Oh No! Another Ab Question.

Hello, I read a couple posts on the forum, but they all dealth with already-skinny people. I am 284 pounds, and have a slightly overhanging belly. Well, just a little more than slightly. Anywho, I need to tone up the lower tummy. I know I have to lose all over to get the bulge to go away, but I also want to strengthen. I am a flat out beginner, and I can't do back crunches, or even lay on my back, because of my back pain. Are there any sitting/standing positions to help with my tummy? Any suggestions would be good. Again, I am a complete beginner with exercising, no equipment, only 2 and 5 pound weights.

My other problem area is my underarms and upper thighs. My underarms hang, my thighs and butt look like cottage cheese when I squeeze them. Any beginner exercises that don't require a lot of strain on my back would be most helpful.

Do you have access to a swimming pool? aqua exercises are good low impact exercise, can you go outside to walk, some ppl here use walking dvds too and swear by it. Goodluck.

Hi! I am a personal trainer, and I am all about the abdominals, it is THE most important area to me and the area I work on the most myself!

I SWEAR by these two abdominal execises, they are for the DEEP abdominal muscles, and the lower abdominals.

Planks are one of the best exercises you can do for your deep, lower abdominal region.

Type in “ prone brace” or “ plank” into Google and I am sure a lot of pictures will come up

You basically lye prone on your front with your stomach facing the floor

Put your elbows directly under your shoulders

Have a 90 degree angle between elbows

With both your toes on the ground behind you, push your body UP into a “ plank” position

Make sure your back, butt, and shoulders are all in a straight line, I recommend doing it in front of a mirror or ask a person at home weather your back shoulder and butt are in a straight line.

Make sure your butt does not poke up higher then your shoulders and back

RELAX your shoulders as much as you can, and try to ONLY use your abdominal muscles to hold you in the plank

If it is too much, you can put both your knees on the ground and keep the plank position with your butt, back and shoulders still in the straight line

Start by trying to hold the plank position for 30 seconds for 2 - 3 sets, then once you can do that work your way up to a minute. A minute per plank is all you need, any more in one go provides no extra benefit then the one minute hold.

SIDE PLANKS are similar but on your side, lye on your side, elbows directly under shoulders, elbows at 90 degree angle, your for arm and hand are out flat in front of you

STACK one foot over the other and PUSH UP so you can feel your side oblique/ abdominal muscles working and hold for the same time as front plank. Repeat on other side.

The other BEST exercise for your LOWER ABDOMINALS is this:

Lye on your back, and raise your legs in the air and bring your knees directly over your hips, and have a 90 degree angle between your knees

Keep your back FLAT on the floor, do not arch back; you should feel your abdominal muscles holding your legs in the air

Slowly lower one leg to the ground as far as you can without arching your back

Straighten the angle between your knees as you lower your knee

Lower leg as far as you can without ARCHING YOUR BACK, once your back arches it means you abdominals are not strong enough to support the exercise

Repeat up to 20 lowers per leg, and once you get better lower BOTH LEGS at ONCE.

Do 2 - 3 sets of 10 - 30 lowers PER LEG.

As you progress, you will be able to lower your legs closer to the ground without arching your back, and you will be able to lower BOTH legs at once, so work your way up!

Squats and lunges are some of the best for your butt, and triceps kick backs with a light weight or triceps dips from a bench, platform or chair target your under arms! Search GOOGLE for them, you will be able to see a diagram which is better then the verbal instruction that I can give you

I cannot send pics from this site so GOOGLE triceps exercises, prone braces, oblique planks, squats, and lunges. I KNOW for a FACT that GOOGLE has pictures and instructions for ALL those exercises!

Original Post by personaltrainer87:

Squats and lunges are some of the best for your butt, and triceps kick backs with a light weight or triceps dips from a bench, platform or chair target your under arms! Search GOOGLE for them, you will be able to see a diagram which is better then the verbal instruction that I can give you

I cannot send pics from this site so GOOGLE triceps exercises, prone braces, oblique planks, squats, and lunges. I KNOW for a FACT that GOOGLE has pictures and instructions for ALL those exercises!

 

Ok did you even read her post? She can't even lie on her back and needed exercises to do while standing up.

Secondly, offering up isolation exercises to a beginner is so ridiculous I can't even believe you typed that.

YOU, my dear, are exactly why people loathe personal trainers. Taking peoples' hard earned money and being useless.

Ok, now for actual advice.

Any movement you do is going to help strengthen your midsection. Walking, moving around, etc. You could start from standing and lift your legs up: in front and off to the side. Hold that position and squeeze. Elbow to knee alternating left elbow, right knee. Does that make sense? You can do standing side bends as well, which are exactly what they sound like.

I am NOT an expert on back injuries, so you may want to check out movements with your dr or physical therapist if you go to one. Let me give you that information because I don't want to be responsible for you getting hurt! If you can do them, squats will REALLY help everythign you're talking about. I just didn't know if you can do them with a bad back.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to spot burn your problem areas away - as spiro was saying, overall fat loss is going to be the key to slimming your midsection. And that can be achieved with diet and exercise, even if the exercise is just going for walks. Like Spiro said - any movement will help strengthen.

For your back, I can only offer what helped my back, which has been a problem since I was 9 years old, although never so bad that I couldn't lie on my back. I've tried morning stretches prescribed by doctors and chiros, I tried yoga, pilates... the one thing that has really helped my back is weight training with free weights.

I do squats, deaflifts, lunges (although those make my foot cramp, so I might switch to step ups), military press, bench press (which you can't do if you can't lie down), standing rows with resistance tubes, and negative pullups (my fiance lifts me up to the bar, and I slowly let myself down).

The catch is that for all of these, at least when I started, I had my fiance watching and correcting my form. Deadlifts, for instance, can be good for the back if you do them right, but horrid for your back if you do them wrong, and I would not want you to do them without supervision. Even with my fiance watching, it took me a while to figure out how to hold my body correctly, and had some pain getting there.

The only other idea I have is that, if some of your back pain is due to your weight, that as you lose weight, it will slowly get better on its own. Good luck, and be careful!

I don't know how helpful this would be, as I have never tried it, but I have a friend who loves the video "hip hop abs" which is all standing ab work.  Maybe that is like what you're looking for?  I can't speak to how it would affect your back, though.

There's some ab work that doesn't involve laying down in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQgLd1fmre4

Also, if you can get one of those inflating exercise balls, you can do some of these exercises, which will strengthen both your back and abs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFd1Gk8Cgl0

Good luck!

Right on, Spiro.  I was reading and thinking the exact same thing, "did this person even READ the OP's post?"  She can't even lie on her back, and has back pain, and they're telling her to lie on her back for leg lifts?  And planks?!  Oh man...

Anyway, to answer your ab question, you can do the same crunch exercise while sitting.  You just basically tighten and release your ab muscles while bending foward just a little bit, not a lot, just like the crunch motion.  And you do NOT engage your back, you engage your ab muscle so that's the muscle that pulls you down and forward.  If you find this uncomfortable on your back, just the tightening and releasing of your abs will be enough.

The hard part for a beginner is twofold: 1. your ab muscles are so weak your back muscles usually get involved to "assist" with the exercise, and 2. you don't quite know how to isolate your ab muscles just yet so you tend to let all your core muscles do the work, which is why your back sometimes feels so achy and tired after ab exercises.

The most important things for beginners to learn is how to isolate your muscles, that is, learning how to work your abs without engaging your back, neck, and butt and hips. :)  In your case, how to do this without your back involved I believe means learning how to isolate your ab muscles so you can do ab exercises from all sorts of different positions that won't cause strain on your back.

And yes, do go see your doctor before entering into any exercise program, and before following any advice you get here!  

Original Post by shandykat:

Anyway, to answer your ab question, you can do the same crunch exercise while sitting.  You just basically tighten and release your ab muscles while bending foward just a little bit, not a lot, just like the crunch motion. Um, I disagree that training your muscles to pull you into a position of poor posture will do anything to releave back pain.  A lot of back pain is caused by poor posture and training your muscles to get into that sort of position isn't going to help any.  Squeezing the muscles is a great idea, just do it while your sitting up strait (the muscles around your mid-section are designed to hold your lower back in place, not move it around) 

The most important things for beginners to learn is how to isolate your muscles, that is, learning how to work your abs without engaging your back, neck, and butt and hips. :)  Why would anyone (especially a beginner) want to learn to isolate a particular muscle? Your muscles are supposed to work together, that's how they were designed, when they don't work together properly injuries happen.

I think being concious of your posture throughout the day (both sitting and standing) is a great place to start (it'll stregthen all your core muscles and likely help with the back pain).  Walking (while standing up strait) and some of the other exercises Spirochete suggested would be a great place to start.

And of course, improving your diet is what's going to drive the majority of your results, so really concentrate on that. 

A Chair crunch might be beneficial.

• Sit slightly forward in a chair and hold on to the seat portion
• straighten out your legs so that there is only a slight bend in them at the knees
• lean back onto the back of the seat and SLOWLY bring your knees up to your chest. only bring them as high as comfortable. Breathe in when you lift, out when you lower
• slowly lower legs and repeat. Do as many as you can, and then up it by 5 leg lifts each week. Then 10 and so on
•  I think this works best in an armless chair. The arm rests annoy me and get in the way

for you legs try Warrior One and Two. These are yoga poses that don't cause too much stress on the back. Look up these terms to get instructions on how to do them properly. Or better yet, attend a class and have a CERTIFIED instructor assist you.

One suggestion that you may or may not have heard for back pain is a bra fitting. A bra fitting may help you to find the proper support that your Girls need. I think they offer them at Macy's or some high end department stores.

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by shandykat:

Anyway, to answer your ab question, you can do the same crunch exercise while sitting.  You just basically tighten and release your ab muscles while bending foward just a little bit, not a lot, just like the crunch motion. Um, I disagree that training your muscles to pull you into a position of poor posture will do anything to releave back pain.  A lot of back pain is caused by poor posture and training your muscles to get into that sort of position isn't going to help any.  Squeezing the muscles is a great idea, just do it while your sitting up strait (the muscles around your mid-section are designed to hold your lower back in place, not move it around) 

The most important things for beginners to learn is how to isolate your muscles, that is, learning how to work your abs without engaging your back, neck, and butt and hips. :)  Why would anyone (especially a beginner) want to learn to isolate a particular muscle? Your muscles are supposed to work together, that's how they were designed, when they don't work together properly injuries happen.

I think being concious of your posture throughout the day (both sitting and standing) is a great place to start (it'll stregthen all your core muscles and likely help with the back pain).  Walking (while standing up strait) and some of the other exercises Spirochete suggested would be a great place to start.

And of course, improving your diet is what's going to drive the majority of your results, so really concentrate on that. 

 You asked why a person would want to learn to isolate a muscle?  So they can know they're working the correct muscles for one, and they can do the exercises correctly, and they can get the most out of the exercise they're doing. 

I did crunches for years and for years they made my back ache, and they never seemed to do much for me.  I never "got" it, never got what they meant when they said to work the upper, lower, obliques, etc.  It wasn't until I actually learned to feel these muscles and learned to isolate them during the exercise that I learned how to get the most out of the workout.  Now I can do amazing core workouts and can run circles (figuratively) around people who are in twice the shape I am and they just look on amazed.  Learning to isolate muscles is just as important as working them together. 

Don't get me wrong, I agree working muscles in combination is of utmost importance and I prescribe to the CrossFit style workouts myself, but there is a place for isolation as well.

As to your other statement, you might have a point about the poor posture position and the person who followed with the better position for the exercise with the beginning posture of leaning back would probably be a bit better.

Original Post by shandykat:

 You asked why a person would want to learn to isolate a muscle?  ...

 

...person who followed with the better position for the exercise with the beginning posture of leaning back would probably be a bit better.

 Can you name one situation in real life where anyone would ever use one muscle in isolation?  Your muscles are designed to work together, not seperately.

Do you know why people throw out their backs picking up really light things? because only some of the muscles in their back fire while other don't (their back muscles try to work in isolation) and all of a sudden the person is laying on the floor and can't get up because they tried to pick up a newspaper.  Muscles working in isolation goes against what your body spend millions of years evolving to do and has no applicability to everyday life, training that way doesnt' make any sense.

one thing that you can do anytime anywhere is holding your stomic in. try pulling your belly butten to you spine using nothing but the mussles, it ill strathen your abs back and improve your posture.

(sorry for the bad spelling, but you get the idea)

darn.....I know how to get the perfect abs,....I just wish your back didn't hurt so much....

 If you can get on the elliptical or stepper and walk backwards at a high resistance that should help increase the strength endurance of your hamstrings, glutes and lower back some. You want to crank up the resistance to the point where you have to consciously push the pedals to move, and to do maybe 10-30 seconds at a time with somewhere between 1-5 intervals your first time just to see how your body responds. If you can do it without pain it's potentially a good way to strengthen your posterior chain for regular use. Be mindful of your body's response though, and stop if you feel any kind of pain trying it.

You might be able to do the Bird Dog exercise as well - Stuart McGill recommends that, the side bridge and the curl-up  for lower back pain to strengthen the muscles involved in an appropriate range of motion without excessive spinal loading. You'll want to consult with either your doctor or your trainer to see what's appropriate for you to do though - I'm slightly suspicious of those exercises performed without supervision or form modification to account for your limitations.

 There's a time and a place for isolation exercises if and when you have a genuine strength imbalance - Charles Poliquin put 60lbs on a guy's bench press once by strengthening his understrength rear deltoid. What your training program should look like is dictated by the intersection of your goals and your current shape/strength/overall fitness - how to get from where you are to where you want to be. Sometimes there's no direct route, and you have to do the workout plan and exercises to build up to be able to do the workout plan and exercises that will get you where you want to be.

I feel sorry for you, that you cannot express your opinion without sounding nasty and rude. It is a good life skill to haveJ

You talked to me like I am an idiot - I am educated thank you and do not have the low IQ you were suggesting

I have only just started as a personal trainer so I have not had the chance to take peoples’ hard earned money” yet, but you do not have to be such a rude b!tch.

My main area of interest is actually nutrition.

The reputable company I got my credentials from did not advise that all isolation exercises were bad for beginners either, providing they use good technique. Bad technique with ANY exercise is bad.

So what, I did not read the post 100% accurately, I invest my energy in other things and do not always read the posts 100% to perfection.

To the OP - I have been rudely informed that I must not have read your question. I apologize for not reading your question properly!

To the 2 people who were rude - I am only human, people make mistakes, and I did not read the question properly.

There is no need to tell me in such a rude way, neither of you are infallible, you make mistakes too, do YOU think it is necessary for people to be rude to you EVERY time YOU make a mistake?

I didn’t read a post properly - that does not deserve such rude responses. You could have just told me in a nice, normal way. Not reading a post correctly does not make me an idiot or a bad personal trainer.

NOW, BACK TO THE QUESTION: after years of seeing what works best for the abdominal region I SWEAR by the advice some one else suggested, pulling your belly button in to your spine, just pull in your lower abdominals and belly button as though you were sucking them into tight jeans!

It makes a difference from my experience

never mind

i'd go with what spirochete said...

also, try doing push ups against a wall and really isolating your ab muscles... that will help strengthen more areas.  medicine balls are great investments... stand up holding a medicine ball in front of you (or a heavy canned good/heavy book), tighten your abs, and twist your body slowly from side to side.

or... stand up with arms extended to your side, and with your right hand, reach down and across your body, trying to touch your left knee, then bring your body to the upright position again.  repeat on the opposite time. with all of these really focusing on fueling the movement with your abs.  a good comprehensive routine would be to combine a few of these exercises with rest in between

but YES! speak to your doctor first.. im sure he can also give you some great advice

hope that helps!