The best male breast reduction exercise is not what you think.
There are too many sites here on the internet suggesting that you do pushups, bench presses and dumbbell flys to get rid of man boobs, but the notion that these are the best male breast reduction exercises is far from the truth.
The bench press may be one of the most glamorized exercises, but it’s far from being the best workout for your chest. Both in terms of reducing breast fat, and in building those chest muscles.
Although the above chest exercises do play an important role in the reduction of gynecomastia or male breasts, they don’t come close to some other exercises that, you may be surprised to know, don’t involve the chest at all. Not directly any way.
When it comes to reducing male breasts, two important factors are involved. One is the reduction of generalized body fat from all over your body. Since you can’t target fat-loss from one particular body-part like the chest, belly or love handles. The only way to get rid of fat in these areas is to focus on losing fat from the entire body.
The second factor is a reduction of female hormones. Male breasts result from elevated levels of female hormones and reduced levels of male hormones in the body. It’s quite common for guys with man boobs to also have a feminine hour-glass figure with big hips and thighs instead of just a big belly. When you decrease the level of female hormones in your body or increase male hormones, your body starts to re-distribute fat, by moving it away from the hips, bum, thighs and – most importantly – the chest.
Chest exercises like bench presses, pushups and dumbbell flys don’t address the two above factors much at all. Exercises that DO cause generalized body fat reduction and also increase male hormones, are ones that involve the biggest muscle groups in your body – your legs – and at the same time exert your cardiovascular system and other supporting muscle groups all over the body.
There is no one best male breast reduction exercise, but rather a handful that produce excellent results, especially when they are all used together.
One such exercise is high intensity interval training (HIIT) using cardio exercises that involve the legs – like running or cycling.
Research has shown that HIIT burns adipose tissue (fat) up to 50% more effectively than low intensity exercise. HIIT also causes your metabolism to be raised throughout the entire day, resulting in continual fat loss after the workout, even when you’re sitting and watching TV. HIIT also results in elevated levels of growth hormone and testosterone, which not only signals your body to remove that breast fat, but also results in more muscle growth, giving you a more masculine appearance.
How Do You Do HIIT?
HIIT involves going at a fast pace for say 30 seconds, then a slow pace for the next minute to catch your breath and rest your muscles, and then back to a fast pace for another minute, then a slow pace and so on.
Take HIIT with running for example…
- Be sure to stretch your muscles first to get the blood flowing and to avoid injury.
- Start by jogging at a comfortable pace for up to 5 minutes just to warm up.
- Then go at a fast pace for 30 seconds. This can be with 100% effort going as fast as you can, but I recommend taking it easy at first. You can go as low as 60% of maximum effort – fast enough to get you breathless and knowing that you can’t keep this pace up for long. Time yourself with a stopwatch.
- When the minute is over, reduce the pace right down to a slow jog that allows you to recuperate. 1 minute at this pace should be enough time for you to catch your breath and for the lactic acid build-up to leave your legs, preparing you for the next high intensity bout.
- After the minute is over, start your next high intensity bout and continue alternating in this way between high and low intensity.
Start with as many high intensity bouts as you find comfortable. Personally, I started with just two, and then I built my way up gradually to 20. There is no need to do more than 20 high intensity bouts, since the benefits of HIIT depend more on the intensity of the exercise rather than how long you do it for.
You can play around with the above parameters to see what works best for you both physically and mentally in your ability to handle the exercise and to keep doing it on a regular basis. You can try doing a 1 or even 2 minute high intensity bout followed by say a 2 minute low intensity bout.
You should not do HIIT every day. Do it every other day at most, but start out with once a week to get your body used to the exercise. HIIT is best done early in the day so you can benefit from the raised metabolism that follows the workout.
A lot of guys have told me that they felt HIIT for them is easily the best male breast reduction exercise. I have had clients who have lost their male breasts by doing nothing but HIIT just 3 days per week, with short 20-minute sessions. The secret lies in doing an exercise that works and sticking to it long enough to see the results you want.
To learn more about HIIT, how you can apply it to losing those man boobs, and also about other powerful male breast reduction exercises, click the link to learn about Paleolithic High Intensity Interval Training.