Side topic, it’s so weird that in my regular gym the stacks must me light because the weights at planet fitness are humbling the shit out of me!!

For years, we as an industry told clients that spot reducing fat wasn't possible. Based on the evidence at the time, we were correct. However, now with updated research, there might be an asterisk on that sentence - a potential set of criteria that MIGHT allow us to preferentially lose body fat from a target area. Local exercise does appear capable of increasing local lipolysis, and a small number of intervention studies now suggest that under the right conditions this can translate into measurably greater fat loss from the region being trained. The important distinction is that this is not an alternative to overall fat loss. At best, it appears to be a way of slightly influencing where some of that fat loss occurs while the individual is already losing body fat systemically. 1. Mechanistically, why could spot reduction work? Contracting skeletal muscle changes the local environment around it. In the classic Stallknecht study, one leg performed knee extension while the other remained inactive. Blood flow and lipolytic activity in subcutaneous fat adjacent to the contracting muscle were generally greater than in fat adjacent to the resting leg. In other words, spot lipolysis is real, even if spot fat loss over weeks is a separate question. The proposed mechanism is fairly straightforward. Training a muscle increases local temperature and blood flow and exposes nearby adipose tissue to a more lipolytic environment. Catecholamines and potentially muscle derived signaling molecules may contribute to greater liberation of fatty acids from nearby adipocytes. However, mobilizing fat is not the same as losing fat. Once fatty acids leave the adipocyte, they still have to be oxidized. If energy demand is insufficient, those fatty acids can simply be re esterified and stored again. That is one reason concurrent training models, where localized resistance or endurance work is followed by aerobic exercise, are particularly interesting. So the hypothetical sequence is: Targeted muscle contraction → increased local blood flow/lipolysis → fatty acid mobilization → subsequent energy expenditure → oxidation rather than re storage.

It's not yet Friday, so the work week isn't quite over, but Coach has been taking a beating this week. Let's see some client and community wins to rebuild some momentum heading into the weekend!

Anyone planning on attending tomorrow's community call? Great opportunity to ask any injury or training related questions live! We had zero attendance for the last one. If the times I have selected don't work I am more than happy to hear alternative times from the group.

High protein, sourdough pumpkin spice muffins I’m figuring out the macros right now, but they look really good. @James Johnson , I think we need a kitchen topic that could cover baking and cooking