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A couple ways to get those “Abs” you want

STOP RUNNING MILES AT A TIME, STAY OFF THE ELLIPITCAL, AND FORGET THE WORD CRUNCHES! STOP FOLLOWING THE TRENDS AND TRAIN!!!

By performing sprints and a strength training program that challenges you, you will not only feel good, but look good this summer. If you’re hoping for a lean body composition and chiseled abs at the beach, forget the 15-minute ab programs in favor of a total body traditional strength program—and throw in some sprint intervals too.

 

Strength training and high-intensity intervals are well proven to give you lean abs, whereas programs that just train the abs have little pay off. For example, one study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared the effect of a six-week abdominal training program in which participants performed seven ab exercises (2 sets, 10 reps) five days a week—a fairly large number of reps, but none of the exercises used weights, meaning the metabolic effect on the body was minimal.

 

The exercises used were the Bent-Knee Sit-Up, Lateral Trunk Flexion, Leg Lifts, Oblique Crunch, Stability Ball Crunch, Stability Ball Twist, and Abdominal Crunch. Results showed no changes in body weight, body fat, abdominal fat, or waist circumference. Participants did improve abdominal endurance with a one-minute curl up test.

 

For the amount of time and effort invested in the ab program, participants didn’t get much benefit. A better training program would include deadlifts, squats, bench press, chin-ups, lunges, rows, and overhead press, with one ab exercise a day rounding out the training program. The fat burning effect would be much greater since these lift use larger muscle groups than the abs, while the squats, deads, chins, and lunges all require significant recruitment of the abdominal muscles. Plus, the added benefit of lifting heavy weights will help you lose fat that covers the abs, while improving muscle “definition.”


MILO 19.4 cover: Lu Xiaojun (China) bangs away on some snatch pulls in the training hall at the 2011 World Weightlifting Championships (DisneylandParis) a couple of days before winning the 77-kg category via a 170-kg snatch and a 205-kg clean and jerk. Randall J. Strossen photo.

 (Above is a picture of an Olympic lifter, and he may do 2 to 3 specific “ab” exercises per week if that, and crunches are not included in that list. The reason he looks like he does is 1. Hard work, 2. Lifts heavy weight with proper technique, 3. Proper Program Design/Exercise Selection, and 4. Proper Diet)


Another solution is to do sprint intervals to burn excess fat around the middle.

High-intensity intervals have been shown to be even more effective than strength training at burning fat fast. A recent study showed that participants who did a 6-week sprint interval program (4 to 6 sprints for 30 seconds each with 4 minutes rest) lost an impressive 12.4 percent body fat and an average of 3 kg of fat mass. Total training varied from 18 minutes when participants performed 4 sprints to 27 minutes when they did 6.

 

If your primary goal is lean abs, a high volume total body program with sprints is the way to go. You’ll gain strength and muscle mass in the obliques, rectus abdominus, and erector spinae, giving you better trunk stabilization and a rock hard stomach.

 

Reference: Poliquins Blog

 

Vispute, S., Smith, J., LeChiminant, J., Hurley, K.The Effect of Abdominal Exercise on Abdominal Fat.Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.2011.25(9), 2559-2564.

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Power, Speed, Explosiveness!

The Foundation for Power?…STRENGTH!

Strength is very simple: it’s the amount of force that someone can produce. Newton’s second law of motion teaches us that force is created when you accelerate a mass (mass x acceleration = force). When your body creates enough force it allows you to accelerate your body’s mass fast!

Your body cannot produce force if it has no force to produce. Force production is the foundation of all movement. I will use surfing for example because I appreciate the sport and the skill that it takes. To be able to perform a skilled maneuver such as the cutback, or an air maneuver (see videos below) one must generate incredible force and acceleration to perform these with POWER and EXPLOSIVENESS. If we train our muscles to be strong enough to produce a certain maximum force in a given athletic situation, that means we can accelerate our bodies or an external object similar in mass faster and with more power.

 (Professional Surfer Kelly Slater- Top, Professional Surfer Gabriel Medina- Bottom)


For those of you who are more experienced with weight training, you’re probably thinking “many of those qualities are affected by different training stimuli,” and you’re definitely right. Explosive Strength (power) and Reactive Strength (plyometrics) are used to fine-tune your neuromuscular abilities by focusing the Maximum Strength that you have just built.

Explosive Strength focuses on increasing the Rate of Force Development (RFD), or how fast your muscles are able to produce force. This type of strength is especially important for power lifting, Olympic lifting, shot put, weight throw, baseball pitchers, javelin, and discus, as these sports are expressions of maximal explosiveness. If you can create the same maximal force that you have developed through your Maximal Strength phase faster, this will translate into performance. This is expressed through high-load speed strength (moving heavier loads, like a snatch) and low-load speed strength (moving your body weight, or lighter loads such as in discus).

Reactive Strength qualities are beneficial to athletes who are dynamic in their sport. This applies to most team sports and individual sports, including hockey, rugby, football, baseball, golf, tennis, squash, etc. Reactive Strength is the muscle’s ability to apply force quickly, after completing a Stretch Shortening Cycle (SSC). The SSC is the transition from, yep… you guessed it: being stretched, to being shortened. If you’re a soccer player running one direction and the ball zips by to your left, you want to get there as quickly as possible. Instead of stopping, turning left, and starting to run, we simply crossover and push off with our right foot, propelling our body to the left. We don’t do a full squat and jump to the left. We plant and push off, wasting no time at all. And if your SSC is faster and produces greater force than the defender, I think we can figure out who gets to the ball first.


References
Hales, M (2011) Evaluating Common Weight Training Concepts Associated With Developing Muscular Strength: Truths or Myths? Strength and Conditioning Journal; February; 33 (1); pp. 91- 95.

Hori, N; Newton, R; Nosaka, K; Stone, M (2005). Weightlifting Exercises Enhance Athletic Performance That Requires High-Load Speed Strength. Strength and Conditioning Journal; August; 24 (4); pp. 50 – 55.

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“Understanding Sport Specific Training”


Is your program specific to the sport? How does your exercises mimic what the athlete does in his or her sport? These are questions that often Strength & Conditioning Coaches get asked by parents, athletes, and sports coaches. But a weight room is a facilitator to movement not an area to practice your specific skills, and a Strength & Conditioning coach’s job is to train athleticism not to work on sport specific skills. A strength program can only get so sports specific before it becomes an actual sports practice. As an athlete you need more strength and power in some sports, but the way you build it doesn’t change from sport to sport, it changes from athlete to athlete.

The problem is that what works for most athletes isn’t a good choice for every athlete. That’s when you have to make specific adjustments for individual athletes, or types of athletes. Sometimes this means adding targeted exercises to address imbalances and help prevent injuries. But more often, training specificity is defined by what you shouldn’t do with those special cases — avoiding exercises and movement patterns that create problems or that make existing problems worse (Michael Boyle, 2008).  What Coach Boyle is trying to say here is why as Strength Coaches would we input movement patterns in our program that the athletes constantly mimic in their sport? This will only cause more imbalance within the body.  Here are some examples I have personally encountered:

 

(These pictures are examples of what NOT to do) 

Female Basketball Coach asks: Our basketball players seem to have trouble catching the ball, could we work on grip strength or practice catching heavy medicine balls?

 

A: The coach needs to realize this problem has nothing to do with the weight room, and maybe spending more time at practice with specific ball handling drills. And catching medicine balls your looking at an injury risk and possibly messing them up even more


Professional Surfer asks: I practice a lot of body movements that mimic what I do in the water. I also use an indo balance board to help with my surfing as well. Will this help me become a better surfer?

 

A: What this surfer is doing will only help to a certain extent. What they have to understand is that you can only gain so much practicing in the water, doing body weight exercises, and throwing around some medicine balls. An Indo-Board wont get the job done, LIFT WEIGHTS!


Soccer Coach: Is there anyway to add soccer balls into the workout? This will make the workout more sport specific.

 

A: FALSE, adding soccer balls will not help with what they are trying to accomplish in the weight room. Kicking, jumping for a header, soccer balls are all things that need to stay at practice.

 

As Strength Coaches we focus on developing the trainable attributes (Speed, Power, Strength, Endurance, and Agility), which can only be held together by setting a solid foundation (Flexibility & Core). Without having a strong core and good flexibility an athlete cannot progress.