Straight talk about fitness

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  • kevinlynch3
    kevinlynch3 Posts: 287 Member
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    Excellent article

    I know that we are all practically brainwashed at this point that crunches will "help" give you washboard abs (assuming you drop fat) but there's a lot of professionals in the industry who disagree and are more in line with the points of the original article. So I guess for me, issues such as this come down to the professional qualifications of the proponents.

    Check out this link from T Nation and this is not the only place I read this

    http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/anterior_core_training&cr

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/magazine/21FOB-physed-t.html

    Now, I'm not advocating either way one way or the other but it does seem like its a mixed bag when it comes to crunches.

    The t nation article has some great examples of anterior core workouts.
  • BIG_Lew
    BIG_Lew Posts: 513 Member
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    You can’t spot train. If you want to lose the tricep jiggle or love handles,you must engage in a combination of aerobic and resistance training in conjunction with a balanced diet. Hey, no one said it was easy, but it is do-able if you’re committed.

    Nonsense. You CAN spot train. You don't have to do any aerobics to lose "tricep jiggle" or "love handles"....It's also mostly about diet.
    100 crunches a day will not give you washboard abs. Crunches are worthless anyway. You must lose the excess fat sitting on top of the muscle. We all have a six pack waiting to come out.

    Half right and half wrong. Yes you need to lose the fat sitting ontop of the muscle, but you still need to do crunches. I know a bunch of folks that have 7% bodyfat and are skinny as hell with no abs at all.
    For you guys, the chest muscle is comprised of two muscles (aka pectoralis major and minor). You can’t train upper from lower or inner from outer pecs. Just do a variety of exercises so the muscle is stressed from different angles.

    LOL. This statement is seriously flawed. Yes you can train upper and lower pecs. Are you going to tell me that me doing incline and decline train the same exact muscle group in my chest?

    I agree with you her Joe, but when the article says "spot train", I think he means "spot reduce" which is an entirely different thing. If that's what he means then he is correct, you cannot spot reduce (lower BF in a particular spot via training). Sure, you can build up muscle under the fat and make it look better but doing bicep curls does not reduce fat directly in the bicep.

    Oh I know thats probably what the article meant. I just like being difficult sometimes. =)

    Lol, I thought u were just trying to be difficult, no hard feelings :-)
  • solpwr
    solpwr Posts: 1,039 Member
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    So the part:

    The “fat burning zone” is very misleading. You will burn a larger percentage of fat in relation to carbs when you are working at a lower intensity, but you will also burn fewer TOTAL calories and less total fat. The battle of the weight loss game all comes down to total calories burned and has little to do with what percent of fat vs. carbs are used for fuel. You’re better off exercising at higher intensities to burn more total calories. Higher intensity is subjective and differs for each individual. The best bang for your exercise buck it to do interval training.

    I agree some but not purely. It is misleading, check. The best bang for your exercise buck is interval training, check. Total calories burned is the key, check. But this assumes that you are spending the same amount of time at the activity.

    This is assumption is not right. Here's what I mean: I often commute to work on my bicycle, like I did today, and yesterday, and will tomorrow. It is a 20 mile ride each way, and takes me about 1:07:00 (67 minutes) each way. I wear an HRM religiously, and I know what I can sustain for an hour. Around 75-80% of max. If I do that both going to work and returning home, I can do this a couple times per week, maybe even Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. But if I back the intensity down into the "fat burning" zone, I can ride every day consecutively. When I limit my HR to around 65%, I can do what I'm doing this week. I rode yesterday, burned 1,800 calories riding, and another 1,800 today, and unless something like weather screws me up, I'll be out there on my bike again. 120 miles in 3 days isn't too bad.

    I missed Thursday Night Race League, but I'll be able to Downhill bike on Saturday. If I went straight high intensity I wouldn't be able to pull it off. Just sayin.
  • kimbsh01
    kimbsh01 Posts: 38
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    thnx for the info!!
  • kneeki
    kneeki Posts: 347 Member
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    http://www.raquelfitness.com/straight-talk/

    ^ That's a direct link to the author's article.
  • LCDMomma
    LCDMomma Posts: 67
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    Great info!! Saving this!
  • ambermichon
    ambermichon Posts: 404 Member
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    awesome!
  • Lozze
    Lozze Posts: 1,917 Member
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    Reat article!
  • walkdmc
    walkdmc Posts: 529 Member
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    "If you can talk on the phone or read a magazine, then you are not working out. "

    Amen
  • missa1982
    missa1982 Posts: 30
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    Some very good points!
  • Hearts_2015
    Hearts_2015 Posts: 12,031 Member
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    http://www.raquelfitness.com/straight-talk/

    ^ That's a direct link to the author's article.
    Thanks!
    This is a interesting article I just came across:

    Straight Talk

    From Raquel, M.A., C.S.C.S.

    Fitness is a lifestyle, not a quick goal to reach for an upcoming reunion, birthday, cruise, etc.

    If you can’t do 20 pushups, you shouldn’t be trying to bench press 200lbs. Learn how to lift your bodyweight first.

    If you can’t maintain full range of motion every rep, reduce the load you are lifting and perform full range.

    You can’t spot train. If you want to lose the tricep jiggle or love handles,you must engage in a combination of aerobic and resistance training in conjunction with a balanced diet. Hey, no one said it was easy, but it is do-able if you’re committed.

    There is no such thing as upper and lower abs. There is only ONE muscle called the rectus abdominis (RA) without a division separating the upper from the lower musculature. During exercise, there is absolutely no way you can recruit muscles fibers from a lower portion of a muscle. When the recruited muscle fibers contract, the entire muscle fiber contracts, not just one end or the other. This phenomenon is known as the all-or-none principle. Just like it doesn’t make sense to train lower biceps, you can’t train lower abs either period!

    Most of the time, the exercises you hate are the ones that work the best.

    The more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. Ladies, lift some real weight please.

    Working out shouldn’t grant you an entitlement program: I can eat whatever I want because I had a great workout today.

    100 crunches a day will not give you washboard abs. Crunches are worthless anyway. You must lose the excess fat sitting on top of the muscle. We all have a six pack waiting to come out.

    The only way to train balance is to be unbalanced.

    The “fat burning zone” is very misleading. You will burn a larger percentage of fat in relation to carbs when you are working at a lower intensity, but you will also burn fewer TOTAL calories and less total fat. The battle of the weight loss game all comes down to total calories burned and has little to do with what percent of fat vs. carbs are used for fuel. You’re better off exercising at higher intensities to burn more total calories. Higher intensity is subjective and differs for each individual. The best bang for your exercise buck it to do interval training.

    For you guys, the chest muscle is comprised of two muscles (aka pectoralis major and minor). You can’t train upper from lower or inner from outer pecs. Just do a variety of exercises so the muscle is stressed from different angles.

    Train multiple muscle groups to get faster results vs. having just a chest day, shoulder day, bicep day, etc. I can’t believe people are still living in the dark ages training one muscle per day. Men, please check out Michael Boyle, Mark Verstegan, & Alwyn Cosgrove on how to get the most out of your training.

    If you stop working out, your muscles will NOT turn to fat. Muscle and fat are two different types of tissue. Physiologically, it is impossible for one to become the other. If you are eating more than you’re burning off, then the net result is weight gain due to the fat cells becoming larger in size.

    Want to be better at everything you do? Don’t ignore your core. You can train it every day. Rotate static and dynamic core stabilization exercises (see my post on this).

    Weight training does not make females bulky. Females lack adequate amounts of testosterone, the hormone that promotes muscular growth and size. Weight training will help you get lean muscle tissue and become a better fat burner.

    If you can talk on the phone or read a magazine, then you are not working out.

    Does muscle really weigh more than fat? You can not compare two substances unless you define the volume and density. Muscle has more density than fat tissue. (Physics 101: Density is not the same as weight.) Muscle takes up 1/3 less space than fat. The correct way to state the muscle v. fat debate is “muscle is heavier by volume than fat.”

    If you do not warm up, you are basically asking for an injury.
    BiglewM I really appreciate you taking the time to find and post this, thanks SO much! I find it highly motivating:flowerforyou:
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    bump, v interesting.

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