Oh man, how many times do I get in the gym and see a women holding a heavy kettle bell rocking this side bend move.
“Why do you like that weighted side bend exercise?”
“So I can lose weight from my belly.”
I train women primarily, and have for the last 3 decades. I know how
my clients want to look and I have never incorporated this move and I never will.
My clients are women who want to look great in their clothes, smaller waist and flat tummies. They are not bulking or training for body building shows. So if you are ‘that woman’…
Let me break it down for you quickly.
1.You cannot lose belly fat by doing a specific exercise.
2. This lateral weighted move can increase the girth of your waist.
3. There are better moves to give you the definition you want.
Get your food right
1. Priority: You can have great ab muscles but you may never get to see them if your body fat is too high. Abs are made in the kitchen. Your meal plan IS the most important part of your ab success.
Look like a girl
2. Women have beautiful curves. We have a natural sweep in from the back to the waist and this move has the potential to thicken that up. On that note, stay away from the ab machines in the gym too. The weighted rotation machine and the weighted crunch machine are great if you desire a thicker trunk. However, most women do not want abs that look like fun-sized candy bars. Sporty girls, might like the idea of a thick boyish body, and that’s ok. But I don’t, so I’m going to keep my ab training techniques reflecting the look I want. I want sexy, girl curves.
Tell me how
3. There are better ways to train your abs and get great results. I am a huge believer in pilates and find that it creates the most incredible abs. If you want to seek out pilates, there are great videos on youtube to get you going. Women do not need to do, what I call “meathead” abs. Hanging with chains, loaded machines etc are totally unnecessary. But think about this, Med ball slams engage the core. Any work done on a Bosu is core-centric. Planking is phenomenal. You can spend a portion your workouts doing core-centric movement and add pilates a few times a week to create beautiful lines without the bulking potential.
In pilates we use rotation and I stand by that. Instead of side to side movement as is demonstrated in the above picture, we train the obliques by trunk rotation. Movements like wood chops-low to high with a stability ball or the pilates criss cross movement are demonstrations of trunk rotation.
Check out my pilates 5 video below for amazing results!
Work smart on your core and get your food right. Soon you will see the beautiful, sleek abs you want!!
SLEEK BODY SOLUTION 
AGREED! There’s a gal at my gym who works out the same time I do, really pretty face, small frame, obviously not bulking but does that move! I just wanna shake her by her shoulders and say, “HUN! That’s NOT what you wanna be doing!” I use to do the same move with a 25lb plate years back, till my husband (who is a trainer also) stepped in and stated all the facts you just listed. I love doing full body workouts that train the core, as well as functional fitness on bosu balls, swiss balls, or the TRX. Much better results 🙂
So glad someone touches on this issue 🙂
~Jess
You are right, Jess! Functional fitness wins! Thanks for your input!