Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

Some practitioners of electrotherapy claim a success rate of 98% for getting rid of cellulite. It works through minute amounts of electrical energy that causes each muscle to gently contract and expand. This causes each muscle to regain tone and lift. As the muscles lift, the attached skin lifts as well, smoothing the skin. A work-out will do exactly the same thing, and more.

However, electrotherapy claims the following:

• Raises the body temperature, causing an improvement to the local blood micro-circulation of the poorly drained cellulite areas and increases the cellular activity.

• Modifies the permeability of the fat cell’s membrane.

• Expels waste fat by eliminating it through the metabolism, thanks to the reactivated blood microcirculation.

• Eliminates the excess water from fat cells.

• Improves the skin quality causing the ‘orange peel look’ to disappear.

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The purpose of fluid is to fuel the body for its daily activities

Like food, the purpose of fluid is to fuel the body for its daily activities.

Initially all drink was simply the juiced product of the actual ingredient, eg. coconut becomes coconut milk. Times have changed and fruit juice ‘drink’, ‘crush’ or ‘cordial’ does not necessarily contain any fruit juice. Additives make the drink look good, taste good and have a long shelf life. Typical ingredients are:

• Carbonated water

• Sugar

• Flavours

• Food acid 330

• Colour (102,110,123,124), and

• Preservative 211

This is not too different from a cola drink which typically contains:

• Carbonated water

• Sugar

• Colour (150)

• Food acid (338)

• Flavours and

• Caffeine

So if you want a soft drink, it’s a myth that an occasional cola is more harmful than say, orange and lemon flavoured drink but do drink lots of water!

Don’t imagine that it’s more ‘healthy’ to drink a reconstituted orange juice than a cola. Neither is the real thing. Therefore neither matters much. So enjoy yourself.

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Ideally, if you want to shift that cellulite fast you should give yourself an hour a day in a fitness centre, seven times per week if you can. This is the heart of the cellulite solution.

If you can’t go seven days a week, go six. If you can’t go six, go five. If you can’t go five, go four. I disagree with what most trainers teach as being the ’standard exercise requirements’ Three days per week is not enough.

It is not enough because it never quite builds on the previous performance, particularly that ‘three times per week’ means that you sometimes have a two day break. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for most people to miss a session – and ‘twice a week’ is just enough exercise to keep you fatigued and in a constant state of recovery.

If you’re serious, one hour seven days a week is my ultimate recommendation.

Intervals    

The best way to exercise for cellulite reduction is doing interval training. If you can’t spend one hour a day exercising, a good 20 minutes a day every day of interval training is certainly a close second – if you are prepared to work hard. Twenty minutes every day is better than spending an hour or two infrequently.

But interval training is tough when you first start. A little bit of punishment is involved in making your heart work very hard for 20 seconds before you can have those 10-15 seconds of easy pace for some recovery – before the next effective bursts of 20-30 seconds.

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Get your heart rate up to quite a high level. The fastest way is through interval training.

Two hundred and twenty (220) minus ^our age is your maximum heart rate. You should work at about 75% of that. (See chart)

Interval training boosts your metabolism very quickly.

• Warm up for about 10 minutes doing a cardio-routine on an exercise bike or a treadmill.

• Then go into short spurts of exercise where you are really working very hard. So hard that if someone were to talk to you, you wouldn’t be able to answer. But only do this for 20 seconds. The biggest gains are produced by exercise involving a series of high intensity bursts of 20 to 30 seconds each, with only 10 to 15 seconds easy pace between bursts.

• Then give yourself a good 10 to 15 second break, where you might even slow right down to zero if need be – and get your breath back.

• Then do another short spurt of interval framing and – depending on your level of fitness – do another, and another and another… always taking a break between each.

• Finish off by going for a walk on a treadmill, a bike ride or a row. Do it at a very manageable level.

That interval training boosts your call for oxygen. It makes the heart pump quite hard. You’re lifting the circulation – which is great because it’s the circulation that’s going to get the cellulite moving.

When you combine interval training with a proper diet your metabolism is just ‘chewing up’ the cellulite! Your body takes care of lots of things, but you’ve got to get it moving for it to do so.

For those dedicated to a strong effort, I recommend an exercise session incorporating one hour per day interval training.

Later you might condense that energy into 20-minute interval training sessions. If so, you should do a 10-minute warm up and then 20-30 seconds hard/10-15 seconds easy pace repeated up to 15 times.

Do something that’s manageable at first, then go for the short fast spurts and get your results.

It goes without saying that for safety and sanity’s sake you should not make exercise a ‘near death’ experience. Get a medical check-up first. Keep this in mind: the idea is to be able to progress from exercise session to exercise session. Always leave a little in reserve for next time.

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• 5000 people ‘under the knife

According to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, last year 5000 women and men underwent fat removing surgery.

• Cellulite is not only in the thighs and in the backside

It’s true that cellulite tends to accumulate in the thighs and in the backside. But it is not exclusive to those areas.

You can get cellulite in other parts of the body too, for example the arms, especially in the triceps area.

Take a look at your Grandma when she lifts her arms, those little saddlebags that you’ll see underneath her arms are one common example.

It also gathers in and around women’s stomachs, particularly after child-bearing.

• Yes, children can get cellulite too

Cellulite is no respecter of age!

• Cellulite goes hand-in-hand with western culture

While we can spot cellulite in Western historical figures, the descriptions and images from Asian and African history suggests cellulite was not their problem – until they Westernised.

Records show that Pacific Islanders, often thought to be a physically big people, were cellulite-free prior to the coming of white civilization to their islands. Cellulite and Western culture go hand-in-hand. It is believed to affect 80% of women in Europe and America.

• Cellulite is not hereditary

Don’t believe it when you read it – cellulite is not hereditary. It is not passed through the genes.

Although it is true that mothers with cellulite tend to have daughters with cellulite, a better explanation could be that they have been eating the same foods for the first 18 years, at least, of that daughter’s life.

We show our children what and how to eat. That’s the real reason why cellulite appears to run in families. But it’s not genetic. Eating habits and other aspects of a person’s lifestyle are passed along the line.

Hey, why not ‘rebel’?

Head the family tree off in another direction!

• Smoking has nothing to do with cellulite

Smoking has a lot to do with lifestyle. The tobacco stimulates the nervous system, and smokers tend to run on their nerves all day. That’s why a lot of people who smoke are quite thin, but even so, they could also have cellulite through other lifestyle factors.

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