Abdominal Time Waster
By
Adam Signoretta
I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but it needs to be said. Every day at the
gym, I watch people spend anywhere from 10–30 minutes on their upper abs, lower
abs, and sides. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with that statement? Ten to
thirty minutes is a waste of time to spend on abs. In addition, there isn’t any
such thing as “upper abs” and “lower abs.” You have a left side and a right side
of your abdominals, not upper and lower.
When you do leg lifts or leg raises, you’re only working your hip flexor
muscles. It feels like your abs, but that’s only because they’re forced couples,
meaning they work together to produce movement. When you do regular crunches,
the entire abdomen works. Doing any more than 10–15 reps on any abdominal
exercise is a waste because your abs will give out. Then you’re just using your
hip flexors.
The ideal frequency for abdominal training is once or twice a week, just like
with every other muscle group. At the most, you should train your abs three time
per week. You should perform no more than 3–5 sets, and the rep range shouldn’t
really go over ten reps. At most, you can go to 20. If you can do more than ten
reps on an exercise with proper form, you should start to add weight. That goes
for any other body weighted exercise.
If there was a such thing as spot reduction, and we could do 1000 reps of any
given exercise and lose weight in just that area, don’t you think we’d look a
little funny? People would walk around with rock hard abs, saggy glutes, and
flabby arms. All beach guys would have fat legs because they only do chest,
arms, and abs. No matter how much time you spend focusing on one area, you can’t
lose weight in that area. Your body will equally distribute the weight loss
throughout your body so you don’t look deformed.
So how do you lose weight in your stomach? Diet, cardio, and weight training all
play a major role in weight loss. Diet is the only thing throughout the day that
you have control over. You can determine exactly what calories you put in your
body. That being said, it is the number one way to lose weight in your stomach
area.
As far as weight training and cardio, I believe weight training is more
important than cardio. You can only burn calories when you do cardio whereas
weight training burns calories and builds muscle. Building muscle will help you
burn more calories later. Muscle is what determines the number of calories you
burn throughout the day.
What is the best style of training to do? Everyone thinks bodybuilding style
training will make you ripped and help you lose weight. Well, if you’re doing
isolation and high reps and eating garbage, you’re doing nothing for yourself
except making yourself sore. If you’re trying to lose weight, you should be
doing a lot of full body movements or compound movements, which are multi-joint
movements. Examples of full body movements includes the clean and press, snatch,
Turkish get up, swing, and pretty much any other kettlebell movement. Examples
of compound movements include squats, presses, and rows as well as any exercise
where there are two or more joints involved.
Why are they better? They’re better because you involve more muscles. The
more muscles you use, the better. If you use more muscles, you can lift more
weight. More weight lifted equals a higher heart rate, and a higher heart rate
means more calories burned. If you’re burning more calories, you’ll lose more
weight. How much weight are you lifting with your abs, and how high do you think
your heart rate is? Do a set of 50 crunches and then a set of 50 snatches. Or do
ten snatches and tell me what was harder.
I personally don’t train my abs for cosmetic reasons and neither should you.
Don’t get me wrong. I perform abdominal movements every day. I know I said not
to but I have to sit up and get out of bed every morning. Ha ha! I know that was
cheesy. Seriously, I do perform abdominal movements to strengthen them.
If you want to train your abs, do movements that call for a static spine. You
can either do static stabilization or dynamic stabilization movements for the
abs. A good static movement is the plank. Squats and deadlifts are great dynamic
movements, or you can do single limb movements such as rows and presses to work
on core stabilization. Try this—get a decent sized dumbbell and lay on a bench.
Don’t hold on to the bench with your free arm. Press the dumbbell a few times
and see if your abs work.
Why are abdominal exercises with a static spine better? There are one hundred
reasons. I think extension is the most important one. Most people spend all day
in flexion or hunched over. They don’t even know what extension feels like. If
you want to fix your posture or back problems, which every one needs to do, stay
away from flexing your spine for a week and see if it helps.
Here are two good abdominal crunching exercises that you can do if you still
insist on crunching. You can do a stability ball crunch where you start in
extension. Curve your back all the way around the stability ball so that you
have a good stretch in your abs and your head is nice and relaxed. Keep your
eyes on the ceiling and take a deep breath. Slowly crunch your abs and lift your
shoulders and head so they’re parallel with your hips and knees and your spine
is completely horizontal. You don’t want your spine in flexion. Exhale slowly
and squeeze for 3–5 seconds. Slowly lower yourself down and repeat ten times.
Your hand placement will make a big difference. To make it tough, extend your
hands all the way over your head. If you’re going to add weight to any abdominal
exercise, either put it over your head or behind your head, not on your chest.
The next abdominal exercise is the Yonda sit-up. This movement is normally
performed with two, very large kettlebells, but if you don’t have them, you can
use medicine balls or something that you can squeeze with your feet. Lie on your
back and put the object between your butt and heels. Squeeze the object between
your butt and heels, contracting your glutes and hamstrings, and sit up. By
squeezing the object, you’ll only be able to use your abs to sit up. When I say
sit up, I don’t mean crunch. Sit all the way up so that your chest touches your
knees without swinging your arms. It isn’t easy. Try to get five reps.
The number one core exercise is the Turkish get up or half get up. Hands down. I
could go on forever here, but I think you got my point. I hope. The last piece
of advice I’ll leave you with is if you’re looking to lose your mid-section,
pick up a kettlebell and do three hundred swings every other day. It’s as simple
as that. For a more structured program, email me. Strength and honor.
Adam Signoretta is a natural bodybuilder who has competed in eight
competitions within the past four years. He has also competed in three
powerlifting meets in the past two years, earning two overall best raw lifter
awards. He is NASM, CES, PES, and RKC certified. If you have any questions on
bodybuilding, powerlifting, or kettlebell training, email him at
Asignoretta@aol.com.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength
training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products
and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit
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