[eswift]

I have been trying to "beef up" for about a month now, and have been following my PN MOST of the time (70% i know i know :P ) I have noticed some great results with my abdominal muscle definition, being naturally skinny I have always had "decent" abs.

When I was in highschool however I was a chubby kid. It seems that I melted most of the fat off over the last 10 or so years, but I still have mini "love handles" and no matter what i do I cant seem to get the oblique definition that im looking for, the lines just above the hips.

I do a pretty extensive ab regimen, i usually start with some kettle bell, turkish get ups, then some decline crunches/twists, then leg lifts and some side planks etc. Whats the most effective way to specifically target the obliques so that I can see some results?

help?

Thanks! :)

[seanleila]

I think most members will suggest for you to bump up your PN compliance to 80%-90% to get results. This will work better than any oblique exercise since it's pretty much impossible to target fat loss in one area without surgical intervention. Probably those "love handles" are where your body tends to store fat. I say this because I have noticed the same thing with my own body. I get great looking results in certain areas and in others, not so great. The areas that look not so great are where my body happens to store more fat and lose it less easily. Tightening up my diet is the answer. Try it.

[ripock]

Originally Posted by eswift

I have been trying to "beef up" for about a month now, and have been following my PN MOST of the time (70% i know i know :P ) I have noticed some great results with my abdominal muscle definition, being naturally skinny I have always had "decent" abs.

When I was in highschool however I was a chubby kid. It seems that I melted most of the fat off over the last 10 or so years, but I still have mini "love handles" and no matter what i do I cant seem to get the oblique definition that im looking for, the lines just above the hips.

I do a pretty extensive ab regimen, i usually start with some kettle bell, turkish get ups, then some decline crunches/twists, then leg lifts and some side planks etc. Whats the most effective way to specifically target the obliques so that I can see some results?

help?

Thanks! :)

First of all, you have wonderful obliques; they're just hidden under the fat. So, take your nutritional training as seriously as you do your weight training. No matter how well you develop your obliques, they will still be covered in fat if you don't eat compliantly.

Now, just to be a good sport I will offer things that make my obliques hurt: overhead Saxon bends, side bends with heavy kettlebell, heavy farmer walks. In general evil wheel roll outs affect the front of the core, hanging leg raises not so much. I feel the latter are more hip flexion than anything else...which is good, but not what I want.

That's it for me. Hopefully a bodybuilder will chime in with a wider breadth of information.

[ripock]

Oh! I just saw Leila's response and it sparked a thought. Someone told me that there may be a way of inducing spot reduction. He told me to heat the area and then work it. I don't know what that means exactly. Does that mean get some saran wrap or a long ace bandage and wrap your obliques? Does that mean to use something like IcyHot? I don't know, but it might be worth your while to investigate, although it would be easier still just to eat right.

[Nadine S]

I have to agree and say abs are made in the kitchen. In order for the obliques to show and for the abs to be lean, you need to have a low(er) body fat percentage - that means you will need to really bump up your compliance and try to reach for 90%. Here is a good thread and pay attention to Rolands answers. Happy PN eating

[eswift]

Thanks everyone! I guess I just need to kick my butt nutrition-wise a little more.... lol.

Thanks!!

[Foamroll]

Hey, don't blame those poor exercises.

Sorry, but while it always depends on body type, the obliques generally have a pretty low ceiling. Non-stop "direct" oblique work probably won't help (and it's probably a bad idea for various reasons). Rotational athletes (pitchers, hammer throwers, swimmers) have great obliques, but that's after years and years of daily use.

As always, for the core, your best bet is dropping body-fat and the big-bang exercises. I think Poliquin highly recommends what you can see in the picture: the "one-leg barbell clean/front squat complex on a Bosu with dumbbells banded to the bar's ends."

[eswift]

Thank you all for your input on this. I'm currently working on beefing up my PN meal plans to be at least 90% compliant. I am in the process of creating an excel macro: i will check off what ingredients I have and it will give me the amounts of each ingredient in grams that i will need to use. Hopefully this will make it easier for me to actually practice Precision Nutrition and not just healthy eating lol

[Canada_K]

There is no way to "spot reduce". The only way to completely get rid of love handles is through diet. No exercise regimen on the planet will do it, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

The last spot men lose fat is at the belt line, specifically the sides (love handles), and lower back. It's why they're so hard to get rid of, because you essentially have to be fat free.

[Roland Fisher 1]

Ripock, I bet you're remembering a Dr. Lowery article talking about spot reduction. I was intrigued a bit too. Basically hot fat cells release more I think, but how the heck do you do that all day for weeks at a time.

Also hormones play a role in the local fat storage, but we're talking about majoring in minors when we go there first before getting to > 80% compliance.

Heavy weight training and intermittent fasting do the most to make us better at handling carbs. Poor handling of carbs tends to give us a love handle we'd rather not love.