Floor Leg Press Machine: Mistakes to Avoid; How to Do
The floor or 45 degree leg press is one of the best weightlifting routines you can do for shaping and strengthening legs, as well as burning up fat.
Depending on how you use the 45 degree leg press machine, you can build significant muscle mass, if that is your goal.
As simple as use of the floor leg press equipment sounds, there are some mistakes that often get made.
The “horizontal” leg press machine is similar to the floor version, but this article will focus on the floor leg press because it’s more effective than the horizontal version.
However, most of the mistakes that I often see people commit on the 45 degree leg press are the same that I see done with the horizontal.
The following are mistakes on the floor leg press:
#1: Locking out the knees at the end of the push-out of the platform. I’ve even seen legs actually hyperextended.
Oddly, it’s always a woman who hyperextends the legs (knee lockout) with the 45 degree leg press.
Locking out the knees can lead to cartilage damage. Plus, it’s a cheat move in that it momentarily takes tension off the thighs and butt, which is what you want to target with the leg press. Continuous muscle tension will produce far better results.
#2: Pushing off with the balls of your feet; lifting your heels from the platform. This makes it easier to push, but it takes some work away from your thighs and butt, and transfers it to your calves.
Do you want to shape and tone your butt/thighs, or your calves? If you want to work the calves, there are calf-raise machines.
If you want to work the thighs and butt, keep your feet flat on the leg press platform.
#3: Allowing your butt to lift off the seat as you lower the weight towards you. It’s hard to avoid doing this if you want to go down deeply.
But be more aware of it; this can strain the lower back. Do lower back stretching exercises to improve this area’s flexibility.
#4: Never doing deep lowering. If the resistance is heavy enough, you can’t lower the weight deeply with the floor leg press. A very heavy routine permits only a 90 degree leg bend.
However, you should also work the entire range of motion, a deep release of the weight.
This will recruit different muscles, and in a different way, than from a 90 degree release. You’ll need to use lighter weights, of course.
Don’t go overboard with deep releases if your body is not used to them, or you might get a muscle pull.
Use very light weights to start, to gradually introduce the muscles/tendons to this move.
Don’t make these mistakes with the floor leg press, and you’ll get results much faster as well as reduce risk of injury.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Syda Productions
Signs Your Sweet Child Is Bullying a Younger Brother or Sister
Your “angel” of a child may actually be a demon who’s bullying his or her younger sibling, but crafty enough to keep this hidden from you, unless you know the signs to look for.
Don’t assume your child isn’t bullying a younger sibling until you go through this checklist.
Will parents always pick up on the signs that one of their kids is bullying a younger sibling?
I know a man who says when he and his brother (who’s only 11 months younger than him) were very young, they were babysat for by their older brother (older by four years), and from what he tells me, he and his younger brother were bullied by the older.
“Every time our parents put him in charge and left the house, he’d beat us up. Then he told us if we ever told on him, he’d do it again next time he was alone with us.”
His parents never learned of this, and never suspected it. But it happened repeatedly.
“The issue of sibling bullying is not talked about nearly enough with parents, or in the media,” says Dr. Marilyn Benoit, MD, Chief Clinical Officer and SVP of Clinical & Professional Affairs of Devereux, which is the largest not-for-profit behavioral healthcare organization in the U.S.
Dr. Benoit runs a family practice as a child and adolescent psychiatrist.
“In fact, in many cases, parents do not realize that their younger child is being bullied by an older sibling,” says Dr. Benoit.
“I have seen this in family friends and in my patients where the older sibling takes on more of a parental role when both parents work / travel long hours, or in single parent households.”
Signs a Child Is Bullying a Sibling
Dr. Benoit provides five signs that parents can be alerted to that may strongly indicate that sibling bullying is taking place.
- Parents witness sibling fearlessly and continuously taunting a younger sibling through derogatory name calling or language.
- Parents see a lack of empathy by the older sibling that’s not just teasing, but constant and chronic.
- The younger sibling appears to have anxiety or depression. He or she may seem to be hyper-vigilant or withdraw, especially around the older sibling.
- Parents notice the younger sibling prefers to be around them when they are at home, signifying that they are seeking protection.
- The younger sibling may act out when parents leave them alone with an older sibling. This acting out may be inconsistent with their behavior in other settings.
Sometimes, signs of sibling bullying may not be so obvious, but more subtle, but keen parents should still detect them.
“Parents should look for these signs and be suspicious about changing behaviors before and/or after older siblings are alone with younger siblings for extended amounts of time,” explains Dr. Benoit.
“It’s important for parents to intervene when any of these signs are realized.”
Dr. Benoit is past president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and has provided Congressional testimony on issues including child abuse, teen pregnancy and youth suicide.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Substitute for Pull-ups for Overweight Exercisers
Seeking a pull-up substitution if you are obese or overweight?
There are several substitutes for pull-ups that overweight or clinically obese exercise enthusiasts can perform.
Keep in mind that doing an actual pull-up is NOT a natural ability for even a thinner person — the ability to do pull-ups is an acquired ability, though sometimes, fit, thin people can naturally crank out a few. Rock climbers develop this ability just from climbing.
If you’re overweight or obese and belong to a health club or gym, see if the gym has what’s called a pull-up assist machine.
Pull-up assist equipment
These machines subtract weight from your body weight, so that, if you weigh 200 pounds, these machines can be set to make you “weigh” half that much or less.
Any overweight or obese exerciser can use a pull-up assist machine, and this tool is a perfect substitute.
Place the pin, say, at the 120-pound mark in the weight stack. This will subtract 120 pounds from your body weight.
Stand on the foot steps and grab the handles above your head. Then lift a knee on the rest pad in front of yourself, then get the other knee on it.
This may sound confusing to read, but once you are standing before one of these machines, you’ll probably know instantly how it works, especially after you’ve seen others use it.
The machine will mimic for you a pull-up motion, yet you’ll feel 120 pounds lighter.
Experiment with different weight “assists” by sticking the pin in different places.
The next substitute for pull-ups for overweight or obese exercisers is the modified version.
Find the gym’s Smith machine. This is also known as tracked barbell squat equipment.
Place the bar 3-4 feet from the floor. Get beneath it and place hands on it and hang straight-armed.
You can now place your feet at various points along the floor, relative to the bar.
The further your feet are out, the more challenging the exercise will be. Your legs can be straight or bent, but keep them together.
From this straight-arm hang, hoist yourself up, but of course, your feet remain on the floor.
If this wasn’t too hard, see if you can do 10. If that wasn’t too difficult, increase the pull-resistance by moving your feet further out on the floor away from the bar.
If this still isn’t too hard, then lower the bar one foot.
The lower the bar, the closer you can bring your body towards a horizontal position if your feet are all the way out.
Though a traditional pull-up is done when the body hangs vertically, you can mimic the exercise by being almost horizontal, heels on floor, legs straight and in alignment with upper body.
The lower the bar, the more challenging this exercise is.
The third substitute for pull-ups that overweight and obese people can do is the standard lat pull-down maneuver, and you can use various handles.
This exercise is very similar to a pull-up and thus qualifies for a substitute, and overweight and obese exercisers are on an even playing field with any thinner person, when it comes to the lat pull-down exercise. This will strengthen your body for pull-ups.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV
What Type of Parents Do Kids Who Don’t Get Bullied Have?
Some kids never get bullied. Are their parents different than the ones of kids who DO get bullied?
Do bully-proof children have different kinds of parents?
Certainly it’s not freak chance or luck that a child or teen is bully-proof–and I don’t mean because that child is a bully.
So what kind of parents do kids have who never get bullied, or the so-called bully-proof children?
There’s a lot out there on “bully-proofing” your children.
“There is no such thing as a bully-proof child,” says Rona Novick, PhD, who developed the BRAVE bully prevention program.
Dr. Novick, a clinical psychologist, has worked with schools nationally on the issue of bullying, and is director of the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Doctoral Program at Yeshiva University, NY.
“Bullying is so common, virtually all children will experience it at some point in their school career (current research suggests rates over 90%).”
Be aware that there are different levels of bullying; bullying is on a continuum.
Some kids are bullied only within their circle of friends, while others are the individuals whom “everyone picks on.” And interestingly, some victims even become friends with their bullies eventually.
“In addition, since bullies tend to target victims who react emotionally, and since emotional reactivity is largely a factor of temperament and biological, parents can’t change a reactive child into a cool cucumber,” explains Dr. Novick.
The term “bully-proof,” then, can simply mean doing what you can, as a caring parent, to minimize the risk of bullying.
And this begins by supporting a child’s social development, says Dr. Novick. Being more alone, she says, puts a young person at higher risk of being bullied.
Type of parents to create a more bully-resistant child?
Parents must help their children make and keep friends. However, this can’t be forced any more than you, as an adult, can be forced to feel genuine kinship with a coworker whom you don’t care for.
Lead and encourage, but don’t force play dates or other unwanted interactions.
Another group of individuals who are highly vulnerable to being harassed at school are those with cross-gender behavior or same-gender attraction.
Tomboys, effeminate boys, and gay-lesbian, transgender and questioning-youth are very vulnerable to bullying and also benefit from parental support, explains Dr. Novick.
Thus, if parents have noted that a child doesn’t seem to be snuggly fitting into society’s expectations of their gender, parents need to show unconditional love and avoid criticizing their son or daughter.
This non-judgmental approach can go a long way in “bully proofing” a child — or to put it another way, ensuring that your child is one who never gets bullied in the true sense of the word.
Dr. Novick is recognized for her expertise in behavior management and child behavior therapy. She has published scholarly articles on school applications of behavior management, children and trauma, and bully prevention in schools.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Cookie Studio
Why Obese People Should Lift Weights to Lose Fat
Lifting weights is the best thing an obese person can do to lose weight, to burn as much fat as possible; the beauty of weightlifting is that many fat-burning routines can be done while standing or sitting.
I’ve been going to two chain gyms, which means about 10 gyms total all over town, and year after year, I see the same thing: Few significantly overweight people lifting weights — let alone intensely.
Of course, the larger and more crowded the health club, the more likely you’ll see men and women of all sizes performing strength training routines.
However, they still comprise a very small percentage of people working out with weights.
Most very heavy people in a gym are on the cardio equipment.
Of the ones who are strength training, literally a few, if any, are in the free-weight area; just about all of them use the strength training machines.
Strength training machines have their virtues.
This includes being able to better isolate a muscle group, as well as help rehab an injury.
But ultimately, by far the best approach to strength training and thus fat-burning involves use of free weights such as dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells.
Obese individuals who do any strength training make up an extremely small portion of the general population of very overweight men and women.
Based on what I’ve seen at gyms, I will conclude that one of the reasons for very large people not lifting weights is because they think this will make them bigger yet.
When I see very overweight or moderately overweight women using resistance machines at the gym, they are almost always using light workloads — sometimes very light, so light that after many repetitions, they don’t look tired.
When they use dumbbells, it’s almost always light dumbbells.
They may believe that using heavy dumbbells will bulk them into a bigger size. When I was a personal trainer, I heard this from some of them.
Obese women are strong enough to handle heavier resistance; I know this because I’ve worked with many of them.
But I’ve had overweight women tell me outright, “I don’t want to get bigger.”
However, having excess fat in your body does NOT predispose you to bulking up from strength training.
If you have a lot of excess fat in your body, lifting weights will force your body to plunge into these extra fat reserves for fuel: You will get smaller, not bigger.
Obese people need to lift weights because this will 1) speed up their resting metabolism, 2) Tone muscles and thus yield a firmer, shapelier appearance, and 3) vastly improve fitness.
The fat-burning effects of intense strength training are unparalleled, more significant than the fat-burning effects of merely pedaling away like an automaton on the elliptical machine or stationary bike.
If you have obesity and are struggling to lose pounds, I assure you that there is one thing you have not tried yet: intense weightlifting, several times a week, particularly with dumbbells and barbells.
Do Not Overtrain
It’s crucial that you not go overboard with weight training, however. If you train too often, your muscles won’t recover properly.
The result will be the inability to train rigorously and hard, at a high intensity.
Muscles need adequate time to recover. You need not train with weights more than three times a week to reap some amazing fat loss.
Another point to remember is that frequency does not equal intensity.
You’ll lose more body fat with kickass strength training three times a week rather than with a lower level of training five times a week.
- And of course, how much and what you eat plays a key role in permanent weight loss.
- Portion control of a variety of foods, while limiting ultra-processed types of food, is extremely effective at achieving long-term weight loss.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Freepik.com
How Can a Teacher Spot a Bully? Five Ways
Here are ways that a teacher can spot who the bully is in their classroom or beyond.
Teachers can be a bullied child’s first line of defense, because they are in such a position to prevent, or at least, greatly minimize, harassment in the schoolplace.
“There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on teachers today in managing their classrooms and students,” says Dr. Marilyn Benoit, MD, Chief Clinical Officer and SVP of Clinical & Professional Affairs of Devereux, one of the largest not-for-profit behavioral healthcare organization in the country. Dr. Benoit also has a family practice as a child and adolescent psychiatrist.
“It can be very difficult, because as I said, bullies are opportunistic. They take advantage of unsupervised opportunities.”
Dr. Benoit provides five ways that teachers can spot a bully:
Be aware of student’s activities, says Dr. Benoit. In junior high, I don’t know if the teachers were blind or decided to ignore bullying, but bullying went on right when the teacher was in the room.
How could the art teacher not have seen Paula pulling at Louise’s hair while we were all supposed to be working on a project?
Paula was in Louise’s face long enough that I’m sure the teacher must have sooner or later caught a glimpse, but did nothing.
Another sign of bullying that a teacher can pick up on is if “children tend to cower around one child; if one child appears to dominate others; if a bully has a ‘posse’ that tends not to join ordinary activities; if a bully uses ‘secretive maneuvers,’ i.e., extorting another child; if a child has an angry baseline,” explains Dr. Benoit.
Understand the family dynamics of children through parent / teacher conferences and interactions, says Dr. Benoit.
As an example, “if an older sibling is responsible for watching or even taking over the parental role, the younger child may be exposed to sibling bullying.”
Dr. Benoit advises teachers to monitor isolated areas at schools that a bully might take advantage of (hallways, restrooms, locker rooms, school buses, playgrounds).
The corner of a classroom where kids are more free to move about is also a hot spot for bullying, such as in an art or shop class. And one of the hottest bullying spots is the gymnasium.
“Teachers should listen to children and inform parents when children say they are being bullied (some teachers may ignore the complaints, or believe it’s only teasing or question whether it happened because they didn’t witness it),” points out Dr. Benoit.
The “It Didn’t Happen Because I Didn’t See It” Mentality
“I’ve seen instances where a bullied child fears speaking up because the teacher didn’t see it and therefore, it didn’t happen,” says Dr. Benoit.
“Almost 100% of the kids will tell me that when they report an incident to their teacher, the incident is ignored.”
This can foster more depression and isolation in the victim. “In their mind, the bullying never happened because the teacher doesn’t believe them.”
Dr. Benoit is past president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and has provided Congressional testimony on issues including child abuse, teen pregnancy and youth suicide.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
How Well Can the Deadlift Tone My Entire Body?
The deadlift is a divine way for women to “de-flab” their body and create firm muscle tone from head to toe; and it’s an easy exercise to learn.
First, you need to learn proper form with this “lotsa bang for your buck” compound movement.
The deadlift is a much favored movement among people, including women, who know the importance of acquiring overall body strength.
Though the deadlift is associated with strength and power, it’s also an amazing exercise for toning many areas of your body.
How Do Women Do a Deadlift?
The same way a man performs this exercise. Grab a barbell that’s on the floor, bending the legs to reach it, keeping the shoulders above the hips, an arch in the lower back.
Shutterstock/Tyler Olson
The distance between your feet can vary, depending on what’s most comfortable for you. There can also be variation in the distance between the hands.
Now straighten, keeping the shoulders above the hips AT ALL TIMES, maintaining the lower back arch.
Rise until you’re erect, holding the barbell against the thighs with straight arms. Never round the back.
Shutterstock/SerdyukPhotography
Why does the deadlift tone a woman’s entire body?
Because it works the following muscles: the upper, middle and lower back; butt, hamstrings and calves; thighs and abs; shoulders, biceps and forearms.
That’s practically the entire body.
How Women Can Tone Entire Body with Deadlifts: How much Resistance
Practice first with a very light barbell. I recommend an Olympic bar with no weight, because ultimately, you’ll be wanting to do deadlifts with an Olympic bar because this tool is the one in the “squat rack,” the best place to perform deadlifts.
Squat racks are located where mirrors are. Some gyms have a deadlift station, and these stations fit only an Olympic bar.
As a woman gets stronger she’ll need heavier weights, and it’s just easier to load an Olympic bar than fuss around with removing pre-fixed barbells from their station and returning them.
Women should master the deadlift form before focusing on how much weight to lift.
For women new to the deadlift, use a load that allows 20 clean, solid repetitions; see if you can do this with an unloaded Olympic bar, which is 45 pounds.
When 20 reps feel comfortable, start increasing the resistance over time so that 8-12 repetitions are difficult but not straining.
Finally, hand position in the deadlift can be palms facing you or away.
There’s also the “mixed” grip, which is the most effective. One palm is facing you, and the other palm is facing away.
The mixed grip allows you to lift more than either an all-supinated grip (palms facing away) or all-pronated grip (palms facing you).
Perform this exercise twice a week with two or three days of rest in between. Do five sets with about 90 seconds in between.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Jasminko Ibrakovic
Cardio Workouts for Migraine Headache Sufferers
Here is a cardio workout that will benefit people with migraine headaches.
This cardio workout for migraine headaches is based on a study that showed that those with this condition can, indeed, tolerate certain types of physical activity fairly well.
The study results included that of a lower frequency of the pain occurrence.
What is the cardio exercise mode?
It is that of indoor cycling.
In the study, the exercise sessions on the indoor bikes did not aggravate the symptoms of the study subjects.
Shutterstock/ Seasontime
In the last month of the study, the frequency of migraine headaches dropped considerably.
The intensity of pain also dropped. As a result, the amount of medication taken also was reduced.
“While the optimal amount of exercise for patients with migraine remains unknown, our evaluated program can now be tested further and compared to pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments to see if exercise can prevent migraine,” says study co-author, Dr. Emma Varkey in the paper.
Cycling indoors seems just what the doctor ordered, as it eliminates most of the jarring or bobbing up and down that occurs with other forms of cardio exercise.
This is one mode of cardio in which a person’s head stays virtually immobile, since the entire upper body is locked nicely in place.
Unfortunately, since exercise historically worsens this unique type of head pain, studies in this realm have been lacking. More research is called for.
Avoiding Exercise Due to Headaches
If you suffer from migraines and, as a result of this, have been avoiding aerobic activity, it’s time to hop on a stationary bike and see what happens.
- Don’t get ahead of yourself by attempting a Spin class as your first session. These classes tend to be intense and loud.
- Start out on a stationary cycle in the cardio section of a gym, or perhaps you can buy a bike for your home.
- Do not get into the habit of reading while pedaling, as this will distract you from being aware of how your body is responding.
- Watching TV while pedaling is actually less distracting than reading, as it’s quite possible to pedal vigorously while viewing a TV screen — whereas trying to maintain a vigorous pace while reading is more difficult.
Sprint Cycling
When I was a personal trainer I instructed my clients how to do sprint cycling, which is another term for high intensity interval training on a stationary bike.
Once you find that pedaling a bike is migraine-friendly, you may want to try sprint cycling — regardless of your body weight.
It’s just a superior way to use a stationary bike; plus, it saves time. Twenty minutes of sprint cycling is far more effective than a whole hour of steady state pedaling.
Here’s how to get started with sprint cycling — also called anaerobic cycling.
Pedaling super fast may jostle the bike somewhat, depending on the machine. If this brings on a headache, slow down or try a different machine.
Find a bike that is more stable on the floor.
If at some point you feel ready for a Spin class, then go for it.
Make sure you’re well-hydrated throughout your exercise, since dehydration can cause headaches.
The study is published in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/B-D-S Piotr Marcinski
Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326141557.htm
Can Exercise Make You Have Fewer Menopausal Hot Flashes?
Exercise may reduce the number of hot flashes a woman has in the 24 hours following the activity.
This is great news for menopausal women who suffer from sudden waves of feeling overheated and sweating, which can sometimes be drenching.
The perception of hot flashes is more common in overweight and sedentary women.
A Penn State study that was released in 2014, headed by Steriani Elavsky, a specialist in exercise, was formatted so that actual, real hot flashes were accounted for, without the perceived hot flashes interfering with data.
This study focused on exercise, not menopause, and hence, the women in the study (ages 40-59 and not on hormone therapy) were those with mild to moderate symptoms, rather than severe.
The women were divided into groups:
1) normal weight
2) overweight/obese
3) high fit, and
4) low fit.
Hot flashes were recorded with a device on the skin, and the women themselves recorded their hot flashes.
The results showed that fewer flashes were recorded by the skin device following exercise.
The study, along with any current research, does not 100 percent verify that exercise will reduce hot flashes in every single woman.
“Hot flashes are poorly understood, but there are some studies that suggest they may be tied to insulin levels and insulin resistance which tends to occur more frequently when estrogen levels drop – like during menopause,” explains Heather Bartos, MD, a board certified OBGYN, and chief of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Denton, TX.
“If exercise helps hot flashes it probably helps in the same way it does for diabetics managing their blood sugars. It’s definitely worth a try!”
Exercise, Insulin Levels, Hot Flashes
Exercise, particularly strength training, helps prevent insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when the uptake of insulin, by insulin receptors on muscle cells, is impaired.
Shutterstock/CandyBox Images
Insulin brings blood sugar to muscle cells for their fuel source. If insulin sensitivity is improved via exercise, this may somehow lead to reduced hot flashes in the 24 hours following the workout.
Working out will never make you have MORE or longer hot flashes.
If you have a hot flash while in your spin class or jogging on a treadmill, this is a coincidence!
The hot flash may seem worse than usual — but that’s because your body is already warmed up and sweating from exertion — in an enviroment that may not have optimal ventilation.
Dr. Bartos served as an assistant clinical professor of OBGYN at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences for several years and was a physician in the U.S. Navy for eight years.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120627122254.htm
5 Shocking Reasons You Can’t Shrink that Fat Stomach
Why aren’t you able to get rid of that belly fat?
What’s preventing this? You may not be the problem. Here are 5 shocking reasons the fat stays:
Belly fat that won’t go away is frustrating to deal with and even look at, but there are reasons it continues to stick around.
Some people feel bad about their belly fat and blame themselves, even though they’ve truly tried very hard to make it go away.
It may not be your fault, so don’t feel bad. Once you understand the reasons behind the problem you may be able to finally get the kind of toned abs you’ve dreamt of.
Often, belly fat won’t go away because of cortisol.
Cortisol is the infamous stress hormone that promotes excess fat storage in the midsection.
This gives you one more reason not to let thing stress you out. Cortisol is your emergency response hormone that is part of you fight or flight instincts.
There are more cortisol receptors in the abdominal area than elsewhere.
You might be shocked to learn that cortisol will actually extract fat from other parts of your body and deposit it into your midsection.
It could be a hernia, and not just belly fat that won’t go away.
Hernia can easily be mistaken for belly fat, especially if there aren’t any other symptoms.
While some suffer pain from their hernia, it’s not uncommon for the condition to be painless.
Hernia is actually a protrusion of an organ through the lining that would normally contain it.
While hernia in men is most commonly talked about, women can get abdominal hernia too.
High insulin can make fat in the stomach stubborn.
The main purpose of insulin is to take blood sugar and store it as fat. Producing too much insulin can cause a person to be overweight, or at least have a flabby looking midsection.
While some would argue that they’ve reduced their sugar intake for the sake of dieting, remember that there are many healthy foods that contain natural sugars, or have elements that convert into sugar during the digestive process.
Genetics can cause the retention of fat in the abdomen.
Genetics should not be used as an excuse, but it is the reason why some people have a hard time getting rid of belly fat. It’s really all about the fat distribution.
Those who inherited an apple-shaped body will have a harder time slimming down their midsection.
Menopause is often why belly fat won’t go away in women.
Fat caused by hormones can prove to be the hardest to get rid of.
The hormonal imbalance of estrogen during menopause results in increased amounts of belly girth.
While there may be some very shocking reasons you can’t seem to get rid of the belly fat, they only serve to make it stubborn, not permanent.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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