September 2007

SPOT TRAINING:  Gutbuster or Mythbuster?

Q:

If I did 10,000 crunches, I could get rid of my pooch belly, right?

-Rochelle

A:

Ooh, that one sounds like a math question.  Assuming you do the quickest crunches that still have good form you would need at least 2 seconds per crunch.  That is 20,000 seconds divided by 60 seconds for approximately a 333 minute workout.  Divide that by 60 minutes in an hour and you’ve got more than five and a half hours of crunching.  And that's not including the muscle fatigue that would make later crunches slower in order to have proper form.  Without training muscle fatigue would eventually make any more crunches impossible.

No one in their right might would suggest working on one muscle for that long.  If you tried that out of the blue one day, you wouldn’t hardly be able to walk or move the next day.  If you trained for it and built up slowly so you didn’t hurt yourself, crunches preformed properly will eventually build strong abdominal muscles.  Of course, there’s still the fatty pooch on top of the hard muscle.

You should be pulling the abs in toward the back with every crunch.  Are you training the muscle to push out more by pushing out when you lift the shoulders and contract the abdominal muscles?  poor form = poor results.  Remember this:  pull the abs in when you are sitting, standing, walking, exercising.  In other words, all the time.  

Bad posture when you’re standing, walking or sitting can also make the belly protrude.  We need to stand up straight without slouching, with the hips pivoted properly.  Read tips and tricks to improve your posture here.

Want to check the pivot of your hips?  Find the top of your hip bone on one side.  Find the front and back of the bone.  If you stand sideways looking in a mirror you can see if your hips are level front to back.  If the front of the hip is higher, you are probably sticking out your belly.  If the back of the hip is higher, you are probably sticking out your rear end. Sometimes cheerleaders are taught to do that, but it can lead to a Donald Duck butt as well as potential back problems.

I can suggest some ideas that wouldn’t be as damaging to the back and abs if you want to lose that belly fat Rochelle.

If we want to lose fat we need to expend at least a little more calories than we consume everyday. If the difference is too great and we burn a lot more calories than we consume, then the body kicks into survival mode and prepares for that kind of starvation again by saving calories and storing extra fat the next chance it gets. “Slow, but steady” may win the race, but slow and steady will lose the weight.

Burn more than we consume.  There are two ways to make that happen.  One way is to consume less with a sensible reducing diet.  The other way is adding a safe cardio workout to our routine, burning more calories.

Cardio exercise can even burn fat while we work out, if we training for the right duration at the right intensity. Read these articles about training zones, cardio exercise, and fat-burning for additional information.

You should consult your doctor before beginning any diet or exercise program.  While you’re there, see if your doctor thinks target-training the abs is safe for you.  If you are cleared for exercise, then refer to a qualified trainer to work with you in designing a custom program.

This is not intended as medical advice which should be obtained directly from your doctor.