Sabtu, 21 Maret 2009
Jumat, 27 Februari 2009
Mix up your core routine with the moves that will get you a six-pack
By the Editors of Men's Health
Abdominal exercises themselves will not burn fat, but you want to strengthen your abs so they're there to show off when the fat does vanish. Build a strong core and your abdominals will pop out of your midsection the way Tara Reid pops out of a dress.
These abdominal exercises can serve as the ultimate abdominal reference manual, and we've also included new exercises. The best part about these exercises is that you can treat them like a good wardrobe—mix and match them, change them from workout to workout, try ones you've never tried before, and construct your own circuit from any of the exercises. All you have to do is follow these guidelines:
Work out your abs 2 or 3 days a week
Abs develop when they're at rest, not when you're working them. So working them every day doesn't give them a chance to grow and get strong. You will develop abs by working them two or three times a week. I'd recommend adding the ab circuit to the beginning of your strength-training workout. Saving them until the end of the workout means there's more possibility that you'll skimp and take shortcuts.
Pick different exercises every workout
There are hundreds of ways to work your abs, but you need to pick only five exercises each workout. The key is variety: Changing your routine doesn't allow your abs to get comfortable, so they'll continue to grow after each workout.
Do a circuit
In the first week of workouts, do just one set of each of your five exercises. (A set is 10 to 15 repetitions, depending on the exercise.) In the second and third weeks, do two sets if you'd like, but perform them in circuits—that is, do all of the exercises once before repeating any of them. After that, you can increase to three circuits.
Go slow
Each rep of an ab exercise should last slightly longer than Richard Hatch's fame—4 to 6 seconds. Any faster, and you run the risk of letting momentum do the work. The slower you go, the higher the intensity. The higher the intensity, the stronger the stomach.
Pick any five exercises from the following sections. Perform in a circuit with no more than 30 seconds of rest (1 minute in some cases)—one exercise followed by the next. Rest. After Week 1, repeat the circuit. Some exercises use such equipment as medicine balls, dumbbells, or cable machines—and with some of the more advanced moves, you'll need a partner. If you're just starting out, pick beginner exercises. As you progress (using a smaller number of repetitions or eliminating equipment) to get the feel of more advance moves.
Steam Engine
Stand with your hands behind your head. Touch your left elbow to your right knee by bending and raising the knee while crunching your left armpit toward your right hip. Return to the starting position and repeat to the opposite side, crunching your right armpit toward your left hip.
16-20 repetitions (Beginner)
Toe Tap
Lie on your back and place your hands behind your ears. Lift your legs until your knees are above your hips and your lower legs are parallel to the floor. Press your lower back against the floor and crunch forward until your shoulders are off the floor. With your toes pointed down, lower your right foot as far as you can without lifting your back off the floor. Return to the starting position and repeat with your left leg.
10 repetitions (Beginner to intermediate)
Seated Twist
Sit on the floor, your back straight but leaning slightly toward the floor, as if in the "up" position of a situp. Your knees should be bent 90 degrees, your feet about 15 inches apart and resting on the floor. (Your feet can either stay flat or you can raise your toes so that just your heels are touching the floor.) Hold a medicine ball close to your chest, rotate your torso to the left, and place the ball on the floor behind you. Rotate around to the right, pick up the ball, rotate left, and place it behind you.
16-20 repetitions (Intermediate)
Single-Leg Wood Chop
Hold a light dumbbell in your left hand with a straight arm, above your shoulder. Bend your right knee 90 degrees to lift your right foot behind you. Balancing on your left leg, forcefully swing the dumbbell down toward your right hip. (Don't move it behind you.) Then bring it back to the starting position. Do half the repetitions, then switch sides.
16-20 repetitions (Intermediate)
Medicine Ball Throw
Holding a light medicine ball in both hands, lie faceup on the floor with your back flat and your knees bent. Extend your arms beyond your head so the ball is just above the floor. Your partner sits 5 to 10 feet in front of you with his feet flat on the floor, knees bent, and arms straight overhead so he's ready to catch your pass. Keeping your arms straight, curl your body up and throw the ball to your partner's hands. Remain in the sitting position. After he catches the ball, he should throw the ball back to you. Lower yourself as you catch it.
12-15 repetitions (Intermediate to advanced)
Swiss Ball Stability Pose
Lie facedown across two Swiss balls. Your body should be straight, with your chest lying on the first ball and your knees and shins resting on the other. With your feet spaced 12 to 18 inches apart, place your hands on the floor for balance and hold the position for 60 seconds. As you gain strength, place your hands on the side of the ball, or hold your arms out in front of you.
2 sets of 60 seconds (Intermediate to advanced)
Abdominal exercises themselves will not burn fat, but you want to strengthen your abs so they're there to show off when the fat does vanish. Build a strong core and your abdominals will pop out of your midsection the way Tara Reid pops out of a dress.
These abdominal exercises can serve as the ultimate abdominal reference manual, and we've also included new exercises. The best part about these exercises is that you can treat them like a good wardrobe—mix and match them, change them from workout to workout, try ones you've never tried before, and construct your own circuit from any of the exercises. All you have to do is follow these guidelines:
Work out your abs 2 or 3 days a week
Abs develop when they're at rest, not when you're working them. So working them every day doesn't give them a chance to grow and get strong. You will develop abs by working them two or three times a week. I'd recommend adding the ab circuit to the beginning of your strength-training workout. Saving them until the end of the workout means there's more possibility that you'll skimp and take shortcuts.
Pick different exercises every workout
There are hundreds of ways to work your abs, but you need to pick only five exercises each workout. The key is variety: Changing your routine doesn't allow your abs to get comfortable, so they'll continue to grow after each workout.
Do a circuit
In the first week of workouts, do just one set of each of your five exercises. (A set is 10 to 15 repetitions, depending on the exercise.) In the second and third weeks, do two sets if you'd like, but perform them in circuits—that is, do all of the exercises once before repeating any of them. After that, you can increase to three circuits.
Go slow
Each rep of an ab exercise should last slightly longer than Richard Hatch's fame—4 to 6 seconds. Any faster, and you run the risk of letting momentum do the work. The slower you go, the higher the intensity. The higher the intensity, the stronger the stomach.
Pick any five exercises from the following sections. Perform in a circuit with no more than 30 seconds of rest (1 minute in some cases)—one exercise followed by the next. Rest. After Week 1, repeat the circuit. Some exercises use such equipment as medicine balls, dumbbells, or cable machines—and with some of the more advanced moves, you'll need a partner. If you're just starting out, pick beginner exercises. As you progress (using a smaller number of repetitions or eliminating equipment) to get the feel of more advance moves.
Steam Engine
Stand with your hands behind your head. Touch your left elbow to your right knee by bending and raising the knee while crunching your left armpit toward your right hip. Return to the starting position and repeat to the opposite side, crunching your right armpit toward your left hip.
16-20 repetitions (Beginner)
Toe Tap
Lie on your back and place your hands behind your ears. Lift your legs until your knees are above your hips and your lower legs are parallel to the floor. Press your lower back against the floor and crunch forward until your shoulders are off the floor. With your toes pointed down, lower your right foot as far as you can without lifting your back off the floor. Return to the starting position and repeat with your left leg.
10 repetitions (Beginner to intermediate)
Seated Twist
Sit on the floor, your back straight but leaning slightly toward the floor, as if in the "up" position of a situp. Your knees should be bent 90 degrees, your feet about 15 inches apart and resting on the floor. (Your feet can either stay flat or you can raise your toes so that just your heels are touching the floor.) Hold a medicine ball close to your chest, rotate your torso to the left, and place the ball on the floor behind you. Rotate around to the right, pick up the ball, rotate left, and place it behind you.
16-20 repetitions (Intermediate)
Single-Leg Wood Chop
Hold a light dumbbell in your left hand with a straight arm, above your shoulder. Bend your right knee 90 degrees to lift your right foot behind you. Balancing on your left leg, forcefully swing the dumbbell down toward your right hip. (Don't move it behind you.) Then bring it back to the starting position. Do half the repetitions, then switch sides.
16-20 repetitions (Intermediate)
Medicine Ball Throw
Holding a light medicine ball in both hands, lie faceup on the floor with your back flat and your knees bent. Extend your arms beyond your head so the ball is just above the floor. Your partner sits 5 to 10 feet in front of you with his feet flat on the floor, knees bent, and arms straight overhead so he's ready to catch your pass. Keeping your arms straight, curl your body up and throw the ball to your partner's hands. Remain in the sitting position. After he catches the ball, he should throw the ball back to you. Lower yourself as you catch it.
12-15 repetitions (Intermediate to advanced)
Swiss Ball Stability Pose
Lie facedown across two Swiss balls. Your body should be straight, with your chest lying on the first ball and your knees and shins resting on the other. With your feet spaced 12 to 18 inches apart, place your hands on the floor for balance and hold the position for 60 seconds. As you gain strength, place your hands on the side of the ball, or hold your arms out in front of you.
2 sets of 60 seconds (Intermediate to advanced)
7 Steps to a 6-pack that will get you noticed
By Scott Quill, Men's Health
Forget for a moment that the shape of your midsection largely determines how good you'll look on the beach this summer — and how well you'll play volleyball. We'll get back to that in a minute.
The pursuit of abs goes deeper. You strive for a six-pack as if your life depended on it, and now science proves that it does. At ameeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, research was presented declaring that waist circumference is more conclusive than either weight or body-mass index (BMI) as a measure of disease risk.
Miami cardiologist Arthur Agatston, M.D., author of The South Beach Diet, puts it this way: "Abdominal fat is different and more dangerous than fat elsewhere. Unlike fat directly under the skin, belly fat, which adheres to organs, is associated with increases in C-reactive protein (CRP) and other markers of inflammation that can lead to heart disease."
Motivated yet? Good. We trust you'll lay off the fries and onion rings. Remember, if your body fat is too high, it doesn't matter how wisely you work your abs—they won't show. (For most men, anything over 10 percent body fat keeps your abs in hiding.)
For the next month, work your abs according to the following steps and try this eating tip from Nancy Clark, R.D., author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook: "I make two peanut-butter-and-honey sandwiches every day; I eat one for lunch at 11 and one for my second lunch at 3," Clark says. Notice that the 3 o'clock feeding is a "second lunch," not an "afternoon snack." Too many men equate snack time with, well, snacks—junk food. You'll eat smarter (whole grains and muscle-building protein) and not need as big a dinner if you allow for a second lunch. Plus, you'll have more energy for a better workout in the afternoon or evening.
This, in turn, will keep your insulin levels steady. When insulin is in excess (from too much sugar and not enough exercise), it can turn on you, depositing fat into your gut. Or worse. "When the pancreas burns out after years of producing excess insulin, that's when buildup begins in arteries; that can cause heart attacks and strokes," Dr. Agatston says.
But enough scary stuff. Time to hit the gym—and then the beach.
1. Train your abs with two types of exercise
Some ab exercises are based on movement. Others focus more on balance, so your abs contract harder to keep your body stable. "Most men have difficulty with either stabilization or mobilization," says Carter Hays, C.S.C.S., a Houston-based personal trainer and a performance-enhancement specialist for the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Include both types of moves in a workout to challenge your abs.
For instance, try performing a Swiss-ball rollout (mobilization), followed by a Swiss-ball crunch (stabilization). To do the rollout, kneel in front of the ball with your forearms pressed against it. Keeping your knees and feet in place, roll the ball in front of you so your hips, torso, and arms slide forward. Advance as far as you can without arching your back, then pull back to the starting position.
2. Get more from your cardio
Strip away abdominal fat by switching around your cardio routine so you run hard early. In a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, eight men ran for 30 minutes on 2 separate days.
In the first session, the men ran at a relatively high intensity—80 percent of their maximum heart rate—for 15 minutes, then slowed to 60 percent for the final 15 minutes. In the other session, they ran the slower part first.
The men burned 5 to 10 percent more fat when they ran faster at the start of the workout. "And this is only a 30-minute workout," says Jie Kang, Ph.D., the study's lead author. "If you extrapolate that to a longer workout three to five times a week, things can add up."
Here's why it works: To burn fat, your body first breaks down fat tissue into fat molecules. "Our study found that this works better when your abs exercise is done at a relatively high intensity," says Kang. Next, molecules go to your cells to be burned, which Kang says can occur at relatively lower intensities.
The best part: You'll feel as if you're burning fat easier than ever. Kang measured the participants' perceived exertion—how hard they felt they were working. Turns out the body feels fatigued late in a workout, regardless of what you do.
3. Stay hydrated
This one's almost too easy, but drinking plenty of water not only helps you burn fat, but also builds more muscle. "All creatine does is force fluid into the muscle," says Hays. "Your body will do that itself if there's enough water available."
4. Skip the bonus abs routine
Edging closer to sharp abs can tempt you to work them every day. Don't. Training more can actually make your abs show less. "You don't need to overwork your abs—they're no different from any other muscle," says Hays. "If you're always in a state of overtraining, you're going to get more laxity in your muscles."
In other words, they'll appear soft. Instead, add resistance to make moves you already do more challenging. For instance, hold a light weight plate during a Russian twist or Swiss-ball crunch. Then give your muscles time to rest.
5. Do more total-body exercise
Isolation moves like crunches are great for developing your muscles, but they don't burn much fat. You're better off training multiple muscle groups at once, says Hays. Total-body exercise burns more calories and also causes a greater release of muscle-building hormones.
Try combination moves, like the reverse lunge to cable chest fly. Stand between a cable station's weight stacks and grab a pulley handle with each hand. Hold your arms straight in front of you. Then step back with one leg, bend your knees, and let your arms move out to the sides. Pause when your back knee is just off the floor and your upper body looks like a T, then push yourself back up while you pull your arms together. Repeat the move with your other leg in the back position.
6. Get off the floor
Define the lower portion of the rectus abdominis (your six-pack muscle) with a Swiss-ball reverse crunch, but instead of doing the move on the floor, hop on a bench. "It allows for a greater range of motion," says Gregory Joujon-Roche, C.P.T., president of Holistic Fitness, in Los Angeles.
Lie faceup on the edge of a bench with a Swiss ball pinched between your heels and hamstrings. Keeping your abs drawn in, roll your pelvis off the bench and, maintaining the same knee angle, bring your knees toward your chest. Slowly lower the ball. As soon as your back begins to arch on the way down, that's the end of your range of motion. Pause at this point for a few seconds before finishing your set. Try five sets of 15 to 20 repetitions.
7. Go deep
Abdominal muscles are multilayered, but most men focus only on the outermost layer with exercises like the crunch. So look for moves that work the abdominal muscles closest to the spine, such as the plank. Strengthening these tiny stabilizers will provide a solid foundation to allow your six-pack muscles to grow stronger and bigger. For more exercises, check out The Abs Diet Online. It also provides you with a nutrition plan designed by our experts to target that pesky midsection.
Forget for a moment that the shape of your midsection largely determines how good you'll look on the beach this summer — and how well you'll play volleyball. We'll get back to that in a minute.
The pursuit of abs goes deeper. You strive for a six-pack as if your life depended on it, and now science proves that it does. At ameeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, research was presented declaring that waist circumference is more conclusive than either weight or body-mass index (BMI) as a measure of disease risk.
Miami cardiologist Arthur Agatston, M.D., author of The South Beach Diet, puts it this way: "Abdominal fat is different and more dangerous than fat elsewhere. Unlike fat directly under the skin, belly fat, which adheres to organs, is associated with increases in C-reactive protein (CRP) and other markers of inflammation that can lead to heart disease."
Motivated yet? Good. We trust you'll lay off the fries and onion rings. Remember, if your body fat is too high, it doesn't matter how wisely you work your abs—they won't show. (For most men, anything over 10 percent body fat keeps your abs in hiding.)
For the next month, work your abs according to the following steps and try this eating tip from Nancy Clark, R.D., author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook: "I make two peanut-butter-and-honey sandwiches every day; I eat one for lunch at 11 and one for my second lunch at 3," Clark says. Notice that the 3 o'clock feeding is a "second lunch," not an "afternoon snack." Too many men equate snack time with, well, snacks—junk food. You'll eat smarter (whole grains and muscle-building protein) and not need as big a dinner if you allow for a second lunch. Plus, you'll have more energy for a better workout in the afternoon or evening.
This, in turn, will keep your insulin levels steady. When insulin is in excess (from too much sugar and not enough exercise), it can turn on you, depositing fat into your gut. Or worse. "When the pancreas burns out after years of producing excess insulin, that's when buildup begins in arteries; that can cause heart attacks and strokes," Dr. Agatston says.
But enough scary stuff. Time to hit the gym—and then the beach.
1. Train your abs with two types of exercise
Some ab exercises are based on movement. Others focus more on balance, so your abs contract harder to keep your body stable. "Most men have difficulty with either stabilization or mobilization," says Carter Hays, C.S.C.S., a Houston-based personal trainer and a performance-enhancement specialist for the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Include both types of moves in a workout to challenge your abs.
For instance, try performing a Swiss-ball rollout (mobilization), followed by a Swiss-ball crunch (stabilization). To do the rollout, kneel in front of the ball with your forearms pressed against it. Keeping your knees and feet in place, roll the ball in front of you so your hips, torso, and arms slide forward. Advance as far as you can without arching your back, then pull back to the starting position.
2. Get more from your cardio
Strip away abdominal fat by switching around your cardio routine so you run hard early. In a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, eight men ran for 30 minutes on 2 separate days.
In the first session, the men ran at a relatively high intensity—80 percent of their maximum heart rate—for 15 minutes, then slowed to 60 percent for the final 15 minutes. In the other session, they ran the slower part first.
The men burned 5 to 10 percent more fat when they ran faster at the start of the workout. "And this is only a 30-minute workout," says Jie Kang, Ph.D., the study's lead author. "If you extrapolate that to a longer workout three to five times a week, things can add up."
Here's why it works: To burn fat, your body first breaks down fat tissue into fat molecules. "Our study found that this works better when your abs exercise is done at a relatively high intensity," says Kang. Next, molecules go to your cells to be burned, which Kang says can occur at relatively lower intensities.
The best part: You'll feel as if you're burning fat easier than ever. Kang measured the participants' perceived exertion—how hard they felt they were working. Turns out the body feels fatigued late in a workout, regardless of what you do.
3. Stay hydrated
This one's almost too easy, but drinking plenty of water not only helps you burn fat, but also builds more muscle. "All creatine does is force fluid into the muscle," says Hays. "Your body will do that itself if there's enough water available."
4. Skip the bonus abs routine
Edging closer to sharp abs can tempt you to work them every day. Don't. Training more can actually make your abs show less. "You don't need to overwork your abs—they're no different from any other muscle," says Hays. "If you're always in a state of overtraining, you're going to get more laxity in your muscles."
In other words, they'll appear soft. Instead, add resistance to make moves you already do more challenging. For instance, hold a light weight plate during a Russian twist or Swiss-ball crunch. Then give your muscles time to rest.
5. Do more total-body exercise
Isolation moves like crunches are great for developing your muscles, but they don't burn much fat. You're better off training multiple muscle groups at once, says Hays. Total-body exercise burns more calories and also causes a greater release of muscle-building hormones.
Try combination moves, like the reverse lunge to cable chest fly. Stand between a cable station's weight stacks and grab a pulley handle with each hand. Hold your arms straight in front of you. Then step back with one leg, bend your knees, and let your arms move out to the sides. Pause when your back knee is just off the floor and your upper body looks like a T, then push yourself back up while you pull your arms together. Repeat the move with your other leg in the back position.
6. Get off the floor
Define the lower portion of the rectus abdominis (your six-pack muscle) with a Swiss-ball reverse crunch, but instead of doing the move on the floor, hop on a bench. "It allows for a greater range of motion," says Gregory Joujon-Roche, C.P.T., president of Holistic Fitness, in Los Angeles.
Lie faceup on the edge of a bench with a Swiss ball pinched between your heels and hamstrings. Keeping your abs drawn in, roll your pelvis off the bench and, maintaining the same knee angle, bring your knees toward your chest. Slowly lower the ball. As soon as your back begins to arch on the way down, that's the end of your range of motion. Pause at this point for a few seconds before finishing your set. Try five sets of 15 to 20 repetitions.
7. Go deep
Abdominal muscles are multilayered, but most men focus only on the outermost layer with exercises like the crunch. So look for moves that work the abdominal muscles closest to the spine, such as the plank. Strengthening these tiny stabilizers will provide a solid foundation to allow your six-pack muscles to grow stronger and bigger. For more exercises, check out The Abs Diet Online. It also provides you with a nutrition plan designed by our experts to target that pesky midsection.
Kamis, 26 Februari 2009
A Faster Fat Burner
By the Editors of Men's Health
When you're short on workout time, use the dumbbell alternating lunge and overhead press. It conditions your muscles from head to toe so you're able to streamline your routine to just a few challenging exercises, says David Jack, sport director of Teamworks Centers in Acton, Massachusetts.
For instance, you might sandwich the dumbbell alternating lunge and overhead press between a set of pullups and an abs exercise. Perform one movement and then immediately follow it up with another. Rest for up to a minute and then repeat the trio once (or twice if time allows).
The Benefit
The dumbbell alternating lunge and overhead press trains your legs, core, and shoulders. It also improves your coordination for sports because it requires you to keep your hips level and your core stable for balance as you perform complex movements.
How to Do It
1. Stand holding a pair of dumbbells at your shoulders.
2. Take a big step forward with your right leg and bend at the knees until that leg is parallel to the floor and your rear knee is just off the floor.
3. Press the left-hand weight overhead, lower it, and then push back to the starting position.
4. Step out with your other leg and complete the press with your opposite arm.
That's 1 rep. Do a total of 8 reps.
Our Expert's Tips
Don't allow your weight to carry you forward. Instead, think about dropping your hips straight down as you step. Keep your abs tight and your chest up, and squeeze your glutes.
The New Stretch: Hip Circuit
Your hips are the largest weight-bearing joints in your body. By performing this stretching circuit, you'll increase their range of motion. You'll also gain stability in your knees and more strength for squats and lunges.
1. Start on all fours, with your knees, toes, and palms on the floor.
2. Brace your abs and then bring your right knee forward and up toward your chest. Now move the same leg clockwise in a large semicircle (the larger the better) while allowing that leg to extend straight back behind you. Repeat the pattern for a total of 5 repetitions.
3. Return to the starting position. Ex-tend your right leg straight back and then move it forward and counterclockwise in a large semicircle. Do 5 reps.
4. Return to the starting position. Now extend your right leg straight out to the side and raise and lower it 5 times.
5. Return to the starting position and repeat with your left leg.
When you're short on workout time, use the dumbbell alternating lunge and overhead press. It conditions your muscles from head to toe so you're able to streamline your routine to just a few challenging exercises, says David Jack, sport director of Teamworks Centers in Acton, Massachusetts.
For instance, you might sandwich the dumbbell alternating lunge and overhead press between a set of pullups and an abs exercise. Perform one movement and then immediately follow it up with another. Rest for up to a minute and then repeat the trio once (or twice if time allows).
The Benefit
The dumbbell alternating lunge and overhead press trains your legs, core, and shoulders. It also improves your coordination for sports because it requires you to keep your hips level and your core stable for balance as you perform complex movements.
How to Do It
1. Stand holding a pair of dumbbells at your shoulders.
2. Take a big step forward with your right leg and bend at the knees until that leg is parallel to the floor and your rear knee is just off the floor.
3. Press the left-hand weight overhead, lower it, and then push back to the starting position.
4. Step out with your other leg and complete the press with your opposite arm.
That's 1 rep. Do a total of 8 reps.
Our Expert's Tips
Don't allow your weight to carry you forward. Instead, think about dropping your hips straight down as you step. Keep your abs tight and your chest up, and squeeze your glutes.
The New Stretch: Hip Circuit
Your hips are the largest weight-bearing joints in your body. By performing this stretching circuit, you'll increase their range of motion. You'll also gain stability in your knees and more strength for squats and lunges.
1. Start on all fours, with your knees, toes, and palms on the floor.
2. Brace your abs and then bring your right knee forward and up toward your chest. Now move the same leg clockwise in a large semicircle (the larger the better) while allowing that leg to extend straight back behind you. Repeat the pattern for a total of 5 repetitions.
3. Return to the starting position. Ex-tend your right leg straight back and then move it forward and counterclockwise in a large semicircle. Do 5 reps.
4. Return to the starting position. Now extend your right leg straight out to the side and raise and lower it 5 times.
5. Return to the starting position and repeat with your left leg.
6 Reasons You Need Abs
By the Editors of Men's Health
Abs Will Help You Live Longer
Study after study shows that the people with the most belly fat have the most risk of life-threatening disease. The evidence couldn't be more convincing.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a waistline larger than 40 inches for men signals significant risk of heart disease and diabetes.
The Canadian Heart Health Surveys, published in 2001, looked at 9,913 people ages 18 to 74 and concluded that for maximum health, a guy needs to keep his waist size at no more than 35 inches (a little less for younger guys, a little more for older ones). When your waist grows larger than 35 inches, you're at higher risk of developing two or more risk factors for heart disease.
And when researchers examined data from the Physicians' Health Study that has tracked 22,701 male physicians since 1982, they found that men whose waists measured more than 36.8 inches had a significantly elevated risk for myocardial infarction, or heart attack, in which an area of the heart muscle dies or is permanently damaged by a lack of bloodflow. Men with the biggest bellies were at 60 percent higher risk.
Now the real scary part: The average American man's waist size is a ponderous 38.8 inches, up from 37.5 in 1988, according to the journal Obesity Research. The same sad truth holds for women, too: A woman with a flabby midsection is at increased risk for the same health problems. And American women have seen their weight rise just as men have.
Of course, abs don't guarantee you a get-out-of-the-hospital-free card, but studies show that by developing a strong abdominal section, you'll reduce body fat and significantly cut the risk factors associated with many diseases, not just heart disease.
For example, the incidence of cancer among obese patients is 33 percent higher than among lean ones, according to a Swedish study. The World Health Organization estimates that up to one-third of cancers of the colon, kidney, and digestive tract are caused by being overweight and inactive.
And having an excess of belly fat around your gut is especially dangerous. See, cancer is caused by mutations that occur in cells as they divide. Fat tissue in your abdomen spurs your body to produce hormones that prompt your cells to divide. More cell division means more opportunities for cell mutations, which means more cancer risk.
A lean waistline also heads off another of our most pressing health problems-diabetes. Currently, 13 million Americans have been diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes, and many more go undiagnosed. Fat, especially belly fat, bears the blame.
There's a misconception that diabetes comes only from eating too much refined sugar, like the kind in chocolate and ice cream. But people contract diabetes after years of eating high-carbohydrate foods that are easily converted into sugar-foods like white bread, pasta, and mashed potatoes.
Scarfing down a basket of bread and a bowl of pasta can do the same thing to your body that a carton of ice cream does: flood it with sugar calories. The calories you can't burn are what converts into fat cells that pad your gut and leaves you with a disease that, if untreated, can lead to impotence, blindness, heart attacks, strokes, amputation, and death. And that, my friend, can really ruin your day.
Upper-body obesity is also the most significant risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which the soft tissue in the back of your throat collapses during sleep, blocking your airway. When that happens, your brain signals you to wake up and to start breathing again. As you nod off once more, the same thing happens, and it can continue hundreds of times during the night-making you chronically groggy and unable to get the rest your body needs. (You won't remember waking up over and over again; you'll just wonder why 8 hours of sleep left you dragging.)
Fat's role is that it can impede muscles that inflate and ventilate the lungs, forcing you to work harder to get enough air. When Australian researchers studied 313 patients with severe obesity, they found that 62 percent of them with a waist circumference of 49 inches or more had a serious sleep disturbance and that 28 percent of obese patients with smaller waists (35 to 49 inches) had sleep problems. Being overweight also puts you at risk for a lot of other conditions that rob you of a good night's rest, including asthma and gastroesophageal reflux.
When Dutch researchers studied nearly 6,000 men, they found that even those whose waistlines measured a relatively modest 37 to 40 inches had a significantly increased risk of respiratory problems, such as wheezing, chronic coughing, and shortness of breath.
All of this can create an ugly cycle: Abdominal fat leads to poor sleep. Poor sleep means you drag through your day. Sluggish and tired, your body craves some quick energy, so you snack on some high-calorie junk food. That extra junk food leads to more abdominal fat, which leads to... well, you get the picture.
I'm going to boil it down to one sentence: A smaller waist equals fewer health risks.
Abs Will Improve Your Sex Life
Women claim the greatest sex organ is the brain; men say it's approximately 3 feet due south. So let's say we split the geographic difference and focus on what's really central to a good sex life.
You know the old phrase "It's not the size of the ship; it's the motion of the ocean"? Well, take that to heart. We can't improve upon what God gave you (though the Abs Diet may actually somewhat increase the size of a guy's manhood-more on that in a bit), but we can rebuild your body to maximize the rocking and rolling that goes on below deck. Consider how the following side benefits can help you pull that ship into harbor.
Increased stamina. The thrusting power you generate during sex doesn't come from your legs; it comes from your core. Strong abdominal and lower-back muscles give you the stamina and strength to try new positions, stay steady in old ones, and maintain the motion control that's important for your staying power-and your partner's pleasure.
Better erections. It's no secret that upwards of 30 million American men have some kind of erectile dysfunction. Though many things can cause it, one of the major causes is purely a matter of traffic control.
Artery-clogging cheeseburgers don't discriminate, so when you're overweight, the gunk that gums up the blood vessels leading to your heart and brain also gums up the vessels that lead to your genitals. Plaque forms on the inside of your arteries, narrowing the passageways that blood must follow. Think of 12 lanes of traffic bottlenecking into one. Your blood vessels can become so clogged in your pelvic area that a sufficient supply of blood can't get through to form an erection.
You don't need to have aced calculus to understand this equation: Increased fat equals decreased bloodflow. Decreased bloodflow equals softer (or no) erections. Softer (or no) erections equals "This stinks" squared. (By the way, clogged blood vessels have the same effect on women, leading to decreased lubrication, sensitivity, and sexual pleasure.)
Increased length. When it comes to a man and his privates, fat is his body's side-view mirror: Objects appear smaller than actual size. The length of the average man's penis is about 3 inches flaccid, but the fatter he is, the smaller he'll look. That's because the fat at the base of a man's abdomen covers up the base of his penis. Losing just 15 pounds of fat will add up to half an inch to the length of a man's member. No, Little Elvis is not technically growing, but decreasing the fat that surrounds it will allow all a guy's got to actually show.
Abs Will Keep You Safe from Harm
In school, you were taught the story of Mrs. O'Leary's cow and how, with one awkward misstep, the lumbering bovine knocked over an oil lamp that started the Great Chicago Fire and burned much of that toddlin' town to the ground. That tragedy happened at a time when most urban housing was still built with wood.
Today, such a disaster is unthinkable-and not just because we don't let cows into the living room anymore. It's unthinkable because the infrastructure of today's cities is built with steel-steel that stands up to fire, to earthquakes, to hurricanes.
Think of your midsection as your body's infrastructure. You don't want a core made of dry, brittle wood or straw. You want one made of solid steel, one that will give you a layer of protection that belly fat never could.
Consider a U.S. Army study that linked powerful abdominal muscles to injury prevention. After giving 120 artillery soldiers the standard army fitness test of situps, pushups, and a 2-mile run, researchers tracked their lower-body injuries (such as lower-back pain and Achilles tendonitis) during a year of field training. The 29 men who cranked out the most situps (73 in 2 minutes) were five times less likely to suffer lower-body injuries than the 31 who barely notched 50. But that's not the most striking element.
The men who performed well in the pushups and 2-mile run enjoyed no such protection-suggesting that upper-body strength and cardiovascular endurance had little effect on keeping bodies sound. It was abdominal strength that offered the protection.
Unlike any other muscles in your body, a strong core affects the functioning of the entire body. Whether you ski, sail, wrestle with the kids, or fool around with a partner, your abs are the most essential muscles for keeping you from injury. The stronger they are, the stronger-and safer-you are.
Abs Will Strengthen Your Back
I had a friend who threw out his back maybe two or three times a year. He always did it in the simplest way-sleeping a little awkwardly or getting out of a chair too quickly. One time, he pulled it out reaching into the back seat of his car to get something his young daughter had dropped. The pain once stabbed him so badly that he collapsed to the ground while he was standing at a urinal. (Go ahead. Imagine that.)
His problem wasn't that he had a bad back; it was that he had weak abs. If he had trained them regularly, he could've kept himself from being one of the millions of men who suffer from back pain every year. (And yes, he started the Abs Diet Workout a year ago, and within weeks his back pain virtually disappeared.)
Since most back pain is related to weak muscles in your trunk, maintaining a strong midsection can help resolve many back issues. The muscles that crisscross your midsection don't function in isolation; they weave through your torso like a spider web, even attaching to your spine.
When your abdominal muscles are weak, the muscles in your butt (your glutes) and along the backs of your legs (your hamstrings) have to compensate for the work your abs should be doing. The effect, besides promoting bad company morale for the muscles picking up the slack, is that it destabilizes the spine and eventually leads to back pain and strain-or even more serious back problems.
Abs Will Limit Your Aches and Pains
As you age, it's common to experience some joint pain-most likely in your knees, but maybe around your feet and ankles, too. But the source of that pain might not be weak joints; it might be weak abs-especially if you're any kind of athlete, from the serious golfer to the I-pull-my-groin-every-time Thanksgiving Day football player.
When you're playing sports, your abdominal muscles help stabilize your body during start-and-stop movements, like changing direction on the football field or tennis court. If you have weak abdominal muscles, your joints absorb all the force from those movements.
It's kind of like trampoline physics. Jump in the center, and the mat will absorb your weight and bounce you back in the air. Jump toward the side of the trampoline, where the mat meets the frame, and you'll bust the springs.
Your body is sort of like a trampoline, with your abs as the center of the mat and your joints as the supports that hold the mat to the frame. If your abs are strong enough to absorb some shock, you'll function well. If they're not, the force puts far more pressure on your joints than they were built to withstand.
Similar protection benefits extend to people who aren't athletes, too. That Dutch study of nearly 6,000 men found that those with waist circumferences above 40 inches were more likely to have a condition called Sever's disease, which causes heel pain, and to develop carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful hand and wrist condition. One study even found that 70 percent of people with carpal tunnel syndrome were either overweight or obese.
Abs Will Help You Win
If you play golf, basketball, naked Twister, or any sport that requires movement, your essential muscle group isn't your chest, biceps, or legs. It's your core — the muscles in your torso and hips.
Developing core strength gives you power. It fortifies the muscles around your whole midsection and trains them to provide the right amount of support when you need it. So if you're weak off the tee, strong abs will improve your distance. But if you also play stop-and-start sports like tennis or basketball, abs can improve your game tremendously.
Though speed is the buzzword TV analysts like to use to differentiate between Hall of Famers and practice-squad players, athletic success isn't really about speed. It's really about accelerating and decelerating. How fast can you go from a stopped position at point A to stopping at point B? Your legs don't control that; your abs do.
When researchers studied what muscles were the first to engage in these types of sports movements, they found that the abs fired first. The stronger they are, the faster you'll get to the ball.
One More Thing...
These are all great reasons to pursue the Abs Diet. But the best reason is this: The program is an easy, sacrifice-free plan that will let you eat the foods you want and keep you looking and feeling better day after day.
It's designed to help you lose weight in the easiest possible ways: by recalibrating your body's internal fat-burning furnace, by focusing on the foods that trigger your body to start shedding flab, and by rebuilding you into a lean, mean, fat-burning machine.
Abs Will Help You Live Longer
Study after study shows that the people with the most belly fat have the most risk of life-threatening disease. The evidence couldn't be more convincing.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a waistline larger than 40 inches for men signals significant risk of heart disease and diabetes.
The Canadian Heart Health Surveys, published in 2001, looked at 9,913 people ages 18 to 74 and concluded that for maximum health, a guy needs to keep his waist size at no more than 35 inches (a little less for younger guys, a little more for older ones). When your waist grows larger than 35 inches, you're at higher risk of developing two or more risk factors for heart disease.
And when researchers examined data from the Physicians' Health Study that has tracked 22,701 male physicians since 1982, they found that men whose waists measured more than 36.8 inches had a significantly elevated risk for myocardial infarction, or heart attack, in which an area of the heart muscle dies or is permanently damaged by a lack of bloodflow. Men with the biggest bellies were at 60 percent higher risk.
Now the real scary part: The average American man's waist size is a ponderous 38.8 inches, up from 37.5 in 1988, according to the journal Obesity Research. The same sad truth holds for women, too: A woman with a flabby midsection is at increased risk for the same health problems. And American women have seen their weight rise just as men have.
Of course, abs don't guarantee you a get-out-of-the-hospital-free card, but studies show that by developing a strong abdominal section, you'll reduce body fat and significantly cut the risk factors associated with many diseases, not just heart disease.
For example, the incidence of cancer among obese patients is 33 percent higher than among lean ones, according to a Swedish study. The World Health Organization estimates that up to one-third of cancers of the colon, kidney, and digestive tract are caused by being overweight and inactive.
And having an excess of belly fat around your gut is especially dangerous. See, cancer is caused by mutations that occur in cells as they divide. Fat tissue in your abdomen spurs your body to produce hormones that prompt your cells to divide. More cell division means more opportunities for cell mutations, which means more cancer risk.
A lean waistline also heads off another of our most pressing health problems-diabetes. Currently, 13 million Americans have been diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes, and many more go undiagnosed. Fat, especially belly fat, bears the blame.
There's a misconception that diabetes comes only from eating too much refined sugar, like the kind in chocolate and ice cream. But people contract diabetes after years of eating high-carbohydrate foods that are easily converted into sugar-foods like white bread, pasta, and mashed potatoes.
Scarfing down a basket of bread and a bowl of pasta can do the same thing to your body that a carton of ice cream does: flood it with sugar calories. The calories you can't burn are what converts into fat cells that pad your gut and leaves you with a disease that, if untreated, can lead to impotence, blindness, heart attacks, strokes, amputation, and death. And that, my friend, can really ruin your day.
Upper-body obesity is also the most significant risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which the soft tissue in the back of your throat collapses during sleep, blocking your airway. When that happens, your brain signals you to wake up and to start breathing again. As you nod off once more, the same thing happens, and it can continue hundreds of times during the night-making you chronically groggy and unable to get the rest your body needs. (You won't remember waking up over and over again; you'll just wonder why 8 hours of sleep left you dragging.)
Fat's role is that it can impede muscles that inflate and ventilate the lungs, forcing you to work harder to get enough air. When Australian researchers studied 313 patients with severe obesity, they found that 62 percent of them with a waist circumference of 49 inches or more had a serious sleep disturbance and that 28 percent of obese patients with smaller waists (35 to 49 inches) had sleep problems. Being overweight also puts you at risk for a lot of other conditions that rob you of a good night's rest, including asthma and gastroesophageal reflux.
When Dutch researchers studied nearly 6,000 men, they found that even those whose waistlines measured a relatively modest 37 to 40 inches had a significantly increased risk of respiratory problems, such as wheezing, chronic coughing, and shortness of breath.
All of this can create an ugly cycle: Abdominal fat leads to poor sleep. Poor sleep means you drag through your day. Sluggish and tired, your body craves some quick energy, so you snack on some high-calorie junk food. That extra junk food leads to more abdominal fat, which leads to... well, you get the picture.
I'm going to boil it down to one sentence: A smaller waist equals fewer health risks.
Abs Will Improve Your Sex Life
Women claim the greatest sex organ is the brain; men say it's approximately 3 feet due south. So let's say we split the geographic difference and focus on what's really central to a good sex life.
You know the old phrase "It's not the size of the ship; it's the motion of the ocean"? Well, take that to heart. We can't improve upon what God gave you (though the Abs Diet may actually somewhat increase the size of a guy's manhood-more on that in a bit), but we can rebuild your body to maximize the rocking and rolling that goes on below deck. Consider how the following side benefits can help you pull that ship into harbor.
Increased stamina. The thrusting power you generate during sex doesn't come from your legs; it comes from your core. Strong abdominal and lower-back muscles give you the stamina and strength to try new positions, stay steady in old ones, and maintain the motion control that's important for your staying power-and your partner's pleasure.
Better erections. It's no secret that upwards of 30 million American men have some kind of erectile dysfunction. Though many things can cause it, one of the major causes is purely a matter of traffic control.
Artery-clogging cheeseburgers don't discriminate, so when you're overweight, the gunk that gums up the blood vessels leading to your heart and brain also gums up the vessels that lead to your genitals. Plaque forms on the inside of your arteries, narrowing the passageways that blood must follow. Think of 12 lanes of traffic bottlenecking into one. Your blood vessels can become so clogged in your pelvic area that a sufficient supply of blood can't get through to form an erection.
You don't need to have aced calculus to understand this equation: Increased fat equals decreased bloodflow. Decreased bloodflow equals softer (or no) erections. Softer (or no) erections equals "This stinks" squared. (By the way, clogged blood vessels have the same effect on women, leading to decreased lubrication, sensitivity, and sexual pleasure.)
Increased length. When it comes to a man and his privates, fat is his body's side-view mirror: Objects appear smaller than actual size. The length of the average man's penis is about 3 inches flaccid, but the fatter he is, the smaller he'll look. That's because the fat at the base of a man's abdomen covers up the base of his penis. Losing just 15 pounds of fat will add up to half an inch to the length of a man's member. No, Little Elvis is not technically growing, but decreasing the fat that surrounds it will allow all a guy's got to actually show.
Abs Will Keep You Safe from Harm
In school, you were taught the story of Mrs. O'Leary's cow and how, with one awkward misstep, the lumbering bovine knocked over an oil lamp that started the Great Chicago Fire and burned much of that toddlin' town to the ground. That tragedy happened at a time when most urban housing was still built with wood.
Today, such a disaster is unthinkable-and not just because we don't let cows into the living room anymore. It's unthinkable because the infrastructure of today's cities is built with steel-steel that stands up to fire, to earthquakes, to hurricanes.
Think of your midsection as your body's infrastructure. You don't want a core made of dry, brittle wood or straw. You want one made of solid steel, one that will give you a layer of protection that belly fat never could.
Consider a U.S. Army study that linked powerful abdominal muscles to injury prevention. After giving 120 artillery soldiers the standard army fitness test of situps, pushups, and a 2-mile run, researchers tracked their lower-body injuries (such as lower-back pain and Achilles tendonitis) during a year of field training. The 29 men who cranked out the most situps (73 in 2 minutes) were five times less likely to suffer lower-body injuries than the 31 who barely notched 50. But that's not the most striking element.
The men who performed well in the pushups and 2-mile run enjoyed no such protection-suggesting that upper-body strength and cardiovascular endurance had little effect on keeping bodies sound. It was abdominal strength that offered the protection.
Unlike any other muscles in your body, a strong core affects the functioning of the entire body. Whether you ski, sail, wrestle with the kids, or fool around with a partner, your abs are the most essential muscles for keeping you from injury. The stronger they are, the stronger-and safer-you are.
Abs Will Strengthen Your Back
I had a friend who threw out his back maybe two or three times a year. He always did it in the simplest way-sleeping a little awkwardly or getting out of a chair too quickly. One time, he pulled it out reaching into the back seat of his car to get something his young daughter had dropped. The pain once stabbed him so badly that he collapsed to the ground while he was standing at a urinal. (Go ahead. Imagine that.)
His problem wasn't that he had a bad back; it was that he had weak abs. If he had trained them regularly, he could've kept himself from being one of the millions of men who suffer from back pain every year. (And yes, he started the Abs Diet Workout a year ago, and within weeks his back pain virtually disappeared.)
Since most back pain is related to weak muscles in your trunk, maintaining a strong midsection can help resolve many back issues. The muscles that crisscross your midsection don't function in isolation; they weave through your torso like a spider web, even attaching to your spine.
When your abdominal muscles are weak, the muscles in your butt (your glutes) and along the backs of your legs (your hamstrings) have to compensate for the work your abs should be doing. The effect, besides promoting bad company morale for the muscles picking up the slack, is that it destabilizes the spine and eventually leads to back pain and strain-or even more serious back problems.
Abs Will Limit Your Aches and Pains
As you age, it's common to experience some joint pain-most likely in your knees, but maybe around your feet and ankles, too. But the source of that pain might not be weak joints; it might be weak abs-especially if you're any kind of athlete, from the serious golfer to the I-pull-my-groin-every-time Thanksgiving Day football player.
When you're playing sports, your abdominal muscles help stabilize your body during start-and-stop movements, like changing direction on the football field or tennis court. If you have weak abdominal muscles, your joints absorb all the force from those movements.
It's kind of like trampoline physics. Jump in the center, and the mat will absorb your weight and bounce you back in the air. Jump toward the side of the trampoline, where the mat meets the frame, and you'll bust the springs.
Your body is sort of like a trampoline, with your abs as the center of the mat and your joints as the supports that hold the mat to the frame. If your abs are strong enough to absorb some shock, you'll function well. If they're not, the force puts far more pressure on your joints than they were built to withstand.
Similar protection benefits extend to people who aren't athletes, too. That Dutch study of nearly 6,000 men found that those with waist circumferences above 40 inches were more likely to have a condition called Sever's disease, which causes heel pain, and to develop carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful hand and wrist condition. One study even found that 70 percent of people with carpal tunnel syndrome were either overweight or obese.
Abs Will Help You Win
If you play golf, basketball, naked Twister, or any sport that requires movement, your essential muscle group isn't your chest, biceps, or legs. It's your core — the muscles in your torso and hips.
Developing core strength gives you power. It fortifies the muscles around your whole midsection and trains them to provide the right amount of support when you need it. So if you're weak off the tee, strong abs will improve your distance. But if you also play stop-and-start sports like tennis or basketball, abs can improve your game tremendously.
Though speed is the buzzword TV analysts like to use to differentiate between Hall of Famers and practice-squad players, athletic success isn't really about speed. It's really about accelerating and decelerating. How fast can you go from a stopped position at point A to stopping at point B? Your legs don't control that; your abs do.
When researchers studied what muscles were the first to engage in these types of sports movements, they found that the abs fired first. The stronger they are, the faster you'll get to the ball.
One More Thing...
These are all great reasons to pursue the Abs Diet. But the best reason is this: The program is an easy, sacrifice-free plan that will let you eat the foods you want and keep you looking and feeling better day after day.
It's designed to help you lose weight in the easiest possible ways: by recalibrating your body's internal fat-burning furnace, by focusing on the foods that trigger your body to start shedding flab, and by rebuilding you into a lean, mean, fat-burning machine.
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