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| Image from Alya's Fit Club |
I am pretty sure that 99% of all women have trouble battling the belly bulge.
And I'm not talking just any belly bulge.
I speak of the dreaded lower belly bulge.
a.k.a. The Pooch
So, I have investigated and researched to find out what we can do to get rid of it forever.
{I will combine the information I found with my medical training and bring it all together so that it makes sense...because I like things to make sense. Also, there are many many ways to get in shape. This is just my take based on my experience and knowledge.}
Rule #1: You won't see your abs or get a real flat stomach without burning the fat on top of your abs. Hmmm....makes sense.
Rule #2: Best way to burn the belly fat is to increase your metabolism (burn fat) with working your large muscle groups such as glutes and legs.... not your abs (pretty small muscle group). Makes sense too. That's one reason why running can help you burn so much fat. You are not only working your glutes and legs but a ton of other muscles as well.
Rule #3: Working your abs more will give you more definition in your abs (after the fat is gone). Don't want definition but just a flat sleek stomach? Don't work your abs much.
K. Let's do this thing.
Step #1: Burn Fat
How?
A) Healthy Diet is a MUST. It all starts here. Please tell me that you are going to get a rip-roaring set of six-pack abs while you are fueling your body with twinkies and orange soda. Anybody would laugh at you. As you said this, you probably just laughed at yourself.
You need foods that are going to fuel your body for exercise, repairing itself and gaining strength.
Many people have different food requirements due to health and body type, however, a diet that is simply high in fresh foods and low in processed foods is the way to start. This does not mean you can never ever have a twinkie again or a big tall glass of bubbly orange soda. Just stick to having them every once in a while instead of daily breakfast. =)
We will be chatting more about food in the future because I love food and I love science.
So fuel your body with healthy options. More Fresh. Less Processed.
Well you can't just eat healthy.
You have to make sure you're not eating too much healthy stuff.
{The nice part is that if you are eating highly nutritious foods, your body will likely be satisfied with less food than you think.}
I'm a huge proponent of calorie counting.
It makes you aware of what you are eating even if you don't try to change your diet that much.
I love MyFitnessPal.com. It's really easy to use and there is an app for it.
It will help you decide about how many calories you should be eating to get to your goal.
{Please keep in mind when using any program like this that it is a computer. It uses equations to calculate how many calories you should be eating. It does not have higher cognitive thinking so please evaluate and make sure it makes sense for you. When in doubt, ask a professional if it makes sense.}
B) Fitness is also a plus. Now yes, most people can lose weight without exercising an ounce. I have done it. Others have done it. It's science. I went from 145 to 125 within 2 months by drastically cutting my calories (there were other health issues here too).
Was I healthy? Heck no.
I didn't take into consideration anything I ate. I just stopped eating.
Skinny but weak is what it came down to.
In the simplest form:
If your Calories "In" is less than your Calories "Out" (or expended) = Weight Loss
You create a calorie deficit that your body needs to make up for from somewhere else in your body.
This is science and physics and is true if you eat at least your minimum to maintain your body's metabolism (Usually 1200 calories for women and 1800 for men).
{Eating less than this flips your body over into "starvation" mode and decreases your metabolism = Not Good for Weight Loss... more on this later}
So you either need to eat fewer calories than you need or burn more calories than you eat/need.
Either one should work dandy for you. A combination would be fantastical.
As stated previously, the best fat burning exercises are those that work your large muscle groups.
Large muscles groups use large amount of calories.
Small muscle groups use small amount of calories.
Garbage in Garbage Can, Makes sense.
So which muscle groups are large?
You guessed it.... the butt (glutes) and the legs!
So go and exercise those legs and butt to burn maximum calories.
The awesome part about this is that by exercising, you will "damage" (in a good way) or "wear out" your large muscles creating a need for repair even after you have stopped working out.
Your body is using calories (and nutrients) to repair those damaged muscles.
Muscle Repair = Temporary Increased Metabolism
Ah Ha!
This is why moderate exercise increases your metabolism (and burns calories) even after you are done!
My mind has been blown.
Don't want a huge muscley butt or bulky man legs?
Good. Neither do I..... just don't use weights. {See Next Post}
Exercises that use your natural weight and gait in addition to stretching are best for elongating your physique.
Ways to use those legs and butt:
Running! (Better for you than you might think if you do it right...more on that later too)
Biking
Lunges (Must use correct technique to not injure your knees)
Squats (with correct technique)
Kickboxing
Pilates
Any leg raises and such (Watch some YouTube videos!)
Sports! (especially Soccer!)
Anything that makes you "feel" those legs!
{These all use different muscles of your glutes and legs}
Start slow. You may not feel how much they are actually working when you do these.
Don't get bored. Keep variety in your workouts.
Okay....now that we are lean machines....
{You do not actually have to do these steps simultaneously. I am doing both the steps at the same time and I like the variety. Do whatever you want. It's highly individual and the best workout is the one you will do.}
....you just might be surprised what type of abs are hiding underneath the layer of fat above them.
Step #2: Tone ab muscles.
Ab's Anatomy
Take a look at the above picture of the dissected torso.
Your abs consist of the four bolded names pointing to muscle.
(The linea alba is the huge connective tissue pulling all your ab muscles together)
We are going to examine these muscles so we can understand which exercises will engage which muscles.
Transversus Abdominis- This is the deepest abdominal muscle named after the direction of the muscle fibers running from your side to your front. It compresses the the ribs and other internal organs creating stability. These muscle help mothers delivery their baby. :)
Internal Oblique- This muscle lies on the outside of the transversus abdominus. Notice the direction of the fibers. If you were to contract that muscle you would expect it to pull you down and slightly to the outside of your body (as if bringing your left shoulder to your right hip). These muscles play a role in breathing as well as bending. They work closely as a team with the next muscle.
External Oblique- You can see that the fibers are running perpendicular to the internal obliques. They work closely together to allow your torso to bend in all different directions. When you bend taking your left shoulder to your right hip, the muscles that are working together to produce this movement are the right internal obliques and the left external obliques because the fibers run in the same direction. Sweet!{If that didn't make sense, refer to the picture above and orient yourself to see which muscles are contracting} These muscles pull the chest down as well as compress your innerds.
Notice that these are the muscles where your love handles are located. Right? Working these muscles out while you have 2 inches of love handle fat on top of it will not give you the figure you are looking for. You must get rid of the fat first. Yes, doing bicycle crunches will burn calories which will result in decreased fat....but so will running, or biking, or playing tennis, or lunges. Until you get rid of the fat by burning calories in general, you will not see your beautiful set of rock hard obliques. Don't expect to "spot treat" your body if you have fat to lose. It doesn't work that way (until you have less fat and can actually see your muscles....then you can spot treat.) Just an FYI.
The last abdominal muscle is the huge one we are most familiar with on ourselves as well as on pigs.
That's right. It's canadian bacon, also known as...
Rectus Abdominis- consists of 8 separate muscles all tied together by tendon. If you were to take one section out of a pig and slice it thin....you get canadian bacon! As you can see, the muscle fibers run up and down. Contracting these muscles bends your torso down to your feet.
This, my friend, will be your 6-pack...if you want a 6-pack.
{You may have even heard of people having an "8-pack". Yes, it is possible. It is just extremely difficult because the lowest muscle group is elongated.}
Same thing here. If you have fat on top of your rectus abdominus, you will not see how rock-hard awesome they are until you get rid of that subcutaneous fat (fat under the skin) no matter how many crunches or sit-ups you do.
That said, you can tone up your abs if they need it to get a small improvement almost immediately. That's the nice part!
The big results you see in the magazines won't happen yet though.
So.
This is my plan.
1- Burn Fat
2- Tone Abs (not necessarily by doing ab exercises)
I am already doing this by combining running with my strength training so really all we need is patience at this point.
Most of my strength training has involved the legs and glutes and I have already seen the impact.
Keep in mind that you engage your ab muscles when you do most of your other exercises!
I have started shedding pounds and fat from everywhere including my face and neck. My abs are starting to see indents.... and not from rolls like in the past.
My muscle are getting more toned. It feels great!
This raises another point. Toning vs Building Muscles
{SEE NEXT POST}
Lower Ab Reverse Crunches Plus
This is by far my favorite video of working the lower abs
He understands and explains the relationship between the hip flexors and the abs that most of the youtube videos you see don't mention.
See here, class.
The picture below shows all the muscles that compose the "hip flexor" muscle group.
The Psoas Major is the main muscle we will be considering. See how it connects from the spine down to the femur? What will happen if you contract this muscle keeping your spine in place?
Your leg will lift up as if you were going to step up onto a stair.
What happens if we contract this muscle and keep the femur in place. We bend at the hip as if bending over to tie your shoe. This is a similar move to a crunch, right?
You're right!
Certain "abdominal" exercises that you see people perform may actually be working your psoas major muscle more than your abs. Example: The Sit-Up
You use your psoas major muscle to pull your lower back off of the ground and towards your legs.
Now when we look at a traditional crunch, we are immobilizing our lower back and taking the psoas muscle out of the equation. Now we have isolated our ab muscles. So to maximize your ab workout...do crunches over sit-ups. If your back is arching a lot, that might be an indicator that your psoas muscle is at work.
Now wait a second! I didn't say sit-ups don't work and are good for nothing. They just don't work your abs as much as you might think they do or as much as other exercises. They do work your hip muscles and surrounding supportive muscles (including abs).
Rule of Thumb: Do you feel a burn in your abs or somewhere else?
Reverse Crunches
This exercise is similar to the last video.
{I will combine the information I found with my medical training and bring it all together so that it makes sense...because I like things to make sense. Also, there are many many ways to get in shape. This is just my take based on my experience and knowledge.}
Rule #1: You won't see your abs or get a real flat stomach without burning the fat on top of your abs. Hmmm....makes sense.
Rule #2: Best way to burn the belly fat is to increase your metabolism (burn fat) with working your large muscle groups such as glutes and legs.... not your abs (pretty small muscle group). Makes sense too. That's one reason why running can help you burn so much fat. You are not only working your glutes and legs but a ton of other muscles as well.
Rule #3: Working your abs more will give you more definition in your abs (after the fat is gone). Don't want definition but just a flat sleek stomach? Don't work your abs much.
K. Let's do this thing.
Step #1: Burn Fat
How?
A) Healthy Diet is a MUST. It all starts here. Please tell me that you are going to get a rip-roaring set of six-pack abs while you are fueling your body with twinkies and orange soda. Anybody would laugh at you. As you said this, you probably just laughed at yourself.
You need foods that are going to fuel your body for exercise, repairing itself and gaining strength.
Many people have different food requirements due to health and body type, however, a diet that is simply high in fresh foods and low in processed foods is the way to start. This does not mean you can never ever have a twinkie again or a big tall glass of bubbly orange soda. Just stick to having them every once in a while instead of daily breakfast. =)
We will be chatting more about food in the future because I love food and I love science.
So fuel your body with healthy options. More Fresh. Less Processed.
Well you can't just eat healthy.
You have to make sure you're not eating too much healthy stuff.
{The nice part is that if you are eating highly nutritious foods, your body will likely be satisfied with less food than you think.}
I'm a huge proponent of calorie counting.
It makes you aware of what you are eating even if you don't try to change your diet that much.
I love MyFitnessPal.com. It's really easy to use and there is an app for it.
It will help you decide about how many calories you should be eating to get to your goal.
{Please keep in mind when using any program like this that it is a computer. It uses equations to calculate how many calories you should be eating. It does not have higher cognitive thinking so please evaluate and make sure it makes sense for you. When in doubt, ask a professional if it makes sense.}
B) Fitness is also a plus. Now yes, most people can lose weight without exercising an ounce. I have done it. Others have done it. It's science. I went from 145 to 125 within 2 months by drastically cutting my calories (there were other health issues here too).
Was I healthy? Heck no.
I didn't take into consideration anything I ate. I just stopped eating.
Skinny but weak is what it came down to.
In the simplest form:
If your Calories "In" is less than your Calories "Out" (or expended) = Weight Loss
You create a calorie deficit that your body needs to make up for from somewhere else in your body.
This is science and physics and is true if you eat at least your minimum to maintain your body's metabolism (Usually 1200 calories for women and 1800 for men).
{Eating less than this flips your body over into "starvation" mode and decreases your metabolism = Not Good for Weight Loss... more on this later}
So you either need to eat fewer calories than you need or burn more calories than you eat/need.
Either one should work dandy for you. A combination would be fantastical.
As stated previously, the best fat burning exercises are those that work your large muscle groups.
Large muscles groups use large amount of calories.
Small muscle groups use small amount of calories.
Garbage in Garbage Can, Makes sense.
So which muscle groups are large?
You guessed it.... the butt (glutes) and the legs!
So go and exercise those legs and butt to burn maximum calories.
The awesome part about this is that by exercising, you will "damage" (in a good way) or "wear out" your large muscles creating a need for repair even after you have stopped working out.
Your body is using calories (and nutrients) to repair those damaged muscles.
Muscle Repair = Temporary Increased Metabolism
Ah Ha!
This is why moderate exercise increases your metabolism (and burns calories) even after you are done!
My mind has been blown.
Don't want a huge muscley butt or bulky man legs?
Good. Neither do I..... just don't use weights. {See Next Post}
Exercises that use your natural weight and gait in addition to stretching are best for elongating your physique.
Ways to use those legs and butt:
Running! (Better for you than you might think if you do it right...more on that later too)
Biking
Lunges (Must use correct technique to not injure your knees)
Squats (with correct technique)
Kickboxing
Pilates
Any leg raises and such (Watch some YouTube videos!)
Sports! (especially Soccer!)
Anything that makes you "feel" those legs!
{These all use different muscles of your glutes and legs}
Start slow. You may not feel how much they are actually working when you do these.
Don't get bored. Keep variety in your workouts.
Okay....now that we are lean machines....
{You do not actually have to do these steps simultaneously. I am doing both the steps at the same time and I like the variety. Do whatever you want. It's highly individual and the best workout is the one you will do.}
....you just might be surprised what type of abs are hiding underneath the layer of fat above them.
Step #2: Tone ab muscles.
Ab's Anatomy
 |
| Image from skinnybulkup.com |
Take a look at the above picture of the dissected torso.
Your abs consist of the four bolded names pointing to muscle.
(The linea alba is the huge connective tissue pulling all your ab muscles together)
We are going to examine these muscles so we can understand which exercises will engage which muscles.
Transversus Abdominis- This is the deepest abdominal muscle named after the direction of the muscle fibers running from your side to your front. It compresses the the ribs and other internal organs creating stability. These muscle help mothers delivery their baby. :)
Internal Oblique- This muscle lies on the outside of the transversus abdominus. Notice the direction of the fibers. If you were to contract that muscle you would expect it to pull you down and slightly to the outside of your body (as if bringing your left shoulder to your right hip). These muscles play a role in breathing as well as bending. They work closely as a team with the next muscle.
External Oblique- You can see that the fibers are running perpendicular to the internal obliques. They work closely together to allow your torso to bend in all different directions. When you bend taking your left shoulder to your right hip, the muscles that are working together to produce this movement are the right internal obliques and the left external obliques because the fibers run in the same direction. Sweet!{If that didn't make sense, refer to the picture above and orient yourself to see which muscles are contracting} These muscles pull the chest down as well as compress your innerds.
Notice that these are the muscles where your love handles are located. Right? Working these muscles out while you have 2 inches of love handle fat on top of it will not give you the figure you are looking for. You must get rid of the fat first. Yes, doing bicycle crunches will burn calories which will result in decreased fat....but so will running, or biking, or playing tennis, or lunges. Until you get rid of the fat by burning calories in general, you will not see your beautiful set of rock hard obliques. Don't expect to "spot treat" your body if you have fat to lose. It doesn't work that way (until you have less fat and can actually see your muscles....then you can spot treat.) Just an FYI.
The last abdominal muscle is the huge one we are most familiar with on ourselves as well as on pigs.
That's right. It's canadian bacon, also known as...
Rectus Abdominis- consists of 8 separate muscles all tied together by tendon. If you were to take one section out of a pig and slice it thin....you get canadian bacon! As you can see, the muscle fibers run up and down. Contracting these muscles bends your torso down to your feet.
This, my friend, will be your 6-pack...if you want a 6-pack.
{You may have even heard of people having an "8-pack". Yes, it is possible. It is just extremely difficult because the lowest muscle group is elongated.}
Same thing here. If you have fat on top of your rectus abdominus, you will not see how rock-hard awesome they are until you get rid of that subcutaneous fat (fat under the skin) no matter how many crunches or sit-ups you do.
That said, you can tone up your abs if they need it to get a small improvement almost immediately. That's the nice part!
The big results you see in the magazines won't happen yet though.
So.
This is my plan.
1- Burn Fat
2- Tone Abs (not necessarily by doing ab exercises)
I am already doing this by combining running with my strength training so really all we need is patience at this point.
Most of my strength training has involved the legs and glutes and I have already seen the impact.
Keep in mind that you engage your ab muscles when you do most of your other exercises!
I have started shedding pounds and fat from everywhere including my face and neck. My abs are starting to see indents.... and not from rolls like in the past.
My muscle are getting more toned. It feels great!
This raises another point. Toning vs Building Muscles
{SEE NEXT POST}
Lower Ab Reverse Crunches Plus
This is by far my favorite video of working the lower abs
He understands and explains the relationship between the hip flexors and the abs that most of the youtube videos you see don't mention.
See here, class.
The picture below shows all the muscles that compose the "hip flexor" muscle group.
The Psoas Major is the main muscle we will be considering. See how it connects from the spine down to the femur? What will happen if you contract this muscle keeping your spine in place?
Your leg will lift up as if you were going to step up onto a stair.
What happens if we contract this muscle and keep the femur in place. We bend at the hip as if bending over to tie your shoe. This is a similar move to a crunch, right?
You're right!
Certain "abdominal" exercises that you see people perform may actually be working your psoas major muscle more than your abs. Example: The Sit-Up
You use your psoas major muscle to pull your lower back off of the ground and towards your legs.
Now when we look at a traditional crunch, we are immobilizing our lower back and taking the psoas muscle out of the equation. Now we have isolated our ab muscles. So to maximize your ab workout...do crunches over sit-ups. If your back is arching a lot, that might be an indicator that your psoas muscle is at work.
Now wait a second! I didn't say sit-ups don't work and are good for nothing. They just don't work your abs as much as you might think they do or as much as other exercises. They do work your hip muscles and surrounding supportive muscles (including abs).
Rule of Thumb: Do you feel a burn in your abs or somewhere else?
Reverse Crunches
This exercise is similar to the last video.
Rolling Knee Tucks
The next video is a full body workout. It is difficult because you need strong arms to do it.
(I don't have those yet)
I could only do about 8 so I wouldn't pay for it later. ;)
I like it though and I think I will continue to do this to get my core, arms and abs strong.
Make sure you keep good form and engage your abs like she says. It is really easy to have bad form, which can not only hurt you but it doesn't give you the workout you should be getting from this.
Roll-ups and Planks
Planks are a great full body workout because you have to engage so many muscles to hold good form. You will want to only hold it as long as you can keep good form or else it could hurt your back. Work up to longer and longer holds as your back and core gets stronger.
Another good tip from this video is to go slow so you are activating those ab muscles and not relying on momentum.
Well, I hope this information was useful!
Stay tuned for more info!
Let me know what experiences you have had!
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