Hi all,
A little information on how to get that 6 pack. Hint: What and how much we eat has a lot to do with it.
Getting that '6-pack'
Stephanie Oakes
Face it, we're midsection maniacs, obsessed with our dream of the perfect abs we'll have someday -- if we can just do enough sit-ups. Visit a gym on any given day and you'll find both guys and gals working their abs with fury and commitment. The problem is, they're often doing it wrong. Waste-of-time wrong.
The abdominals are different only in location, they are not resting on a bony surface, like the biceps or quads -- instead they span like a bridge over a cavern. But that doesn't change basic physiology or laws of science.
The key is to choose exercises that are hard enough to fatigue the muscles, so that they need recovery time to get stronger. Add some exercises that use the abs functionally -- the way they're used in real life. For example, abdominals are used to stabilize the body. Feel this function by holding a push-up position without letting your belly sag. Don't do the push-up -- just keep holding the position and feel your abs going crazy trying to isometrically contract enough to stabilize your body. If that's easy, put your feet up on a weight bench or, even better, a stability ball. Now you'll really feel your abs!
Ab exercises don't melt away abdominal fat. Spot reducing has been disproved over and over again, but it still persists. You can't get rid of fat by repeatedly exercising one body part. Study after study has refuted that. Any physiology textbook will tell you that. Spot reducing is a dead dog -- you don't have to beat it any more.
Even doing crunches in the best form -- you won't whittle your waistline or belly. You may develop abs of steel, but they'll still be covered by body fat if you don't burn enough calories to reduce it.
Doing ab exercises for reducing the waistline is a fool's errand. Reducing the waistline has to do with reducing body fat. Burning abdominal fat is the same as burning fat anywhere on your body: You have to exercise off more calories than you take in. Proper diet and large muscle activity will accomplish much more than a thousand sit-ups a day.
High repetitions are required to make gains. Let's say you want to work your biceps. Would you do 100 concentration curls with a 2.5-pound weight, or 10 with a 25 pound weight? Making abdominal gains follows the same principle: Overload.
The reason we think we have to do so many reps is that we're not working them hard enough. If you find you have to do 50-100 crunches before fatiguing, focus on this: Slow down, and work on perfect technique.
Pull the shoulder blades together on the crunches so you can't cheat by pulling your head forward or rounding the upper back. Make your abdominals contract before anything moves. First the rib cage moves, then the rest follows. Slow down. If you go too fast, you use momentum and not muscle.
Forget full sit-ups:
They primarily strengthen muscles that are already strong, and these are not even abdominal muscles. If you come all the way up, you work your hip flexors, which have nothing to do with your six-pack at all. What's better is to do a variety of exercises to attack the six-pack muscle from different angles, and engage other abdominal muscles.
That "6-pack muscle" is the rectus abdominis, today's glamour body part. Although it's the muscle that shows the most, one of the more important reasons to strengthen the abdominal area is for back health. Just working the rectus abdominis won't protect your back as well as combining a few different exercises that will also strengthen the external obliques, internal obliques, and the transverse abdominals. Variety is the key.
So, I guess we should slow down and really pay attention to our ab exercises and of course pay very close attention to how much and what we eat. Ok, that's my advice for the week. I hope I can follow it.
I did MIS this morning. Hope everyone is doing well.
Gloria
A little information on how to get that 6 pack. Hint: What and how much we eat has a lot to do with it.
Getting that '6-pack'
Stephanie Oakes
Face it, we're midsection maniacs, obsessed with our dream of the perfect abs we'll have someday -- if we can just do enough sit-ups. Visit a gym on any given day and you'll find both guys and gals working their abs with fury and commitment. The problem is, they're often doing it wrong. Waste-of-time wrong.
The abdominals are different only in location, they are not resting on a bony surface, like the biceps or quads -- instead they span like a bridge over a cavern. But that doesn't change basic physiology or laws of science.
The key is to choose exercises that are hard enough to fatigue the muscles, so that they need recovery time to get stronger. Add some exercises that use the abs functionally -- the way they're used in real life. For example, abdominals are used to stabilize the body. Feel this function by holding a push-up position without letting your belly sag. Don't do the push-up -- just keep holding the position and feel your abs going crazy trying to isometrically contract enough to stabilize your body. If that's easy, put your feet up on a weight bench or, even better, a stability ball. Now you'll really feel your abs!
Ab exercises don't melt away abdominal fat. Spot reducing has been disproved over and over again, but it still persists. You can't get rid of fat by repeatedly exercising one body part. Study after study has refuted that. Any physiology textbook will tell you that. Spot reducing is a dead dog -- you don't have to beat it any more.
Even doing crunches in the best form -- you won't whittle your waistline or belly. You may develop abs of steel, but they'll still be covered by body fat if you don't burn enough calories to reduce it.
Doing ab exercises for reducing the waistline is a fool's errand. Reducing the waistline has to do with reducing body fat. Burning abdominal fat is the same as burning fat anywhere on your body: You have to exercise off more calories than you take in. Proper diet and large muscle activity will accomplish much more than a thousand sit-ups a day.
High repetitions are required to make gains. Let's say you want to work your biceps. Would you do 100 concentration curls with a 2.5-pound weight, or 10 with a 25 pound weight? Making abdominal gains follows the same principle: Overload.
The reason we think we have to do so many reps is that we're not working them hard enough. If you find you have to do 50-100 crunches before fatiguing, focus on this: Slow down, and work on perfect technique.
Pull the shoulder blades together on the crunches so you can't cheat by pulling your head forward or rounding the upper back. Make your abdominals contract before anything moves. First the rib cage moves, then the rest follows. Slow down. If you go too fast, you use momentum and not muscle.
Forget full sit-ups:
They primarily strengthen muscles that are already strong, and these are not even abdominal muscles. If you come all the way up, you work your hip flexors, which have nothing to do with your six-pack at all. What's better is to do a variety of exercises to attack the six-pack muscle from different angles, and engage other abdominal muscles.
That "6-pack muscle" is the rectus abdominis, today's glamour body part. Although it's the muscle that shows the most, one of the more important reasons to strengthen the abdominal area is for back health. Just working the rectus abdominis won't protect your back as well as combining a few different exercises that will also strengthen the external obliques, internal obliques, and the transverse abdominals. Variety is the key.
So, I guess we should slow down and really pay attention to our ab exercises and of course pay very close attention to how much and what we eat. Ok, that's my advice for the week. I hope I can follow it.
I did MIS this morning. Hope everyone is doing well.
Gloria
