The Truth About Abs - Episode 21 - Brides Made Fit Video

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The Truth About Abs - Episode 21 - Brides Made Fit

Hello! Welcome to Brides MadeFit Podcast. I am your host, Jennifer DiDonato, and this is Episode number 21. Brides MadeFit is Metro Detroit's only in-home personal training service for brides to be and Brides MadeFit Podcast is your source for health and fitness information and entertainment. Thanks so much for joining us today. This episode is called The Truth About Abs, and I just want to thank all of you out there for sending me emails and comments because this episode is inspired by you, like the other ones that have been in the past, but we are starting to get a lot more questions about things so this episode, a lot of you can relate to because who doesn't want great abs. So I got a comment on one of the videos from Dragon Rider, he is from the United States, he is 20-years-old and he writes, "Jenny, I have this really annoying small flab at the bottom of my stomach. I have a four pack that can't seem to get a six pack under my small flab. Do you have any tips or message on how to burn that fat off?" And now Dragon Rider, that is such a good question because everyone has that problem with this area right here, but the truth about your abdominals is that there is no really such thing as upper and lower abs, there is just fat, that assumption that there is because that's where we keep a lot of our excess fat is right in this region, that's where we get that inner tube that some of us also have so no such thing in upper and lower, but what there is, there are different muscle groups I am talking about it right now, one is the Rectus Abdominis. The Rectus Abdominis is what gives you that six pack, or four pack, or eight pack, if you are one of the lucky ones. Runs right down the center, and it goes pretty much from your sternum all the way on along the side of your ribs, and so in that area, you probably are conditioned but the fat over it just needs to be burned. We will get to that in just a moment to how to burn it? The other muscle groups we have are the external and internal Obliques which are along the side. The externals are more on the outside, internal are right underneath and those are with twisting motions; you can condition them with, which I will show you as well. And then, another muscle group which is part of the abdominal category would be the Transversus abdominis. And now, the Transversus abdominis is the muscle that pretty acts as a girdle sucks us in, so if it's conditioned that's what gives us and helps us with good posture and keeps the stomach in looking flat versus protruding outwards. So if your stomach is protruding, you may need to condition this muscle. So Dragon Rider, listen up, we are going to start first with an exercise that's going to work on our abdominals, Rectus abdominis and this is the jackknife crunch. So when you get down the floor and this muscle -- this exercise is great for this muscle because you are working the entire range of motion of the Rectus abdominis, because you are using the legs along with your torso. Let me take my pack off, real quick. So you are going to be laying on the ground flat, have your arms above your head, and I want you to lift your legs and your torso the same time exhaling in the center. Control on the way down. See how my legs are not touching the ground; you can touch the ground if you are not as condition, if you are not used to it, just move in. Just go ahead and touch the ground with your feet, bring it back up, go as high as you can. Now at least, I want you to do this Jackknife crunches every other day three sets of 10 to 15, the more the better. So that is going to be exercising the muscles right along here and helping you be conditioned, to get the six pack abs that you want. Now for the external oblique; these are the muscles that are along the side all of the Rectus abdominis right in through here, we need to do twisting motions to target these muscles because going straight up and down against gravity it's still working those muscles but it's not targeting them, isolating them specifically to tone them. So this is called Bicycle Crunches or just bicycles and these are a killer in a Boot camp class because you can just make people do them for 60 seconds, two minutes, thirty seconds, whatever, but these are really killer because it a constant endurance movement. So you are going to sit up just like this, you are going to bring your hands behind your head, and you are going to bring the opposite knee to the opposite elbow, just like that and I want you to keep alternating, just staying in the air and just touch your head lightly, bring those elbows in, and exhale in each twist, and really get a deep twist in here because this way, you are targeting side to side. I want you to do this 20 on each side, and you'll defiantly feel it also in the hip flexures as well. So you are just definitely targeting and toning all the muscles in the quad. Now for our last movement which is going to target the Transversus abdominis which is like I said, that muscle that actually girdle in your stomach. This what we are going to do is called a Stability Ball Prone Pike, I am going to grab my stability ball right here. Now with these, they are just may be about like 10 or 15 bucks, you can get them at any store, you can even get them like at a Marshalls or TJ Maxx like I have got. But what I want you to do is grab these and we are going to go on our hands to do this movement. It's not so much of full crunch, you will see in just a moment. I want you to bring the ball on your shins, bring your hands in the push up position like so. Bring all that on your shin just like this and all that you to do is sucking your stomach and keep your legs straight. So you are almost going to bend like a jackknife like we were doing earlier. Up and back down. So the only thing that's pulling your torso up, is your torso. You are contracting that muscle right in there, like you want to almost -- like squeeze your belly button to your spine. This is the type of movement I want you to feel. I want you to picture yourself, just squeezing the belly button to the spine. I want you to give me three sets of 12 to 10, sounds very attractive. Give me three sets of 10 to 12 all of that movement and you are going to feel that you are getting really fatigue as you are doing it, and you may not feel like you are working a huge muscle but you are working it deep inside there which is going to help flatten your stomach. Now like I said earlier, Dragon Rider, that you can't just get those flat abs from just these exercises alone but they will sculpt you abs. What I want you to do is also make sure that you are doing your cardio and also make sure that you are watching your nutrition. Nutrition, like I say before is like 75 to 80 % of -- it determines whether your program is going to be successful or not, because we know that we find sugars and carbohydrates -- and in candy or sugar, anything is going to pack on the fats that's going to be stored in this region. And like I said, it's just a survival mechanism of our body. We're just conditioned and prone distort there, I don't know why, someone must stop, I don't know why but that's where we store it. So in order to control that, I want you to keep up with your cardio and watch your nutrition and keep a food log. I want you to do, maybe for two weeks, just log what you are eating and see how much you are eating of the carbohydrates, maybe track it in grams and of sugar, because that will definitely contribute to your stomach. So try that, Dragon Rider, for about two weeks, log it and just fix your food log as you go along and make some changes, and see over that for two week span if that helps you or not, and if you are seeing those result. So I want to thank you so much writing in, and once again, I want to thank all of you our there who have been giving all the comments. If you want us to answer any of your question on our show, I just want you to email me at jenny@BridesMadeFit.com, and give me your name, and give me where you are from, and just ask whatever that is fitness or health related or even weddings as well because we are definitely Brides MadeFit. So w

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Hello! Welcome to Brides MadeFit Podcast. I am your host, Jennifer DiDonato, and this is Episode number 21. Brides MadeFit is Metro Detroit's only in-home personal training service for brides to be and Brides MadeFit Podcast is your source for health and fitness information and entertainment. Thanks so much for joining us today.

This episode is called The Truth About Abs, and I just want to thank all of you out there for sending me emails and comments because this episode is inspired by you, like the other ones that have been in the past, but we are starting to get a lot more questions about things so this episode, a lot of you can relate to because who doesn't want great abs.

So I got a comment on one of the videos from Dragon Rider, he is from the United States, he is 20-years-old and he writes, "Jenny, I have this really annoying small flab at the bottom of my stomach. I have a four pack that can't seem to get a six pack under my small flab. Do you have any tips or message on how to burn that fat off?"

And now Dragon Rider, that is such a good question because everyone has that problem with this area right here, but the truth about your abdominals is that there is no really such thing as upper and lower abs, there is just fat, that assumption that there is because that's where we keep a lot of our excess fat is right in this region, that's where we get that inner tube that some of us also have so no such thing in upper and lower, but what there is, there are different muscle groups I am talking about it right now, one is the Rectus Abdominis.

The Rectus Abdominis is what gives you that six pack, or four pack, or eight pack, if you are one of the lucky ones. Runs right down the center, and it goes pretty much from your sternum all the way on along the side of your ribs, and so in that area, you probably are conditioned but the fat over it just needs to be burned. We will get to that in just a moment to how to burn it?

The other muscle groups we have are the external and internal Obliques which are along the side. The externals are more on the outside, internal are right underneath and those are with twisting motions; you can condition them with, which I will show you as well. And then, another muscle group which is part of the abdominal category would be the Transversus abdominis. And now, the Transversus abdominis is the muscle that pretty acts as a girdle sucks us in, so if it's conditioned that's what gives us and helps us with good posture and keeps the stomach in looking flat versus protruding outwards. So if your stomach is protruding, you may need to condition this muscle.

So Dragon Rider, listen up, we are going to start first with an exercise that's going to work on our abdominals, Rectus abdominis and this is the jackknife crunch. So when you get down the floor and this muscle -- this exercise is great for this muscle because you are working the entire range of motion of the Rectus abdominis, because you are using the legs along with your torso. Let me take my pack off, real quick. So you are going to be laying on the ground flat, have your arms above your head, and I want you to lift your legs and your torso the same time exhaling in the center. Control on the way down. See how my legs are not touching the ground; you can touch the ground if you are not as condition, if you are not used to it, just move in. Just go ahead and touch the ground with your feet, bring it back up, go as high as you can. Now at least, I want you to do this Jackknife crunches every other day three sets of 10 to 15, the more the better. So that is going to be exercising the muscles right along here and helping you be conditioned, to get the six pack abs that you want.

Now for the external oblique; these are the muscles that are along the side all of the Rectus abdominis right in through here, we need to do twisting motions to target these muscles because going straight up and down against gravity it's still working those muscles but it's not targeting them, isolating them specifically to tone them. So this is called Bicycle Crunches or just bicycles and these are a killer in a Boot camp class because you can just make people do them for 60 seconds, two minutes, thirty seconds, whatever, but these are really killer because it a constant endurance movement.

So you are going to sit up just like this, you are going to bring your hands behind your head, and you are going to bring the opposite knee to the opposite elbow, just like that and I want you to keep alternating, just staying in the air and just touch your head lightly, bring those elbows in, and exhale in each twist, and really get a deep twist in here because this way, you are targeting side to side. I want you to do this 20 on each side, and you'll defiantly feel it also in the hip flexures as well. So you are just definitely targeting and toning all the muscles in the quad.

Now for our last movement which is going to target the Transversus abdominis which is like I said, that muscle that actually girdle in your stomach. This what we are going to do is called a Stability Ball Prone Pike, I am going to grab my stability ball right here. Now with these, they are just may be about like 10 or 15 bucks, you can get them at any store, you can even get them like at a Marshalls or TJ Maxx like I have got.

But what I want you to do is grab these and we are going to go on our hands to do this movement. It's not so much of full crunch, you will see in just a moment. I want you to bring the ball on your shins, bring your hands in the push up position like so. Bring all that on your shin just like this and all that you to do is sucking your stomach and keep your legs straight. So you are almost going to bend like a jackknife like we were doing earlier. Up and back down. So the only thing that's pulling your torso up, is your torso.

You are contracting that muscle right in there, like you want to almost -- like squeeze your belly button to your spine. This is the type of movement I want you to feel. I want you to picture yourself, just squeezing the belly button to the spine. I want you to give me three sets of 12 to 10, sounds very attractive. Give me three sets of 10 to 12 all of that movement and you are going to feel that you are getting really fatigue as you are doing it, and you may not feel like you are working a huge muscle but you are working it deep inside there which is going to help flatten your stomach.

Now like I said earlier, Dragon Rider, that you can't just get those flat abs from just these exercises alone but they will sculpt you abs. What I want you to do is also make sure that you are doing your cardio and also make sure that you are watching your nutrition. Nutrition, like I say before is like 75 to 80 % of -- it determines whether your program is going to be successful or not, because we know that we find sugars and carbohydrates -- and in candy or sugar, anything is going to pack on the fats that's going to be stored in this region. And like I said, it's just a survival mechanism of our body. We're just conditioned and prone distort there, I don't know why, someone must stop, I don't know why but that's where we store it.

So in order to control that, I want you to keep up with your cardio and watch your nutrition and keep a food log. I want you to do, maybe for two weeks, just log what you are eating and see how much you are eating of the carbohydrates, maybe track it in grams and of sugar, because that will definitely contribute to your stomach. So try that, Dragon Rider, for about two weeks, log it and just fix your food log as you go along and make some changes, and see over that for two week span if that helps you or not, and if you are seeing those result.

So I want to thank you so much writing in, and once again, I want to thank all of you our there who have been giving all the comments. If you want us to answer any of your question on our show, I just want you to email me at jenny@BridesMadeFit.com, and give me your name, and give me where you are from, and just ask whatever that is fitness or health related or even weddings as well because we are definitely Brides MadeFit. So w

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