waistline

[jonrud007]

I know I can drop inches in the waist by jogging and watching calories but are there any exercises you can do to lose some inches in the waist? I had been on zoloft and it seemed like It made me balloon up. I tried exercising and would give up and then start again. I was at a size 34 jean size now I have to wear around a 38 to feel comfortable. I heard that doing some ab exercises will actually increase your waistline. I don't feel like buying more jeans.By the way I've been off zoloft for a couple of weeks and don't know what direction to start.

[Blaze]

If your counting on spot reduction, forget it. Cuz it's not gonna happen. I would stick to cardio. ARe you worried about maintaining muscle mass? Or do you just want to loose the waist?
My suggestion would be light to medium cario training, over a period time, while still lifting to maintain.

[cursor]

Rather than starting and stopping your exercise program, it's better to maintain a steady flow. The same holds true with sticking to a moderate eating program. Are you currently involved in a weight training program?

[jonrud007]

what I'm doing now wouldn't be really called a program. Sometimes I work on biceps and triceps and do military press. Most of the time I try concentrating on the abdomen. I try to do some ab exercise everyday. Like situps, and twisting situps or torso twists or side bends. Lately I've been doing like 100 situps/or other ab exercise a day. I really want to start running but haven't been able to. Are jumping jacks useless?

[Lady C]

Your abs won't lose inches by doing ab work everyday! Sorry! The only way to lose those inches is clean up your diet and exercise.

Abs are like any other muscle they need rest and working them more than 3X a week is useless (wasted energy). Concentrate more on 30 min cardio everyday and weight training 3X per week.

[Blaze]

Originally Posted by Lady C

Your abs won't lose inches by doing ab work everyday! Sorry! The only way to lose those inches is clean up your diet and exercise.

Abs are like any other muscle they need rest and working them more than 3X a week is useless (wasted energy). Concentrate more on 30 min cardio everyday and weight training 3X per week.

Yes indeed. As mentioned diet is very important, I forgot to mention that. Too, you should not be working your abs everday. Your abs are a muscle. And just like any other muscle they can be overtrained. If you wanna work your abs then I would not work them anymore than three times a week. And if you want to loose size in that area, I would not work them at all. Except for maybe toning.

[jonrud007]

Okay thanks. I'll focus more on regular exercises. I just need to burn fat.

[cursor]

When doing strength training (an important effort when attempting to lose fat), focusing on the larger muscles in your body will bring the best results -- particularly when the exercises that you employ are "compound" vs. "isolation". Compound exercises are those that involve groups of muscles working together to move a load whereas isolation exercises limit movement and technique to focus on a single muscle.