Focus on: Abdominals

Today's post comes from a friend who wants to improve her midsection.  We all have "trouble spots", and while the fact remains that fat comes off in sheets, that's no reason not to improve the musculature BEHIND the fat; adding muscle will not only help burn off fat, but it will also improve the look of the tissue overtop of it, by helping to keep it smooth and supple looking.  So, with that in mind, here are my tips to her (and you) if you're looking to improve your abs:

First, my trainer's (Mistress Helga's) ab tips were as follows:

When doing abs, if you begin with frontal abs, work your way around your body, from front, then to obliques and on to back. If you begin with back, work your way then to obliques and on to frontal abs. Always work your way around the core, as working obliques continues to work the front abs as well. Also, always finish with hollow holds (this is when you hold the body in a V formation, so you're sitting on the floor, legs at a 45 degree angle, back at a 45 degree angle, arms extended straight out in front of you on either side of your knees, parallel to the floor). The hollow holds work every part of your abs and ensure you really fatigue the muscles.

Another important thing to remember about working *any* muscle is: "Knowing the best sequence when performing your exercises is crucial. To prevent undue fatigue, you always want to train the muscles from largest to smallest. Here's the logic: When you exercise one of the big muscle groups, say the chest, you also recruit the smaller muscles nearby, like the triceps, in a secondary or helper capacity. Your triceps will not work as hard during a chest press as they will in a triceps press, but if you exhaust your triceps before you even get to your chest, they'll be weak. As a result, you will not be able to give your chest the best workout possible. This is why you want to work from, for example, chest to biceps to triceps (large/medium/small), or from front to back of the abdominals (large to small), as each muscle aids in the exercise of the other."

Finally, regardless of your workouts, you need to follow the following rule: make sure that each muscle group gets time off. For example, "if you focus on pushing movements (think push-ups) one day, you should do pulling movements (think dumbbell rows) the next. If you follow both by a day off, the pushing muscles are fresh from two days off before repeating the next workout cycle. This splitting approach prevents overtraining by providing your muscles the time they need to repair and develop."

In my workouts we also separate each muscle GROUP by at least two days; if you do core on Monday, no more core until Thursday. If you do upper on Tuesday, no more upper until Friday, etc. etc. If you do compound exercises, like upper/lower combined, you want to make sure that you don't work the same upper/lower muscle groups for at least 2 days. So if you do chest/back and quads/calves on Monday, on Tuesday or Wednesday do biceps/triceps and hamstrings/glutes/thighs. See how that works?

I always devote 1 full day each week to each muscle group (upper, core, lower), and 1 day to a compound workout to catch any of the muscle groups I didn't get on the other days.

The final point I have here is that it still stands true; you CANNOT target fat loss, it comes off in sheets. If you're a pear shape, you will ALWAYS be a pear, just a SMALLER pear. Same if you're an apple. But if you get your body fat low enough, you WILL eventually eliminate excess fat from every body part. A pear will still have bigger thighs, and an apple will still have a bigger waist. They'll just be more developed :) ONLY CARDIO (a sustained high heart rate during the workout) will produce fat loss; resistance training will condition the muscles. But no matter what kind of 6-pack you develop, if you're not burning fat, you'll never see it. So give your abs the old 1-2 punch, and make sure you do 20-30 minutes of cardio at least 5-6 days/week and make it INTENSE.

My ab workout was yesterday, and as I write this they're really good and sore :)  You really want to feel your workout 24-48 hours after you finish it.  If you're not feeling it, you aren't challenging yourself enough.  Do more reps, add weights, switch up the moves so that you're training your body in different ways and it can't adapt to the exercises and become "immune" to them.

I hope this helps all of you looking for an edge.  Get out there and kill your workout today!  Make yourselves proud!  Don't think.  Just go!

It's What's Inside That Counts

I don't mean this in that pathetic way modern Self-Esteemists mean it.  I never bought this line when I was 65lbs overweight, and I don't buy it now that I'm 133 pounds of muscle, either (and contrary to what you may be thinking, it takes guts to tell you what I weigh, and I do it to prove a point here, not to brag; more on that in a moment).

Nowadays you hear about "Helicopter Parents", you hear about how "Millenials" are self-absorbed and can't handle failures, setbacks, and other common disappointments otherwise known as "Reality."  We're beginning to hear how that whole damn "Self-Esteem" movement, how "You're wonderful just as you are!" and how "You all get a trophy just for showing up and trying!" has backfired like mad.  In his book, "The Optimistic Child", Mertin Seligman, Ph.D. explains to us that self-esteem isn't gained by being told how great you are.  He argues that REAL self-esteem is gained by trial-and-error, by trying and failing and conquering a skill on our own, and that even the smallest children know they're being fed a line of bullshit when they're told how special they are, even when they've done nothing to earn it.  It makes them lose doubt in the person telling it to them, it makes them doubt their own worth (rather than believe in it), and it makes them feel helpless; if they're so wonderful, why don't they FEEL wonderful?  Because they haven't EARNED it.  Yes, folks, yet again, our society has fallen prey to Snake Oil Sales.  A miracle in a bottle (or in this case, in a phrase).  When will we learn that nothing worth having or doing is ever easy?

"To lose weight, you have to occasionally allow yourself to get really hungry"

'To lose weight, you have to occasionally allow yourself to get really hungry," he said with a knowing smile returning to his face. "I haven't had anything to eat yet today. I'm actually quite hungry.'"

Your (inner) "Running Partners"

Today at the gym I climbed onto an elliptical on which someone had left a copy of "Runner's World" magazine.  I don't normally read while on the elliptical, as I find that it makes me slower, makes me motion-sick, and is nearly impossible to do, what with the constant up-and-down motion.  But it was here, and so was I, so I lazily flicked through the pages during my 2-minute warmup and stumbled upon an article that actually made me laugh out loud.  It was short and it was delightful, and, I thought, a fanatastic way to personify the struggles everyone has with their regular workout routine.

You can find the article in its entirety here.