Spot Reduction: It Doesn’t Exist–or Does It? by Jerry Brainum 7/25

 

 

When I began bodybuilding over six decades ago, the training dogma held that to achieve a small waist and defined abdominal muscles, daily training of the abdominal muscles was required, using high repetitions. The idea was that daily training of the "abs" would help burn off fat accumulation and maintain a smaller waist. Having a narrow waist with broad shoulders has always been a hallmark of a winning physique in bodybuilding. The importance of the abdominal muscles is derived from their showcase feature in all poses from the front. The eye is naturally drawn to "ripped" and fat-free abdominals, and this appearance broadcasts the message of good overall conditioning and low body fat levels. While some elite bodybuilders did succeed in winning major contests without impressive abdominal development, they were rare and won only because other muscles in their physiques were outstanding.

The ideal combination for a winning midsection was to have a small waist but thick abdominal muscles. Yet few men ever achieved this ideal. One reason to explain this was that working the abdominals also entailed working the muscles on the side of the torso, the oblique muscles that worked in tandem with the rectus abdominus muscles in raising and twisting the torso. However, excessive growth of the oblique muscles also tended to widen the waist, which is considered undesirable among bodybuilders. Thus, many elite bodybuilding champions often exhibited physiques characterized by narrow waists with superficial abdominal development, usually resulting from minimal direct abdominal training. These bodybuilders knew that intensely training the abdominals frequently led to hypertrophy or growth of the obliques, which they wanted to avoid. An excellent example of this was Steve Reeves, who won the 1947 Mr. America and 1950 Mr. Universe contests. Reeves later gained greater fame by portraying Hercules in European films in the late 50s and 60s. Reeves rarely directly trained his abdominal muscles because he wanted to maintain his narrow waist. Indeed, Reeves often spoke about how his waist measurement, which was 29 inches, remained the same throughout his bodybuilding career despite developing larger overall muscles.

However, most bodybuilders believed that the route to a smaller waist entailed daily training of the abdominals, often using hundreds of repetitions. This notion that abdominal training would selectively result in a smaller, more defined abdominal appearance is called Spot reduction, and the concept of spot reduction remains among the most contentious topics in bodybuilding and general exercise. Having begun bodybuilding training myself in the early 60s, I, too, followed the lead of other bodybuilders in training my abdominals every day with hundreds of reps. When I was 14, I would begin each workout with 30 minutes of an exercise called seated twists. This exercise involved sitting on a bench with an empty bar or broomstick across your shoulders and twisting . . .