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Training :Workouts

The Abs Plan

A washboard stomach isn't only about vanity, it's about being a stronger, faster runner. Here's a simple diet and exercise program for shedding fat and revealing your inner six-pack.
By Matt Fitzgerald

Yes, Baywatch-worthy abs look great. But they do more than give you the courage to run without a singlet. By increasing the stability of your hips, pelvis, and knees, they relieve strain on your muscles and reduce the chances of injury. And by minimizing wasteful movement at the joints, they enable you to run faster, stronger, longer.

As a runner, you probably think you're well on your way to owning these kinds of abs, and you may be right. Running is the best fat-burning activity around, and lowering your body fat makes muscles appear more defined. But poorly conditioned abs won't pop from even the leanest physiques, which is why core-strength exercises that build your midsection are key. That's part one of our plan.

Part two is paying closer attention to what you eat. Even if you run 50 miles a week and do 500 crunches a day, your belly won't budge if you reward yourself with heaping bowls of pasta and cream-cheese-laden bagels. Trimming calories is the only other way to shed the fat covering your six-pack. Adopt the following abs workout and diet, and come spring you'll be ready to run or race better than ever, singlet optional.
Part 1: Your Abs Workout

There are dozens of ab exercises you can use to strengthen your midsection; the most effective ones are those that have the most functional carryover to running. These five exercises are the best of the best. Each will benefit your running in a different way. Do one set of each move two or three times a week, and build up to two or three sets, three times a week. Oblique Bridge







Benefit: Strengthens the muscles involved in maintaining lateral stability at the hips, pelvis, and spine.
Technique: Lie on your side with your ankles together and your torso propped up by your elbow. Lift your hips up until your body forms a diagonal plank from ankles to neck. Hold this position for 20 seconds, concentrating on not allowing your hips to sag toward the floor. Reverse sides. Progress by extending how long you hold the position. To increase the challenge, do lateral leg lifts from the bridge position. Stick Crunch







Benefit: Strengthens the abdominal wall and improves the stability of the pelvis and lower spine during running.
Technique: Lie on your back, bend your knees, and draw them as close to your chest as possible. Grasp any type of stick (such as a broom handle) with both hands, positioned shoulder-width apart. Begin with your arms extended straight toward your toes. Now squeeze your abdominal muscles and reach forward with the stick until it passes beyond your toes. (This is a very small movement--just a few inches.) Pause for one second and relax. Do 15 to 30 repetitions. Lying Draw-In with Hip Flexion


Benefit: Ab muscles stabilize the pelvis during alternating leg movements.
Technique: Lie face up with your head supported by a pillow or foam roller. Begin with your legs bent 90 degrees and your thighs perpendicular to the floor.

Engage your deep abs by drawing your navel toward your spine. While holding this contraction, slowly lower your right foot to the floor, return slowly to the starting position, and then lower the left foot. If you find this easy, you are failing to hold the contraction. Lower each foot eight to 10 times. Progress by adding repetitions.
Supine Running


Benefit: Strengthens the lower abs and hip flexors with a running-specific leg action.

Technique: Lie face up with your arms at your sides. Begin with your legs extended and your feet raised two inches above the floor, heels together. Press the small of your back into the floor. Draw your left knee toward your chest while keeping your right leg extended and off the ground and your lower spine in contact with the floor. Return to the starting position and then draw your left knee in. Repeat eight to 12 times with each leg. Hip Twist


Benefit: Strengthens the muscles that prevent excessive trunk rotation during running.

Technique: Lie face up with your palms flat on the floor. Extend your legs toward the ceiling, with your feet together, toes pointed. Tip your legs 12 to 18 inches to the right by twisting at the hip, so that your left buttock comes off the floor. Fight the pull of gravity by maintaining stability with your abs and obliques. Pause for a moment, then return slowly to the starting position, again using your core muscles to control the movement.?Repeat on the left side. Do eight to 10 repetitions on each side.

Measure of Success

There's an expression that many coaches and dietitians use: "What gets measured gets managed." In other words, if you're trying to control a factor in your life, you'll get better results if you measure it frequently. This principle certainly applies to your midsection. Measuring your body fat allows you to pursue the goal of getting leaner objectively. The easiest way to measure your body fat is to use a body-fat scale. These devices, such as those made by Tanita and Taylor, use bioelectrical impedance (an electrical impulse sent through your body) to estimate body fat with excellent accuracy. They cost roughly $40.

The American Council on Exercise offers the body-fat percentage guidelines at left. Once you determine your current percentage, set incremental goals to improve it, checking your progress every two weeks. If you are currently above the acceptable range, set a modest initial goal of moving into this range. If you're in the middle of the acceptable range, work to move into the fitness range. Don't automatically aim straight for the bottom of the athletic range. Not everyone can safely get there, and no one gets there overnight. And don't go below essential fat levels (the amount of fat that's necessary for optimal health).

There is no specific body-fat percentage associated with six-pack abs, but by actively reducing your body-fat percentage through good nutrition and core conditioning you will develop a set of abs you can be proud of. ?M.F. Men Women
Essential Fat 2-4% 10-12%
Athletic Range 6-13% 14-20%
Fitness Range 14-17% 21-24%
Acceptable Range 18-25% 25-31%

Part 2: Your Abs Diet

To get great abs you need to lose body fat while maintaining your lean muscle mass. That means consuming just enough calories to nourish your muscles without expanding your waistline. To do that, imagine you've already achieved a lean body, and your goal now is to keep it. If you currently weigh 160 pounds, but you'd like to drop 10 pounds, you should eat enough calories each day (about 2,400 for an active person) to sustain 150 pounds of body weight. Because it takes just two calories to sustain a pound of body fat for one day, you just need to trim two calories a day for every pound of excess body fat you're now carrying (or 20 calories daily to go from 160 to 150).

Easy, yes. Fast, no. By following this formula you'll eventually lose 10 pounds of body fat, but it could take more than two years. To speed up the rate of return, you'll need to cut more calories. Not too many, or you'll begin to deplete your muscle carbohydrate stores and compromise your postworkout recovery. But with the strategies on the following page, you can trim anywhere from 100 to 700 calories per day without hurting your running or constantly listening to your stomach growl?and see results in three months. And yes, chocolate is involved.
Smart Swaps

By merely replacing some of the foods you currently eat with lower-calorie alternatives, or even by simply adjusting the proportions of foods you're already eating, you can trim several hundred calories from your daily intake and start getting leaner. Here are some examples of how to eat for a trimmer waistline. Even if you don't eat the exact foods listed here, you can still apply these calorie-cutting principles to your own diet. Instead of Eat This Calories Saved
Breakfast 1 cup Wheaties cereal with 2% milk; Grande Starbucks Caffe Latte with nonfat milk 1/2 cup Wheaties with fresh strawberries and 2% milk; Tall Starbucks coffee with half-and-half and sugar 186
Rationale: Due to their high fiber and water content, fresh fruits fill more space in your stomach with fewer calories. By adding fruit and reducing the portions of other foods, you can trim calories and still feel satisfied. (Cut 20 more calories by replacing 2% milk with skim.) Coffee drinks made with syrup and milk are calorie bombs, especially in larger sizes. For a lean caffeine fix, drop to a medium coffee sweetened with half-and-half and sugar.
Snack High-calorie energy bar Kettle Valley Real Fruit Bar 90
Rationale: Energy bars are convenient and tasty snacks, but they can pack a lot of calories and are dismissed by some nutritionists as as "candy bars in disguise." Choose a bar with 150 calories or fewer, eat half a bar and save the rest for tomorrow, or look for a leaner choice. Kettle Valley Real Fruit Bars contain 1/2 cup of fruit and no added sugar or preservatives.
Lunch Turkey sub; 1 serving of baked potato chips Turkey wrap; baby carrots dipped in light ranch dressing 134
Rationale: One of the few positive legacies of the low-carb craze is the popularization of wraps as an alternative to sandwiches. Tortillas have fewer calories, and it’s easier to stuff them with veggies. Most "light" alternatives to snack chips are still relatively high in calories and low in overall nutrition. Instead, try baby carrots dipped in light ranch dressing. Carrots contain fiber, which will keep you feeling full longer.
Snack Trail mix (2 parts nuts to 1 part dried fruit) Trail mix (1 part nuts to 2 parts dried fruit) 116
Rationale: While trail mixes that contain nuts and dried fruit are quite nutritious, those with more nuts than fruit are heavy on calories. A one-ounce serving of mixed nuts contains 175 calories and 1/4 cup of dried fruit contains 100 calories, so to make this snack significantly lighter, choose a mix with more fruit than nuts.
Dinner Chicken (4 ounces) and vegetable (3/4 cup) stir-fry with white rice (1 cup) Chicken (3 ounces) and vegetable (1 cup) stir-fry with brown rice (3/4 cup) 87
Rationale: You can lower the number of calories in almost any meal by increasing its vegetable content and shrinking its meat and starch content. You can lighten up further by swapping a refined grain for a whole grain. You can make this substitution to other meals by adding more veggies and subtracting cheese from pasta dishes, burritos, and pizza. Also, choose whole-wheat pastas and breads.
Dessert Fruit sorbet Dove dark chocolate (one piece, .28 ounces) 100
Rationale: Some desserts have fewer calories than others, and sorbet is lighter than most. But dark chocolate is the world’s best dessert by far. Dark chocolate releases mood-boosting serotonin in the brain, so just a single 50-calorie piece can satisfy you better than a whole bowl of sorbet. And the antioxidants in dark chocolate are good for the heart.




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