Abdominal Treatment

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Take Heed, the Iron Guru speaks:

“Do no more sets and reps than you would on any other muscle group, etc. Add weight by holding a plate behind your head. Let’s take first things first, get rid of all the fat you can before you start your abdominal program. Otherwise, you will be disappointed because abdominal exercises do not reduce fat. Only fast training where heart and lungs are involved will have any effect on your metabolic rate. Another aspect, of which no one is aware, is that abdominal work should never be done by a beginner in weight training. Any abdominal exercises involve the Solar Plexus. This area sometimes known as the “second brain”. Here can be found a great network of nerves and blood vessels that join and congregate. Abdominal work is such a shock to the nervous system that I could take any undeveloped beginner in my gym and add abdominal work and it would stop all muscular gains. Even stars like Larry Scott and Don Howorth rarely work their abdominals because of the shock to the arms which they are so proud of.

It should be understood that full sit-ups and leg raises are not abdominal exercises. These movements work the Psoas Major and Psoas Minor group. The Quadratius Lumborum are also utilized. The Psoas Muscles connect the upper femur bones of the leg to the lower lumbar region of the spine. This large muscle pulls the upper body to a sitting position, or pulls the legs up, as in the leg raise. You are also employing the Sartorius in the leg raise. The stomach muscles of Rectus Abdominus attach to the pelvic basin and the junction of these points. To illustrate, lie flat on your back, roll your shoulders and head foreword. At the same time raise your pelvis upwards and back towards your chest. This movement is basically the only function of the abdominals. To isolate the Psoas Muscles so that you don’t inadvertently pull with them, spread your knees and pull your heels towards your buttocks. Now, in this frog position place your hands behind your neck and perform 1/4 sit-ups. Cramp the rectus at the top of the movement by performing one burn.”

– Vince Gironda

Goals to Fail

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When you walk into a health club or start a program with a personal trainer, one of the first questions you are asked is “What are your fitness goals?”

I have worked in several health and fitness clubs and the sales people always had a sort of script they would run through with all new potential customers that would take the club tour. This script was largely designed around the greatest potential to make the sale rather than address the customers individual needs, but these questions that come from not only fitness sales people but also from many trainers and instructors is a sure way to failure.

Our brains tend to be wired for a sequence of things when we think about setting a goal. We first define the goal, then we start the activity necessary to reach the goal. And once that goal has been reached, the activity is no longer necessary.

Most people’s fitness goal is “I want to lose X number of pounds” or “I want to fit into a certain article of clothing again”. I’m not saying you shouldn’t set any goals at all. But you should be very careful and specific about the kinds of goals you define for yourself and in what context you set them. Think of it in terms of making a fitness PLAN instead of a fitness goal. The reason a plan is much better is because it’s open ended. It’s like starting a new business. And any new business needs a business plan to get it started. A road map not only for success but for continual sustainable success.

It’s kind of like asking “What are your sleep goals?” or “What are your personal hygiene goals?”. Well I would like to feel well rested and I want to be clean and not smell. When you reach these goals do you stop sleeping or stop bathing? Of course not. Because if you did then you would soon get very tired and start to stink again.

The most effective way to truly achieve permanent healthy body composition is to make weight loss unimportant to you and make health of primary importance. The fat loss will come anyway. If you are going to set any kind of goal right at the start then it should be something to the effect that you are going to partake in a consistent routine of exercise and healthy eating until it becomes automatic and permanently integrated into your lifestyle. In my mind this sounds much less like a goal, and more like a plan.

This line of thinking was what yielded success for me when goal setting did nothing but cause me to fail so many times before. So now when I set fitness goals I only do so within the framework of my overall fitness plan.

Weight Training Start

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Weight training can be a bit daunting for someone new to a gym. Large floors with a full landscape of machinery is enough to intimidate anyone. I will break down a workout into as simple a process as I can so that all those machines and different exercises can more easily be taken in and understood. To really hit all the major muscles of the body you can break down a set of exercises in the following way:

Upper Body (Torso)
For the torso we can simplify it all with 4 basic movements that are easy to remember:
1) In the standing or sitting position imagine pushing up (vertical) against resistance – this is called the shoulder or military press.
2) Also in standing or sitting position the second movement is a push forward or horizontally – this is called a press, bench press or push-up. The push-up would of course be done facing the ground, but still pushing a resistance away from the front of your body. A bench press would be just the opposite instead with you lying down horizontally on your back and pushing the weight straight up.
3) The 3rd and 4th movements are just the opposite direction but in the same planes. Instead of pushing a weight vertically above your head you will now be pulling a weight down vertically from above your head. This is simply called a pull-down, or a pull-up if you are just using your body weight as resistance and pulling yourself up.
4) And last is the motion of pulling a weight from the front of the body in the sitting or standing position. This would most commonly be called a Row. It’s just like a man in a boat rowing by pulling the ores towards him.

All 4 of these movements are called “compound” movements. This means that multiple muscle groups are involved. For instance any time you push on something you are using primarily your chest or shoulder muscles and secondarily your tricep muscles (back of the arms). For pulling you are using the back muscles primarily and the biceps secondarily. If done correctly and effectively you will hit all the major muscle groups of the torso except for the trunk muscles or “core”. Those consist of the abdominals in the front and a series of different muscles on the sides and back that stabilize and coordinate our upper body with the lower body. The core will be used somewhat for stabilization in the four movements, but not directly. Many people make the mistake of ONLY training their cores in hopes that this will burn away all the fat accumulation in those areas. The body doesn’t work this way. The body burns away fat in a systematic pattern that isn’t changeable by which muscles are used to help create the required energy deficit.

Lower Body (Legs)
The legs can be worked all over by doing squats. There are many different types of squats. The one I recommend starting with is just a simple air squat where you are only using your body weight. In the standing position hold your arms out in front of you, feel about 2 feet apart (you can go wider if you want). Keeping your heels on the ground, squat down slowly until your butt goes lower than your knees. Then come back up slowly.

So in simplest terms you have 5 exercises I recommend that will best work the most muscles with the least amount of confusion and time invested. In the future you can expand on this basic framework with many other exercises and variations.

In the standing position just imagine the following to get the framework:
1) Push forward
2) Push up
3) Pull from front
4) Pull from above
5) Squat

How many sets and reps do I do of each one? This topic can get very complicated and drawn out but again to try and stick to the basics, I will layout a simple plan with these recommendations:

If you are just starting out with weight training don’t worry too much about the weight and sets/reps. Just practice the movements and get familiar with them and gradually increase the weight so it feels like you have to put some effort into the movement. You should NOT push too hard in your first couple of weeks. Too many trainers make the mistake of pushing too hard too early with new clients and I cringe every time I hear from someone who fell victim to one of these trainers. A lot of soreness means you pushed too hard. No soreness means you didn’t push hard enough. The ideal feeling on the day after your workout is just a little feeling of soreness in the targeted muscles. After you get familiar with the movements in your first couple of weeks, then you can start really increasing the weights to find your ideal work weight for each exercise. The ideal weight will be the amount of weight you can push at least 8 reps with, but no more than 12. If you can do more than 12 reps then the weight is too light. If you can’t get 8 reps then it’s too heavy. Take between 1 and 3 minutes rest between each set and do 1-3 sets of each exercise depending on your strength levels and experience. Do this workout 2-3 times per week with as even a rest period as possible between workouts.

Project 42 – Cardio Cutback…

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OK, so I am not a fitness expert and I don’t have a lot of extra time to do research or educate myself so I rely on the advise of my brother and a few friends who are into fitness.  I am new to this game but am always interested in learning…  Todd tells me that a very intense 20 minute cardio workout is better than a more moderate 40 minute workout.  I suppose heart rate is the only way to measure that intensity.  My heart rate usually gets above 140 in first 10 minutes and then gradually increases to about 153 or so by the end of my 45 minutes…  Today, I chose to try the more intense 20 minute workout so I got on the recumbent bike and warmed up quickly and then went straight to level 14 and cranked hard and fast…  My heart rate this time went above 150 fairly quickly and I saw it as high as 166.  I have seen lots of charts that put this rate in the “anaerobic zone” (for my age) or some other term that I don’t understand…  It was hard and fast and I had to lower the resistance for 30 seconds a couple times to get my muscles to recover, but I felt good after.  I am just trying to be fit and healthy and weight loss is part of that of course…  I suppose doing both types of workouts would be the best but I don’t understand how the target heart rate affects the results of your workout…

Bruins Reborn

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In 1972 The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup against the New York Rangers. I was 7 and I’m pretty sure my brother Mark and I were playing hockey at that time. Bobby Ore was my favorite player and since that time I always remember the Bruins as being my favorite team. They never won another Stanley Cup after that. Until now that is. Congratulations to the 2011 Stanley Cup Champions, the Boston Bruins who took down the Vancouver Canucks in a very unlikely Game 7 away from home 4-0. And another huge congrats to Mark Recchi, who played his final game last night and retired at the age of 43 from Pro Hockey. He scored 5 goals in the playoffs and is a big inspiration to me. GO BRUINS!!!

Interesting bit of trivia – The oldest professional hockey player of all time was Gordie Howe who retired at age 52.