Health aNd Fitness Guide

This is the seventh post in a series of Workout and Nutrition Tips by Jason Gremley.

The best “exercise” for dealing with love handles is to exercise self-discipline by eating properly and doing cardio workouts regularly. I recommend that you read and follow the advice in our workout tips post on how to get washboard abs. Once you’ve eliminated the bodyfat around your waist you can do specific exercises to tone the obliques — the muscles on the sides of your waist. Such exercises include twisting crunches, side crunches on a decline situp board, and hanging bent-knee leg raises to the sides. Stick with bodyweight exercises, because if you use heavy weight on the obliques they will thicken and may make your waist look more “blocky.” This is particularly true if you still have a layer of fat over the oblique muscles.

Avoid alcohol and sugar. A few chocolate chip cookies is not going to make a difference — but a sixpack of beer a day or eating an entire bag of Chips Ahoy! in one sitting will impede your progress.