for days, i can feel the "lovehandle" area becoming tighter, and can see my waist becoming waspish again (yay!) I'm sorry i don't have any links to give you to see how to do them, and they're a bit too complex to explain, so look them up online, it's worth it. Do no more than 5 reps at a time (i usually do 3 sets), with no longer than 1.5 minutes between sets. Do them this way so you don't BUILD muscle (you only want to tighten up and get stronger- if you build those obliques too much you will NOT get a tiny waist!

Can you describe the position?

what bout pilates..

Tell that to my upper arms and inner thighs! I'd LOVE them to have that information. They could do a trade-off with my little bit of abdominal fat, (which everyone tells me is "cute," anyways...)

i've never done pilates. It was originally created more for rehabilitation, though. I don't know how true to original pilates the videos are. But--- I have done yoga.
yoga is good. people who do yoga for years always have great bodies...
I've thought about it, and decided that if i tried to explain the windmill to you, you'd be terribly confused. Maybe someone else can help you? perhaps a forum search? please don't try it until you've read proper instruction and seen pictures, it is easy to do wrong!

Ok, I've gotten a few different opinions, someone else is saying that doing ab workouts will make the muscle bigger but won't get rid of the handles. By working your abs are you burning the fat in your abs faster? Or just building muscle in that area?

Here is our conversation over the forum:


Him:
I'd actually be wary of side bends. If you build up your oblique muscles, you WILL have a larger waist. It won't look like fat and it won't look like love handles, but it will expand the waist measurement.
Personally, I think well developed and cut obliques look good but it's not going to shrink your waist
me:
So if I workout a certain area of my body, say my abs, I won't burn the fat over my abs faster? I'm a little confused.
him:
Sorry, but that is exactly correct.
You will build up more ab muscle mass so that they may show through the skin sooner, but it will not burn the fat over any particular area. Body fat comes off at your body's own discretion of where, unfortunately

Somebody please let me know what the deal is on this on... thanks

Gill, whoever "him" was, that you had the posted conversation with, is correct. You can't spot reduce for fat loss.........it comes off however it comes off. For me, my belly is the last to go. For Lilli, it's inner thighs and upper arms. For others, maybe the butt. The best you can do is work the underlying muscle, and adjust your diet for fat loss.

Abdominal muscles respond just like any other muscle group. They should get worked hard, and also allowed rest periods. If you do heavy weight, low reps......they'll get bigger, just like your legs, and arms.

For all my other muscle groups, I go hard and heavy with the training. For abs, in addition to the work they get as accessories to my other lifting, I do high rep, low/no weight, as I don't want them to get big.

If you do an Internet search, you should be able to find all sorts of sites that support this. Here's one of my favorites:
http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=105

i appreciate the advice dane,
thanks for the website too , both were very useful

You're very welcome, gill, but I should thank you, too.......looking for articles to post, I revisited an old fave, and found a new article on ab training......this one is a MUST READ......funny, easy to follow, and answers all my questions, once and for all about abs.......and that one SHOULD train abs hard and heavy. Cool!
http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html Click on "Training" at the top, then scroll down to Exercise Instruction, and click on "Abdominal Training". You'll be glad you did,

thanks again

The way NOT to make your abs bigger & wider is to do low weight & lotsa reps, which i don't waste my time with, OR--- heavy weight (manageably heavy!) with FEW reps, around 5-8-10 is what I do, (and now this is important!)--with a very short rest period, a minute, maybe.
It works for me! my waist hasn't looked this good since i starved myself in college...
By the way- yes. DO be wary of too much oblique work. But definitely do some, for all around strength. Too much will make your waist disappear. Rest periods and weight/rep schemes really matter alot when it comes to questions of building bigger/tighter/stronger muscles. of course...