Questions regarding my last entry on abdominals....
“You just need to do the proper type of training to expose them.”
So then, what is the “proper” exercise then? There are soo many to choose from. I only do hanging leg raises and I use the abs crunch machine @ the gym, and at the same time doing cardio to melt the fats as well as eating a proper diet. I think I’m on the right track, but is there any abs exercise in particular that you find more effective than the rest?
I think you misunderstood what I meant when I said "proper training." I was not talking about abdominal training. I was talking about training overal, as in your whole training program. Body fat is lost over the entire body. There is no one special exercise that will make your abdominals lose the fat that is laying over top of them. A solid program of resistance training, some interval cardio work and even some steady state cardiovascular training are what you need (along with a good diet) to get to your goal.
That said, when looking at the abdominals I think that most people only focus on one thing, trunk flexion (ie crunches). The abdominals (the entire core musculature really) have a variety of functions. Working in a physical therapy clinic, it is not uncommon to see people come in and complain of lower back problems and at the same time saying they don't understand why they have these problems because they perform "insert some absurd number of repetitions here" of crunches a day. After watching the do their crunches, you realize that they aren't really contracting their abdominals at all, rather just going through the motions. Most people do their crunches way to fast and they don't focus on really bracing their abs. I use tempo restrictions for people (3/2/1) to help teach them to stay contracted, as well as being specific with the ROM that they are using. Back to the statement I made about the many functions, you also want to work on some sort of stabilization exercise (planking and bridging movements are excellent for this) as well as some sort of rotational movement (2 part chops and lifts are good, as well as bird dogs). Also, don't neglect things like reverse crunches. The abdominals contract both top to bottom and bottom to top, so you should really train them through their many functions.
While we’re on this matter, do you have any links to good exercise websites that teaches proper exercise postures? I need to work on my back too. If possible point me in the direction of an ebook, that way I can put it in my phone and bring it to the gym for reference.
I don't know an e-books that go over exercise technique. EXRX.net is a great site with exercise technique videos and descriptions. I would check that out if you are unsure of your form. Also, you might want to try and find a trainer who is compotent enough to analzye your form and give you some technique cues.
Patrick
So then, what is the “proper” exercise then? There are soo many to choose from. I only do hanging leg raises and I use the abs crunch machine @ the gym, and at the same time doing cardio to melt the fats as well as eating a proper diet. I think I’m on the right track, but is there any abs exercise in particular that you find more effective than the rest?
I think you misunderstood what I meant when I said "proper training." I was not talking about abdominal training. I was talking about training overal, as in your whole training program. Body fat is lost over the entire body. There is no one special exercise that will make your abdominals lose the fat that is laying over top of them. A solid program of resistance training, some interval cardio work and even some steady state cardiovascular training are what you need (along with a good diet) to get to your goal.
That said, when looking at the abdominals I think that most people only focus on one thing, trunk flexion (ie crunches). The abdominals (the entire core musculature really) have a variety of functions. Working in a physical therapy clinic, it is not uncommon to see people come in and complain of lower back problems and at the same time saying they don't understand why they have these problems because they perform "insert some absurd number of repetitions here" of crunches a day. After watching the do their crunches, you realize that they aren't really contracting their abdominals at all, rather just going through the motions. Most people do their crunches way to fast and they don't focus on really bracing their abs. I use tempo restrictions for people (3/2/1) to help teach them to stay contracted, as well as being specific with the ROM that they are using. Back to the statement I made about the many functions, you also want to work on some sort of stabilization exercise (planking and bridging movements are excellent for this) as well as some sort of rotational movement (2 part chops and lifts are good, as well as bird dogs). Also, don't neglect things like reverse crunches. The abdominals contract both top to bottom and bottom to top, so you should really train them through their many functions.
While we’re on this matter, do you have any links to good exercise websites that teaches proper exercise postures? I need to work on my back too. If possible point me in the direction of an ebook, that way I can put it in my phone and bring it to the gym for reference.
I don't know an e-books that go over exercise technique. EXRX.net is a great site with exercise technique videos and descriptions. I would check that out if you are unsure of your form. Also, you might want to try and find a trainer who is compotent enough to analzye your form and give you some technique cues.
Patrick
First of all, I just wanna say thanks for taking the time to reply.
And yeah, I misunderstood what you meant by “proper training." When you said that, I thought you were talking about some specific abs exercise. :-p
A solid program of resistance training, some interval cardio work and even some steady state cardiovascular training are what you need (along with a good diet) to get to your goal.
Yup, that is exactly what I’m doing.
You know, it’s funny that people would think that doing insane amounts of crunches a day would somehow make their abs show through that thick layer of body fat. I wonder how they got that idea in the first place? TV?
Right then, I’ll look into planking, bridging, bird dogs, 2 part chops and lifts, as well as reverse crunches. Also, thanks for the link to EXRX.net.
Oh, and regarding getting a good trainer at my gym? Forget it. I saw two trainers the other day who were going for max weight over proper form when they were doing lateral pull downs. I’ve also seen trainers just stand there and not correct their clients when they did the triceps pushdown/pull down wrongly… WTF.
Thanks again for your help.
Posted by
wrecked_porsche |
May 11, 2007 at 12:07 AM
I like the new blog look. Nice. :)
Posted by
wrecked_porsche |
May 19, 2007 at 12:36 AM