The 5 Best Exercises for Love Handles

What Are the Love Handles?

The rolls of flabby skin above your hips that hangs over the tops of your pants are known as “love handles.” They cover the obliques, the muscles on the side of your waist. They build up specifically because of overeating and a lack of exercise. You can’t get rid of this fat by exercise alone; it will require dieting and some cardio training as well.

Cardio and Proper Nutrition are Essential

These rolls of fat can be burned off provided you combine an exercise program with a diet plan that will cut back daily calorie intake. You need to be in calorie deficit for a few weeks or months to burn off the excess flab. Exercise can help a lot, but it can’t do it all.

You will also need to do some cardio workouts to get rid of love handles, which could include walking, running, hiking, biking, or swimming, or working out on an elliptical trainer, stationary bike, or treadmill. If doing “cardio” is unnatural to you, start out slow. Go for 20 or 30 minutes at first, and build up to an hour. Your goal should be to do “10,000 steps” (5 miles) at least 3 times a week. Do that and the pounds will melt away! Cardio exercise is an incredibly effective way to get the body leaner by losing the fat; then you can build shapely muscles on your arms, waist, hips, and legs as a result of three-times-a-week resistance training in the gym.

Five Exercises to Lose Love Handles

1. Plank – In this static pose, start by lying facedown on a mat and place your elbows and forearms underneath your chest with legs straight and together. Prop yourself up to an elbow bridge position, supporting yourself on your toes and forearms. Keep your back flat, and tighten your abs, holding this pose for 10 seconds or longer. Return to the starting position and repeat.

2. Bicycle – Lie on your back on a mat, and press your lower back into the floor. Cup your hands just next to your ears; don’t lock your fingers together behind your head. Lift your knees up until your lower legs are parallel to the floor, then bring your left elbow across your body towards your right knee, return, then do the opposite side, your right elbow to your left knee, in a pedaling motion. Keep your midsection “drawn in” to target the core muscle groups. Do at least 10 or more reps per set. Rotating exercises work the internal and external obliques as well as the transverse abdominis (“6-pack muscles”).

3. Vacuum Pose – You can do this exercise anywhere, even standing in the checkout line at the store: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, and suck in your stomach, focusing on the belly button being pulled back towards the spine. Hold the vacuum for 30 seconds or longer. Rest and repeat. Try it for 5 minutes daily and watch the inches melt off your waist, both in the front and on the sides. This is one of the best exercises for the love handles.

4. Captain’s Chair – Use a VKR station for this exercise. Keep your forearms on the pads and grip the handles. Step off the foot platform and, with your feet dangling, begin to press your back against the back support and lift your knees up to your chest. Concentrate on working just the abs and obliques. It is recommended that you do not do a straight leg raise since that exercise hits the hip flexors and not the abs and obliques.

5. Cable Twist – Also called a Wood Chop motion, this is performed on a cable machine using both hands to hold one stirrup or a triceps rope, or you can use a resistance band that is wrapped around a pole. With the pulley at a high position, face sideways holding the stirrup in both hands. With your core drawn in, arms straight, feet together, and hips stable, pull the weight down and across your body. Your shoulders rotate but not the rest of your core, and don’t twist your hips. Go for 8 to 10 reps, then do the other side of the body facing the opposite direction.

Diet + Cardio + Weight Training = a Slimmer Waist

Again, losing the love handles is a matter of burning off excess subcutaneous fat; love handles are fat not out-of-shape muscles. Those are two different things. It requires effort on three fronts: diet, cardio, and core weight training. You can’t “spot reduce” fat on your hips and stomach, that’s a myth. Exercises for the love handles, along with a weekly regime of strength training exercises for the rest of your body, will take off inches and burn fat faster than just diet and cardio alone.

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