BY KATIE VERBURG – JULY 21, 2019
Katie Verburg is an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer who is currently studying to become a Holistic Health Coach. She has been in the health and fitness industry for a decade. Here, she dives into spot training and whether or not it’s a myth.
We’ve all heard it before (or possibly thought it before): “How do I get abs?”, “How do I get rid of my flabby arms?” or, my personal favorite, “I’ve been doing crunches every day for X number of months but still don’t see any ab muscles.” What gives? Well, no matter how many crunches one person does, a six-pack will not magically appear. Unfortunately, we can’t pick where we want to lose body fat from. Both men and women struggle with this idea, and instead of completing successful and beneficial workouts, they waste their time only doing arm workouts, or only doing core workouts, when in reality, those exercise moves alone are not going to give them the results they desire.
This is called “spot training,” which is the idea that an individual can cause weight loss or muscle definition in one area of the body without affecting other parts of the body. While this would make life much easier, it’s entirely a myth in every way possible. We see it almost daily in magazines or on television, claiming there’s a “6-minute workout” that promises the results of rock-hard abs or buns of steel. Unfortunately, those products will not work the way they are marketed to work.