The Six-Pack Strategy
Being that April's Book of the Month is titled "Firm and Flatten Your Abs," I only thought is would be appropriate to cover the basics of achieving a hard, defined midsection. Not everybody is going to achieve the wasp-like waistline like that of Arnold in his hey-day. But there are things that you can do right now to improve your abdominals to the point that men and women will stare at you and your friends will be envious. Wouldn’t that be nice at the beach or by the pool this summer?
And for you the women who think six-packs are only for guys, you're wrong. I know a ton of men who find a lightly muscled and toned six-pack on a female very sexy. For that one person who is reading this article who doesn't want to look more attractive in the midsection, you will benefit from developed abdominals as they are very important for sports performance and for preventing and alleviating low-back pain.
Developing hard, defined abdominals is a function of both exercise and diet. You must build the abdominal muscles first with resistance exercise and then strip off the fat layer hiding them with a nutrient-dense, Calorie-sparse diet. The good news is that you can do both at the same time. Let’s take a look at the exercise component first.
THE EXERCISES
The function of the abdominals is to bring the ribcage and the pelvis together, a.k.a. - trunk flexion. In any given abdominal exercise, you are either bringing your ribcage to your pelvis (as in a crunch) or you are bringing your pelvis to your ribcage (as in leg raises).
Because a muscle is believed to be stimulated more around the point at which it is flexing, it is important to do both types of abdominal exercises. That’s why I like to do both crunches and leg raises in most of my abdominal workouts. I have always had to work hard in the abdominal department. Yet, it’s been one of my strong suits. Complete abdominal development comes from working the abdominals thoroughly and regularly. In the crunch, the upper torso moves relative to the pelvis, which is fixed, and in leg raises, the pelvis moves upward relative to the upper torso which is fixed.
To perform crunches, lie down on the floor and throw your legs over a bench. Your back should be flat against the floor, and your buttocks forward towards the bench so that your knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. When viewed from the side, you should look like you are in an inverted sitting position.
THE CRUNCH
When performing crunches, make sure that your knees are pointing straight towards the ceiling (obviously). This take the psoas muscles out of the movement.
The psoas muscles run from your thigh bones, pass through your trunk, and attach to your lower spine. Your calves should rest across a bench and you should not need to have your feet restrained. If you do, you are pulling with your psoas! This defeats the exercise and additionally can cause major strain to your back. Slowly curl your torso towards your pelvis, exhaling as you do.
The motion simulates that of rolling a carpet. Your shoulders will only come up off the floor a few inches. Perform as many repetitions as you can. Rest long enough to catch your breath and repeat. Perform 3-4 sets of crunches, doing as many reps as you can.
ON TO HANGING LEG RAISES
When I do hanging leg raises, I perform them by grasping a chinning bar with a shoulder wide grip, hanging with my thighs parallel to the floor, then bring my knees up to my chest. The hanging leg raise, or a variation such as a "chair" leg raise performed on a special apparatus, is effective for developing the lower abs only as long as you curl the pelvis upwards as you raise your legs. If there is any arch in the back whatsoever, the psoas muscles will again come into play, defeating the purpose of the exercise. It is helpful to remember that your legs serve only as resistance; the abdominal muscles are the actual movers which contract to tilt the pelvis upwards . Perform 3-4 sets of as many reps as possible.
FREQUENCY and REP RANGES
Now let’s look at how many times per week to do this ab routine. In the gyms, I've heard everything from 'train abs every day' to 'train abs once per week'. Personally I think there is a better way.
Training abs everyday is definitely wrong due to the simple fact that muscles have to recuperate in order to grow. Training causes micro trauma and inflammation to a muscle, but the muscle responds by laying down new muscle, which equals bigger and stronger muscles. Training the abs every day would not allow sufficient time for them to recuperate between workouts. I do, however, agree that the abdominals recuperate faster than most other muscles. Therefore, this abdominal routine can be performed 2-3 times weekly and should take roughly 15 minutes to complete. Train your abs on nonconsecutive days, for example: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
By the way, you do want your abdominal muscles to be bigger. That doesn't mean that your gut will stick out. It simply means that each "brick" within the six-pack is thicker, making the grooves between the six-pack deeper. To accomplish that, forget doing sets of 100 crunches. Eight to twelve repetitions is optimal for building fast twitch muscle fibers. The rectus abdominus (abs) muscle is made up predominately of fast twitch muscle. Therefore, you should use enough resistance (and control) such that you can only perform eight to twelve repetitions before reaching failure.
If you're a beginner, your bodyweight will likely be enough. On the other hand, experienced trainees will likely need to add resistance to make the exercise more difficult. If you're doing regular crunches, the easiest way to do this is to hold a weight (plate or dumbbell) or medicine ball over your chest while performing crunches. You should be able to complete 12 reps in this manner before adding extra weight.
Don't forget, you can always make the set harder by pausing in the contracted position, then lowering yourself very slowly to the starting position. Count two seconds on the way up, and three seconds on the way down.
Crunches primarily stress the upper abdominal muscles, while leg raises primarily stress the lower abdominals. Some old school experts will say that you cannot stress upper vs. lower abs and that the whole rectus abdominus functions as one muscle. This debate was settled years ago with a slew of studies showing that the upper and lower abs each respond differently to different exercises.
THE OBLIQUES
The last area of the abdominal area that you should think about training is the obliques, which lie on the sides of your abdominal area. Obliques respond to twisting and side bending movements. I would not train the oblique muscles with low reps. Remember, eight - twelve reps builds muscle which is what you want to do in the abs themselves. However, you don't want thick oblique muscles! You want fairly thin but defined obliques. Overly developed obliques can give the false appearance of having "love handles" on the sides. Remember thick abdominals, thin obliques.
SUCK YOUR STOMACH IN
You can also train your transverse abdominus, no matter where you are. The transverse abdominus (TVA) muscle is the only muscle of the abdominal area that doesn't cause movement of the spine. Its job is basically that of a girdle: to keep the abdomen pulled in nice and tight, giving the midsection a smaller and tighter appearance. I'm sure you've seen people who are quite lean, and they may even have a six-pack, but sport a belly that seems to stick out quite a bit.
This is made possible by a weak TVA muscle. Think about this: in clothes, people can't actually see your abdominal development; but what they can see is whether or not your TVA is doing its' job. Training the TVA is very easy. Simply exhale all of your air out of your lungs, then suck your abdomen in as far as you can, bringing your navel closer to your spine (this was a favorite of the great Frank Zane). You can also train the muscle throughout the day by simply 'sucking your stomach in.’ That may seem rather goofy, but it's very good for developing the TVA. Because you're training the TVA for neurological development rather than muscular development, you can (and should) train it everyday.
EAT YOUR WAY TO ABS
Now that you are on your way to developing your abs, let’s take another look at your diet. Your diet must enable you to access and burn off the bodyfat stored over your abdominals. In order to do this, you must burn more calories each day than you consume.
One of the easiest ways to get your calories down without an appreciable drop in the perceived quantity of food you are consuming is to minimize high-fat foods in your diet. Avoid fried foods, oils, mayonnaise, whole eggs, butter and margarine, cream, whole milk, etc. Read the label of anything you eat. Be sure that you select foods that are low in fat by calories not by grams! Cut small amount of fats out of your diet. Let’s face it, the fat calories can add up over time. Eliminating that extra pat of butter at breakfast alone can save you over 3000 calories, or the equivalent of nearly ONE POUND OF BODYFAT per month! Or you might replace your whole milk with skim milk, to eliminate the fat. The idea is to reduce fats or substitute leaner foods for high-fat foods when possible. This practice alone can drop many pounds of fat off your midsection in a short amount of time.
Eating 5-6 small meals per day in lieu of the normal "three square" is also helpful and minimizes the accumulation of extra calories as fat. Small frequent meals also help to keep your stomach smaller, mitigating the potential for gut distension.
Remember, developing a hard, defined midsection is a function of both exercise and diet. Work hard on building your abdominal muscles first with resistance exercise while stripping off the fat layer hiding them with a nutrient-dense, Calorie-sparse diet. The results will pay off big time dividends in the way you look and feel. And who knows, maybe one day you’ll sport abs that even Arnold in his hey-day would be proud of!
To order your copy of "FIRM AND FLATTEN YOUR ABS" , visit http://jimcip72.firmandflattenyourabs.net
Article Of The Week
4/18/2006
James Cipriani
Cutting Edge Personal Training
