December 07

Ok now the Holidays are in full swing and the last thing MOM ( Most of America), is concerned with is their exercise regiment. As you know from previous articles one should just decrease their workout frequency and time per sessions but not stop all together.

I would like to address another subject matter with the new year just days away. Gym Etiquette. This is not the same as Miss Manners but I will be the authority in this matter having spent most of my adult life inside various fitness facilities.

You have joined the gym and having received your instruction on how to operate the machines correctly. Here are some pitfalls to avoid:

1. You do not own the equipment. People often will get on a machine and then sit there, look around, wait until they feel the urge to do their next set. This is bad etiquette. When you finish your set you should get off the machine even if you don’t think anyone is waiting for it, because more times than not the person is eyeing you to see when you finish so they can come and get one of their sets in and then get off for you to continue your sets.
2. Whatever weights you use for anything, put the weights back. The first gym I trained at was owned by a former Green Beret, whom also taught me self-defense, however, if he ever saw anyone who did not put weights back immediately after they finished with them, he would tell them to leave right there on the spot. Needless to say his gym was spotless, no weights left on any machine or the floor, ever. If you don’t have the discipline to put your weights back you will never have the discipline to achieve anything with your fitness goals.
3. If you sweat on a machine, wipe your sweat off. The cardio machines get a lot of people sweating on them it is not only courteous but common sense hygiene to wipe down the machine with whatever disinfectant the gym provides for you.
I will continue with this list for the next issue to keep all of you on the right side of Gym Etiquette so no matter what facility you go to in the World you will be informed on how to get along.  

Now you will remember I addressed the biggest myth in the Fitness Industry, more or less a fat little secret, pun intended that most ab exercises do nothing to decrease the girth of the waistline.

Alas this is true and interestingly enough I usually keep this information to myself. You ask why don’t I shout it out, expose the AB roller, Ab doer, Crunches, Sit Ups and the like? Well, the fact is people don’t want to hear the truth. That’s right, just like the movie “A Few Good Men”, with Jack Nicholson in the climatic scene being cross examined by Tom Cruise’s character, and he finally breaks and yells “You can’t handle the truth.” This is very much the way I have learned I can share this “truth” with only select people.

When I inform people and suggest a couple of alternatives of abdominal exercises that target the muscles that will flatten the stomach the people I advise don’t perform those exercises they just go back to performing the Ab exercises they have been doing for 2, 5, 7, pick a number of years. So after seeing this phenomenon several times I stopped telling people the “truth” because it seems they can’t handle the truth, except for my clients and people who take my bootcamp class, they have no choice but to follow what I instruct them to do for their abs.

Now the other side of the “truth” is simply genetics. Depending on your individual genetic make up you may or may not be disposed to have a flatter mid section versus others in society. Age plays a factor; this is why most of the Ab bearing Men and Women are young.

Regardless of whether you do Ad exercises the way you have been taught or the way that is optimal for decreasing the waistline, the biggest single factor as far as being able to see the definition in your abs is your diet. You can perform 1,000 ab crunches, or sit ups a day but if you are eating pizza, pasta and drinking a six pack every day to go along with it you may drink the six pack but you will never see a six pack.

Now that we are month away from the Holiday Season Officially starting this is when people will start to expand their waistline from Halloween through New Years and the questions about how to reduce their stomachs.
Ok here is something most people do not want to hear. Doing Ab exercises like crunches, sit-ups, all the silly Ab machine in existence do nothing for you stomach becoming flatter. This is the single biggest mis -information campaign ever perpetrated by gyms, makers of all the infomercial abdominal machines, and instructors of Ab classes around the world.
Here is the truth; the muscle that everyone concentrates on working for a flatter stomach is the rectus abdominus muscle commonly known as the six-pack, which is really an eight-back. This muscle is responsible for moving your rib cage towards your pelvis and when this happens the stomach bulges outward. Just try for yourself, lie down on your back and put one hand on your stomach, now do a crunch or sit up, viola your stomach bulges immediately as the eight pack contracts to help you move your torso toward your waist.
The main muscle that holds your stomach flat and tight is called the transverses muscle which is on the side and joins into connective tissue behind it. It is the body’s natural corset as it’s fibers run across your stomach, join into the back of the eight pack and wrap around the sides of the body attaching all along the rib cage and into the back muscles.
So under the misguided influence of multiple industries millions of well intentioned people are sweating away for hours and hours doing a variety of abdominal exercises with the hope of reducing their waistline. The net gain from all of this work is a minor increase in Ab strength and minimal reduction in the girth of the waistline.
All is not lost; I am not going to leave you with this cliffhanger for too long. I will continue this next month ABSolutely!