The biggest body issues of men and how you can overcome them

Almost half of South Africans over the age of 15 are obese with 40% of South African men being obese.  With the ideal mens body shape/type//figure (?) changing fast and with more men becoming self-conscious about their softer (?) and less muscular/lean bodies it is quite clear that men these days have more body-image issues.  Here are some of the most typical body issues and how you can fix them with exercise specifically.

Issue number 1 – The infamous South African Beer Belly

Most South African men struggle with this and if your beer belly does not bother you for “vein” reasons you should be worried for the simple fact that a beer belly means a higher chance for heart disease, type 2 Diabetes, stroke and some types of cancer. This is because abdominal fat harbors visceral fat (and not subcutaneous fat as in the rest of your body) and the visceral fat surrounds your organs meaning it is a lot more dangerous for your health.

• Fix for beer belly?

The number one solution for a beer belly is a good clean diet and doing cardiovascular exercise.  No amount of sit-ups or crunches will take away the layer of fat over your abdominal muscles, this is where cardiovascular exercise plays an important role.

Issue number 2 – The increasingly prevalent “Moobs” or Man-boobs

Gynaecomastia, a cosmetic surgery where a plastic surgeon removes enlarger male breast tissue is ranked as one of the top 3 surgeries performed on South African men.  “Man boobs” can be caused by excess fat stored in the body or gynecomastia (a medical condition in which the man has higher estrogen to testosterone levels in the body).  Needless to say “moobs” is not a very manly or attractive thing to have and most men are ashamed of their “moobs”.

• Fix for man-boobs?

To work the upper, middle and lower chest/pectoralis muscle group will tone the chest and blast the fat.  Include incline, flat and decline bench-press in your gym-routine as well as regular cardiovascular exercise.

Issue number 3 – Skinny/Twig/Chicken (??)Legs

A lot of men have great/very muscular/larger upper bodies and much smaller and less defined legs as training legs is difficult; it takes a lot of effort and it takes a lot out of you because the leg muscles are much larger muscles in the body.

• Fix for skinny legs?

Include weekly leg training in your routine, twice a week if you have to.  The exercises that will get you size the fastest is the squat; this works the glutes, quadriceps as well as the hamstring muscles in one movement.  Leg press and Lunges will also work more than one major leg muscle group at once- use heavy weights with lno more than 6-10 repetitions for 4-6 sets.   Your calf  muscles need to be trained a minimum of 3 times per week with heavy weights and high repetitions (12-20 reps).

Issue number 4 – Unattractive Skinny/Spaghetti Arms

Let’s face it-no man wants to have skinny arms and society makes us believe that bigger arm muscles equals “stronger and better”!  Because your biceps and triceps are some of the smaller muscles in your body they take longer to build.

• Fix for small arms?

You have to have consistency and a lot of patience; size will come as long as you don’t skip an arm training session. Use heavy weights for 6-10 reps and a least 3 sets.  The best recipe is to combine compound and isolation type exercises for arm size.  For the bicep muscle group an example of compound exercises include barbell curls and dumbbell curls.  Isolation exercises include preacher curls and concentration curls.

For your tricep muscles you have to include skull crushers and close-grip bench-press as part of your compound exercises, and tricep pushdowns and tricep kickbacks as part of your isolation exercises.

It is clear to see that no matter what your specific body issue/issues, there is always something you can do about it, whether for esthetic or health reasons!  With most of these issues and exercises targeted to fix the specific areas perseverance and consistency is key; always give it at least 6 months time!