Thread: Losing the little fat around belly.

Originally Posted by Devileyezz

I'm a 128lb (yes, very skinny, but working on it.) guy, with a slight belly.

And fat around the hips (what women call love handles, lol, but not so grossly extreme like they have)

What's an easy and fast-action exercise that I could do to lose this? I do the elliptical machine cardio for 10 mins 4 times a week, and I see it's slowly receding, but I'd like to know more.

Thanks.

At 128 pounds you need to work on building some muscle before you worry about that. In fact, as a newbie to resistance training, you stand to lose that fat and gain muscle at the same time. Check out the stickies at the top of the page. I highly suggest starting with a full body routine. Twice a week is probably sufficient to begin, but three times a week is also acceptable.

Yeah, Im taking it that your a male so gaining muscle mass is what you need because unless your 4 foot I doubt anyone with notice any fat on you. Plus when you add muscle mass to your body and primarly your torso it will look more defined

Don't worry about cutting off that little bit of fat unless you have atleast SOME kind of base musculature to work with, which it sounds like you don't. Listen to Cowpimp's advice.

Thanks a LOT guys.
So, I'm gonna stop doing cardio.

Cardio is still healthy in moderation. There's really no reason not to do it as long as you implement it smoothly. Giving your heart a little exercise is probably a good thing.

Originally Posted by Squaggleboggin

Cardio is still healthy in moderation. There's really no reason not to do it as long as you implement it smoothly. Giving your heart a little exercise is probably a good thing.

I agree, even when bulking I think I'll still do cardio twice a week for ~15 mins...

Originally Posted by Devileyezz

Thanks a LOT guys.
So, I'm gonna stop doing cardio.

Don't stop doing cardio necessarily. A couple days of cardio a week is good for health. Don't turn into one of those bodybuilding douche bags who can bench press 300 pounds but has to rest after walking from the locker room to the bench. Even those mammoth 300 pound powerlifters recommend doing GPP work a couple days each week, which aerobic exercise is a perfectly valid form of.

Originally Posted by Squaggleboggin

Cardio is still healthy in moderation. There's really no reason not to do it as long as you implement it smoothly. Giving your heart a little exercise is probably a good thing.

PROBABLY a good thing? WHen your muscle mass is not mass anymore and jsut lifth\ing yourself up a flight of stairs is a workout....your heart muscle is still a major contributor to your life existence. DO not neglect cardio, give your heart ( which is also a muscle ) a good workout. Too many people have cardio scare and think they are going to lose their muscles - they won't

Hmmm, I was thinking the same thing, lol.
But yeah, I was doing 10 mins of cardio 4 times a week.

And now, I'll change it to 10 mins of cardio twice a week. :-)

Thanks guys.
And I totally agree with CowPimp. I don't wanna pant!! haha

Originally Posted by overboard

PROBABLY a good thing? WHen your muscle mass is not mass anymore and jsut lifth\ing yourself up a flight of stairs is a workout....your heart muscle is still a major contributor to your life existence. DO not neglect cardio, give your heart ( which is also a muscle ) a good workout. Too many people have cardio scare and think they are going to lose their muscles - they won't

This is ignorant. All exercise is inherently cardiovascular. Working out in the gym can be organized to improve "cardiovascular" function - translating into physical improvements in long distance running and so forth. Doing a set of 30 rep squats will get your heart beating harder than any amount of foot-shattering "cardio" - i.e. aerobic-based exercise - will do.

The mind-numbing implication that weight training isn't good to raise HEART RATE is at the very best ridiculous beyond fantasy.

WHen your muscle mass is not mass anymore and jsut lifth\ing yourself up a flight of stairs is a workout

This makes no sense at all. Minus a handful of powerlifters or drug abusing bodybuilders, people who train intelligently with a diverse series of exercises, rep ranges and set schemes are in PHENOMENAL shape. As if having too much muscle makes walking upa flight of stairs hard - give me a freaking break. To say that weight training isn't cardiovascular is untrue. It's a misnomer. We should be talking about exercises that rely on systems more than the other, i.e. Anaerobic or Aerobic.

The weight-training itself is the best cardio around.

workout properly for a couple months and eat good and talk.

Originally Posted by Duncans Donuts

This is ignorant. All exercise is inherently cardiovascular. Working out in the gym can be organized to improve "cardiovascular" function - translating into physical improvements in long distance running and so forth. Doing a set of 30 rep squats will get your heart beating harder than any amount of foot-shattering "cardio" - i.e. aerobic-based exercise - will do.

The mind-numbing implication that weight training isn't good to raise HEART RATE is at the very best ridiculous beyond fantasy.

Indeed. I use resistance training exercises for my conditioning workouts. I use a lot of bodyweight exercises so that I'm not imposing any additional microtrauma on my muscles and don't stifle recovery from heavier resistance training workouts.

This makes no sense at all. Minus a handful of powerlifters or drug abusing bodybuilders, people who train intelligently with a diverse series of exercises, rep ranges and set schemes are in PHENOMENAL shape. As if having too much muscle makes walking upa flight of stairs hard - give me a freaking break. To say that weight training isn't cardiovascular is untrue. It's a misnomer. We should be talking about exercises that rely on systems more than the other, i.e. Anaerobic or Aerobic.

People who train intelligently? Haha. There are people like that out there?

All kidding aside, you have a point, but a lot of people train with far too much rest throughout their resistance training workouts to reap the benefits of conditioning. Look at a Max-OT style workout for example. A total of 10-12 sets of 4-6 repetitions with 3 minutes of rest in between sets? That's not going to do a whole Hell of a lot for your conditioning. In contrast, if you look at a shock workout from gopro's P-RR-S program, then you will see some serious conditioning potential.

I agree that weight training can be better than the classically thought of cardio: I once supersetted light C&Js with farmers walks and chin ups. Anyone who doesn't think weight training increases heart rate should try it for three sets with the only rest being for about 30-60s after the chins. Totally kick ass.

As far as cardio goes, go through an Arthur Jones style HIT workout a la Ray Mentzer or Sergio Olivia - 6 or 7 minutes of hell! I just hate the idea of people saying that weight training isn't cardiovascular in nature. People confuse "cardio" and "aerobic focused" in my opinion.