Entries from November 2008 ↓

In The Truth About Six Pack Abs, Mike Geary explains the metabolic effect of full body
training. Weight training exercises can be broken down into either compound lifts or isolation lifts.

Compound lifts (or multi-joint exercises) work several muscle groups at once.
Isolation lifts (single joint exercises) usually focus on one particular muscle group.

As compound lifts work several large muscle groups at once, they burn more calories and stimulate greater release of fat burning and muscle building hormones. Some examples of multi-joint exercises include squats, deadlifts, presses, lunges, etc.

There are 24 multi-joint exercises in The Truth About Six Pack Abs that Mike explains
clearly how to do and with pictures.

On page 35 of The Truth About Six Pack Abs, Mike says:

“The reason they (multi-joint exercises) bring out your abs better is due to creating metabolic changes in your entire body that assist in reducing your body fat so you can better see the abs you have.”

He’s right… after doing any one of the 24 multi-joint exercises, my heart rate goes up, breathing is heavy and I break out in sweat! I focus the majority of my weight training workout on multi-joint free weight exercises like those recommended in The Truth About Six Pack Abs. Less time is spent on single joint exercises like bicep curl and tricep extension. I’m definitely a lot stronger and leaner now after switching to multi-joint exercises.

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Stability ball, also known as swiss ball, fitball, exercise ball or fitness ball, is one simple piece of equipment to have when training abs. (Stability ball is the only fitness equipment that I know has so many names!)

No abdominal machines or gadgets work as effective and safe as a stability ball. Here’s why…

When you sit in a machine, it stabilizes your body and your stabilizer muscles are not called into action. Not training your body to integrate other muscles to work together with the abdominal and deep core muscles creates strength imbalances and leads to injuries over the long term.

The benefits of training with stability ball include:

1. enhances balance, stability and control of deep muscles.

There are deep abdominal and back muscles that work as stabilizers for entire body. These muscles work together to protect spine and help with daily activities eg: lifting, throwing, bending, reaching, etc. When training with a swiss ball, the nature and instability improves centre of balance and activate stabilizer muscles. Unconditioned stabilizer muscles can lead to injury.

2. improves posture and support around joints.

Training with stability ball involves full range of motion and recruits additional muscle groups to maintain proper form. As the ball moves freely, it creates a wider range of motion for working the joints and keeping them flexible.

3 . greater muscle strength and endurance.

I’ve been training with stability ball for several years, and teach fitball classes twice a week. It’s an excellent piece of fitness equipment that I can’t live without. A simple ball indeed, but with many uses. It can be used not only for abdominal workout, but also total body workout.

In Firm & Flatten Your Abs, David Grisaffi explains the importance of core training. A complete abdominal training should not only focus on working superficial muscles (that gives the six-pack appearance), it must also strengthen and develop the underlying muscles. Strengthening the hidden muscles is crucial to preventing injury and improving physical performance. A core training program decreases the likelihood of back pain, neck pain, incontinence, ruptured disks, torn muscles and strained ligaments.

Your abdominal workout is not limited to crunches, sit ups and leg raises only. There are hundreds of exercises you can do for the core and abdominals. You don’t need fancy gym equipment. Most of the ab exercises in Firm & Flatten Your Abs can be done at home with a stability ball and bench only. A few of the abdominal exercises require cable apparatus which can be replaced with a light dumbbell.

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I’ve been doing weight training and intervals on the treadmill for the last 4 weeks. This week, I wanna do something different… bodyweight exercises (to build strength) and swimming (total body workout).

Personally, I find weight training builds muscle but not strength. Again, I’m speaking from my experience and for myself only. My upper body is weak, a common problem for most females. I manage to build strength in my shoulders, chest and arms by doing chest and tricep (close grip) push ups on toes (started on knees when I wasn’t strong enough).

Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training program (deluxe edition) offers many types of bodyweight workouts. I decided to try Bodyweight Turbulence Training Phase 2: Circuit Training Conditioning from the bonus book, Bodyweight TT 6-month Manual. There are 6 phases in this manual, from beginner to various advanced workout, where each phase is performed for 4 weeks before moving on.

I didn’t get to do Phase 2… because while in a hurry to go to the gym, I wrote down Bodyweight Turbulence Training Phase 3: Advanced Bodyweight Strength Training (workout A) instead! Only noticed my mistake only when I was at the gym. Anyway, I just went ahead with the Phase 3 bodyweight workout… which was tough and challenging. There are 5 supersets in a circuit. No rest between 2 exercises in a superset. Perform 3 rounds of each superset, with 1 minute rest after a superset, before moving to the next/new superset. Number of reps shown in bracket.

A1: Prisoner squat (15)

A2: Feet on ball push up (12)

B1: Bulgarian split squat (24)

B2: Chin up (Max 1)

C1: 1-leg ball curl (20)

C2: Spiderman push up (12)

D1: Walking lunge (24)

D2: Side plank leg lift (10)

E1: Rotate lunge (16)

E2: Ball jacknife (15)

This is only workout A.

There are 3 workouts in Phase 3: workout A, B & C, to be performed with a rest day in between.

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