Okay, it's been a while since I posted here.... Why? Well quite frankly, I kind of overdid at Thanksgiving! You see, I'm not one of those "turkey sandwich" people..... Oh, I used to be but somewhere along the line, I turned into a "Turkey Dinner" person. Yep, while most folks are having a leftover turkey sandwich, I'm doing the whole dinner all over again. And again. And again. And again.... until it's all gone. Yes, I'll have Thanksgiving dinner twice a day for several days in a row and I'll enjoy every flippin minute of it. LOL

But now I'm paying for it - my spare tire is bigger (or at least as big) as it ever was!  So, to make up for my relapse I started digging around for some information on nutrition and believe it or not, some of the best information was actually already sitting on my hard drive. I'm talking about an email that I received from Mike Geary - Are you familiar with Mike?

Mike is the guy behind a lot of the information I've been finding on six pack abs, he's a certified Nutrition Specialist and he's a certified personal trainer. But most of all, a lot of you might know his name because he's the guy that wrote "The Truth about Abs" - When you click on that link or the link in some of my other posts you'll go to his website. Anyway, here's a cut and paste of some nutrition information that he sent me in an email that I thought made a lot of sense:

Hey there, it's Mike Geary from TruthAboutAbs.com

I was at the grocery store today picking up some ingredients for a black bean & brown rice with seasoned venison strips dish I was planning to make, when an interesting thing happened...

I had gone straight to the grocery store after training a couple clients at the gym. Well, as I was grabbing some frozen veggies, a friendly lady (who must have seen that I was a fitness coach from my shirt), asked me my advice on a couple frozen prepared box meals she was picking out (by the way, those prepared frozen meals are usually highly processed crap loaded with sodium and other chemicals).

Now I will say that this woman was VERY overweight, and she mentioned that she has "tried everything" to get rid of all of the excess body fat and always failed.

Keep in mind I hear about 50 people a day tell me they've "tried everything" to get in shape. The problem that they don't realize is that they're trying all of the wrong things...they're trying all of the gimmicks and fads that are out there instead of just adopting a TRUE healthy active lifestyle.

Back to the woman in the store...

So we started chatting about her struggles with getting in shape, and I began scanning her grocery cart. If I can remember, these were some of the contents she thought were healthy:

*Slim fast shakes (far from healthy...they're actually loaded with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and a bunch of other chemicals)

*Fat Free Rice Cakes (ok...despite so many people believing these pieces of crap are healthy...they really are nothing but pure refined starch with zero fiber, which basically breaks down immediately into sugar in your body, spiking insulin and promoting fat storage...doesn't sound so good anymore, huh)

*Protein bars "Scientifically Slim Body Engineered" or some BS statement like that (I took a gander at the ingredient list of these so called "healthy" protein bars and sure enough... hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and enough sugar alcohols to give you diarrhea for a week!)

*Canned fruit in syrup (I guess she could do worse here...but still, why not just eat fresh whole fruit which still contains the skins, fiber, active enzymes, etc, instead of resorting to processed, canned fruit that's been cooked and loaded with syrup)

*Reduced Sugar Dessert Cakes (ok, so these are loaded with artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, preservatives, and a chemical ingredient list about 15 lines long)

Do you see what's going on here? This is the same scenario that I see all the time.

Most people are fooled by what the FRONT OF THE BOX says, leading them to believe what they are buying is healthy. On all of these items, the FRONT of the packages had all kinds of great sounding things like "fat free", "reduced sugar", "high protein", "low cholesterol", "low carb", etc.

However, the TRUTH is on the BACK OF THE BOX! Ah yes, the ingredient list and nutrition info is where the real truth is. However, I've realized that most of the general public doesn't know how to fully understand the ingredient list and nutrition info, so they rely on the advertising claims on the front of the package to guide them.

BIG MISTAKE!

If you notice, this woman thought she was doing great with her grocery shopping and buying all kinds of healthy stuff for her and her family.

In reality, EVERYTHING she was buying was highly processed and full of chemicals and industrially refined ingredients. No wonder "nothing has worked" for her to get in shape and lose the body fat... she actually hasn't been doing anything right. She's been mislead by all of the confusing marketing, labeling and conflicting nutrition info in the mass media.

If you want to discover the TRUTH about what it really takes to eat a truly healthy diet that maximizes your metabolism, brings your hormonal balance back to normal, reduces cravings, and strips off body fat faster than you'd believe is possible... it's all found in my Truth about Six Pack Abs program at TruthAboutAbs.com


 
For anybody just now taking a look at this site I'm sure these exercises probably look a bit strange since they're titled exercises for Abs Workout and yet they don't seem to be targeting the abs at all..... Well, if you go back a few posts you'll see that we're tackling exercises that have lots of movement and lots of resistance and targets some of the big muscle groups. This is because we want to burn off some fat quick, remember, we're trying to get down below 10% body fat! Oh, I should mention, for ladies your target will be to get down to 16% body fat. So anyway, we'll get to some more ab specific exercises eventually but for now here's another compound exercise that'll help you quick!
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Lots of other great information for your abs workout can be found here!

Lat Pullovers

Lat Pullovers are another compound exercise that mainly works the lats but also the triceps, upper back, posterior deltoids, and chest muscles.

Use an exercise bench and a barbell or dumbbell. If you're using a barbell add the correct weight to it and then sit on the bench with the barbell resting across your thighs.

1. Grasping the bar, lean backward and lie flat on the bench while lifting the weight over your chest with your arms extended.

2. Allow your elbows to bend while moving the weight back and downward behind your head. Continue to move the weight down until it is lowered as far as possible.

3. Pull the weight back up along the same path while straightening your elbows. The bar should come to a resting point just above your chest.

If using a dumbbell to perform this exercise the movements are pretty much the same, you grasp the dumbbell from the end with your thumbs wrapping around the handle. Your arms will be partially extended when you return to the starting position.

 
The Standing Barbell Curl targets the bicep.....

1. Place your hands (palms facing upwards) on a barbell at about shoulder width apart. Stand straight up with your feet together, arms extended and with your back straight.

2. With your elbows pulled into your sides and your body motionless, keep your eyes facing straight ahead while slowly curling the bar up. As you get to the top of the curl, squeeze your biceps hard.

3. Slowly lower the bar back to the starting position.

Do not use your body to help you curl the bar up, allow your biceps to move the weight. Keep your elbows fixed and at your side, they should not move forward while your curling the weight up. Do not allow the weight to drop fast while lowering it. A good rhythm is 1 to 2 seconds while curling the weight up and 2 seconds while lowering it.

Lots of other great information for your abs workout can be found here!
 
The Deadlift 

The deadlift is a compound exercise that works your hamstrings, gluteal muscles (that's your butt), lower back muscles, forearms, and trapezius muscle. You need to be very careful to perform the deadlift with the correct form because if performed improperly, the deadlift can cause serious injury. It's best to perform the deadlift with an empty bar or very light weight until you're sure that you've got the form mastered.

Set the barbell up on the ground and slide the weights onto it. (Again, it's best to master the technique with an empty or very light bar to start with.)

Set your feet approximately shoulder width apart and under the bar, your feet should be pointing forward or very slightly outward.  (the bar should be over the balls of your feet)

Squat down and place your hands on the bar just a little more than shoulder width apart. Use an alternate grip (one palm facing up and one facing down) to help stabilize the bar.

Lower your hips until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Keep the lower portion of your legs mostly vertical.

Flatten your back and keep looking straight ahead. Make sure that you keep the natural arch of your back.

Stand up, lifting the bar off the ground. Raise your shoulders and your hips at the same time and keep your back flat. The weight shoud be hanging with your arms straight. Go to a standing position with your posture upright. Keep your shoulders back. The bar will be in front of your hips, do not attempt to lift it higher.

In a controlled movement, lower the bar back to the starting position. Keep your back straight as you are still supporting the weight. Keep your head up and do not look at the bar or at the ground while lowering the weight. Lowering your head and looking down can cause you to strain your back and cause serious injury.
 
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Okay, so just to put things into perspective here there's got to be about a gazillion different weight training exercises out there and probably just as many ways to perform them. However, the information I've been reading (you know, the link I keep putting up - I'll put it up again at the end of this post) says you should be concentrating mainly on compound exercises and not isolation exercises.

To me, that makes a lot of sense. Considering that the overall goal is to reduce your body fat (so that you can see your abs) then it only makes sense that doing exercises that have large movements and exercise multiple muscles at the same time is going to be a much faster way to  go. So, I'm not saying you shouldn't do any crunches, leg lifts, or sit ups, I'm just saying that you shouldn't be spending a majority of your time doing them, thinking that the more you do of these isolated ab exercises the sooner you're going to see a six pack. Instead, you should be doing compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, and upper body presses. I'm going to start putting up a few exercises as I get time. You can get to them by clicking on the category Abs Workout or clicking here.

To drop your body fat down to under 10% is going to not only require some exercises but you're going to have to pay attention to what you're stuffing in the old pie hole! Yep, the old saying you are what you eat is probably a lot closer to the truth than the person that originally coined it thought. Here's that link again, just click
here!

 
Abs Workout
I've been searching around online and trying to find out as much information as I can about how to attack this waistline blob. And I've been finding out some pretty good information.... stuff I never would have guessed.

For example: I don't have a gym membership and I don't really have much exercise equipment at home so I'm thinking I'm probably going to have to invest in one of those ab rocker contraptions that you see on infomercials. But I'm finding out that most of those gadgets are pretty much junk. As a matter of fact, experts say that you can do crunches and ab exercises till the cows come home and you still might never see your abs! They say that crunches, ab machines, leg-lifts and sit-ups are among some of the least effective ways of developing and showing a six pack! So how do you get a good abs workout then?

According to some of the leading fitness experts out there, you won't see your abs until you get your body fat percentage down to 10% or less. So no matter how many ab specific exercises you do it's not going to help unless you're eating properly and excercising enough to reduce your body fat. Since ab specific exercises work such a small muscle group you could be making a lot more progress by working larger muscle groups. (Remember, the goal is to reduce your body fat, quickly, and effectively) - This doesn't mean you'll never do exercises for your abs, it just means that you don't want to concentrate all your time on just your abs when you could be doing full body exercises that have a larger benefit, such as squats, upper body presses, lunges, deadlifts, etc.

So it seems that the best abs workout is really a full body workout. I'll give some exercises that I found and how to perform them in another post tomorrow or the next day. If you can't wait till then feel free to check out the site I've been finding a lot of information at by clicking
here!

 
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So..... I guess now I know why little old men wear their pants so funny! You know, they either have the waist clear up around their chest or they have them cinched below their belly fat and they look like they're expecting a child any day now!

I never understood that before but now that I'm older and as the pounds race to my waistline it's all starting to be clear..... that's the only way that they can wear them!  All right, now before you go getting the wrong idea here let me just tell you that I've always been skinny, I've always been one of those people that could chow down anything, anytime and never gain a pound. Abs Workout? Not likely..... I never needed to.

And even now, I'm nowhere near fat, I'm actually still pretty skinny, I just have this annoying tire around my waist line now. Once again... Abs workout? Hmmmm.... maybe so! LOL

I thought I better start taking control of this before I grew my way through another waist size - I get online, and I start digging around. But I have a little bit of a problem here, you see, I really am skinny and while I'd like to lose this belly fat I really don't want to drop any pounds. So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to do some sort of abs workout but I'm going to have to really watch my diet at the same time. You know, try to keep from dropping weight while doing this abs workout thing!

I've never had six pack abs and when I started this I wasn't really trying to get them, I just wanted to burn off some of this belly fat. But while I'm reading up on this, I start to dream a little bit, It really would be kinda cool to have a six pack, wouldn't it? But I'm coming across some pretty crazy information - I've been finding info that says things like "It really doesn't matter how intense of an abs workout you do, you're not going to see your abs until you can get below 10 percent body fat".

So now I start wondering, just how much body fat do I have anyway?  I mean besides on my waistline!

I gotta go for now, I'll reveal more of what I've been reading tomorrow or the next day. Meanwhile, here's a great site where I've been getting a ton of info at.....click here.

    Author

    Okay, so maybe it wasn't such a bright idea to use hard candy to stop smoking!  - LOL

    My name is Frank, I'm 52 and have developed the classic "old man gut" thanks partly to my recent endeavor to stop smoking.

    Was I successful? Yes, if you call having to buy all new pants successful then I guess I was!

    I did manage to quit smoking!  But now, I have to lose this belly fat! So stay tuned everybody, as boring as this may be - It's my abs workout!

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