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As I talked about last week, it has been proven that you cannot spot reduce fat in certain areas of your body.  You cannot do things like decrease the fat under your arms by simply doing triceps extensions.  The fat under your arms will come off when it comes off, not when you just work your arms.  Remember, since you cannot spot reduce, the goal then should be to burn the most calories off as possible in your workouts. 

Since your problem areas are the easiest places to put fat on, these are also the hardest places to take it off.  While they may be the hardest areas to burn fat off, there is still hope for trying to speed up the process through your workouts.  Are you ready for this?  Work your SUVs!  “Work my SUVs, what in the world does that mean?” you may ask.

As we know, SUVs typically have a lot worse gas mileage compared to cars.  This is because SUVs are bigger.  Since they are bigger, they burn more fuel in order to perform.  The same can be said with your body.  The biggest muscles in your body are your legs, chest, and back; these can be considered your SUVs.  The smaller muscles in your body are your arms, shoulders, and abdominals; these can be seen as your cars.  In any fat loss program, the goal is to burn more calories than you consume.  By working your bigger muscles groups, or SUVs, you can burn more calories off for the time you put into your workouts.

So now you know.  Always try and incorporate your SUVs into your workout because in a 30 minute workout, you will burn more calories by performing exercises that work your SUVs instead of your cars.  This does not mean just work your big muscles and nothing else though.  Try combining exercises.  For example, try to do a biceps curl with a squat.  This way you work your big and small muscles at the same time, meaning even more calories burnt off in one exercise.  

When I work with a client who has a fat loss goal, I always work the big muscles first.  Rarely would I ever have them perform a workout that works just small muscles.  If a small muscle is being worked, I combine it with a large muscle exercise such as a lunge.  Doing these multi-muscle exercises is a great way to increase calorie burn!  Once the client reaches their fat loss goal, then I will have them perform individual small muscle exercises if they want to create some definition in these smaller muscles.

So here is your new challenge: instead of doing crunches to decrease the size of your stomach, focus on exercises for your legs, chest, and back.  It may not make sense, but trust me, it works!  So get out there and work those SUVs!

Dan Falkenberg is the co-founder and co-owner of Your Live Trainers at YourLiveTrainers.com.

Tags: exercise selection, weight loss