If you're interested in training for fitness, to lose some fat,
build some muscle, and just generally look and feel good, you're in
the right thread. I don't expect you to read everything(if you do,
I applaud your dedication!) but it's very likely a question that
you have is answered below, so do try to look at the questions and
see if they match yours.
*Note* This FAQ assumes that you are a healthy individual with no
existing medical conditions. If you do, please seek medical help
before embarking...
First of all, some basic Q&A for fat loss and training
Q) What's the best way to lose fat and get an ideal physique?
A) The best way to accomplish this is through a proper nutrition
and training plan. Nutrition won't be covered in this thread(maybe
in another thread), but training would include the following:
- Weight lifting compound free weights with short rest
intervals
- High intensity interval training(HIIT)
Both these methods will be elaborated on later.
Q) But what about jogging for cardio? Isn't that the best way of
losing weight?
A) No. In fact, it can be counter productive. You see, jogging is a
form of steady state cardio exercise. What this means is that you
keep a rather low speed that you're able to sustain for long
periods of time. The premise of this exercise for weight loss is
that you are able to run longer, hence burning more calories.
However, there are problems with this.
- The more you run, the more efficient you become at running. As
you get more efficient, your body will burn less calories. Imagine
a car driving on a highway at 60km/h. It will achieve its highest
fuel efficiency, meaning it will burn less fuel. The body acts the
same way. This is great if your mission is to run a marathon, but
bad if your mission is to burn calories and fat!
- The more you run, the more you waste your muscles. Muscle mass
cannot be built or even maintained by running. In fact, running for
long durations will actually bring your body into a catabolic
state, meaning your muscles will start burning away. If your goal
is to reduce your body fat percentage, then it would be in your
best interest to keep as much muscle mass as you can, or even
increase it. Running, or any other steady state aerobic exercise
doesn't achieve this.
Q) OK, so if I don't run, what do I do for cardio?
A) High intensity interval training(HIIT), mentioned above. HIIT is
a method of cardio work where you work at full intensity for a
short burst, followed by resting for a slightly longer period of
time. An example would be sprinting full speed for 30s on the
track, then resting for 60s. Typically HIIT sessions are completed
within 10mins. In unconditioned beginners, 1-2min might be all they
can sustain.
Q) 10 mins? But I heard that you only start burning fat after
20mins
A) That is a myth that has been spread for years, and one that
needs to be eliminated. At best, it is a half truth. You see, your
body initially uses your glycogen stores to fuel the activity, and
gradually shifts towards using fat stores as fuel. The ratio shifts
more towards fats as you run more than 20mins. It doesn't mean that
you're burning no fat before 20mins and all fat after. In any case,
this ratio is not as important as people would like you to believe,
because the overall calories and fat loss due to HIIT is more than
what you would get if you just jogged more than 20min. Do you know
when your body is burning the highest percentage of fats? When
you're sleeping! That's right, but you don't expect anyone to tell
you to sleep to lose fat anytime soon. Also, steady state cardio
burns calories mostly during the activity itself. However, HIIT
burns calories during the activity itself, as well as hours after
the activity. Simply put, after an intense HIIT bout, you'd be
burning more calories even while you're sleeping!
Q) Huh? HIIT burns calories after the session? How is this
possible?
A) It is possible due to 2 factors - EPOC and hormonal
response
EPOC - stands for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, aka the
oxygen debt, or afterburn. What this means is that because of the
added stress and trauma you've put your body through in an intense
HIIT session, your body needs fuel to repair cells, decrease your
body temperature, etc. All this takes energy...a lot of energy if
your training was intensive.
Hormonal response - An intensive training session, including HIIT,
triggers the release of many anabolic(muscle building) hormones, as
well as others involved in fat loss. The hormonal response is
perhaps the biggest contributor to fat loss.
Q) So HIIT is better than jogging/swimming/other steady state
aerobic exercise?
A) For fat loss and conditioning, yes. Contrary to popular belief,
the human species was never made to run long distances. Our early
ancestors didn't chase their prey over long distances to catch them
for food...they sprinted short distances and killed them with
tools. A recent study actually found excessive aerobic exercise to
be detrimental to cardiovascular health, effects of which include
the downsizing of the heart. This could be the reason why we've
seen so many triathletes and runners pass away before their time
recently. In addition to cardiovascular health concerns, jogging is
also notorious for being bad for the joints. I'm sure you've read
or heard that every step you take while jogging puts many times
your weight on the joints of your legs. Besides this, joggers are
also known to have severe muscular imbalances due to the repetitive
and concentrated nature of the activity. What this means is that
some of their muscles are much weaker, or much less flexible than
others. This can lead to compensation in movement patterns, leading
to injury. Another point more pertaining to women - women in
general are less suitable for jogging than their male counterparts,
because of something called the "Q-angle". Simply put, the Q-angle
is the angle of the thigh bone from the hip. Because women have
wider hips and narrow knees, they also have larger Q-angles, making
you more prone to knee and other joint injuries. In fact if you
look at the elite runners, they all pretty much look like men as
far as their Q-angle is concerned - they have narrow hips and
smaller breasts. They are better suited for running. Most women
aren't.
Q) Wow! That sounds like scary stuff! I guess I shouldn't jog at
all!
A) Not necessarily. There's no need to avoid
jogging/swimming/steady state aerobic exercise if you truly enjoy
it. However, don't make it the core of your exercise regime. As
long as you also train your body with HIIT, you can counter the
negative cardiovascular effects that steady state exercise
brings.
Q) OK, so how exactly do I perform this "HIIT"?
A) There are several protocols. You can do it sprinting on a track,
on a stationary bike, sprinting up stairs or up a slope, with
bodyweight exercises such as burpees, squats, lunges, etc. However,
stay away from the treadmill and elliptical because the former can
cause joint problems and the latter's arc is unnatural and awkward.
For beginners, you generally want to start with a 1:4 work:rest
ratio. What this means is that if you sprint for 30s, you rest for
2min. Depending on the difficulty of the activity(sprinting up
stairs is harder than sprinting on a track for example), you should
be working for about 15-40s, and then resting for 4x that.
Experiment with the timings to suit your own physical fitness
levels. Generally you want to time it such that you are feeling ok
for 1-2 sets, even when you are doing it the fastest and hardest
you can. The numbers of sets you do this again depends on your
physical fitness level. A general guide is to do as many sets as
you can before puking. If this idea makes you cringe, another idea
would be to perform as many sets as you can before performance
drops considerably. For example if you managed to do about 15
burpees for each workset, stop the exercise once your performance
drops to considerably to 10 burpees. This is just a rough
guide...you have to work these figures out by experimenting.
Q) How often should I do HIIT?
A) Depends on what else you are doing, your sleep, your nutrition,
and a host of other factors. If HIIT is all you are doing for
exercise, you can do it everyday assuming you have good nutrition
and rest. You see, HIIT is metabolically and neurally intensive.
You need to provide your body with the necessary rest and nutrition
in order for it to repair itself in time for the next bout. If not,
you will feel lethargic, depressed, tired and generally
unmotivated. For a beginner I would keep it to about 3X max a week,
and less if you're involved in other physical activity.
Q) How long do I have to do HIIT before I lose xxx kg?
A) I can't tell you that because I don't know how much you weight,
what's your body fat percentage, and what your goals are. I can
however say this much - if you keep working at it, coupled with
proper nutrition and rest, the fat will come melting off, and this
will keep you motivated. Ideally you should be doing this for the
rest of your life! It is not something you do for a few weeks, lose
the kilos, then stop...it is a lifestyle change.
Q) I must keep doing it? But I have no time...
A) HIIT takes just 10minutes of your time AT MOST. It can take as
short as 4-5mins if you adjust the parameters right. If you have
time to read through this post, you have time to do HIIT. No
excuses
Q) I've been doing HIIT for 2min each time for a couple of weeks
and I've lose a few inches here and there, and now HIIT seems easy.
Is this normal?
A) Yes, because you're getting fitter! You need some form of
progression. For HIIT there are many parameters you can tweak to
progress
- increase number of sets: if you're doing 2 sets, increase this to
3.
- increase work:rest ratio: 1:4 is for beginners. You can keep
working your way up until one day you might be fit enough to do 2:1
for several sets! One of the HIIT methods using this ratio is
called the "Tabata method" that calls for work sets of 20s with a
10s rest, done 8X over 4minutes. Japanese researchers who
discovered this method found it to improve both aerobic and
anaerobic conditioning, which is a very rare occurence. You can be
assured that it's great for fat loss too!
- change the difficulty of the exercise: if you were sprinting on a
track, try sprinting up a slope. If you were doing a normal burpee,
try doing a burpee with a pushup and then a jump at the end. There
are many ways to make the exercise more difficult. Use your
imagination.
As you can see, there are several ways to progress, but none of
these ways involve increasing the amount of time HIITing more than
10min. This saves time while giving superior results!
Q) When should I perform HIIT?
A) If you're doing only HIIT, any time. However, if you're also
doing weight lifting(described later on), preferably at the end of
the lifting session, because of 2 reasons
- Doing HIIT at the beginning would decrease your strength
training's performance
- Doing HIIT at the end brings about a stronger hormonal
response.
If you're doing HIIT at the end, make sure to keep the entire
session(lifting included) within about 50min though. This will be
explained later in the strength training section.
Q) What if I experience pain when doing HIIT?
A) If it's a joint pain, STOP immediately and identify where the
pain is coming from, and is it an old injury, etc. This FAQ assumes
you are a healthy individual with no injuries, so if you have an
existing condition, please seek medical advice.
If it's a muscular pain, then no problem. Stretching will help. Be
careful not to get cramps though as they are painful.
That's all I can think of for now...stuff will be added on later as
they crop up...
OK, here's the portion regarding strength training, aka "stuff you
do at the gym".
Q) So what should I do at the gym for fat loss
A) Basically, you should concentrate on exercises that fit these 2
criteria
- Free weights: this means barbells, dumbbells, bodyweight, and
cable machines. This excludes all other machines as well as
treadmills, ellipticals and most other cardio machines
- Compound movements/lifts: this means exercises that use more than
1 muscle group and involve more than one joint movement. It's the
opposite of isolations. For example, a bicep curl is an isolation
exercise, since it only involves elbow flexion and mostly the bicep
muscle. A squat on the other hand is a compound movement because it
involves both knee and hip extension(2 joints) and several muscle
groups such as the quads(thigh muscles), hamstrings(back of your
thigh), glutes(buttocks), core(abs), and even lats(back).
Q) No machines? But I thought machines were safer?
A) Contrary to popular belief, machines are not safer, even though
they are marketed that way. I am talking about fixed range of
motion machines here, such as your typical leg extension, leg curl,
pec fly, etc where there's a camber and pulley system that you
resist against a fixed arc. Cable machines are not in this
category. Now let's take a look at what's wrong with machines.
There are many studies that confirm this
- Machines have a fixed line/arc of motion. This is bad because it
forces your body to adapt to the machine, and not vice versa.
Simply put, this is bad for your joints over time.
- Machines often only isolate the "prime mover" muscles and neglect
the development of the "stabilizing" muscles. For example, if you
do a dumbbell bench press, your chest(pectorals) is the prime
mover. It does the bulk of the moving. However, your delts and
triceps and a bunch of other smaller muscles help to stabilize your
hand while you're moving the weight. Together a whole group of
muscles work in synergy to move and balance the weight. Now compare
this with a machine chest press. The motion looks the same, but now
you don't need to stabilize the weight because the machine has done
that for you. This is bad because over time you develop muscular
imbalances, which can lead to injury. Besides, you're at the gym to
workout. Why let the machine do half the work for you? It doesn't
make sense...
- Adeptness at operating the machines doesn't translate to real
life strength and fitness, because of the above point. That means,
even if you're very good at various machines, this ability doesn't
carryover to real life strength and abilities. Machines are hence
not very functional.
- Machines are easier to do, and because of this they do not cause
as much of a metabolic and hormonal response as free weights, and
these are critical elements in fat loss. Simply put, you are
shortchanging yourself if you're doing the machines for fat
loss.
Q) OK, so if I don't do the machines, what should I do?
A) Compound lifts with free/body weights, done with short rest
intervals, examples of which include the following
- Barbell/dumbbell Squat
- Barbell/dumbbell deadlift
- Barbell/dumbbell bench press
- Barbell/dumbbell row
- Barbell/dumbbell standing overhead press(aka military
press)
- Pullup
- Reverse leg curls
- Barbell/dumbbell lunges
The way to perform them is explained in the exercise guide
below
Q)Free weights? That sounds hard and heavy. But I don't want to get
bulky, I just want to get toned and sculpted
A) Don't worry, you won't get bulky. It is not that easy for even a
guy to get bulky without a supporting diet, rest, and training
plan. It is even harder for women to do so, because you have a much
lower testosterone level, and testosterone is crucial to get
"bulky". However, side effects of free weights include fat loss and
muscle building, 2 things that you might be interested in if you're
reading this
Q) OK, so what exactly should I do? I don't understand the 8
exercises above...
A) No problem. I'll explain it to you. Basically these 8 exercises
fit into the 8 natural human movements. They can be broken down
into 2 body portions - upper body and lower body, 2 movements -
pushing and pulling, and 2 planes - horizontal and vertical. I can
see the confused look on your faces now. Stay with me...! I'll
explain each movement
Upper body
Horizontal push - a movement where you push away from your torso.
Examples include bench press, incline bench press, pushup.
Horizontal pull - a movement where you pull towards your torso.
Examples include barbell row, seated cable row, bent-over dumbbell
row.
Vertical push - a movement where you push something away from you
overhead. Examples include military press, seated shoulder
press
Vertical pull - a movement where you pull something towards you
overhead. Examples include lat pulldown, pullup.
Lower body
Hip dominant - a movement where the main movement is centered
around your hip joint. This is a pulling movement. Examples include
various deadlift variations. Basically a deadlift is where you lift
something from the ground up. For example in a barbell deadlift,
you bend down with a straight back(very important!), grab the
barbell, and then stand up again with the barbell hanging from your
hands.
Quad dominant - a movement where the main movement is caused by
your quads. This is a pushing movement. Examples include various
squat and lunge variations.
Knee dominant flexion - a movement where you bend your knees.
Examples include reverse leg curl, swiss ball leg curl. This is an
accessory exercise, which means it's not as important as the ones
above.
Knee dominant extension - a movement where you straighten your
knees. Examples include split squats and lunges. This is an
accessory exercise, which means it's not as important as the ones
above.
The way to perform them is explained in the exercise guide
below
Q) Fine, now I know what exercises to do. But how do I do them? All
in 1 day?
A) Basically, for beginners, it is always best to start with full
body workouts. What this means is that you work your entire body in
1 workout, and repeat it the next time, and the next time, and
every time after that...to make things easy, I will give a sample
workout here:
A1 Hip dominant(eg Romanian deadlift)
A2 Horizontal push(eg flat bench press)
B1 Quad dominant(eg squat)
B2 Vertical push(eg overhead press)
C1 Knee flexion(eg reverse leg curl)
C2 Vertical pull(eg band assisted pullup)
D1 Knee extension(eg split squats)
D2 Horizontal pull(eg 1 arm dumbbell rows)
The way to perform them is explained in the exercise guide
below
Q) What do the numbers and letters mean?
A) This is a form of workout program notation for what is known as
"alternating sets". What this means is that you do ALL your A lifts
first, then ALL your B lifts, followed by ALL your C lifts, then
your D lifts. So, for example, if you do 3 sets for each lifts,
your workout would be something like - A1, A2, A1, A2, A1, A2, B1,
B2, B1, B2, B1, B2, C1, C2, C1, C2, C1, C2, D1, D2, D1, D2, D1, D2,
finish!
Q) How many sets and reps do I perform? I want details!
A) Woah, slow down there...I know you're eager to hit the gym and
burn off that excess fat that's keeping you from becoming the next
Victoria's Secret angel. We're here to help...(hey guys love VS
angels). OK anyway, for fat loss there are 2 schools of thought
with regards to sets and reps. One school says lift very heavy
weights for very few reps but many sets. Another says lift quite
heavy weights for quite a few reps but few sets. Either way, reps
won't reach too much into the 2 digit range. I would say 12 reps is
probably the max you need to do, and you can go down all the way to
1 rep. For beginners, I would choose the latter - around 8-12 reps
of moderately heavy weights, i.e. weights that you can perform
maybe 10-14 reps with before you cannot lift it anymore. The reason
why you choose this weight is so you have some buffer, since your
performance in subsequent sets will be lower due to fatigue. This
weight is also called your 10-14RM, or "repetition max". It's the
max weight you can lift for x number of reps. i.e. 1RM would be the
max weight you can lift for 1 rep. Any heavier and you won't be
able to do even 1 rep.
Do this for about 3-4 sets, including a warmup set with lighter
weights. So in essence, a warmup set followed by 2 sets of 10 would
be an acceptable scheme. You have 8 exercises, so that would be 24
sets in total(including warmup). If you workout a few times a
week(and you should!) you can vary the number of reps. For example,
if you workout on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, on monday you might
do 12 reps, wednesday 9 reps, friday 6 reps. Of course, you must
also vary your load/resistance. As your reps decrease, your load
should increase. How do you know what's your x RM? You'll have to
experiment for the first week or 2.
Q) That seems like a lot! How can I finish it in time?
A) Good question. Time spent at the gym is one important factor you
should consider because the longer you workout, the more you're
breaking down your muscles. You see, when you start exerting your
muscles and stressing them with physical work, you induce some
hormone release in your body. These include anabolic(muscle
building) and catabolic(muscle breaking) ones. Initially the
anabolic ones are higher, but if you stress your body long enough
the catabolic ones will win. Afterall, you can't expect to train 12
hours intensively and not lose muscle. How long is long enough? The
limit is about 45-50mins, so keep your workouts within that time.
Note that this duration is from your first work set to the last
work set, including any HIIT you have at the end. This doesn't
include any warmup or stretching, since you're not exerting
yourself that hard.
Now, in order to finish all that 8 lifts within 45min, you're gonna
have to move around fast! This means short rest intervals. This is
in line with fat loss because the shorter you rest, the more
metabolic demands you place on your body, since you're not giving
your body sufficient time to recover completely before your next
set. For fat loss, keep rest intervals between sets to about
30-60s
Now, assuming you take 30s to complete the set and 30s to rest
before the next set. That's about 1 minute in total for each set.
You have 24 sets to do, so that only takes 24mins. Doesn't seem
that long now does it?
So all in all, the training parameters are as follows, assuming you
tain 3x a week:
Sets: 2-3 work sets, 1 warmup set
Reps: 10-12 on Monday, 7-9 on Wednesday, 4-7 on Friday
Load: 12-14RM on Monday, 9-11RM on Wednesday, 6-8RM on Friday
Rest interval: 30s
Q) Why and how does this work?
A) This works because of several reasons. In case you want to
know...
- Compound movements cause the most stress to your body because
many joints and muscle groups are involved, and heavier weights are
carried. They are metabolically and neurally more intensive, hence
burns more calories and induces more EPOC and hormonal response,
all of which are conducive for fat loss and muscle building.
- Alternating sets allow one part of your body to rest while
another part works. It also increases the work density while not
compromising too much the actual rest a muscle group has. For
example if you look at A1/A2. While rest intervals between the
deadlift and bench press is only 30s, if you think about it, rest
intervals between each deadlift is actually twice that or more, and
because the deadlift uses different muscle groups from the bench
press, they are more or less independent, so you get more rest
while still doing work. That's multitasking at the gym!
- Low number of sets allow more exercises to do be done. We have 8
to get through in 1 workout, so you can only afford to spend 3-4
sets in total for each exercise. This balances out the various
movement and muscle groups so you don't have any imbalances.
- Moderately high reps takes some duration of time to complete them
while still allowing you to use heavy enough weights. When done
fast, they are also lactate inducing(this is what causes the "burn"
in your muscles right after you complete the set). This again
causes a hormonal response, as well as triggers your body to get
rid of the lactate from your muscles. This is metabolically
expensive and hence more calories are burnt
- Heavy loads are more intensive than 1kg pink dumbbells. Loads
that challenge your body to lift them cause several responses from
your body that include fat loss and lean muscle growth. Light
weights have no chance of eliciting these responses because they
are too easy.
- Short rest intervals makes perceived intensity higher, because
you're not giving your body enough time to rest. In 30s your body
cannot remove the lactate, or lower your pulse rate, or lower your
body temperature, etc, however you would have enough rest to be
able to perform the next set
Q) I've been doing this for a 2 weeks and the workout now seems
easier. I'm not so out of breath anymore, and the weights don't
seem that heavy
A) That's good news! It's because your body has adapted to the
program and is now fitter and stronger. However, that's bad news
for fat loss and muscle growth, because you're no longer presenting
your body with as much stress as when you first started...so how do
you fix this? Easy, by increasing the resistance! Ideally for
beginners, every workout you should aim to add some weight. For
example if you start out with a 20kg barbell squat(20kg is the
weight of the empty long barbell), the next workout, put a pair of
1.25kg or 2.5kg on it(1 on each side), and so on...you will need to
constantly evaluate your new 10-14RM by listening to your
body.
Q) What about abs or "core" exercises? I don't see any listed
there?
A) Good question. Core exercises are a different class altogether,
but most people train them wrongly. Without going into too much
detail, avoid traditional crunches and situps because they don't
train the core the way it should be trained. The core should first
be trained to prevent motion, not to create it. Exercises that
train this include side planks/bridges and the ab-wheel. Do these
after you warmup, but before the strength training. 5-10min of this
should be sufficient. Core work doesn't fall within the 45min
window since it's not very intensive.
Q) Speaking of warmup, how should I do this? Should I run on the
treadmill for 5min before doing some stretching?
A) It may seem weird, but a warmup need not consist of actually
warming your body up. It certainly need not include any kind of
cardio beforehand. It doesn't hurt too much if you're only cycling
for 5min, except for the fact that 5min is wasted. So what should
you do? Several things:
- self massage or "self myofascial release"(SMFR): this releases
the "knots" in your muscle fibers and increases your muscle tissue
quality. Picture your muscle fibers as a big rubber band with
several knots. If you just stretch it, the knots are still there,
and will even get tighter. Now if you release those knots, you're
able to stretch the rubber band more. SMFR can be performed with a
tennis ball, golf ball, or ideally a foam roller. Basically you
roll these around various muscles while putting your bodyweight on
it, and then when you find a "tender spot" which illicits pain,
stay in that position for about half a minute, and the pain will
subside. It can be pretty painful the first time you do it, but
you'll be amazed at how this can give relief to some nagging aches
all around your body!
- static stretching: Now that the knots are released, you're ready
to stretch! Stretch only what is tight/inflexible. Girls are
usually more flexible than guys so it shouldn't be that time
consuming. A few stretches include hamstring, glutes, hip flexors
and quads for the lower body, and pecs and lats for the upper body.
Do a google search for how to stretch these parts.
- muscle activation: this "activates" your muscles so that they're
not sleeping. Believe it or not, many of us have muscles that are
sleeping, or deactivated. Due to modern lifestyle and a 9-5
deskbound jobs, we have lost the ability to recruit those muscles.
Hence when we perform certain lifts that are usually performed by
those muscles, other muscles come in and try to lift it instead.
This causes faulty movement patterns and can lead to over-stressing
of the wrong muscles, which can ultimately lead to injury. This is
one of the reasons why you hear of people getting back injuries
from just bending down and picking up a pencil.
The glutes are a muscle group that are usually dormant and
deactivated. A good way to activate it is to do a "clamshell",
where you lay on your side, wrap a resistance band/tubing around
your knees, and open/close your legs like a clamshell. If you're
doing it right, you should feel it on your butt. Another good one
is the side-step, where you hold a resistance band/tubing with your
hands, step on it with both legs, then step to the side several
times 1 direction, and several times back. The band/tubing provides
some form of resistance.
- specific movement preparation: this prepares your body for the
actual lifting/movement that it's about to perform. This is what
the warmup set with a lighter weight does.
After you do all this, your body temperature will probably be
raised already, so like I said earlier, there's no point in doing
any actual "warming up" to warm your body up.
That's all I can think of now...hope this helps!
And now for some stuff that don't work, or is not optimal for fat
loss/muscle building.
1) Jogging, swimming, aerobic classes, kickboxing classes or other
steady state aerobic activity
This is already explained in the 1st post. It doesn't mean you
should stop doing it completely if you enjoy it. Just don't do too
much of it. 1-2x a week should be enough to get your fix.
2) Crunches, situps, leg raises
These have been said to work the abs, "tone" the abs and lose the
tummy fat. Well, turns out it's a myth. First of all, you can do as
many situps and crunches as you like, and they might very well
build some abdominal muscle. However, if you don't get rid of the
layer of fat that's covering it, you'll still be flabby. Situps ad
crunches do nothing to reduce bodyfat levels.
Secondly, situps, crunches and leg raises only work the Rectus
Abdominis muscle, commonly known as the "6-pack" muscle. Your abs
consists of many other muscle groups, all of which are not worked
by these exercises.
Thirdly, these exercises do not work your "core" the way it was
designed to function. You see, our core(consisting of your abs) is
designed first of all to prevent motion, not create it. Think about
when you bend over to pick up a bag of groceries. You always hear
people say "keep your back straight!". What exactly keeps your back
straight and your spine neu.tral? You guessed it, your core
muscles. By engaging and bracing these muscles, you keep your back
in a fixed position. You don't create motion, but rather, you
prevent motion by resisting gravity's load on your spine.
So how should you train your core? Anything that engages your core
to prevent motion is great. Side planks are a great way to start.
Note also that many of the 8 lifts in the strength training plan
above also require you engaging your core to stabilize your body.
For example if your core isn't strong enough, you wouldn't be able
to perform the overhead press, since your body will be a shaking,
trembling mess!
3) Anything from OSIM, OTTO, OGAWA or any other massaging,
vibrating devices that claim to be effective in fat loss
None of these devices have any science or evidence to back up their
claims. Nobody has ever lost any significant amount of fat using
these devices nor kept the weight off, but people are still buying
them because of their lofty claims and celebrity endorsements. Yes
ladies, Fiona Xie and Lin Chi Ling may look totally hot, but they
didn't get their hot bods using these gadgets. I think it's amazing
how these companies still in business. I think if anyone is still
in school and is given the topic of writing about capitalism or
herd mentality, these companies would make great case
studies...
If you enjoy the massages though, that's a different story.
However, for fat loss, they don't work, period.
4) Ab-rocker, or any of those "As seen on TV" devices
See #3
5) Slimming salons, spas, massages
See #3
6) Weight machines
Doesn't matter if they are plate loaded or work by hydraulics or
gas-loaded, as long as they have a fixed range of motion(meaning
the handles only go in 1 axis, not 3-dimensional like free
weights), avoid them. They can yield short term results, and they
have certain other limited uses, but for strength training and fat
loss, they yield worse results than free weights, and in the long
run they lead to injuries, so don't bother with them.
7) Yoga, pilates classes
These aren't optimal for fat loss because you're not moving. You
may be resisting against your own bodyweight, but there's no notion
of progression, no external resistance, and no movement. Everything
is isometric(meaning not moving), and there's only so much good
isometric exercises can achieve. For fat loss, they're just not
that effective at all. They're good for flexibility and mobility,
although even then some of the stuff that you do in yoga is not
recommended at all, such as stretching the lower back(NOT a good
idea). Again, no need to avoid it completely if you enjoy it, but
keep it minimal.
That's all I can think of for now...