Anybody up for fitness club ? (Page 7)

Thanks for the tips Suram.   

I made suggestions for sit ups as part of losing inches around the waist area is because I was successful in doing exactly that.  I started off with 5 sits up a day.... Oh Lord...... to do that 5 alone is a miracle. Increased it to 10 and 20 etc.     Anyway, as I did it daily, I managed to loose 5" around my waist within 1.5 months.   My brother did the same and managed to trim down his waist. 

Maybe it is my metalbolisme.  I don't know, but all I know I managed to loose the 5" through sit ups, lifting legs and abdominal exercises.   Of course I looked good in my sarees and received compliements for it.

Edited by Caryn - 13 May 2008 at 6:43pm

WOO Caryn!!! Way to go buddy!! . Sit-ups are pretty tough. Do you support your feet on some heavey furniture??? I had tried it and found it very very tough!! I hated myself for cheating on those!!

Let me into the secret of doing 20 of those yaar!!! Any specific technique???



Edited by suram - 13 May 2008 at 8:23pm

Oh tell me about it Suram. That is the toughest part. Keela padutha yelamba mudiyale. Initially yes Suram, supported my legs on top on my bed. Just lifted my body. Slowly I gave up on that. No secret sweetie. Just lifted myself and increased each week. Of course cutting food stuff helped too.    

I am a determined person when I am not lazy.

Ditty..

You seem to be serious about the abs..that's nice to know. I wish I had been this conscious about exercising when I was your age.. seriously.
OK "the skinny" on the abs

First thing is, one cannot "spot reduce" in the ab area, if one has flabby abs. One has to lose weight systematically with cardio work/dieting etc., And it's harder to get rid off the fat in the ab area b'cos we are genetically programmed to store fat in the middle. That's why even in India, you can see (and I have seen this a lot and never understood why before, but now I do) that some supposedly slim looking people have fatter lower abdomen. The body is tuned to storing fat in the lower abdominal area.

One cannot lose fat in the abs just by doing ab workouts. It has to be achieved with some kind of cardio work together with dieting.

The abdominal area is split into 3. Lower abdomen, Upper abdomen, obliques (the sides). Now coming back to sit-ups or what we call "crunches" - I don't know exactly what kind of crunches you do - ie. targeting which portion of the abdomen. B'cos there are at least 3 kinds of crunches one has to do, for a full abdominal exercise. Otherwise, one will be left with fat in the lower/upper abdomen, depending on which kind of crunches they do. If you go to the gym and probably have some one train you, then you can get all these tips for exercising the whole ab area.

If you are going to do it from home, you (or whoever wants to know) can PM me if you are interested and I can send you the link for a very very skinny book on abs. You can get a total ab work out in 3 minutes. I'm sure you will find this in India. For those in the US, you can buy this book for $10 or so, or may even find it in your public library.

And Pilates is not like crunches. They have a series of different exercises, mostly targeting the abs. The reason Pilates worked for me is, b'cos of the DVD that I run which goes on for about 15 to 20 minutes. And it "works" all the ab muscles in its various exercises. You can either go to a Pilates class (it's very popular in the US) or you can rent or buy a DVD that shows you how to do Pilates. Once you exercise with the DVD for a few months, you will know the pattern and you can do it on your own.

If you are going the crunches way then - in the beginning, to tone your abs - you have to do crunches (not just the one kind you are thinking of) for at least 10 minutes or so, with little breaks between upper, reverse, side crunches. And then you can do one set of crunches everyday that targets either the lower/upper/obliques. And if you are going to do Pilates, do it for at least 15 minutes.

When you measured your waist, like you said, you couldn't possibly be a 23 or 123. First make sure, if you want to measure it in inches or cm. And then be consistent

 

"One cannot lose fat in the abs just by doing ab workouts. It has to be achieved with some kind of cardio work together with dieting. "


I totally agree Jenim. We can never spot reduce.. it has to be a combination of cardio, weight training and the diet.!!

I do a combination of cardio and after getting warmed up do weights and then cooldown..sometimes I reverse it by weights first and then the total cardio. I also found that before going for a yoga/pilates class if I do cardio for about 15 min then I am more flexible and able to stretch better!!!

Hi everyone, I kind of disappeared for a week now.. didn't I?! Oh my God, I got so so busy at work, home and got sick for couple of days.. and am back finally! hope to stick with you all from now on ...

Jenim,
Thanks a lot for all your great tips. It's going to be very useful to me. When it comes to workout I still am a novice... don;t know much detail on the things like the pilates..etc. But from what you are saying, it seems to be best exercise for Abs!! So I'm planning to find a video/book on that and will start to do it. The only workout I do/try to do is walking on my elliptical and outside weather permits!!

As per your Question onthe type of Ab crunch equipment I have,it's the Ab Lounge 2 (blue color). I too heard/read a lot about it and so got it. To see good results I should use it,right?! That's what not happening.. really until now! I use it once in a while. But seriously did not know about the detail you had mentioend about the 3 parts of the ab area, each part needs a special workout..etc.

Suram,
Welcome to the thread. you too seem to be an expert in fitness... what you had mentioned about doing at home Vs. going out to a Gym is very true! That's exactly I'm feeling ...burried in all my other chores...everyday and not able to put myself in some regular workout plan. But at this time, going out isn't possible for me either... hubby's work schedule doesn't help me much and I have to pick up the kids inthe eve. and dinner...etc.etc.

Anyway, for now, I Will try to do at home as much as I can... atleast a few days a week would do for me!! Thanks for all your great tips too!

Caryn,
Way to Girl!! Wow.. that's really cool in 1.5 months! Keep it up & thanks for sharing. It really motivates the rest of us here to work hard!

Ok Ladies... This past week, I could not do much as I was feeling crazily busy & sick with all the things that was going in my life! But I did once yesterday on my elliptical... 35 minutes - 400 Cal burn!! (ouch... I'm feeling the pain on my legs still!) Will continue my workout and hoping to reach the goal (month end - 5 lbs!) Let's see!

Edited by supree - 16 May 2008 at 7:18pm

Atta girl, Suram.
Yes.. it's impossible to "spot reduce", unless you go under the knife.  
Your combination sounds really good. I'm tempted to go back to the gym. While I can do a few things at home, strength training and the classes like ab training, cardio kick boxing, salsa aerobics.. I really do miss.

For the last thing you said:

My yoga instructor would say that going back home, your mind and body would be relaxed after the yoga. So he suggested that we do all our spirited aerobics stuff before yoga begins :-)

 

Supree -

Don't exert yourself when you are sick. That leads to some more health complications, it happened to a friend of mine. Soon after her flu subsided, she came back to the gym, only for it to relapse. So, take it easy for a few more days and then you can join in on the workout fun.

Yup.. most of us don't know about the various ab work, until such time we learn about it from the gym/books/videos etc., If you do all three, then you can get the total workout for your abs. See if you have any manual that came with your ab crunch that lists exercises that you can do - for upper, lower and the obliques. Otherwise you can do ab crunches, just lying on the floor/bench. I really wish I could post some pictures from the book that I have. But my scanner is broken :-(

I sent these links to those who PMed me for the book link. I'll also post them here. I think it should be OK, 'cos these are from youTube anyway. Some basic Pilates can be done, looking at these videos. Besides these, there are other powerful Pilates moves, just for ab training. See if you can try Pilates from these videos.. may be if you have a big screen comp monitor :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiofMIbEJeA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BETvEeh3CL8&feature=relat ed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzy4DkZyRgA&feature=relat ed

 

Edited by jenim - 17 May 2008 at 5:10pm