If you're working out, then you're probably wasting your time and energy doing particular exercises that aren't particularly effective. Why? There's just so much information out there...and much of it isn't as accurate as you'd like to believe.
Plus, you're probably so anxious to achieve your fitness goals that you're willing to do just about anything to get there.
But before you waste another minute, dollar, or ounce of energy, know that the best way to obtain your fitness goals is the old-fashioned way: cardio, resistance, diet, repeat.
So, what exercises DON'T you need to waste your time doing? Here are 5 of them...
1. Sit-Ups/Crunches
You can crunch until the cows come home and still have a muffin top folding over your jeans. Why? Doing hundreds of daily sit-ups is actually extinguishing the oxygen from your muscles, suffocating them as opposed to strengthening them.
Instead do 3 sets of 15 10-second crunches, moving like molasses, or simply hold Plank pose for 1 minute every day. BUT even that won’t guarantee a 6-pack. You have to burn off the fat that sits on top first.
How? Cardio and diet. This doesn’t mean that crunches are pointless. The more muscle you have, the more calories you naturally burn, even during rest.
2. Tricep Kickbacks
Sadly, the ability to perform triceps kickbacks until the sun sets isn’t an indication of strength. SparkPeople explains the angle of your arm prevents you from lifting enough weight to really challenge your triceps.
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You’ll have to do a stunning amount of repetitions to feel anything. It sucks up a lot of time without delivering any real results, so give this one a rest. It’s also easy to turn this move into a swing rather than a lift. Dips or tricep extensions are going to get you where you want a lot faster.
3. Stretching Without First Warming Up
Yes, stretching is essential to exercising--only if done correctly. Imagine a stick of taffy. If you try to bend it in half without first gently warming it up, it will snap. That could be your muscle. That’s why you never want to stretch a cold muscle- ever!
More than risking ripping, stretching before working out also makes your muscles produce less force. In other words, you get less out of your workout because of your pre-exercise stretch.
So what should you do before your workout? Warm-up! Before you run, jump, or do anything strenuous, get your blood flowing for a few minutes by walking or marching in place.
4. Hand Weights While Walking
So you think that rhythmically pumping your arms forward and back while you walk or run helps create momentum, which makes you move forward even faster while simultaneously getting your abs and arms in the toning action (upping the calorie burn)?
Think again. Holding weights actually slows that momentum, decreasing your speed and therefore your cardio output and calorie burn. You are also putting yourself at risk for injury thanks to the repetitive weighted movement and force on your elbows. You can still tone and beef up your muscles while walking by just using the weight of your arms.
5. Cardio Machine (Well, sort of)
We get it: you’re tired, over it, and just want to get through the last few minutes of your treadmill, stationary bike, or elliptical workout, so you rest your elbows or hands on the handlebars and allow your upper body to slightly hunch over.
While you might be relieving your legs of some of the bodyweight burden, you could also be throwing off your alignment, shifting your spine, tensing your shoulders, and agitating your elbows, creating long-term discomfort or even injury, which is not so conducive to a continued effective workout.
Instead, stand up straight and imagine shifting your weight into a different lower body area. For example, if your quads are tired, try to shift your focus to your butt, putting the work into lifting and trimming those cheeks. Stop cheating!
Honorable Mention: "This-Area-Right-Here" Moves
Non-existent. You simply can’t burn fat from a specific area of the body. Fat burns off evenly from the entire body thanks to a combination of cardio, diet, and consuming fewer calories than you burn. You can, however, spot train. In other words, you can hone in on a specific muscle group and you will see a definite difference in how tone that section gets, even if the muscle tone lies under a layer of fat.
To repeat, there aren’t any magic spells when it comes to exercise. So it’s time to bite the bullet, get up and move your body right now if you want to get a head start.
Stand Your Way To Flatter Abs Exercise (Video)
When people think of getting six-pack abs or a flatter tummy, many turn to crunches or floor exercises to get the job done. But besides diet, good standing posture actually helps flatten your belly too.
Focusing on your posture goes beyond how your midsection looks. Posture is important in fitness because your core muscles' main job is to support your spine during workouts. For example, when you lift weights, your abs stabilize your spine, which helps to prevent injury.
Good posture can also help you avoid injury when you work out by allowing your muscles to work more effectively.
Simply standing up for 10 minutes while engaging your core (sucking in and releasing your core muscles) five times a day can help.
Standing up straight is especially important for postpartum women because their abdominal muscles (and therefore posture) have been thrown out of whack by pregnancy. Many pregnant women have a posture that isn’t great, largely due to weak back and postural muscles that cause them to hunch forward when they carry their baby.
From video vixen to certified personal trainer who has literally helped hundreds of women lose weight, get off medication and live healthier lives, Buffie Carruth shows us how to flatten our belly and shrink our midsection.
The video above is a full workout that only takes 15-minutes out of your day. Whether you like to work out in the mornings or evenings, take a look at the video above and try it out three days a week with a day of rest in between.
Start looking for results (by incorporating healthy eating) in about four weeks!
For more on Buffie Carruth and her fitness company, click here.
For more videos like this, click here.
