Wow - KAREN was an interesting WOD! Several of my Unit Fitness Program Managers at Buckley joined me outside today for 150 Wall Ball Shots!
Wall Ball... [wmv]
Wall Ball/Karen...[mov][wmv]
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday August 7, 2008 - Wall Ball Shots!
Wow - KAREN was an interesting WOD! Several of my Unit Fitness Program Managers at Buckley joined me outside today for 150 Wall Ball Shots!
Wall Ball... [wmv]
Wall Ball/Karen...[mov][wmv]
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Tips from the 'ABS EXPERT' Part 2: Exercise options, the 'Vacuum' and 'Roid-Gut'...
In this post, I share some OTHER abdominal exercises that my buddy Carl can try instead of only doing crunches and all its variants:
Carl:
I realized after basically bombarding you with my overall fitness philosophy, I never really did answer your specific question regarding some other ab exercises other than the crunch and all its many forms:
- I like hanging from the arm slings and raising my knees to my chest, and then when you get more advanced, raise your legs straight up, while extended.
- I like leaning back on a Swill ball and raising my chest to the ceiling with hands behind head. On the way back down you can hyperextend to get a good stretch on the lower abs.
- I like lying reverse on an inclined sit-up bench with my head high, and holding the leg brace padded bar with my hands and doing leg lifts to the ceiling.
- You can do modified leg lifts while lying flat on your back on the floor and lifting your entire pelvis and legs toward the sky.
Many of these obviously work more than just the abs, engaging the hip-flexors and rectus-femoris muscle of the quads. But that is the idea: Building functional all-around core strength.
I recommend never isolating or emphasizing the obliques, (AKA, 'love-handles'), because building these muscles, though they make a man's phyique look like a man, can make your waist look wider and be mistaken for fat, or amplify a spare-tire look. So no side twists or angled crunches. Speaking of obliques and properly presenting a your physique - when you or any of us guys wear boardshorts at the beach or are shirtless, make sure your shorts are pulled down slightly lower than where your lower obliques insert back into your hips. This will make your torso appear longer, your waist appear slimmer, and, the abs are not properly showcased if the obliques are not displayed along with them! (Just make sure butt-crack is not showing for goodness sake! Remember, this is not the same thing as wearing your pants like a G or young punk. This is a classy look.)
These aforementioned exercises all work the '6-pack muscles', but to emphasize a flatter stomach you must engage the 'transverse-abdominus', which runs across your mid-section like a big waist band, and is responsible for pulling your navel inward. You work this simply by sucking in your gut often!
In fact back in Bodybuilding's golden years this used to be a classic pose made most famous by Arnold, known as the 'Vacuum'. Nowadays, unfortunately, there is so much 'Roid-gut' and distended, overdeveloped abs in bodybuilding, this is no longer a realistic pose for most IFBB pros. This is mostly attributed to abuse of Growth Hormone and other anabolic steroids.
Hope this helps,
Max
Max Wettstein
Follow me at Twitter.com at Max_Wettstein
Airbus 320 Captain
JetBlue Airways
858-472-1884 Cell
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Tuesday, August 5, 2008
More tips from the 'ABS EXPERT'!
Howdy travel fanatics:
I thought I'd share another response I wrote to 'Carl', who "can't seem to lose that last 3 or 4 inches around his waist." Carl was under the false impression that if he did more crunches and more ab-exercises he could spot-reduce that spare tire. Unfortunately, as I explain to him below, it does not work that way! Check it out:
Carl:
Sorry it took me so long to respond. I have been slammed lately, but I enjoy hearing from you!
Do you think your waist size is increasing from subcutaneous fat covering the exterior of your abdominal muscles, or rather internal, visceral belly-fat, or both?
You do not need to do ab-exercises necessarily every day. You should try and exercise almost every day though. For instance – I only specifically target my abs about twice per week. What I do on a daily basis is keep my abs always engaged no matter what I’m doing – exercising or not…even when just sitting around! (NEVER let the gut hang out!) Keeping them relatively isometrically flexed throughout the day trains them to stay firmer, flatter, and more tone and eventually becomes subconscious.
Also, when ever you do full-body movements and functional exercise, it should be engaging your core, directly involving abs.
For the most part you cannot spot-reduce fat, so emphasizing crunches for example, won’t specifically burn-off the fat covering your abs or internal belly fat for that matter. So what matters for burning off the subcutaneous fat layer covering your abs, is achieving a slight calorie deficit each day through diet and exercise, to slowly burn away excess body fat percentage in general. You’ll need to get down to approximately under 8% if you want to see your 6-pack.
The weight scale isn’t always the most accurate feedback, since if you gain muscle while burning fat, not only may you not lose any weight, but you may gain weight, but still be leaner.
If you think your problem is an increase in internal, visceral belly fat building up on your Omentum and around your organs, then that requires a more in depth analysis of your lifestyle and physiology: Factors like stress levels, hormone levels, such as testosterone, Cortisol, DHEA, Growth Hormone, etc.
As a man ages past age 35, certain hormone levels taper off, also known as ‘Andropause’. This in itself requires a lifestyle shift to counteract, never mind what you’ve already been doing to stay fit. Fortunately, we should also be getting more experienced and SMARTER, about our training techniques, and more aware of feedback from our body and fitness level.
Be sure to include some more intense, full-body type exercises that push you into oxygen-debt and cause lactic acid as a byproduct. This type of intense exercise induces more growth hormone and testosterone release, both of which promote lean-body mass.
The alleged low-intensity “fat-burning” HR target zone, is usually just a big waste of time unless you are able to exercise for an hour or more.
A good night of sleep is essential to balancing hormones and restoring physiology mechanisms. It is by far the FOUNDATION for good health and a lean, fit body in general. If you’re not sleeping soundly for at least 6 to 8 hours, you will have lower levels of growth hormone and higher levels of Cortisol, not to mention a myriad of other immediate disadvantages to overcome throughout the day.
You can supplement with NSP’s DHEA-‘M’ about 25 mg per day to balance Cortisol and boost testosterone.
Avoid late-night meals, and be sure to split up your calories into 6 smaller meals/snacks throughout the day.
Increase your reps during weight-lifting to 15 to 20, where you’re failing on the last rep. Reduce rest between sets to one minute or less. These higher-volume, more intense work-outs boost growth hormone, and testosterone greatly contributing to leaner body mass, and, your HR will stay elevated burning more calories at the same time.
Consider replacing two meals per day with a whey protein powder blend and water mixed and nothing else.
These are a few suggestions, and if they sound familiar it is because a 6-pack training plan IS THE SAME plan as lean-body fitness plan!
Let me know how it works out!
Best,
Max
Original Email from 'Carl':
Hi Max,
I'm still battling the belly fat. I know there are abs somewhere under there. I will be getting your book, but I wanted a jumpstart on supplementation, so I contacted your mom and she gave me the supplements from one of your chapters. I would also like the ab exercises. I do ab exercises at the gym 3-4 times a week, but I'm thinking that I need to do ab exercises everyday. Am I right? My diet is very good, but I'm sure I will do better after I read your book. My mental attitude is great, but I seem to be stuck. I want an inch or two off the waist. I'm between pant sizes and I don't like it. For my frame, I would like to be a true 30-31 waist. That's my story.
I imagine you are extremely busy, so if you prefer I wait until the book comes out, that's fine, but I thought you might give me a few ab exercises besides crunches. Many thanks for your time.
I'm looking forward to reading your book. I'm sure you and Candy will be on the Oprah show very soon.
Warm regards, Carl Mattina
Max Wettstein
Follow me at Twitter.com at Max_Wettstein
Airbus 320 Captain
JetBlue Airways
858-472-1884 Cell
760-944-1884 Fax
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