Abdominal Training - The Right Way!

How to obtain the mid-section you've always wanted!

Why does everyone want the six pack? Easy - it is way more attractive than the more common, spare tyre or beer belly! There are thousands of articles everywhere you look on how to achieve the "perfect" torso. Most of them promising results. If it was as simple as just going to the gym three times a week whilst following a low carb diet, we’d all be flying out to Ibiza every summer, prancing around shirtless showing off our prize assets! Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Lets face it, everyone wants a flat stomach! The problem is, it is not that simple. There are so many factors that have to be considered when looking achieve this. Every single person has abdominal muscles. If you did not, you would not be able to get up from a horizontal position. The problem is trying to get rid of that sheet of fat so that you can actually see them.

Obtaining the most wanted body part for men and women is quite the challenge. It takes 100% dedication to training, the near perfect diet along with targeted supplementation (BioSignature) and an optimal lifestyle. In order to succeed you must acquire some basic knowledge of how the abdominals and core work.

To keep this simple so that you stay focus, I will summarize the torso up in a couple of sentences:

1. Core muscles – These are the muscles that you cannot see, but hold precedence when training your torso. The primary role of the core is to stiffen the spine, rib cage and pelvic girdle so that the head, arms and legs have a stable working foundation. If you are suffering from some kind of inner abdominal dysfunction, you will not get that flat stomach.

2. Abdominal group – These are the ones that you do see (assuming you have low enough body fat). Performing crunches, leg raises, sit-ups etc...will all hypertrophy these muscles. However, you MUST have a solid core before you start direct abdominal training.

ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE

If you really want to look your best, walking around shirtless for your next summer holiday, start working on them now! With a combination of physical training, good nutrition, BioSignature and an optimal lifestyle, you can flatten your stomach for summer!

TRAINING

If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got! Change your weights training programme every 3 to 4 weeks. I am not talking about just ab training you must change your whole routine!

Whether your goal is hypertrophy, strength or fat loss, you should never stick to the same exercises and exercise variables for longer than 3 to 6 weeks. Train with free-weights, NOT machines (unless instructed by a health care professional).

When training on machines, you do not stimulate the core and stabilizers. Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts, Military presses are all excellent and safe exercises when performed correctly! They train the abdominals indirectly, stimulating the core, resulting in a flat strong torso. If you are retaining a layer a fat around your stomach but are relatively lean elsewhere, you will need to look at your nutrition and lifestyle. Avoid crunches and sit-ups for at least a couple of months, especially if you are a crunch fiend and perform them religiously!

The chances are you are in need of some structural balancing. Your trunk flexors will be tight and strong in comparison to your trunk extensors which will be weak. Instead, work on your lower back muscles and stretch out your abdominal's. Perform exercises like Deadlifts, and back extensions (not necessarily on the same day). If you never train the mid section and have gotten rid of most of the fat then you could start training them directly.

Below is a sample routine you can try out twice a week.

Side note: Abdominals are composed primarily of fast-twitch muscle fibres, which in laymans terms, mean they usually respond better to the rep range between 6 and 12, with a total time under tension of 30-50 seconds.

A1 – Incline leg raises. 8-12 reps. 4.1.1.1 tempo.

Lying face up on an incline bench of about 30 degrees, grab the bench behind your head. Lifts hips off the bench trying to keep legs straight as possible. Try kick the ceiling and slowly lower down for 4 seconds. Rest 30 seconds then...

A2 – Decline crunches. 8-10 reps. 3.0.1.0 tempo.

Using the same bench as before, anchor your feet at the top somehow so that your head is below your feet. Perform a crunch towards your feet and slowly lower down for 3 seconds. After you have done 10 reps rest 30 seconds then..

A3 – Side bends – 8-10 reps. 3.0.1.0 tempo.

Using a swiss ball or a back extension chair, anchor feet. If you are working your left side, have your left foot back and your right foot in front for better balance. Lower for 3 seconds and up for 1. Aim for 10 reps, rest then....

A4 – Back extensions – 8-10 reps. 3.0.1.0 tempo.

Using the same chair or ball as above, anchor feet. Slowly lower your face towards the floor for 3 seconds, up for 1 and pause in an extension position (NOT HYPEREXSTENDED) for a second then down again. Aim for 10 reps then rest 2 to 3 minutes and repeat the super set for another 2 rounds!

By the end of this routine your abdominals should be in a little pain. If not then you should look at increase the intensity next time, NOT reps. This can be done by holding a weight behind or in front of your head, or between your feet (leg raises).

NUTRITION

Without proper nutrition you will probably never get the results you’re after. I am not going to say that you should cut carbohydrates or fat as this may not work for you. However, if you have been relying on certain carbs and sugars for energy for a long time but have not seen a reduction in the waistline, maybe you should change to good fats and proteins. Here are some simple tips that can help with the stomach, along with increased energy levels:

• Think before you eat - "that cake looks good, but I will regret it after"
• Eat as often as you can - 4 to 6 smaller meals instead of 2 or 3 big ones.
• Do not skip meals - If you do, your body will think there is lack of food around and prepare itself for this. Your metabolism will slow down and you will burn off muscle and retain fat! Try eat every 4 hours.
• Eat Organic whenever possible – There is plenty of info out there on the importance of consuming organic, free-range products.
• Avoid processed foods and drinks - These are high in sugar, additives, bad fats and chemicals which our bodies are not designed to live on.
• Keep well hydrated - Drink at least 2 litres of bottled filtered water everyday.
• Avoid excessive alcohol consumption, especially beer.

BioSignature

Please refer to my BioSignature page for more details.

SUMMARIZING UP

Follow these steps in order and you will have a much greater chance of losing that spare tyre compared to what you are probably doing right now:

1. Nutrition - Cut out all carbohydrates and sugars and focus on animal (and whey) proteins and vegetables (not potatoes). Stay well hydrated

2. Supplementation - For best results, I strongly recommend getting a BioSignature assessment done.

3. Lifestyle - Get to bed by about 11pm every night (try your best here) and wake up at the same time every day. Find ways to control stress, if needed.

4. Training - Having a personal trainer will take out all of the guess-work. However, if you choose not to have one then follow these simple steps for now: Avoid excess sit-ups, crunches, leg raises and focus on big, compound movements, such as Deadlifts, Squats, Military Presses etc. This will burn more calories than direct abdominal exercises, and speed up your metabolism! Avoid, or limit sustained aerobic activities such as long runs. Trust me on this one!

Top Tips For Gaining Muscle

Basically any decent weight training programme will produce positive results as long as

you are progressing in some way. If you are lifting the same weights and performing the same exercises

every time you go to the gym you can be sure you will not put on

any further muscle mass.

This is because, on average, most people adapt to a particular workout every 3 to 6 weeks. Once we have adapted to a workout, we need to change it for continuing progress, otherwise we will hit that inevitable plateau.

Now if your main goal is to put on some muscle mass and to stay as lean as possible, I have given some simple pointers. Baring in mind that this approach may not work for all of you, it will work for most.

Training

As your main objective is hypertrophy (muscle gain), we will focus on lifting weights with rep ranges of between 6 and 15. This does not mean you should stick with these reps ranges all the time, it's just that you will produce most of your hypertrophy following this variable of your workouts. Every 6 weeks you should 'chuck in' a strength workout focusing on the 2 – 5 rep range.

Weeks 1 to 3 (Train 3 times a week)

For the first 3 weeks focus on 2 or 3 exercises per body part performing 3 sets of 12 reps each, resting only 60 seconds in between sets.

Weeks 4 to 6 (Train 3 times a week)

For the next 3 weeks focus on 2 or 3 exercises per body part performing 4 sets of 8 reps each, resting only 90 seconds in between sets.

Weeks 7 to 9 (Train 3 times a week)

For the next 3 weeks do ONLY squats, chins and bench press on one day and Dead lifts, BB military presses and DB rows on the other day. Perform 4 or 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps each, resting 4 minutes in between sets.

After you have completed 9 weeks, repeat the cycle and feel free to change the exercises if you like.

Nutrition and Supplements

The next part covered is your diet. In short, you basically want to eat as much protein as you can stomach along with vegetables, lentils and/or beans. You want to try eat every 3 or 4 hours.

Also make sure you have a post workout shake containing about 50 grams of whey / pea / rice / goat whey protein, 20 grams of glutamine and 50 grams of sugary carbs. Maltodextrin and dextrose work very well for glycogen replenishment.

Cheat day

Once every 5 days, increase your calorie intake by up to 50%. This basically means eat whatever you like making sure you eat more than you normally would every other day. I get all of my clients on a cheat day, usually over the weekend. For best results try stay away from gluten, wheat and dairy all the time.

Rules and safety guidelines for gaining mass

Below are some general rules to follow for gaining mass quickly and safely:

• 75% of your hypertrophy workouts should be with compound exercises such as chins, dips and squats
• Make sure you perform all exercises with a controlled tempo. No fast explosive movements (except during the strength cycle), especially during the eccentric phase of the lift
• Eat protein with every meal and drink at least 3 litres of water every day
• Eat as many green vegetables as you can
• Have a protein shake after every session
• If in doubt of proper exercise form, seek help from a personal trainer
• Get at least 7 hours of solid sleep every night
• Make sure your workouts do not exceed 60 minutes. If it does, reduce your training volume
• Train to failure on the last one or two sets only

Man Boobs

Why do some men retain excess fat in the pectoral region? There are a few main reasons for this - Genetics may play a small role here, the rest is dietary and hormonal imbalances.

What is happening to our bodies? Basically you have too much aromatase (an enzyme in the body that converts testosterone into oestrogen) in your body. So it kind of makes sense to reduce this enzymes production, resulting in probable fat reduction of the pectoral region.

Why is this happening? What are the main causes of excess aromatase? Below are a few reasons why now some men go shopping in the bra department:

• Pollution


• Excess insulin


• Obesity


• Excess alcohol consumption - particularly beer


• Zinc deficiency


• Our water supply


• Hormones in animal proteins


• Medications such as oral contraceptives


• Plastics when exposed to heat, such as microwaving food containers

Getting rid of the Moobs

How do we get from a C-cup to an A-cup (or less)? You will need to first look at your diet. Below are some suggestions:

• Eat at least 4 servings of steamed cruciferous vegetables a day. This would include watercress, broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts, kale, turnip, collards, cabbage, and radish to name a few.


• If you're a drinker, switch to red wine. Red wine contains resveratrol, which acts as an Aromatase inhibitor. A glass of red with dinner may actually help reduce the circumference of your chest area. Also, if you are a beer drinker I promise you will find it very difficult to get out of your man-bra until you cut back, or cut it out


• Green tea - Green tea is loaded with antioxidants which have anti-carcinogenic effects. They also help with the detoxification of oestrogens


• Supplementation - Supplementing your diet with either DIM, Curcumin or Grape seed extract has been shown to reduce the pectoral fat in males!


• Fibre - Adding up to 30 grams of fibre from varied sources will help "pull" out foreign oestrogens from the body.


• Eat organic nuts and wild meat whenever possible. This is a great way to naturally boost your testosterone levels. However, as it is quite difficult to do this nowadays, it is recommended to supplement your diet with Zinc.

The next thing you need to do is to increase your testosterone levels...the legal way! This means hitting the weights 3 or 4 times a week using a personal trainer or by yourself.

Last but certainly not least, I highly recommend getting a BioSignature assessment done. This is particularly effective for targeted fat loss.

Conclusion

Man boobs are a health problem and not an attractive site. The fact of the matter is most men out there are suffering and do not know what to do about it. Follow the simple steps above, or get your BioSignature done and you will be well on your way to ditching your man-bra!

Coffee and Timing

Millions of people rely on caffeine for energy every day. It is the most widely used legal drug on the planet. So is it actually good for us? Like a lot of things, in moderation, maybe. As most of us get our caffeine from coffee consumption, I will just use this beverage for the article.

Coffee seems to be a very popular subject with the media. One week you may hear that drinking coffee will help with fat loss. A few weeks later there will be another story on it may actually make you gain weight. What do you believe? I personally believe that having one a day, black or with cream and no sugar, will not increase the waistline.

If you are putting on weight and are adamant that coffee is responsible, you are probably drinking too many of those Caramel-Mocha Frappucinos with extra cream. Stick to long-blacks or espressos and you should be fine.

Coffee and Cortisol

Why do we take caffeine? Simple, it is a stimulant which can help us stay awake or give us a kick start in the morning. What do a lot of people do for that pick-me-up when they are tired? They grab something sweet, drink a caffeine-containing beverage, or smoke a cigarette. Some will have all three at once! Caffeine, sugar and tobacco are all stimulants, which fire up your sympathetic nervous system (your fight or flight response). This triggers the release of an activating hormone, cortisol, which gives your brain the impression that its time to get up, or time for action.

Cortisol is released in response to stress and light. It is at its peak in the morning from about 6 to 9am and then dropping mid afternoon and at its lowest after the sun goes down. When cortisol drops, melatonin is released which increase the levels of repair and growth hormones. If we continue to consume coffee into the afternoon, we will continue to release cortisol, which will disrupt our sleep cycle. Caffeine can stay in your system for up to 18 hours (depending on the amount you consume).

Weight loss or weight gain

I am no expert on the effects of coffee but bare with me for a minute. Coffee contains caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant that has been proven to aid in weight loss (notice I did not say FAT loss). Caffeine also increases cortisol. Prolonged exposure to cortisol increases fat around the umbilical region. So, I guess you could say that excess coffee consumption can increase fat around the mid-section? Maybe.

So to reiterate from above, if we are stressed and we go for a coffee, we may actually increase our chances of gaining more fat around the mid-section. I guess if I was to put it that way, most of us may consider given up our favourite daytime beverage...Maybe.

Benefits of coffee

Now, I should also point out that some U.S studies have shown a lot of people get most of the antioxidants from coffee, so if they were to eliminate it from their diet, they may encounter other issues. Also, some research on pubmed has shown that coffee consumption may help prevent chronic diseases such as type-2 diabetes and Parkinsons disease. More recent studies have also shown that coffee drinkers are less likely to get Alzheimers disease and dementia.

To give up or not to give up?

I think that giving up coffee is harder than cutting out the carbs. I have personally chosen to give it up for a few months and switch to green tea. I am actually a coffee-lover because of the taste – not because of the stimulant factor. This makes it even harder to say goodbye to my favourite black liquid!

So as you can see there are pros and cons to coffee consumption. If you are going to continue to drink coffee but want to keep any possible side effects to a minimum, I have given some suggestions below:

1. Keep your coffee black without sugar. Adding cinnamon and cream is OK.


2. Have no more than two small cups a day


3. Always have it with solid meals and never on an empty stomach


4. Have 45 minutes before a workout. As it raises cortisol, you may as well use that cortisol for an effective training session!


5. Never have it post-workout – if you are trying to gain muscle you do NOT want cortisol (a muscle-destroying hormone) hanging around after your weights session!


6. Do not have after lunch time as may interfere with your sleep cycles.


7. Try drink organic coffee. This will be better to a degree as will contain no chemicals from herbicides and fungicides sprayed over the crops during the farming process.