Evolv Fitness

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Evolv Fitness Articles written by Padraig

The Belly is going to get you

I think the day of slapping the overindulged belly in delight is well gone. We all know that guy, while slapping with joy they are telling you, it cost a lot of money to get this here. What is going to cost money are the medical bills to help manage the issues and problems that arise from an overindulged appetite lack of exercise that created a big tummy in the first place. But all is not lost, there is a lot we can do to immediately help decrease the fat around that mid section.

1: First thing endless amount of sit ups will not get rid of that body fat around the tummy, and yes you have to watch what goes into the stomach to have an effect.

2: Second Thing, endless cardio will not have an effect either. If you are new to exercise it probably will within the first couple of weeks but you will quickly reach a plateau. Sometimes you may even gain a bit of weight around the tummy due to cardio training because of the dreaded excess amounts of cortisol produced. Any way if you have excess amounts of fat on the tummy you probably should not be walking in the first place a sit can stress the joints necessary for supporting that extra weight.

Every bloke seems to want to have a flatter tummy, in particular since a study was done that has found it has relationship with heart disease. Now it’s not rocket science to shed some fat, eat less bad carbs, exercise more. It’s about balance, energy out dietary food in. But yes sometimes we get stuck, that bit that just won’t shift. The GUT.

Lets discuss this relationship between cortisol and belly fat.

Cortisol is a hormone necessary for life and in normal amounts has positive affects for the body unfortunately due to stress, bad dietary habits and wrong exercise selection cortisol can be increased which is not a positive effect for our body. Cortisol in high amounts activates an in increase in fat storage enzymes. Stress increases crtisol and this now seems to increase excess abdominal fat, this stress can be in different forms as already stated. Not just the stress of sitting in your car bending your steering wheel due to traffic but also the stress of eating excess bad carbs and your insulin not working effectively well, or too much exercise which can lead to stress.

What can we do?

Exercise in particular strength work but don’t bite off more than you can chew. I see it all the time, people starting an exercise routine, gung ho, 4 days a week. Yet not taking into account family, work commitments etc. They should have selected three days. They are stressed out because of lack of time, we do the Bio Sig on them and the abdominal site has increased

Finish your exercise routine with a gentle stretch down – (NOT RUSHED) Relaxed

If doing cardio don’t rely on plodding along, try sprint interval work (once your fit enough) 8 secs max effort 60 sec active recovery and repeat 5 – 10 times.

Abdominal exercises focused slow and controlled. Concentrate on really contracting the muscle you are working and slowly releasing that contraction. Ensure you breathe

Reduce your caffeine and simple sugar consumption