Ask anyone walking down the street about something they’d like to change about their body and you’d likely hear one answer over and over again: love handles. These soft, stubborn fat deposits on the hips are notoriously difficult to get rid of, even with a healthy diet and a vigorous workout routine. Fortunately, there’s a treatment available at Lazur La Vie in Nyack, NY which can target your love handles and break down fat in just a few sessions.
Emsculpting is a revolutionary treatment, and a relatively new, FDA-approved method of simultaneously targeting fat and building muscle that’s proven to re-shape your body and increase your self-confidence.
What Is Emsculpting?
This treatment is a painless and non-invasive with zero recovery time and undeniable results. It’s taken the body contouring world by storm thanks to its innovative combination of muscle toning and fat reducing technology, and it’s the perfect solution for most people seeking a firmer, smoother appearance in their abdomen, buttocks, thighs, and love handle area.
How It Works
This cutting-edge technology gets its name from the electromagnetic energy it uses. When applied to your targeted muscle groups during a session via large paddles, the electromagnetic energy stimulates your muscles to contract. These are no normal muscle contractions; instead, they’re supramaximal, which can’t be achieved through voluntary muscle activity.
What Happens During a Session
During a normal half-hour session, your muscles contract roughly 20,000 times, which is roughly the equivalent of doing 20,000 crunches in a row. This level of contraction causes a chain reaction in your body; first, your muscles release a chemical which signals fat cells in the area to break down into fatty acids in response to the pulsing contractions. The resulting surplus of fatty acids eventually overwhelm fat cells and cause them to die, after which time they become metabolized and expelled by your body. This reduces the overall fat content in your targeted area.
Meanwhile, your muscles undergo a change on the cellular level. Over the course of treatment, muscle fibers become thicker and stronger, and in the average treatment time of 4 sessions, you can see results equivalent to those achieved by dieting and exercising for six months to a year, all thanks to the hyper-stimulation of your muscles and the resulting toning.
Who’s an Ideal Candidate?
Currently, this treatment is FDA-approved for muscle toning in the abdominal region, buttocks, and flanks (or love handles). It’s ideal for people who are active with stubborn areas of fat, or for those who want to see more tone and definition in specific muscle groups. It can also be an excellent resource for athletes recovering from injuries as weakened muscles can be stimulated to encourage speedy recovery.
People with metal implants, pacemakers, and those who are pregnant should consult with their doctors regarding this treatment as the technology used in the machine, while completely safe, is not compatible with these conditions.
How It Feels
As you can imagine, 20,000 muscle contractions in half an hour feels strange to say the least. Your first session will likely feel unlike anything you’ve experienced before. You may notice some twitching in your legs as your muscle groups contract, and it will feel like you’re completing a huge amount of crunches, squats, or side planks while lying perfectly still.
After your session, you should feel like you’ve taken a challenging pilates class: stronger and more confident. You’ll be able to jump right back into your day-to-day activities with zero downtime.
How Long It Takes
An average session takes about 30 minutes, with different treatment phases designed to both stimulate your muscles and provide slower “cool-down” pulses to flush out the fat cells and lactic acid produced by the treatment. Depending on your treatment plan, you’ll likely complete about 4 sessions for each muscle group you wish to tone. These sessions are spread out over a few days to allow your body to rest between treatments.
The Results
Most people report seeing signs of improved appearance after their very first session; a tighter tummy, firmer buttocks, or less noticeable love handles are the first signs of success. However, your best results will be seen 2-4 weeks after your sessions are completed and you may see results improve even after this time frame.
Depending on your level of activity, your results can be permanent or may need maintenance visits to help you retain your ideal figure. If you’re a heavily active person who regularly focuses on using the muscles targeted during treatment, you can maintain muscle tone through exercise and a healthy diet. If, however, you’re not regularly active and want to keep the look you’ve achieved, you can schedule maintenance appointments monthly or even yearly, depending on your desired results.
Across the board, this treatment can result in excellent toning in all targeted muscle groups. It can cause a 19% reduction of fat in targeted areas, an average decrease of 1.5 inches in waist circumference, and a 16% increase in muscle mass. In addition, it can cause an 11% reduction in diastasis recti (abdominal muscle separation caused by pregnancy) and a five-fold increase in fat metabolism after treatments. It also boasts an overall 96% patient satisfaction with the end results.
Does Emsculpting Work on Love Handles?
Traditionally, love handles have been addressed by liposuction treatments. Removing fat in this way is fast, but it’s far more invasive. More recently, laser treatments and cool sculpting have been used to reduce love handles, but neither of these treatments are as straightforward and easy as emsculpting.
Now that emsculpting is available as a body contouring treatment, the fat deposits on your hips can be precisely targeted and reduced through electromagnetic energy stimulation.
During Your Session
When treating love handles with emsculpt technology, the large paddles will be placed specifically to target the oblique muscle group, which is where love handle fat typically accumulates. These muscles extend from the ribs to the pelvis and, depending on your treatment plan, you may schedule several treatments to adequately cover this muscle group.
During your treatment, you’ll feel your oblique muscles contract as if you’re performing a vigorous workout. This sensation is painless, but will likely feel strange as you lie still without exerting any effort while your muscles contract. As the electromagnetic pulses stimulate your muscles, the fat cells in your love handles will begin to break down in response. This reaction ultimately leads to fat cells dying and being metabolized by the body before they’re flushed out of your system as waste. The slower final phase of your session helps your body clear the area of lactic acid.
After Your Session
Once your love handle treatment is completed, you’re able to go about your day. As an added perk, no one will be able to tell that you’ve completed a body sculpting session. You’ll most likely feel like you’ve completed a heavy workout, but you’ll be able to complete all your normal activities without a problem.
At the end of your treatment plan, you should see visible reduction of your love handles and an overall slimming effect on your silhouette. You can see changes as early as after your first session, but your full results generally appear about 4 weeks after your treatment and can even visibly improve after that point.
Post-Treatment
So, you’re finished with your love handle treatment and you’re loving your results and newfound confidence. What now? As with any body contouring treatment, maintenance is a key component of retaining results. In this case, you can simply maintain your new muscle tone through targeted exercise, or you can schedule regular maintenance sessions as often as you need them.
Exercise to Maintain Results
If you’re committed to keeping your love handles trim and slim, you might find that oblique muscle exercises are the best way for you to maintain your new body. Here are three of the most popular exercises to complete in order to routinely engage your oblique muscles:
Bicycle Crunches
First, bicycle crunches have you lie on your back with your hands at the sides of your head. Contract your abs and lift your upper body off the ground while bringing your right elbow to meet your left knee over your core. Repeat with your left elbow and right knee, completing each cycle as quickly as possible and keeping your abs engaged. Try to do 30 crunches on each side.
Russian Twists
Next, try a Russian twist. Sit on the floor with a 5 or 10-pound dumbbell. Lean back while keeping your back straight and lift your feet off the ground. Hold the dumbbell in both hands at your waist and twist your body to touch the dumbbell to the floor on your left and right sides. Complete 50 twists in total, making sure that your core is engaged and that your back remains straight.
Side Plank Hip Lifts
Finally, finish your workout with side plank hip lifts. Lie on your side with your elbow, hips, and legs touching the ground. Engage your core and lift the lower half of your body, keeping it straight from your shoulder to your feet. Repeat this exercise 15 times on your right and left sides.
With a dedicated workout routine meant to preserve your emsculpt results, you should see the results of your treatment last for a long time.
Maintenance Visits
If you’re not able to keep up with a dedicated workout routine to keep your love handles smooth, or if you want a tone-up, you have the option of returning to have a maintenance appointment. This visit is the perfect opportunity to see additional results; you can schedule one monthly, yearly, or anywhere in between to help you stay in your ideal shape.
Conclusion
If you’ve struggled with the appearance of your love handles and are ready to say goodbye to those stubborn bulges, emsculpting is the perfect treatment to target your problem area and deliver visible, satisfying results. You’ll most likely see the effects of treatment after your very first visit as you notice a tighter, more toned love handle area.
There’s truly no other body contouring treatment which can deliver both muscle toning and fat burning results in such a short amount of time. Add in the ease of each visit and the zero downtime recovery and you’ll see that emsculpting is a treatment that can truly fit into any schedule. Beyond this, the confidence boost you’ll receive from watching this treatment target your problem area will revolutionize the way you view and love your body.
If emsculpting sounds like the treatment you’ve been waiting for, contact Lazur La Vie in Nyack, NY to schedule your initial consultation today!
