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  5 Must-Know Ab Exercises
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  Fat Chance

“Welcome to McDonald’s, can I help you?”

“Yes, I would like a 10 piece Chicken Selects, one large order of fries, and a Chocolate Triple Thick Shake”

That one meal at McDonald’s will cost you 2900 calories and 123 grams of fat. For some people trying to lose weight, that is more than two days worth of calories.  You would have to spend 8-10 hours on the treadmill to make up for that indulgence.

 With all the fast food and junk food out there it doesn’t take a lot to undo the progress you make through diet and exercise.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest a think-tank in Washington DC has a great list of 10 best and worst foods.   Take a look, it is pretty eye opening and pretty scary.

So you are at the gym and you sit down at a weight machine. You figure out how much weight to use, but now you are stuck on how many reps to do.   How many reps you perform really depends on why you are lifting and what you are trying to accomplish.

• To build strength: Aim for 3 sets of 3-5 reps. 

• To build muscle mass: Aim for 3 sets of 6-12 reps.  

• To build muscular endurance: Aim for 3 sets of more than 12 reps.

So you are at the gym and you sit down at a weight machine. You take the pin out of the stack to add some weight.  How do you know how much weight to use? It really depends on why you are lifting and what you are trying to accomplish.

• To build strength: Use more than 85 percent of your one rep maximum.

• To build muscle mass: Use 67-85 percent of your one rep max.

• To build muscular endurance: Use less than 67 percent of your one rep max.

So you finish a set while weight lifting. How long do you rest before starting you next set?  It really depends on why you are lifting and what you are trying to accomplish

• To build strength and power: Rest 2-5 minutes between sets. You want your muscles to completely recover between sets.

• To build muscle mass: Rest 30-90 seconds. You want to begin the next set before you are fully recovered.

• To build muscular endurance: Less than 30 seconds. You want your muscles to stay fatigued throughout the workout.

A recent study was conducted comparing the physical attributes of amateur and professional golfers.  Results showed that the biggest difference was not in strength, but in flexibility.  So, chances are if you are an amateur golfer trying to improve your game, you need to stretch.

The more flexible you are, the more consistent your swing will be, you will be able to play longer, and you will be less sore the day after playing. The perfect golf stretching routine will hit all the major muscle groups in your body including: quads, hamstrings, lower back, hips, wrists, shoulders and muscles of the torso. 

Most people hate to exercise their abdominal muscles.  Why?  Because its so boring.   How many times can you do the same routine?  And most people’s routine is nothing more than crunches, crunches, and more crunches.  Do you want to spice up your routine a little?  If so, check out The Complete book of Abs.  Here is how the publisher describes it:

Anyone who works out knows that abdominal exercises have progressed light-years beyond the basic sit-up. In fact, a whole new generation of ab exercises and machines have advanced abdominal workouts to new levels of sophistication, designed for maximum efficiency to provide the trim, toned midsection that everyone wants. But how do you put the exercises together into a routine for your specific physique and needs?

The Complete Book of Abs shows you how. The first ab book for everyone–from beginners to fitness professionals. More than one hundred ab exercises–from traditional crunches and sit-ups to such cutting-edge techniques as corkscrews and hanging knee raises–drawn from diverse sources, including gymnastics, yoga, and the martial arts

¸ Includes the “Fifteen Minutes a Day to Ultimate Abs” system, which will take you from an undeveloped stomach to a rippled washboard look in six months

¸ Dozens of favorite and new routines from America’s foremost coaches, trainers, and bodybuilders

¸ How to be your own personal trainer and put together your own routines

¸ The most up-to-date information on diet and nutrition, including a personal
template to maximize diet-exercise efficiency

Already a fitness classic, The Complete Book of Abs, is the definitive guide for abdominal toning and strengthening. No one who’s serious about working out should be without it.

 

While the book seems a bit dated, the exercises are amazing.  Enough to keep you busy and excited for months. 

One of the easiest and most effective ways to lose weight is to keep track of everything you put in your mouth. Keeping a food diary will help you realize exactly how much you’re eating.

By the time you account for each little nibble here and there, snacks, meals, alcohol, cookies, etc. you’ll be surprised (and maybe horrified) at how much you can consume without even knowing it.

MyFoodDiary.com gives you the tools you need to make good, healthy decisions about food and exercise (including a food diary, an exercise log, powerful charts & reports, a body log, and a discussion forum).

The online food diary is easy to use. Simply search the food database of over 30,000 items and add your items to the food diary. They take the information that you have entered and give you suggestions about how to improve your diet or how to stay within your calorie goals. They count more than just calories. They also track fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, fiber, sodium, cholesterol, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and water.

Their exercise log lets you keep track of the calories burned through physical activity. Select from a list of over 600 activities or enter the information from your exercise equipment or heart rate monitor.

For all you type A’s out there, there are dozens of motivational charts & reports. Each report or chart is customized to your individual needs. You can view your progress over time, receive personal tips, and even see what you would weigh in 3 months.

I could, but I don’t think I need to!  Congratulations, what you are doing is working for you. You have already lost the majority of the weight you wanted to lose. The key is to keep going. Keep exercising, keep eating right, and keep losing. Right now, the best thing you can do is reconnect with why you are losing the weight in the first place.

• Are you exercising for better health?

• To reduce your risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, colon cancer, high blood pressure?

• Do you want to look better in your clothes?

• Or, better yet, do you want to look better without clothes?

Whatever the reason, it helps to find your motivation, because there will be times when you want to quit. There may be times every day when you want to quit. Without something powerful to keep you going, in good times and bad, you’ll find any excuse to say “enough.” You may have to constantly remind yourself why you are working so hard to lose the weight.

So you go to a personal trainer for weight loss and he or she wants you to lift weights.  Sounds counterproductive doesn’t it?  Why are they having you lift weights?

 Simply put, because they’re evil.  No, I’m just kidding. It sounds like your trainer knows what he’s doing. There are a few reasons why I have clients lift weights, especially when they’re trying to lose a few pounds:   

• Weight lifting turns you body into a calorie burning machine – It’s simple, muscle burns more calories than fat.  So adding muscle speeds your metabolism which allows you to eat the same amount of food and still lose weight.

• Lifting weights also reminds you to eat right — When you lift weights, you are probably going to be sore.  And soreness in your muscles is a great reminder to eat right.  Why waste two days of soreness for one doughnut?

• And finally weight lifting shapes your muscles so you look wonderful when you lose the weight.  I look at the big picture, so I get my clients bodies ready to look good when the weight comes off.

Oh, the dreaded cardio.  People either love it or hate it.  It seems there in nothing in between. 

 Do you still have to do it?  It depends on what your health and fitness goals are.  You can lose weight and lose excess fat through weight training and a calorie-reduced diet alone.  But, if you are trying to improve your health, reduce your chances of disease and improve your changes of living a long and happy life, I would suggest doing cardio.  Here’s why: 

• Cardio strengthens your heart.  Your heart is a muscle – a very busy muscle, beating 101,000 times a day and nearly 3 billion times in your lifetime.  And like any other muscle you can build it and make it stronger.  The stronger your heart is, the more efficient it is, the better it works and the longer it will last.   

• Cardio increases your lung capacity and reduces your risk of developing disease.  With regular cardio exercise you are able to transport more oxygen through your body.  This means you will be able to do more work before feeling “winded.”  It also lowers your chance of getting hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, osteoporosis, obesity, anxiety, depression, and breast and colon cancers.

• And most importantly cardio makes you feel good.  When you do cardio training, your body releases hormones called endorphins – to reduce your pain.  Endorphins are nature’s pain killers and are responsible for the famous “runners high.”  They affect the same part of the brain as opium and heroin.   So, now there is no need to share dirty needles in a back alley to feel good…just go for a run.

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