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Posted at February 26, 2013, 3:33 pm: ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING ABDOMINAL MUSCLES ASK IN HERE!! (INSTEAD OF FLOODING THE BOARD WITH AB THREADS) Q1: How do I get abs like Dexter Jackson? Getting visible abdominal muscles or "abs" depends on reducing the amount of fat covering the abs, see Question 3. Getting hard, lumpy abs depends on developing the underlying muscles, for details, read on... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q2: Should I do lots of situps to reduce fat around my middle? No. Exercising the area from which you want to lose fat is called "spot reduction". Spot reduction is now believed to be a myth. Research shows that fat is lost all over your body, not just in the area that you work. Situps are also bad for your lower back (see Question 5). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q3: How do I reduce the fat covering my middle? The answer comes in two parts: diet and aerobic exercise. DIET Two principles loom large when trying to “sculpt” one’s body: * Calorie accounting: To lose fat, one must reduce calorie intake and/or increase energy expenditure so that stored fat is utilized as fuel for the body. * Biology is destiny: fat cells, whether increased in size, number or both, cannot turn into muscle cells. Reducing the fat accumulation in one area of the body is not easy. The usual measures to lose weight (including reducing calorie intake, increasing exercise or both) may lead to weight loss but not necessarily in a single area. In fact, short of having cosmetic surgery (such as liposuction), you cannot easily choose the area from which the fat will be lost. This is the reason that some women notice that their breasts (which are largely composed of fat) get smaller when they diet. And weight loss is more than just reducing “calories in” compared with “calories out.” The difficulty many people have in losing weight probably relates to a well-established phenomenon that seems terribly unfair: As you take in fewer calories, the body’s metabolism changes, so that fewer calories are burned with normal body function. In studies of persons losing 10 percent to 20 percent of their body weight, “calories out” diminished, despite similar activity levels, which slowed further loss of weight. Given this grim reality, you cannot readily transform an abdomen with excess fat into the physique of your dreams simply by doing lots of sit-ups. You’ll lose the fat by diet and/or exercise, and you’ll increase muscle mass by exercising those muscles. Of course, there may be other reasons to do sit-ups — for example, strong abdominal muscles reduce the chances of back problems; but shrinking your abdomen is not one of them. This is controversial, but most people agree that eating very little fat and lots of complex carbs (like rice, pasta and potatoes) helps ensure that you don't add additional fat. Then you have to work at using the fat you already have stored which involves... EXERCISE Again a bit controversial, but it's widely agreed that regular, moderate, aerobic exercise 3-4 times per week works best to burn fat that's already stored. "Moderate" because intense exercise burns glycogen not fat, so keep the intensity at about the level where you are beginning to puff a little. "Aerobic" means (very vaguely) the kind of exercise that requires you to inhale more. Some suggest that building more muscle through weight training helps as well, since muscle burns fat just by being there and moving your body about; so some weight training couldn't hurt and will probably help. Many misc.fitness people agree that exercise periods of more than 20 minutes work best. But note that the longer you exercise, the more prone you are to injury since your muscles also begin to weaken. Two things which help prevent injury are: a good warmup 5-10 minutes of light exercise to warm your muscles, try to break a sweat stretching cautious 20-30 sec stretches for every muscle . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q4: How do I exercise the abs? The abs are designed to perform one main task, to shorten the distance between your sternum, or breastbone, and your pelvis. The only way to do this is to bend your spine in the lower back region. In short, any exercise which makes you move your sternum toward your pelvis or your pelvis toward your sternum is good. To do this safely, the lower back should be slightly rounded, not arched. In general when exercising the abs, try to maintain the natural arch of you lower back. The lower back will round slightly as you perform the exercises. Don't fret about pressing your back into the ground. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q5: What's wrong with situps? Traditional situps emphasize sitting up rather than merely pulling your sternum down to meet your pelvis. The action of the psoas muscles, which run from the lower back around to the front of the thighs, is to pull the thighs closer to the torso. This action is the major component in sitting up. Because of this, situps primarily engage the psoas making them inefficient at exercising your abs. More importantly, they also grind the vertebrae in your lower back. They're inefficient because the psoas work best when the legs are close to straight (as they are when doing situps), so for most of the situp the psoas are doing most of the work and the abs are just stabilising. Putting the thighs at a right angle to the torso to begin with means that the psoas can't pull it any further, so all of the stress is placed on the abs. Situps also grind vertebrae in your lower back. This is because to work the abs effectively you are trying to make the lower back round, but tension in the psoas encourages the lower back move into an exaggerated arch. The result is the infamous "disc pepper grinder" effect that helps give you chronic lower back pain in later life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original of the message was taken from http://forum.bodybuilding.com/ Replies:Q6: What are good ab exercises? We've divided the exercises into uppe...Q9: How often should I train abs? Some writers recommend doing abs at... So are you saying not to do situps because it will hurt your lower bac... YES. The best ab exercises are surprisingly easy to do. standing cable crunches, for when you just don't give a shit about ab ... They forgot the most efficient ab exercise yet developed. LOL at shameless plug. Heres my ab workouts Crunches 3x25 Side Crunches 100/side Machine Cru... What about decline crunches??? And weighted decline crunches/situps? ... Not a single mention of weighted abdominal exercises. This thread is good, but would be a lot better if it didnt have so dam... http://www. Thanks everyone Alright, so I'm in a predicament. have been working on cutting (my progress is slowing down, but i chang... it all depends on the type of exercises for your abs you're doing. Bulking and mantaining a low bf% is very hard, and IMO not worth it. it seems to me that at my age (17) it should be easy. It may be EASIER, but not easy for you because you're a teenager and h... Another ****ing sticky? We're gonna have to go straight to page 2 pret... where does janda situps come into play? is that safe? I have a herniated disk that presses on my sciatic nerve sometimes. For sciatic nerve pain, I'd recommend pressups. This is my first time posting in here, and you guys sound like you kno... To answer your question, I'd say add some form of cardio or GPP (my pr... ok. Come on. Can someone explain why Arnie never had fantastic abs? The only answer... You always get the answer "genetics" because that's what it'... I was wondering what everyone's thinks about roman chair situps for st... Not really. Atrainer speaks the truth. What's wrong with hanging leg raises? They work for me, an Olympic div... The primary mover for leg raises of all types are the hip flexors, not... there should be an distiniction between ab work and "core" w... I have a fairly defined six pack, but I am having problems striaght do... Disagree on the sit ups as do many others. I'm looking at this thread and I'm thinking, "Why so many exercis... squats, deadlift and weighted decline crunches/situps I guess I confused abdominal training with core training. no its a good thing but most people think they are working abs doin... can u tell me how long would it take to see abdominal midsection what ... Hi guys, this is embarrassing, but I have just started weight training... i have highly defined abs and obliques. Are seated cable rows enough for the spinal erectors to even out with ... Hi, new poster here got a question, I still have fat infront of my ab... This is probably because there is a thicker layer of fat toward the bo... Lose BF. Thanks. are twists (with a bar or something) effective at all? Incorporated with a spinal flexion motion, yes, for internal and exter... |