/
 
 

Issue #148

Contents

Editorial
by Juan Carlos Lopez

20 Questions with Cover Model Lena Paternoster

Video Interview with Amateur Physique Shay Lynn Stone

Pictorials
Lena Paternoster, Renee West, Bee Barnett, Susana Garcia & Valerie Garcia Giovanoli

Absession with Ripped Abs?
by Tina Jo Orban

Video Interview with Amateur Figure Kelly Nayoukas

 

 

Absession with Ripped Abs? Is Your Mid-section Ready for Summer
by Tina Jo Orban

A solid core is key in total fitness. You need a strong back and a strong midsection to hold you erect. A solid core will keep your spine aligned is needed for good posture can alleviate
potential low-back pain. Beyond that people love the look of a fit toned midsection. Let’s face it our nation has an “absession” with abs! Let us do some do some quick review:
Your abdominals consist of a triple layer of torso muscles: from most superficial: the rectus abdominis, external obliques and internal obliques. And some include in this group, what is deemed the ‘anatomical girdle’ the transverse abdominis.

Besides exercising the abs to make you look hot on the beach (or stage) they are functional in holding you up standing or seated. They also are called into play in coughing, vomiting, urinating and defecating (Did I go too far?). Anyhow back to building beautiful abs.

Let us start at the bottom: The deepest layer is the transverse abdominis. This muscle is used in forced exhalation. Yogic poses and exercises train this muscle: See Sukhasana. For the most part people do not focus on this muscle— as in sets and reps. But you can. Forced exhalation exercises—used in yoga are a great way to cinch your girdle. To exercise the transverse abdominis the belly goes inside towards the thorax. I like to think of it as pulling your navel toward your spine. Why on earth would anyone waste their time on this for their waist you ask? I will tell you: This is not only meditative but keeps the core tighter and smaller in appearance. Thinks of it like a belt-strap drawing together on smaller and smaller holes on the belt. That is a trained transverse abodomins gives the appearance to a tighter more solid, compact mid-section. The layers over the top (internal obliques, external obliques (visible) and rectus abdominis (visible) are the muscles that get all the attention. Yet our transverse can and should be trained.  

Transverse Exercises: beginner could do a supine vacuum, then progress to the quadruped vacuum, the seated vacuum, and then functional variations.
Advanced: Sit crossed-legged erect with palms resting on knee Staff Pose[1] (Sukhasana).
Consciously pull your navel toward your spine. Don’t suck in air at your chest pull the belly inwards at a lower level just below your ribs you should create a vacuum. If you don’t know what I am talking about take a peek at pictures of of the iconic body builder, Frank Zane[2] . He was the master in creating a vacuum. His waist would nearly disappear in a side-view pose.
Hold the pull in five seconds. Release repeat for 15 “reps.” This good start: 15 reps for three or four sets. Work your way up to five or six sets.

Internal Obliques Exercises:
Next up in layers from deep to surface is the internal obliques. It may help to know these muscles reach around to the sides of one’s thorax, to what some people may think of as low back region. They originate out of the thoracolumbar fascia on your posterior side. They run in a horizontal plane so when they contract they can twist the trunk as well as cause lateral flexion. These muscles are called into play in the above biological functions (puking etc.… Ew! Gross!), Yet you can train the internal obliques well sans drinking or having the flu creating dry heaves.

To train the internals perform side planks, side bends (weighted to build) and crunches. All are great for the internal obliques.

Side planks (see link in footnote for image)[3] .
While on your side rest your forearm on the ground in a straight line from head to feet lift your self using your internal obliques. Now hold that pose! Incorporate normal steady breathing while you hold your pose. This is isometric work, but it hits the internals well. Your elbow should be directly under your shoulder. With your abdominals gently contracted, keep hips off the floor. Do this for 20-30 seconds repeat for 5 sets. Don’t forget to flip and train both right and left sides.

Another internal oblique exercise is the infamous side-bend. It was super popular in the 80’s jazzercise videos performed with pink foam dumbbells. Although apparel and the equipment esthetic may have changed (thank goodness) today the muscle has not changed! Neither has the way to recruit the muscle fibers. Grab a dumbbell or cable stand with feet narrow but hip width apart bend to your side. It is lateral bend in a frontal plane (as in your hand moves toward your ankle on one side. Do this with adequate weight to be difficult at rep number 15. DO NOT TORQUE your back. That is do not twist. Your lumbar discs will holler at you. Stay straight while you bend sideways exhaling as you contract the muscle. See foot note below for an image.[4]

Next up is the external obliques. These are just a little more superficial to (overlay) the internal obliques.

In my book visible external obliques are a thing of beauty! Perhaps upstaging the rectus abdominis! To target the externals a lot of people do twisting and such as in the Navy Seal sit up. That is fine. They are certainly worked in these types of exercises. But if I told you that this group functions mainly to pull the chest downwards and compress the abdominal cavity, you should know right away that the crunch and twisted crunch and plated or weighted crunch are all most effective for external obliques. Movements that work externals are lumbar rotation unilaterally, lumbar flexion (the crunch) and lumbar lateral flexion (Look here, it overlaps internal oblique training when you do side bends and rectus training when you crunch).

External Obliques Exercises:
Floor or Stability Ball Crunches[5] .

You can use your body weight or add resistance by holding with both hands a small 10 lb. plate or sand bag the center of your chest sternum level. Lay on a “Swiss” ball, support should be under hips and low back. Now, get a good stretch back then crunch up slowly, exhaling as you come up hold for a beat then repeat. Do 15 or 20 reps. Repeat for four or five sets. Rest one minute.

Bicycle Crunches work well too. Lay flat on your back keep your low back pressed (flush) with the floor (hey a soft mat might be nice here) bring your feet slightly off the floor. Now alternate your CRUNCH! You should switch off sides (this is necessary to bicycle correctly, keep balance but also you will fatigue less) bring your right elbow to your left knee and alternate quickly left elbow to right knee. Do this for thirty or forty reps. Rest 30 seconds to a minute repeat for three to four sets. One minute rests.

Next up is the star of our show: The rectus abdominis. It’s sexy segmented appearance is a crowd pleaser. With its fibrous horizontal tendinous bands creating neat rows of musculature as they cross a structure called the linea alba (white line a tendon that splits the abs vertically) and gives it bilateral symmetry.  This muscle gets all the attention. If the abs were bridges, the rectus abdominis is the Golden Gate and the the obliques are the Bay Bridge. The obliques do all the work and the Golden Gate gets all the glory.
It is interesting to look at certainly. It rises up from the center of your groin at the pubic crest and shoot upwards inserting on the costal cartilages of lower ribs and the xiphoid process (tip of the lowest part of your sternum. When its built and if you are lean enough— its tendinous inscriptions, (tendons strapping it down horizontally) give it a segmented look. When it contracts on stage or when people show off their ripped abs by flexing the trunk-- the pockets of segments bulge out creating ridges and valley that people go wild over. The main function is trunk flexion. This translates into the crunch and or leg raises— hanging or on the floor—or reverse crunches. Any of these four exercises supremely work the rectus.

(NOTE* If you are prone to low back pain you probably want to avoid floor leg raises. There is a way though, to lessen low back strain while doing floor leg raises by bringing your knees to chest and then simply pulling the hips off the floor).

Rectus Abdominis Exercises:
The Crunch. We all know how to do a crunch: lay on the floor, flat, don’t pull on your neck, and flex the rectus to pull your shoulders off the ground as you ‘crunch’ upwards. Keeping your head inline with the shoulders. DON’T do cervical flexion (i.e., do not crunch your neck forward).  Exhale on the curl up. Do 15-20 reps repeat for four or five sets with 30 seconds rest periods. You can add weight to this via cable or plates. You can also increase the challenge by pulling in knees to chest as you crunch. Think of your mid section as an accordion when the musician is bringing his hands back together to squeeze the air out of the instrument.

The Reverse Crunch (see footnote for image)[6] . You can perform on the floor or a padded weight bench. On the floor lay flat. Position your hands at your side for stabilization. Point your toes at the ceiling (you should look like the letter “L”).  Pull with the rectus your toes up toward the sky-- and superior towards your head. You wont need to add any weight: Legs on average weigh about 18% of your total body weight. Thus an average 150 lb. woman is working with 26 lbs. per leg. Thus, you are working against at least 52 lbs. It is plenty, trust me. Do the reverse crunch for 15-20- reps for three to four sets with one minute rests.

Hanging Leg Raises were all the rage at one point. Trends come and go in the fitness industry. That said this is still a very effective rectus abdominis exercise. Plus, it gives your spine a respite from gravity. 
Grab a chin up bar. Hang there. Curl your knees up to your hips while pulling your hips towards your belly. This is tough. Hang in there. Literally! Do 15- 20 reps for three to four sets and 30 second to one minute rests.

*A side note with all of these recommended sets and reps and rest periods please be smart and know your limitations. If you can only perform ten reps, then do ten. The recommendations are goals not requirements. Do the most you can rest and go again!

Now would you like to know how to hit all these muscles at once? As Nikki Minaj sings it, “..planking on me” We look to the phenomenon of core strengthening exercises: The Plank. It is a general over all abs exercise. Hey why didn’t I just say so at the start of the article? The Plank uses isometric contraction to target the entire trunk, plus you get a little bit of upper-body and lower body work as well. This is a tough pose if you do it right.
Get into a pushup position, bend your elbows and rest your weight on your forearms not your hands. Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. You should balance on your tips of toes. Keep your trunk tight as if you were getting ready for a body blow. Hold this position for 30 second while breathing deeply. Breath slowly. Repeat for three or four sets. Taking 30 seconds to a minute breaks.

Now that was the good news. All those lovely exercises to build, strengthen and tighten your core are doable. Revealing that lovely work is another story. The truth is when it comes down to to it, visible abdominals comes with fat-loss. Everyone has abs, not everyone has visible abs. That comes with subcutaneous fat loss. Diminishing your adipose layer to see your abs has as much to do with your diet and cardio. If you are already at a low body-fat percentage the above training will help define this muscular wall. If not, you need to understand fat loss and visible ‘rockin’ abs are interrelated. You can build the midsection but if your body-fat level is too high you wont see them. Conversely you can be super thin with barely any developed muscles at all. I will save fat loss for another article. But now you have the exercises to build a beautiful midsection for summer or stage.


[1] https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/easy-pose
[2] https://www.frankzane.com/products/photos/
[3] http://www.mensfitness.com/training/workout-routines/side-plank
[4] http://bodybuilding-wizard.com/standing-side-bend-exercise/
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVBddP5oW8Y
[6] https://www.popworkouts.com/reverse-crunches/

 

Back to Issues

 

 
 
© 2004-2015 HardFitness Design All right reserved.