How To Treat Trouble Areas While Getting In Shape

Many people who are trying to get in shape really like to first target their perceived trouble areas. Someone who’s (real or perceived) trouble area is stomach does tons of crunches while those who want to slim down their legs do lots of leg exercises in the hopes they’ll shrink. Well, as with everything else, it’s not that simple as that.

If you are 5 or 10 pounds heavier you might see your trouble areas. Your natural proportions can still be discerned and you can observe the difference between your upper and lower body.

But, of course, if you are much heavier than that you can’t know for sure what your trouble areas are unless you’ve battled with them at different sizes.

Besides, if you never trained your muscles, you won’t know how your body will look after. And since weight training significantly transforms body composition, you should not assume that some of the areas you don’t like are trouble.

For now, try to concentrate on the whole body. Lose fat, strengthen your muscles, and crank up intensity as your body adapts to the weights. Once you are at the optimal weight (plus minus a couple of pounds) or 18% fat, you can start looking for lagging areas that require more work.

They might not be what you assumed and you might be surprised to find to find that other areas that you never thought about are weaker.

First step – diet and fat loss, second – assessing your trouble areas

At this point you can really tailor your workout to include more exercises for your lagging parts. Train them more often and make sure you push yourself to get the results you want.

Otherwise, doing tons of crunches won’t do anything until you get your diet in order and strength train for at least six months to build up some muscle. In case with the legs, doing lots and lots of exercises won’t change natural skeletal structure, so try to concentrate on the lagging part instead – narrow shoulders. Do lighter leg exercises if you don’t want them to grow bigger.