Getting Stronger Is A Must – Part 2

I apologize to all of you who read my blog for not posting this session sooner. I had to assist my son on his quest of being one of the top high school basketball players in the country. He has been going to a bunch of High School All-Star Camps and playing exceptionally well. I think that he will wind up being one of the top 10 players in the country after next season. (A proud father boosting moment).

So now I’m back in the saddle.

As I stated in Part 1, my goal in this session is to get you the foundation for setting up a good strength program. Don’t forget the strength program combined with your aerobic and good nutrition program wil be the working elements to ensuring your winning The Fitness Game.

First, remember FLAB (no I am not talking about the enemy here), it stands for Front-Legs-Abdominal-Back. This is the way I suggest you break your body into sections for exercising purposes.

Let’s take a look at the Front.  This group consist of the Chest, Triceps, Biceps and Forearms. They are our vanity muscles. The muscles people usually judge us by. People tend to work out this group of muscles more than the others (especially males). Later I wil break down the exercises for this group of muscles.

Next we will look at the Legs. I keep the legs as one group because you only have to worry about 4 areas, Quadriceps, Hamstring, Calves and Gluteus Maximus (Butt). It is very important that your lower muscles get worked. They are the largest group of muscles in the body and will help you burn the most fat when their engaged.

Also, you need strong legs to get through your aerobic exercises. Stronger legs also can give you more energy. It takes less effort to move from place to place. Later I wil break down the exercises for each of the lower muscle groups.

Next lets take a look at the Abdominal area or the core. This group of muscles make your body stable and transfer power to different zones in your body. This group of muscles consist of interior and exterior abdominal muscles (six pack)  and oblique muscles (side). This muscle group is the hardest to get in shape and maintain. The reason for this is that your core is under constant pressure and resistance even when your sitting. Later I will break down the exercises for this group of muscles.

Finally we look at the back muscles. This group of muscles consist of the Upper back, Lower Back, Deltoids and Trapezius. This group of muscles gets neglected a great deal when it comes to exercising. Even though the back is responsible for our posture and is asked to do a great deal of work. One note the lower back is really part of the core but is easier to deal with when keeping it in this group. Later I will break down the exercises for this group of muscles.

Now let me start breaking down the exercises for each group. I am going to throw you a curve because I am going to do them out of the order I introduced them to you. I will be breaking down the Abdominal first. The reason for this is that you should exercise this group at least 5 days a week, which you will see, will differ from the rest of the groups.

Remember I told you that it is the hardest group to get in shape and maintain, that is why I am dealing with it first. First things first, I want to get a myth about this group of muscles out of the way. Some people believe if you exercise this muscle group a lot you will lose the fat around your midsection. I dealt with the way fat is lost in a earlier session, but this bears repeating. There is no such thing as spot toning. If you do a lot of exercises with this group of muscle and your overweight, what will happen is that you will have very strong and well defined abdominal muscles, but they will be sitting under a layer of fat. Just waiting to get out and be seen.

Like I use to tell people when I was getting back in shape. I have a six pack underneath my keg. Don’t laugh. Well go ahead it is pretty funny.

The first thing you need to know is I don’t recommend situps. Neither I nor any of my clients do them. They are bad for your neck and back. I only recommend crunches and some forms of leg lifts.

To give you a starting point, I recommend the following 4 exercises:

1. The Basic Crunch

• Lie on your back, bend your knees, placing your hands on the sides on your head.
• Contract your abs and flatten your lower back against the floor.
• Slowly lift your shoulder blades one or two inches off the floor.
• Exhale as lift, keep your neck straight and chin up.
• Hold for a few seconds (don’t hold you breath).
• Slowly lower while keeping you abs contracted.

3 sets of 20 reps

2. The Reverse Crunch

• Lie on your back with knees bend and feet on the floor
• Place hands on the floor or behind the head.
• Bring your knees up towards the chest so they bend about 90 degrees
• Contract your abs and lift your hips off the floor in a very small movement.
• Lower and repeat.

3 sets of 20 reps

3. Crunches on Exercise Ball

Sit on the exercise ball with your feet flat on the floor.
Let the ball roll back slowly and lie back until your thighs and torso are parallel with the floor.
Contract your abdominals raising your torso to no more than 45 degrees.
To work the oblique muscles, make the exercise less stable by moving your feet closer together.

3 set of 20 reps

4. Side Crunches

Lie on your back with your legs bent over to the right while keep your back and shoulders square on the floor. Proceed to lift and crunch up as shown on the right.

3 sets of 20 reps

Lie on your back with your legs bent over to the left while keep your back and shoulders square on the floor. Proceed to lift and crunch up as shown on the right.

3 sets of 20 reps

To start you might use just one of the exercises or you might use a couple of them. There are more good abdominal exercises. I have listed them below. You can try one of these as you advance or stick with the 4 I describe above, just up the number of reps.

More Abdominal Exercises:

1. Captain’s Chair Crunches
2. Planks
3. Cross Over Crunches
4. Bicycle Crunches
5. Rope or Cable Crunches
6. Ab Wheel Crunches
7. Crunches with Medicine Ball or Weight
8. Alternating Supermans
9. Seated Oblique Twists with Medicine Ball

As you can see there are plenty of abdominal exercises for you to choose from, so choose and get going.

I have decided to end this session here and cover the Front, Legs and Back in Part 3 and Part 4. Part 3 will definitely be on no later than Wednesday. If you have any questions about what I covered in this session, please email me and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Keep moving forward, remember it is all about winning The Fitness Game.