Personal Training Blog with Douglasville Personal Trainer David Hansey

Wishing you all the best!!!
Dave

For most of us, abs are about looks. We crunch and we crunch and we get a variety of results. There are many different muscles that make up your abdominals and some of them are very deep tissue muscles. We should probably look at training all of them and training them smarter. While the crunch is an effective exercise, too many can have negative results. According to Dr. Michael Yessis in his book “The Kinesiology of Exercise, doing excessive crunches can lead to a flattening of the lumbar curve, which will weaken your back.

There are a variety of exercises that are much more effective on the look and health of the abdominals that can be added to your routine. When you work with a trainer, you may hear about “drawing in”. Some instructors talk about holding your abs in. These tactics are introduced to protect your back and to help your abs, but it is important to know how to do this properly. It is not just “sucking it in”.

One of these maneuvers is called the “drawing in” and it can make your abdominals look and perform better if you learn to master it.
According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine, the drawing in maneuver should be performed at the beginning of every set. To learn this technique, you can ask a trainer, but here are the basics from the National Academy of Sports Medicine. From your hands and knees (on all fours), pull in your abdominals while keeping your back flat. Hold for as long as you can. Once you can hold this move for 3 reps of 20 seconds each, you can move onto the plank maneuver. The plank maneuver starts in a push-up position (a real push-up, not on your knees!) From that position, you perform the same drawing in as you did on all fours. Pull in your abdominals but maintain a flat back.

Both of these exercises work deep tissue muscles in your abdominals that will help you change the look of your abs as well as keep your core balanced which will keep your abdominal area and all of the areas it supports, healthy.

Abdominal training should also include some work on a Swiss Ball for most people. The Swiss Ball protects your back so even if you have issues with your back, it is usually a good option for most people. There are a whole variety of effective exercises that you can do on the ball. One “on the ball” exercise that you may want to try is a crunch. This is a much more effective way to work your abdominals because you get a greater stretch than a standard crunch.

This is part 4 of my series on Weight loss. This time I will write about empty calories. Empty calories are the downfall of many diets. If you are keeping a diary and writing everything down, you should be able to see these.

Do you drink soda? I don’t know how many times a day I hear from personal training clients that they don’t like the taste of diet soda. Somehow they think this justifies drinking 300-400 calories worth of sugary soda. IT DOESN”T. If you want a soda, limit yourself to ONE DIET SODA per day. You need to drink water, not soda. And sugar soda is completely off limits — it is bad for your teeth, your waistline and your health.

Do you like coffee drinks from Starbucks? ME TOO. But I have a Grande NONFAT latte and I limit it to a couple of times a month. I don’t have anything with full fat milk or added sugar or sugary flavors. Some of the chocolate chip/caramel drinks have over 800 calories — like 1/2 day worth of calories.

Do you like to eat out? Really watch your portions — obviously – but also what you eat. Appetizers in restaurants can MURDER a diet. A blooming onion has over 2000 calories and potato skins can have over 2000 calories — avoid anything that even resembles fried cheese.

Do you eat off your kids plate? WHY?? Those couple of mouthfuls of mac and cheese can be the difference between you losing anything that week or not.

Do you hit the candy bowl at work? Work treats like candy and birthday cake. AVOID. And with any cake situation, use the two bite limit. That allows you to taste and be done.

Check back soon for part 5 on weight loss from Douglasville Personal Trainer, Dave Hansey and the Personal Training Blog!

Ok, here at the personal training blog, I deal in reality. I don’t expect you to be Superman or Superwoman. Sometimes when the holidays come though, people blow off their diet and workout completely.

Do you REALLY want to have to start all over again?

Most people only need about 5-6 hours a week to workout. And if during the holidays you drop this down a bit, that is a lot better than blowing it off completely

BUT before you give yourself a license to do less, consider this….. Strength training of 30 mins – an hour 2 -3 times a week is at most 3 hours a week. And cardio of 45 minutes, 4 times a week is 3 hours a week. Total at the very most is 6 hours a week and there are 168 hours in a week.

THAT’S RIGHT — you only need to 6 out of 168. So hmmmmmm, is your workout really the thing in your life that you do not have time for? If you work full time, you are putting about 40-80 hours a week into your job most likely depending on your commute and profession. If you sleep 8 hours every night, you are spending 56 hours asleep.

Since most people do not work 80 hour work weeks, then I think you can see where I am going here. Spending an hour every night watching TV and winding down is a nice way to relax. Spending 3-4 hours a night in front of the TV and blowing off your workout because you are “too busy” is fooling yourself.

Do an honest analysis of how you use your time and your priorities. I think most people will find after they do this that their workout fits in easily.