Sneakers designed to help tone your hamstrings, glutes and calves are flying off the shelves this Spring. But – I hate to break it to you – dropping an extra fifty on sneakers will not melt the fat off your thighs.
Shoe companies are adding balls, bumps and slopes underfoot in order to increase the degree to which your backside gets toned while walking. This makes sense and could definitely make for a more interesting behind (much the same as squats and lunges); but it’s important to understand that such a shoe was developed to shape by INCREASING muscle mass, not by DECREASING fat.
Spot reduction doesn’t work. Training that focuses the work on specific muscles does, indeed, shape and tone the muscle underneath the fat, but burning calories is what melts the layer of fat on top in order to uncover the fruits of your labour.
However, don’t be discouraged from giving them a run (though it’s not recommended that you reach such a pace due to the unstable platform the shoe creates), as there are several benefits to walking in these shoes.
Firstly, purchasing special walking shoes could motivate you to actually… walk! And walking in such sneakers might be more fun than not because it will feel weird and new. Plus, you’ll likely burn more calories because you’ll be more focused on the task at hand, thus increasing the speed at which you walk and the number of calories being burned.
In addition, building muscle mass anywhere on your body increases the rate at which you burn calories. And, let’s face it, unveiling shapely buns as the fat disappears from daily jaunts will be much more fun that exposing the typical North American pancake butt.
Sneakers marketed to help you lose weight are not going to be the catalyst that gets you there. You have to do the work. This is good news because it means you can still meet your fitness goals in Saan Specials (do they even have those anymore?). But feel free to try them out as a way to incorporate some focused muscle building exercise into your cardio; just ensure you’re clipping along at a challenging pace.
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