IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS MUSCLE…
(Later, unfortunately, came fat)
Muscle is the powerhouse of the body. It has a very special characteristic: it contracts. Given stimulus by the central nervous system, muscle fibers shorten to about two-thirds of their original length. And because of the clever ways in which those fibers are positioned, humans can do amazing things: like run 4-minute miles, climb impossibly high mountains, and make quick recoveries when they trip over their own shadows in public.
Muscles also protect your body from injury. The abdominals in particular, running from the bottom of the rib cage to the top of the pelvis, shield the delicate internal organs.
Finally, the abdominals are essential to good posture. They act in concert with the Spinal Erectors to hold you and your spine upright, much the same way opposing guywires support a tent pole.
At least, that’s what they were designed to do.
Soft, out of shape abdominals do little supporting or protecting. They don’t look great, either-hence the many diet and exercise programs available today. These programs, however, usually fail to distinguish between toning abdominal muscle and getting rid of excess fat.
Muscle and fat lay next to each other in the body and they are distinct and separate layers.
Fat is the body’s way of storing ‘extra’ food, You eat more than you need to sustain your daily activity and the excess ends up on your thighs, or the backs of your arms, and around your middle in the form of enlarged fat cells.
Getting rid of unwanted fat, if that is you goal, simply requires you to observe the tried and-true formula:
DIET + EXERCISE = WEIGHT LOSS
No secret here. Doing muscular work requires energy. That energy is derived from the food you eat and from your fat stores. If you decrease food intake and/or increase energy output, yet lose fat. Simple.
Some people, though, mistakenly assume the can ‘burn’ fat from around their middles by doing exercises involving the muscles in that area–sit ups, side bends, and the like. Not so. Doing exercises for any single muscle group does not burn enough calories to noticeably reduce fat furthermore, when fat does comes off, it comes off evenly from all over the body-not just the area being worked. To get rid of fat, you must force your body as a whole to burn lots calories by involving as many major muscle groups as possible. This means doing exercises like running, swimming, cycling, aerobic dance or jumping rope, and doing them consistently over a period of time. So much for fat.
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To condition abdominal muscle, it’s necessary to do exercises that…
• Involve the abs,
• Overload the abs-forcing them to do more work than they’re used to,
• Work the abs from a variety of different angles so that all the muscle fibers
get a workout.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at the most common abdominal exercises…
Click here to continue………
