A love handle might not be a health condition, but it’s certainly not attractive. Those extra skin folds around the hips and waist region are not a sight for sore eyes.
Beyond the unpleasant appearance of love handles, there’s the hideous side to those fatty folds – they can be pointers of something sinister, like an underlying health problem.
What causes love handles in males?
Illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and cancer are often accompanied by love handles.
To tackle love handles, you have to understand their origin. Those extra skin folds are lumps of fat stored away due to excess calories consumed.
How do guys get rid of love handles?
You will need to change your eating habit and exercise to get rid of love handles. However, not every exercise will do the trick.
Knowledge of the most effective love handle workouts for men is crucial if any man intends to eliminate love handles once and for all.
This piece is all about highlighting these love handle workouts with a high chance of eliminating the unsightly balls of fat from your body. Let’s get started.
It’s common knowledge that love handles are just skin-covered lumps of fat. This means the most effective love handle workouts are those capable of burning fat cells – muscle tone exercises won’t do.
Ideally, love handle workouts are a mix of several exercise routines, from the cardiovascular ones to those that work the trunk muscles, and the muscles of the hip.
Since love handles are deposits of fat, aerobic activities, renowned for their fat shrinking benefits, are necessary.
What kind of exercises get rid of love handles?
Here are some exercises that can be leveraged to lose your love handles:
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Russian Twists
This particular workout has to be done seated on the floor.
Raise your knees while your trunk makes an angle with the floor.
Your feet should be suspended in midair, conforming to a V-shaped arrangement with your core. This way, your butt serves as a fulcrum for the rest of your body.
For a first-timer, interlocking your feet in the air can help maintain your posture. You can either hold dumbbells in your hands or keep them interlinked.
The actual exercise starts by moving your occupied hands to each side of your torso, twisting the latter in the process.
Repeat the exercise for a minute. If you haven’t tried the Russian twists in the past, you might want to leave out the weights – anything that amplifies the resistance to your twisting – until you can handle them.
The great thing about the Russian Twist is that it not only works to help get rid of love handles around the mid-region, but the exercise also helps improve your balance as it strengthens the spine and the abdominal muscles.
Side Plank
To do a side plank, start by lying down with the side of your body in contact with the floor.
Rest one leg on the other, so they maintain a straight line uniformity with your torso. You should be facing forward so the position of your neck coincides with this straight line.
Then proceed to support the top half of your body using your elbow. The hinge-joint should be directly beneath its ball-and-socket counterpart (shoulder joint).
Ensure your forearm and arm are perpendicular to each other and the rest of your body.
To get into the side plank position, lift your hips so that your entire body is supported only on your elbow joint, forearm, and feet.
Ensure you tighten your abdominal muscles (abs) and flex your gluteal muscles for a minute.
With the Side Plank, posture is key. For instance, looking downwards instead of forward, can disrupt the engagement of your abs, and this affects the outcome of the exercise.
Bicycle Crunches
Few exercise routines strengthen your core like the bicycle crunches, making it an ideal choice to get rid of stubborn love handles.
Start by lying on your back with your knees fully flexed. Then lift both knees and legs above the floor.
Ensure the knee is perpendicular to your legs in the air, with the latter being parallel to the floor.
Contract your abdominal muscles, especially the belt-like transverse abdominals and the superficial layer by exhaling deeply. This action flexes your spin and exerts pressure on your core.
Next, put your hands to the side of your head such that a 45° angle forms at the elbow, between the forearm and the arm. This keeps the elbow away from your eyesight.
Proceed to move your raised legs and knees like you’d ride a bicycle – that speaks to the origin of the workout’s name.
You must extend your legs as far as possible as this pushes the quad muscles and strengthens them.
Next up, move your torso such that each angled elbow makes contact with the opposite knee before the latter gets extended. This helps put pressure on the oblique muscles on the wall of your trunk, helping shrink fat cells around this area.
To achieve the maximum effects of the bicycle crunches, your shoulder blades must be off the floor while making moves. And repeat these movements 20 times at a sitting.
Mountain Climber
This exercise routine ensures you lose love handles as it works on your core and hips. And you can’t forget its cardiovascular input as you increase the tempo.
To do a mountain climber workout, start by getting into the plank position. This entails going on your hands and feet like you intend doing some press-ups.
While facing the floor, your hands should be some distance below your shoulders and your legs far apart.
In the plank position, the entirety of your body, head inclusive, should be in a straight line. Then brace up your abdominal muscles.
Proceed to pull each knee towards the adjacent, outstretched upper limbs. Repeat the movement as many times as you can within a minute.
Avoid raising your hips or lower back during a mountain climber workout. Doing so diminishes the pressure on the quad muscles.
How far you move the knee towards the upper limbs is wholly dependent on your flexibility.
As you get more efficient at the mountain climber, you can increase the speed of your knee movement and repeat the workout for much longer.
If you want to improve your heart rate, then speeding up that knee movement is certainly one way to do it.
The great thing about the mountain climber is that it works for both the legs, core, and hands. It’s an effective total body exercise, making it an effective choice for those looking to get rid of love handles.
Glute Bridge love handle exercise
Another exercise routine that’s quite effective at tackling love handles is the bridge.
Considering the impact of the bridge on the muscles of the lower back, hamstrings, and glutes, it’s no surprise how powerful this exercise can be against love handles.
To do a bridge, get on your back with your knee raised and fully flexed. Your feet should be spaced and your toes pointing forward.
Then keep your upper limbs, on the floor, at an angle against the axilla (armpit). Your palm should be on the floor as well, away from your torso.
Next, raise your gluteal muscles and back slowly above the floor until your shoulders form a slanted straight line with your raised, fully flexed knees.
On attaining the straight line, keep the position for a minute, until the abdominal muscles can’t seem to hold the line anymore. Then, slowly return to lying on your back without moving your knee or palm.
You can repeat these movements as much as possible – 10 to 20 for starters.
Beyond its strengthening effects on the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back muscles, the bridge helps loosen the bones of the vertebral column, so you feel less stiff with each bridge workout.
Once you have mastered the standard bridge routine, you can take it up a notch by moving your feet in line with your gluteal muscles and lower back. This is far more complicated, but it helps strengthen the tendons around the ankle area.
Final Thoughts: Are love handles normal for guys?
It turns out many guys would have love handles, as fat deposits around the waist and hip region result in their formation.
However, exercise routines – like those considered in this piece – help deplete the fat deposits in these regions, making these exercises most effective against love handles.
Of course, exercises aren’t magic wands that shrink fats within seconds. It’s all down to consistent effort and dietary control. You can’t be exercising while consuming large amounts of carbs daily – (We highly recommend PhenGold appetite suppressant for the cravings).
If the love handles don’t seem to be affected by your exercise routine over a long period, then talk to a doctor as it might be due to an underlying health condition.