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by Jesse Cannone CFT, CPRS, CSPN

Millions, if not billions of dollars are spent each year by people trying to reshape their hips and thighs, yet few of these people ever achieve the shape they desire.

I’ve spent the past 7 years helping people, primarily women, target the hips and thighs I have found that there are 3 things you must do to be successful at reshaping the hips and thighs.

So are you ready to learn the 3 simple steps?

Ok… here we go.

1. Stop the storage of new fat!

Exercising is pointless if later that day or the next you are adding more fat. One thing you must fully understand is this: we don’t store fat due to a lack of exercise, we store fat because we supply too many calories at a time. So exercising to lose fat is a waste of time unless you can stop storing new fat and the most effective method of stopping the storage of new fat is to stabilize energy levels.

Many people don’t even understand what energy is. Energy isn’t how you feel, energy is the amount of fuel in your body, more specifically, it’s the amount of fuel in the blood stream. So you can have no fuel in the blood stream yet feel fine and vice versa. The “energy” that most people have is actually more determined by the blood flow in the body. The greater the blood flow and circulation the more oxygen and nutrients your body receives, more efficiently, and to portions of the body that normally don’t receive as much blood flow.

This however, is not energy. This is simply how you feel. Energy is directly related to fuel available in the body, which is what you eat. So to simplify it energy levels are controlled by what you eat.

The human body is constantly burning calories, 24 hours a day and the amount varies based on how active you are at different points throughout the day. So the key to stopping the storage of new fat is to only give the body the amount of fuel it needs. For example, if your body needs 400 calories but you give it 700, there’s extra and there’s only two places the extra calories can go: muscles cells or fat cells.

The first place the body wants to send the extra calories is the muscles cells but most of the time they are full so there’s only one other place to go: FAT cells! So your goal is to MATCH YOUR EATING TO YOUR ACTIVITY LEVEL – GIVE YOUR BODY ONLY WHAT IT NEEDS. The next question is, how do you know what your body needs. Well, it varies from person to person and no number or point system can do that for you. The easiest way to figure it out is too continue eating what you eat now, provided your weight is not going up, but break it up into smaller and more frequent feedings.

You’ve probably hear it before, “Eat 5-6 meals per day.” Well, there’s a good reason for it. Eating smaller and more frequent meals/snacks makes it easier to give the right amount of food and not extra. This is a complex topic and one that requires a more detailed explanation, which I do not have time for in this article.

Just remember this:

Stop the storage of new fat before you even think about trying to burn off the existing fat

If this left you confused, I recommend you get a copy of my book, Burn Fat FAST! which is available online at http://www.burn-fat-fast.com

Ok, on to step 2…

2. Increase metabolism with progressive strength training and high intensity cardiovascular exercise.

This is easier said then done. I speak with so many women who say “I don’t know why it’s not working, I strength train 2-3 times each week.” Well, just because you exercise doesn’t mean it’s going to give you the desired result.

The one reason I think most people are unsuccessful with exercise is the lack of progression. They do the same exercises all the time, using the same weight, and never do anything to make it more challenging. You must give the body a reason to change.

There are numerous ways to be progressive with exercise but here are just a few.

For strength training:

• increase the weight and or repetitions

• rest less between exercises

• change exercises frequently

For cardiovascular or aerobic exercise:

• increase speed

• increase time/distance

• increase resistance/incline

• change exercises frequently

• perform intervals

If you have questions about strength training or cardiovascular exercise please check out the articles I’ve written on the subjects online at www.achieve-fitness.com/free_resources.htm 

Ok… on to step 3

3. Target those trouble spots

Let’s say that you are really trying to tighten and tone your hips and thighs. Rather than waste your time on the inner/outer thigh machine week after week, you should incorporate some of the techniques I described above and use with caution my BLASTING technique which I’ll cover now.

Just as it sounds you are trying to really shock the muscles into making large improvements in a short period of time. Norm ally you would strength train a muscle group once or twice a week at a moderate to hard intensity level. When you are trying to BLAST an area you train it more often, perform more sets and reps, and with higher intensity.

Here’s a sample strength training program that uses multiple techniques combined over a 5 week period for a BLASTING effect on the hips and thighs:

Workout A

-Leg curl

-Leg extension

-Glute machine / raise

Workout B

-Leg press (wide stance)

-Hamstring bridge

-Wall sit

Workout C

-Stationary lunge

-Leg curl (no rest to next exercise)

-Squat

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1	Upper Body		A Lower Body		Upper Body
2	B  Lower 2 sets 15-20 reps		C  Lower 1 set – slow 8-12 reps		B  Lower 3 sets 6-10 reps
3	Upper		A  Lower – moderate workout		Upper
4	C Lower – 2 sets 6-10 reps slow		Upper		A Lower – 3 sets 10-15 reps
5	B Lower – 4 sets 10-12 reps		Upper		C Lower – 2 sets 12-15 reps

This is just a quick example I just came up with off the top of my head and it may not be right for you but I just want you to get the point. You need to force change. The human body doesn’t like it… it disrupts things. I should also say that techniques like this should NOT be uses often as you can quickly and easily over train and that does not help you meet your goals.

If you apply just some of the techniques I talked about you will be sure to see some noticeable if not dramatic changes. Just remember, work hard and smart!

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