Tummy time!
May. 11th, 2003 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vicarzOk now I weigh 142, and can eat whatever the fuck I want. Restart the cycle – I’m an American! I have learned nothing!
Don’t ask me why, but I feel like sharing my current abs regiment and knowledge with the public. LONG POST!!!
Abs workout – today’s flavor:
General tips:
1. You will not lose fat by having strong abs. Doing sit-ups will NEVER make your beer-gut disappear. Only cardio can remove fat. Abs work is to strengthen the muscles only.
2. Breathe out on each contraction – never forget to breathe. There is a natural tendency to tense up and not breathe – fight that tendency.
3. Focus on form – never jerk or use supporting muscles to complete a number of reps.
4. Keep you tummy contracted for the duration of the entire exercise. Hell – keep it contracted all the time! Life is one giant contraction – yay!
5. Never rest your head in your hands, unless you have neck problems. Using your hands this way takes pressure off your abs. You don’t want to work out longer, do you?
6. Face the ceiling in all exercises that don’t work the obliques (sides). Curling up makes the motions easier, and won’t help you improve at all.
7. In all exercises in which your back is on the floor – make sure your lower back remains on the floor. You work the wrong muscles and can strain your back if your lower back rises up. It’s natural for it to rise if you don’t monitor it – keep checking to make sure you feel your entire spine pressing against the floor.
8. Try not to let your shoulders rest on the floor at any point. Don’t relax – feel the burn and keep it going!
9. Combine with a lower-back exercise series when you’re done. The lower back and abs work in tandem to support your upper body, so you want them to be equally strong.
10. Weights aren’t a great idea for abs. Abs are almost exclusively slow-twitch muscles – that is to say rather than being muscles that react well to strength training, they are more geared towards stamina.
11. I describe a ‘count,’ which is typically a second long. It’s fine to do these things to music, but watch the bpm.
12. Monitor yourself and try to keep perfect form through the entire exercise. Form is everything in this kind of work. If you can’t complete any sets, just do basic crunches until you are able to get back with the program. You can always do less of each one, and work your way up over time. You will gain nothing by jerking, cheating, or any other techniques to get through the motions w/o using proper form.
Warm-up:
(this can be done on a resist-a-ball for advanced users, rolling up as high as you can for maximum ouch)
Lie on your back, face the ceiling, and gently cradle your head in your fingertips. Do not rest the weight of your head in your hands – just use your fingers as a slight guide. The real reason to have your hands there is to make your upper-body heavier, not to hold your head. Your legs should be relaxed in a bent-knee position. Make sure your lower back doesn’t curve – keep it pressed down on the mat.
Slow and annoying 32 count of a hold for an isometric exercise. That is – you go up, and stay up at the top of your crunch motion. Squeeze your abs and let it pull your upper-body off the mat. Try to use the entire ab section, not just the top. You may shake – this means you’re exerting yourself!
32 pulses! From the isometric hold, go straight into 32 pulses. These are small motions on a 1/2 count.
16 crunches on a 2-count – that’s two counts up, and two counts down. It’s better to use a smooth motion than to bounce up half way, then the rest as though they were two separate motions. Make sure your upper back, neck, and head are facing the ceiling – as close to parallel as possible. If you curl your abs/back you lose the horrible pain this can cause!
16 crunches on a 1-count. Same style as the 2 count above.
Cross one leg
Lift your body straight, then twist towards the side of the leg that is off the ground. That is to say, if you cross your left leg over your right knee, you’ll be twisting towards the left. Do not reach for the knee itself – that comes later.
16 – up, cross, return to center, and down.
Keep the leg up – in the next set of exercises you’ll be trying to lift the shoulder to the knee directly. Do this with your abs – don’t let the leg muscles jump in. It’s better to not get all the way up than to do the form wrong. It’s really hard to do this exercise right and hurt the muscles like you want to.
16 – shoulder to knee
Next exercise is much easier, but again you want this to hurt. Squeeze the abs and focus on the obliques as much as you can on this motion. Lift the knee to the shoulder and the shoulder to the knee – they should meet in the middle (or almost meet, depending on your level of strength). When you lower your body to the floor, extend and straighten the leg along the floor, never touching. Basically you’re half-holding yourself up on each motion, like a scissor action.
16 – shoulder to knee using the leg.
Now – no surprise here, switch legs and do the whole damn thing over again on the other side!
If you’re not dead after this, 16 1-count crunches, then 16 slow bicycles, then 16 fast bicycles (as in 2 sets L-R L-R is one count) to really burn those groups.
Lower ab pushes! I hate these things!
lower your back to the floor and put your hands by your butt. If you have trouble keeping your back on the floor, you can shove your flat hands under your butt to help keep the lower back pressed firmly on the floor.
Raise the legs vertical!
16 – 1-count, pushing the heels to the ceiling.
16 – lift with your abs and use your hands to try to reach opposing ankles, crossing the body on each lift.
Why am I writing all this again?
16 – Lower one or both legs to the ground on a two-count, not touching the floor. Make sure you squeeze the abs the whole time – there is a natural tendency to use your quads which screws this exercise up. If you do one leg at a time, then count the first leg motion only (as in 16 each leg).
16 – like above, 3 count down, then 1 up
16 – 1 count down, 3 up
Obliques blast
Remember to really focus on this muscle group as you work it! It’s very easy to use supporting muscles, and then you gain nothing. No one cares if you can do 150 side stretches WRONG!
Lay on your side, use one arm on the ground for balance only, and lift your upper-body and legs to form a sort of V. Keep your legs together, feet pressed together. Pressure between the feet will hit the obliques better. Your upper body should only barely come up off the floor – focus on the height of the legs, not the upper-body.
16 – side V ups, then switch sides and do the other side.
Low weight side-stretches:
Start at a low weight like 5 lbs (one hand only) until you know you can do 32 of these w/o dying. Stand in front of a mirror VERY IMPORTANT! Place your feet shoulder-width apart, and lean sideways towards your foot on the side with the weight. DO NOT MOVE YOUR HIPS ONE MILLIMETER!!! All the motion must come from the obliques here. Really watch yourself to make sure you use proper form, bending at the hips but not swaying the legs or letting the hips move. If you can’t do this, lower the weight (not the reps – reps matter here). Don’t be surprised if it seems easy at first, and then kills you later. Just lower the weight. Do this on both sides.
Twist! Get a long pole, stand in front of your trusty mirror, put the pole over your shoulders like a yoke, and twist as far as you can to one side WITHOUT MOVING THE HIPS! Do 32 or so, each side. Squeeze the abs the whole time to really burn it in.
Don’t ask me why, but I feel like sharing my current abs regiment and knowledge with the public. LONG POST!!!
Abs workout – today’s flavor:
General tips:
1. You will not lose fat by having strong abs. Doing sit-ups will NEVER make your beer-gut disappear. Only cardio can remove fat. Abs work is to strengthen the muscles only.
2. Breathe out on each contraction – never forget to breathe. There is a natural tendency to tense up and not breathe – fight that tendency.
3. Focus on form – never jerk or use supporting muscles to complete a number of reps.
4. Keep you tummy contracted for the duration of the entire exercise. Hell – keep it contracted all the time! Life is one giant contraction – yay!
5. Never rest your head in your hands, unless you have neck problems. Using your hands this way takes pressure off your abs. You don’t want to work out longer, do you?
6. Face the ceiling in all exercises that don’t work the obliques (sides). Curling up makes the motions easier, and won’t help you improve at all.
7. In all exercises in which your back is on the floor – make sure your lower back remains on the floor. You work the wrong muscles and can strain your back if your lower back rises up. It’s natural for it to rise if you don’t monitor it – keep checking to make sure you feel your entire spine pressing against the floor.
8. Try not to let your shoulders rest on the floor at any point. Don’t relax – feel the burn and keep it going!
9. Combine with a lower-back exercise series when you’re done. The lower back and abs work in tandem to support your upper body, so you want them to be equally strong.
10. Weights aren’t a great idea for abs. Abs are almost exclusively slow-twitch muscles – that is to say rather than being muscles that react well to strength training, they are more geared towards stamina.
11. I describe a ‘count,’ which is typically a second long. It’s fine to do these things to music, but watch the bpm.
12. Monitor yourself and try to keep perfect form through the entire exercise. Form is everything in this kind of work. If you can’t complete any sets, just do basic crunches until you are able to get back with the program. You can always do less of each one, and work your way up over time. You will gain nothing by jerking, cheating, or any other techniques to get through the motions w/o using proper form.
Warm-up:
(this can be done on a resist-a-ball for advanced users, rolling up as high as you can for maximum ouch)
Lie on your back, face the ceiling, and gently cradle your head in your fingertips. Do not rest the weight of your head in your hands – just use your fingers as a slight guide. The real reason to have your hands there is to make your upper-body heavier, not to hold your head. Your legs should be relaxed in a bent-knee position. Make sure your lower back doesn’t curve – keep it pressed down on the mat.
Slow and annoying 32 count of a hold for an isometric exercise. That is – you go up, and stay up at the top of your crunch motion. Squeeze your abs and let it pull your upper-body off the mat. Try to use the entire ab section, not just the top. You may shake – this means you’re exerting yourself!
32 pulses! From the isometric hold, go straight into 32 pulses. These are small motions on a 1/2 count.
16 crunches on a 2-count – that’s two counts up, and two counts down. It’s better to use a smooth motion than to bounce up half way, then the rest as though they were two separate motions. Make sure your upper back, neck, and head are facing the ceiling – as close to parallel as possible. If you curl your abs/back you lose the horrible pain this can cause!
16 crunches on a 1-count. Same style as the 2 count above.
Cross one leg
Lift your body straight, then twist towards the side of the leg that is off the ground. That is to say, if you cross your left leg over your right knee, you’ll be twisting towards the left. Do not reach for the knee itself – that comes later.
16 – up, cross, return to center, and down.
Keep the leg up – in the next set of exercises you’ll be trying to lift the shoulder to the knee directly. Do this with your abs – don’t let the leg muscles jump in. It’s better to not get all the way up than to do the form wrong. It’s really hard to do this exercise right and hurt the muscles like you want to.
16 – shoulder to knee
Next exercise is much easier, but again you want this to hurt. Squeeze the abs and focus on the obliques as much as you can on this motion. Lift the knee to the shoulder and the shoulder to the knee – they should meet in the middle (or almost meet, depending on your level of strength). When you lower your body to the floor, extend and straighten the leg along the floor, never touching. Basically you’re half-holding yourself up on each motion, like a scissor action.
16 – shoulder to knee using the leg.
Now – no surprise here, switch legs and do the whole damn thing over again on the other side!
If you’re not dead after this, 16 1-count crunches, then 16 slow bicycles, then 16 fast bicycles (as in 2 sets L-R L-R is one count) to really burn those groups.
Lower ab pushes! I hate these things!
lower your back to the floor and put your hands by your butt. If you have trouble keeping your back on the floor, you can shove your flat hands under your butt to help keep the lower back pressed firmly on the floor.
Raise the legs vertical!
16 – 1-count, pushing the heels to the ceiling.
16 – lift with your abs and use your hands to try to reach opposing ankles, crossing the body on each lift.
Why am I writing all this again?
16 – Lower one or both legs to the ground on a two-count, not touching the floor. Make sure you squeeze the abs the whole time – there is a natural tendency to use your quads which screws this exercise up. If you do one leg at a time, then count the first leg motion only (as in 16 each leg).
16 – like above, 3 count down, then 1 up
16 – 1 count down, 3 up
Obliques blast
Remember to really focus on this muscle group as you work it! It’s very easy to use supporting muscles, and then you gain nothing. No one cares if you can do 150 side stretches WRONG!
Lay on your side, use one arm on the ground for balance only, and lift your upper-body and legs to form a sort of V. Keep your legs together, feet pressed together. Pressure between the feet will hit the obliques better. Your upper body should only barely come up off the floor – focus on the height of the legs, not the upper-body.
16 – side V ups, then switch sides and do the other side.
Low weight side-stretches:
Start at a low weight like 5 lbs (one hand only) until you know you can do 32 of these w/o dying. Stand in front of a mirror VERY IMPORTANT! Place your feet shoulder-width apart, and lean sideways towards your foot on the side with the weight. DO NOT MOVE YOUR HIPS ONE MILLIMETER!!! All the motion must come from the obliques here. Really watch yourself to make sure you use proper form, bending at the hips but not swaying the legs or letting the hips move. If you can’t do this, lower the weight (not the reps – reps matter here). Don’t be surprised if it seems easy at first, and then kills you later. Just lower the weight. Do this on both sides.
Twist! Get a long pole, stand in front of your trusty mirror, put the pole over your shoulders like a yoke, and twist as far as you can to one side WITHOUT MOVING THE HIPS! Do 32 or so, each side. Squeeze the abs the whole time to really burn it in.
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Anal much?!
Date: 2003-05-11 02:56 pm (UTC)Judo Class
Date: 2003-05-12 06:12 am (UTC)Re: Judo Class
Date: 2003-05-12 06:57 am (UTC)Re: Judo Class
Date: 2003-05-12 08:42 am (UTC)