Top 10 Health & Fitness Articles Of 2011

January 11th, 2012 Kevin Richardson No comments

Top 10 Health & Fitness Articles Of 2011

In 2011 over a quarter of a million people read our blog articles as it has become more and more popular over the past several months. In this posting we take a look at the top ten most popular health and fitness articles posted in 2011. To determine popularity we looked not only at the number of ‘Likes’ and ‘Tweets’ but also factored in the number of readers and reader response. Hopefully some of your favorites made it into the final top ten list and I am sure that you will find a few other gems that you may have missed! Thanks again for the continued support!

Top 10 Health & Fitness Articles of 2011

10. The Anti-Aging Properties Of Weight Training & Resistance Exercise

A detailed look at how our body ages on a cellular level and how weight training and resistance exercise can play a significant role in maintaining quality of life as you get older. You can read the article in its entirety here.

9. Sweating Has Nothing to Do With Losing Fat

Getting a good sweat is thought of as the key to a good fat burning workout, however sweating has nothing to do with fat loss and is a poor indicator of how much fat you are burning while training or doing any physical activity. Read the article in its entirety here.

8. Tongol Tuna- A Safe Real Food Choice

I started writing about the benefits of tongol tuna several years ago and in this article we go over the problem of mercury in fish and the role of tongol tuna as a lower mercury alternative to traditional albacore tuna. You can read the article in its entirety here.

7. Six Pack Abs- It’s Not What You Do- It’s What & How You Eat

The quest of six pack abdominals has become the Holy Grail for many as the ultimate goal of their diet and exercise program. Unfortunately a surge of exercise products and services have sprung up over the years offering consumers much in the way of false hope by promoting various exercises as the way to a chiseled midsection. As lucrative as these products may be they not only don’t work, but distract us from the reality that a six pack comes from what and how you eat more than what type of exercises you do. You can read the article in its entirety here.

6. Multi-Vitamins & Vitamin Supplements Do More Harm Than Good

Multi-vitamins have long been thought of as a must have for anyone serious about their health. However hundreds of studies show that not only are multi-vitamins unnecessary for a population that is not clinically deficient in any major nutrient, but that they may actually increase the likelihood of certain diseases. If you take multi-vitamins or any vitamin supplement this is an article that you owe it to yourself to read. You can read the article in its entirety here.

5. The Economics Of Obesity- Why The Food Industry Needs Us to Overeat

One of the biggest problems we face in the fight against obesity and growing diet related problems is the fact that the government plays a key role in supporting and promoting the food industries that make the very foods that we ought to avoid. In this in depth two part article we take a look at how the industry makes us eat more and how important overeating has become for the sustainability of the American economy as we know it. A must read for anyone interested in the behind the scenes machinery that allows corporations to wreak havoc with public health. You can read the article in its entirety here.

4. Can Bread Make You Gain Weight?

There is a common belief that bread will make you gain weight but the truth is that if you eat anything more than you should you’ll put some extra pounds on. In this article we take a look at the history of one of our oldest foods and debunk some of the myths about bread while showing the major differences between what we eat today and the bread that sustained our forefathers. You can read the article in its entirety here.

3. How Do Muscles Get Bigger And Stronger?

While many slave away at the gym in the quest for bigger and stronger muscles, few take the time to understand the mechanisms by which our muscles grow. In this comprehensive piece we take a look at our body’s response to stress, how it translates into improvements in our physiques and our performance and why training less is best. You can read the article in its entirety here.

2. Rethinking The Need For Cardio- Why Aerobics Don’t Work Well For Fat Loss

Aerobic type exercise is without question the most popular fitness activity for those bent on losing weight- however numerous studies and an understanding of the physiology of how our cardiovascular and muscular systems interact show that it isn’t the most effect form of exercise if weight loss is your ultimate goal. You can read the article in its entirety here.

1. Are Protein Shakes Bad For You?

The most popular article of the 2011 is about the now ubiquitous protein shake. While a staple in the dietary regime of almost all gym goers there is yet no real evidence that protein shakes actually help increase muscle mass or improve performance. In fact, evidence suggests that they might not necessarily be a good choice for someone interested in getting into peak shape. You can read the article in its entirety here.

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The Anti-Aging Properties Of Weight Training & Resistance Exercise

December 29th, 2011 Kevin Richardson No comments

The Anti-Aging Properties Of Weight Training & Resistance Exercise

As you read this article you, like every other person alive on the planet, are getting older. From the moment we are born, we begin to age but unfortunately, most of us don’t really pay any mind to getting older until we start seeing tangible signs of the passage of time on our body. Thanks to advances in medical technology and improvements in living conditions. people are living longer than ever. So much so that by the year 2030, there will be more than twice the number of Americans over the age of 65 than there was in the year 2000.[1] Unfortunately, here in the West the very process of aging is looked upon as an illness in dire need of ‘treatment’- a way of thinking based on the fact that for most Americans aging is indeed a narrative of decline. Increased body fat, significant loss of muscle mass and strength to the point of infirmity in addition to the slew of age associated conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis are erroneously seen as an inevitable consequence of growing older. However, studies of older individuals who regularly engaged in weight training and bodybuilding have always challenged the idea that such infirmities come more as a self-fulfilling prophecy as a result of inactivity and poor dietary choices than a fate that we are all destined to suffer.[2] In this article, we will take a look at the physiological aspect of aging and how weight training and resistance exercise can create what gerontologists today term successful aging- namely getting older with a low probability of disease or physical disability, maintaining high cognitive and physical function and having an active engagement with life in your later years.[3,4]

Understanding The Mechanisms Of Aging
So, how exactly does aging occur? We can easily see the results of aging but there are certain biological mechanisms at work that we are often unaware of. The number cells that make up our body are kept at a relatively steady number through the process of mitosis (cells dividing) matched by the number of cells dying. This balance (homeostasis) is necessary for optimal health and body function however this equilibrium cannot be maintained indefinitely. In what is called the Hayflick limit, all animal cells have a limited number of times that they can reproduce. As we get older, senescence sets in- which is a decline in the ability of our bodies’ cells to divide. This usually starts in our early thirties and continues on throughout our lives. One prevailing theory is that the everyday occurrence of cellular reproduction leads to cumulative damage to our DNA and cells begin to die or not function correctly. This process, called apoptosis is actually beneficial as it acts a way of ‘cleaning up’ that benefits the healthy remaining cells. Taken as a whole, aging thus is nothing more than our bodies decline in being able to deal with stress. Maintaining homeostasis becomes more and more difficult until a point is reached where the organism dies.

The Role Of Weight Training In The Prevention of Muscle Wasting

Building muscle however through the use of a well executed weight training program of sufficient intensity is a way of increasing our bodies’ potential response to stress. As we get older, one of the main aspects working against us from being as strong and as built as we were in our younger years is sarcopenia. Sarcopenia which means literally ‘poverty of the flesh’, refers to the loss of skeletal muscle mass that comes with aging which in turn leads to weakness and frailty. For the average member of the population, as much as 50% of your skeletal muscle mass is lost between the ages of 20 and 90 years resulting in in a corresponding reduction in muscular strength. Such loss of muscle mass is usually associated as well with an increase in overall body fat. However as normal an occurrence this might be for most of us, studies suggest that lack of exercise- or more specifically weight bearing resistance exercise (like weight training) may be one of the overriding causes of sacropenia.[5]

We don’t have to lose such large amounts of muscle mass as we age, but without an active lifestyle that incorporates some form of resistance exercise over the course of time our bodies will indeed fall victim to the syndrome of ‘use it or lose it.’ While it would be absurd to think that weight training can allow you to be strong and muscular as you were in your twenties, preliminary research shows that those who engage in intense weight training over the course of their lifetime are able to demonstrate physical qualities and abilities on par with if not exceeding that of untrained individuals in their twenties while well into their fifth decade of life. With most of our medical anti-aging focus resting on the shoulders of pharmaceutical companies trying to find a pill form solution to the combat the effects of the march of time, comparatively little is invested in researching protocols that are far less potentially lucrative such as weight training. Nevertheless, short term studies thus far do indeed show that resistance exercises like weight training increase the ability of our muscles to synthesize proteins and thus minimizing the advent of skeletal muscle decline over the years. [6,7]

Getting Older- A Detailed Look At The Physiology

As we get older, it is not only our muscles that get significantly weaker without physical activity but also our bones. Increased bone porosity and reduction in bone mass can lead to the debilitating effects of osteoporosis. Which as we know can be both reversed and prevented by the implementation of weight bearing activities such as weight training.[8] (Read my article on how weight training prevents osteoporosis here). There are some aspects however that are beyond our control, as with the advancing years comes a natural decrease in the speed of nerve conduction, reduction in peak cardiovascular ability as well as a decline in kidney and other organ function. As mentioned earlier in an explanation of the Hayflick limit- our cells have a limited number of reproductions- and as you get older the motor units (motoneurons) in your fast twitch muscles begin to die. You don’t immediately notice it, as our bodies have a remarkable system of compensating. Consider that a muscles in your leg may have 250 motor units with each motor unit having as many as a thousand muscle fibers under its control.

This ratio of motor units to muscle fiber is known as an innervation ratio and in this case would be 1,000 muscle fibers per motoneuron.
Over the course of time, those 250 motor units in your leg muscle may drop by as much as half to 125 by the time you are 70 years old, and you would think that this would make you only half as strong, but it isn’t that straightforward. You see, we lose muscle fibers at a much slower rate than motor units so you would have only lost 10% of the muscle fiber in that leg muscle by the age of 70. However, the remaining 125 motor units sprout new branches to the muscle fibers that have lost their motor units to activate them and do more work than they did before. As a result, there is a higher innervation ratio, in this example it would be let us say 1,500 muscle fibers per motoneuron as our motor units take control of more muscle fibers as a way of helping us retain our strength as we get older.

Our nervous system also slows with the passage of time and so the mechanisms of muscle contraction slows down as well. Despite these natural declines, regular resistance type exercise and an overall active lifestyle can help minimize and offset the effect of these changes in our bodies. The more muscle mass built up over time, the more strength, coordination and motor skills you will have as you get older. A point lost sadly on the millions of women who invest most of their time pursuing aerobic type exercises and lower impact activities like yoga out of a misplaced fear of developing man-sized muscles and thus curtail their involvement in weight training- the very exercises that will help them stay looking and feeling younger as the years go by. (See my article on Should Women Weight Train Like Men)

Hormone Replacement Isn’t Always The Answer
Our hormones also play a role in the reduction of our muscle mass as we get older. Testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) help our bodies’ build and maintain muscle mass but there is a marked reduction in production as we get older. High intensity weight training has been shown to increase all three hormones [9,10,11] naturally and within standard human parameters. It might sound like a good idea to forgo weight training and instead turn to hormone replacement therapies but research shows that this reduction in hormones may be a key mechanism that allows us to live longer. Mammalian models with reduced growth hormone (GH) and/or IGF-1 appear to live longer[12,13] and while the administration of testosterone replacement therapy for men has become a lucrative and fast growing industry here in the United States, presently available data do not justify the broad use of such hormones for anti-aging purposes.[14,15]

Effects Of A Lifetime Of Weight Lifting On the Aging Process

Kenny Hall- an example of the anti-aging effects of weight training

My inspiration- Kenny Hall pictured in his early seventies

While it is established that there is a natural decline in our bodies from the age of 30 or so due to the processes mentioned above- there are also many examples of individuals who defy the narrative of decline for far longer than one would expect. In 1987, Dr. Fredrick Hatfield- (or Dr. Squat as he is affectionately known) set a world powerlifting record squatting over 1,000 lbs at the age of 45- more than any human being in history had ever successfully lifted in competition. A feat he was able to continue well into his fifties. My good friend and natural bodybuilder Kenny Hall started competing in his twenties and kept on winning titles for the next half a century. His greatest accomplishment was winning the Pro Mr. America in 1969 but he maintained a level of muscle mass and definition that allowed him to easily best other competitors decades younger than he was until he retired in his 70’s so that others would have their chance to win as well.

The science of Gerontology has only just started to pay attention to the amazing examples set by those engaged in a lifetime of weight training and drug free bodybuilding and research reveals that involvement in such activities can ‘create possibilities for people to age positively and reconstruct what aging “normally” means.”[2,16,17,18] Such studies also highlight the self fulfilling prophecy that our society’s acceptance of advancing age as a time of disengagement, dysfunction and disease goes a long way in our not taking action to prevent it from being just that. As long as we see aging as a downward trajectory of physical and mental deterioration, we are doomed to experience it as such. One of the common perspectives of men and women involved in weight training activities over the course of their lives and who exhibit remarkable physicality into the later sixth decades of life is what was termed a ‘mondadic styled’ body. In short, they focused on who they were and what they were doing as opposed to being influenced by what society expected them to be or the examples of their peers whose aging process tended to follow the narrative of decline that we are so used to hearing. Without turning to hormonal solutions that can often cause more problems than they solve, these individuals centered themselves on following a lifestyle. A lifestyle that allows them to significantly offset the impact of aging and achieve what we are all looking for- twilight years that aren’t defined by disease and disability but by engagement with life on all levels. We don’t need drugs or DeLeon’s fabled fountain of youth, we just need to make certain forms of exercise a part of our lives at all times.

Short High Intensity Training As A Preventative Factor Against Pre-Diabetes

December 22nd, 2011 Kevin Richardson No comments

Brief High Intensity Training As A Preventative Factor Against Pre-Diabetes

For the last two decades the diabetes rate here in the United States has increased significantly and it continues to rise with no signs whatsoever of those numbers going down anytime soon. According to a recent survey conducted by the Center For Diseases & Control nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, with 95% of those cases being type 2 diabetes, in which the body gradually loses its ability to use and produce insulin. A number that by no means small, but what is more disturbing is that estimates are that 79 million Americans are prediabetic. That’s over one third of the entire US population. A number that reaches out and touches all of us- our friends, our families and us individually as well. Being prediabetic means having blood sugar levels that are higher than what ideal levels should be, but not high enough to be clinically diagnosed as being diabetic.[1,2]

Unfortunately, prediabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes in addition to the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. What experts term as the ‘Western Style Diet’ has been implicated as the central cause of our increased rates of diabetes[3] in addition to sedentary lifestyles and obesity. Eating better is an important part of the fight against diabetes but equally important is the need to integrate a regular routine of exercise and physical activity. However given the demands of modern living most cite lack of time as being the primary reason they don’t engage in regular exercise. [4]That being said, infrequent bouts of brief high intensity training routines of 10-15 minutes have been shown to have a positive effect in improving insulin action and thus could be the answer to those without adequate time to train with a predisposition towards diabetes and obesity.[5]

What Is Prediabetes?

As mentioned above, prediabetes usually precedes a full diabetic diagnosis and is characterized by impaired fasting glucose where fasting blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not elevated to the point of a diabetes mellitus classification. Long term, large scale studies have shown that being prediabetic can cause long term damage to the heart and circulatory system and increase your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease even though there isn’t a full diagnosis of diabetes.[6, 7] Unfortunately, for many there are no marked symptoms of prediabtes, unlike diabetes mellitus which while sometimes difficult to identify without clinical testing does at times have some signs such as fatigue, weight gain, difficulty seeing, slow healing of cuts and wounds as well as tingling or loss of sensation in the extremities. That being said, given the widespread nature of prediabetes, fasting plasma glucose screening is important for everyone over the age of 30 and might be a good idea for younger individuals who are at risk due to lifestyle and or a high incidence of family history with diabetes.

High Intensity Training As A Preventative Factor Against Pre-Diabetes

The key however, aside from maintaining a healthy body weight through proper diet is to also be sure to incorporate exercise into your routine as a way of both preventing and reducing the risks associated with higher blood fasting levels. One of the easiest and most efficient ways to do this is though the implementation of a high intensity training program- which does not require much in the way of time (as little as three workouts of ten to fifteen minutes duration per week) and is a practical solution for todays’ personal time deprived lifestyles. According to a recent study extremely short duration high intensity training significantly improves insulin action in young healthy males. Type 2 diabetes is a very health problem here in the United States and in developed countries- a veritable pandemic affecting millions of children and adults alike. While it has been conclusively established that the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes can be reduced by regular exercise [8]. It is also true that most people find it difficult to consistently follow a routine due to lack of time as conventional exercise guidelines call for at least an hour of aerobic type activity five times a week. The commitment required for such training protocols are beyond the means of most living within the constraints of the very hectic realities of modern life. As many experts in the field have noted, in order for an exercise protocol to as well as a health benefit for the individual, not only should the regime reliably modify key disease risk factors, it must also be plausible to implement.

The Role Of Short High Intensity Training In Improving Insulin Action & Blood Sugar

Short high intensity workouts can improve blood sugar action

You don't need to train for hours to improve your blood sugar response if you train at high intensity.

Brief high intensity training workouts have been demonstrated to produce improvements in aerobic function, but it was previously unknown whether high intensity training had the capacity to improve insulin action and hence glycemic control. An important study published in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders however shows that such brief high intensity training may indeed have a pivotal role as a time saving exercise protocol for the prevention of diabetes. For the study 16 young men in their early twenties underwent a regime of 15 minute high intensity training for two weeks using stationary bicycles. Aerobic performance assessment as well as an oral glucose tolerance test to determine insulin response were administered both before and after the training periods. At the end of the two weeks of high intensity training researchers observed a significant increase in insulin action in addition to an increase in aerobic performance. Researchers concluded that “the efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only ~250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable…This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.”[9]

It’s Not How Long You Train- It’s How Hard You Train

Studies conducted at Arizona State University and Texas University not only confirm the increase in insulin action as a result of high intensity resistance training, but highlight two very important conclusions-

Higher intensity multiple set training protocols yielded the greatest treatment effect in improving both fasting glucose and insulin sensitivity.[10]
High volume resistance training is not a requirement for improved insulin sensitivity as a result of exercise as individuals performing high intensity low volume exercise have similar improvements in insulin sensitivity as those engaged in higher volume training programs. [11]

Taking this into consideration, a high intensity training protocol is one that many pressed for time should seriously consider. Not only have short intense workouts been demonstrated to improve insulin action but it has also been shown to increase muscle mass, increase endurance and aerobic capacity and decrease body fat better than aerobic exercise and conventional high volume training programs.[12,13,14,15,16,17,18] All the while increasing bone density, improving cardiovascular health and significantly reducing both the incidence and severity of depression.[19,20,21,22]

References:

1. Power of Prevention, American College of Endocrinology. Vol. 1, issue 1, January 2009. http://www.powerofprevention.com/POP_magazine_Jan2009_final.pdf/
2. Jellinger, Paul S. “What You Need to Know about Prediabetes.” Power of Prevention, American College of Endocrinology. Vol. 1, issue 2, May 2009
3. Wild S, Roglic G, Green A, Sicree R, King H (May 2004). “Global prevalence of diabetes: estimates for 2000 and projections for 2030″. Diabetes Care
4. Gilba MJ. High-intensity Interval Training: A Time-efficient Strategy for Health Promotion. Current Sports Medicine Reports 2007
5. Babraj JA, Vollaard BJ, Keast C, Guppy FM, Cottrell G, Timmons JA. Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males- BMC Endocr Disord. 2009
6. Fontbonne A, Charles MA, Thibult N, Richard JL, Claude JR, Warnet JM, Rosselin GE, Eschwège E. Hyperinsulinaemia as a predictor of coronary heart disease mortality in a healthy population: the Paris Prospective Study, 15-year follow-up. Diabetologia. 1991
7. Barr EL, Zimmet PZ, Welborn TA, et al. (2007). “Risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in individuals with diabetes mellitus, impaired fasting glucose, and impaired glucose tolerance: the Australian Diabetes, Obesity, and Lifestyle Study
8. C. A. Witczak1 and M. Sturek. Exercise prevents diabetes-induced impairment in superficial buffer barrier in porcine coronary smooth muscle. Journal of applied Physiology
9. Pedersen BK, Saltin B: Evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in chronic disease. Scand J Med Sci Sports 2006
10. Black LE, Swan PD, Alvar BA. Effects of intensity and volume on insulin sensitivity during acute bouts of resistance training. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Apr;24(4):1109-16.
11. Reed ME, Ben-Ezra V, Biggerstaff KD, Nichols DL. The Effects of Two Bouts of High- and Low-Volume Resistance Exercise on Glucose Tolerance in Normoglycemic Women. J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Dec 8.
12. Hawley JA, Specificity of training adaptation: time for a rethink? Physiol. 2008
13. Tremblay, A. et al. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Physical Activities Sciences Laboratory, Laval University, Quebec, Canada Metabolism.1994; 43(7): 814-818.
14. Tabata I, Nishimura K, Kouzaki M, Hirai Y, Ogita F, Miyachi M, Yamamoto K.-Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1996 Oct;28(10):1327-30.Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max.
15. Burgomaster KA, Howarth KR, Phillips SM, Rakobowchuk M, MacDonald MJ, McGee SL, Gibala M. Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans. J Physiol 586: 151-160, 2008
16. Bahr R (1992). “Excess postexercise oxygen consumption–magnitude, mechanisms and practical implications”. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica. Supplementum 605
17. Bahr R, Høstmark AT, Newsholme EA, Grønnerød O, Sejersted OM (September 1991). “Effect of exercise on recovery changes in plasma levels of FFA, glycerol, glucose and catecholamines”. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica 143
18. Bielinski R, Schutz Y, Jéquier E (July 1985). “Energy metabolism during the postexercise recovery in man”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 42
19. High-intensity resistance training and postmenopausal bone loss: a meta-analysis.Martyn-St James M, Carroll S. Osteoporos Int. 2006
20. Doyne EJ, Ossip-Klein DJ, Bowman ED, Osborn KM, McDougall-Wilson IB, Neimeyer IB. Running Versus Weight Lifting in the Treatment of Depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
21. Martinsen EW, Hoffart A, Solberg O. Comparing aerobic and non aerobic forms of exercise in the treatment of clinical depression: a randomized trial. Comprehensive Psychiatry
22. Singh NA, Stavrinos TM, Scarbeck Y, Galambos G, Liber C, Singh MA. A randomized controlled trial of high versus low intensity weight training versus general practitioner care for clinical depression in older adults. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences

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Categories: exercise Tags: diabetes, exercise, health tips, healthy eating, high intensity training, weight training

Six Pack Abs- It’s Not What You Do- It’s What & How You Eat

October 13th, 2011 Kevin Richardson No comments

Preface:

I grew up in Trinidad, an island in the West Indies were there was a significant number of homeless individuals living on the streets. So much so that they were a constant presence in the more urban areas of the island. As varied as they were in age and in circumstances which lead them to a life on the street, there was one striking physical aspect that they all shared- namely that almost every one of them had a remarkably defined six pack. They weren’t the only group of people who seemed somehow blessed with rippling midsections as those who chose to live off the land in the hills as a rule were similarly blessed with deeply etched abdominals. These people had never done a sit up, didn’t know what a crunch was, never used an Abdominizer or any other newfangled ab machine nor did they even know what a fat burner was. Perhaps, like the native people of everywhere from Papua, New Guinea to the Amazon Basin they didn’t realize that these things were a prerequisite to having a six pack. Or perhaps most of what you read about getting a six pack has little to do with actually achieving it. In this updated article, I do my best to discount the myths surrounding getting a six pack- most of which revolve on making you buy a product or service of some sort or promote unhealthy eating practices that create temporary solutions at best. I will preface the article with a caveat that what it takes to get a six pack isn’t impossible nor does it have to cost you anything- but it does require commitment, dedication and time. Thanks as always for reading.

Six Pack Abs-Why What You Eat & How Much You Eat Is More Important Than The Exercises

Over the past two decades of my career as both a personal trainer and a natural bodybuilder the most common question that I have been asked is how do you go about getting a six pack. You can get many different answers from many different people but I have always found it interesting that many of the self appointed fitness gurus giving the advice don’t sport a six pack themselves. Some may have a picture or two of what they looked like when they did have a six pack, but the photos are usually pretty dated or document the way they looked for a very brief period of time when preparing for a bodybuilding contest or photo shoot. As great an accomplishment as this may be, it in no way reflects what they look like all year round and few members of the general public are interested in only having a six pack for two or three weeks out of the year. The popular ninety day extreme exercise and diet video series promise a six pack within a very short time period, but as those who have done such programs can attest- you’ll regain the weight and lose whatever semblance of a six pack you gained within an equally short period of time.

The widespread use of steroids, thyroid medications, insulin, human growth hormone and other such drugs also makes it hard to find credible role models. Non natural bodybuilders, fitness models, figure competitors, bikini competitors, celebrities and many personal trainers rely on drugs for their coveted washboard midsections and it is disturbing to note the number of recreational users who risk their health with these drugs simply to look good for the summer. It is a sad blow to the fitness industry as it creates a culture of trainers who have no experience getting into shape without using drugs and thus are unable to help anyone else do the same. Add to this the babel of infomercials hawking the latest ‘scientifically proven’ ab machines and exercises and you can easily find yourself lost, confused and someone lighter in the wallet in your quest to see your abdominal muscles. That being said, it is very possible to have a six pack and keep it all year round, regardless of body type but it does take work and it won’t happen overnight.

Six Pack Abs As An Effective Marketing Tool

The allure of six pack abs is a powerful tool for getting you to buy stuff

The allure of six pack abs is a powerful tool for getting you to buy everything from supplements to exercise machinesstuff

You turn on the television and something in you wants to believe them. The well sculpted models using some new fangled invention that they swear will get you a six pack within a matter of weeks. Perhaps summer is coming or you are just tired of not seeing what you want in the mirror and so you buy the machine, using it faithfully just as they did on the infomercials- and yet nothing happens. Your belly remains just that- a belly. It doesn’t transform into a chiseled work of art and you can’t understand why. Undaunted, but a bit lighter in the purse, you go to the gym. You just want to get your abdominals looking sharp and all the gym advertisements are filled with beautifully built people with the midsections of a Greek gods. Given how great they look, it should only be a matter of time until that membership pays off and you’ll look just like them. You do everything you read about- thousands of crunches, sit ups and leg raises. You hit every ab machine in the gym every day you are there, take every ab class and put in your time doing cardio to burn off the fat. At first you fell that you are making progress, you feel the burn when you train and are confident that the six pack of your dreams are just around the bend. But nothing happens. All that has happened is that you have spent good money on machines you don’t use and a gym membership that is becoming more and more of a reminder of how hopeless your quest has become.

The weeks turn into months and the months turn into years, and still those blocks in your stomach remain elusive. So you decide to do more. You train longer and you do more exercises for your abdominal muscles, perhaps training them every day. Maybe even twice a day, yet your midsection still looks more like a spare tire rather than a carved piece of granite. What could be the problem? Why can’t you get the same abdominal definition as the people in the magazines? Why is there still a layer of fat where rippling muscles should be after all of your hard work? The answer has nothing to do with six packs and everything to do with economics.

Unless you were one of the fortunate few who had an accomplished mentor to steer you in the right direction from day one, you probably got most of your information on getting a six pack from television, books, magazines, or the Internet. However it is important to reflect on what these sources have to gain by your heeding their advice. From the eye catching before and after pictures to the authoritative pitches by celebrities and fitness gurus there is usually one common denominator behind it all and that is profit.

6 Pack Abs Are A Multi-Million Dollar Industry

The quest for six pack abs make people waste significant sums of money

The quest for six pack abs make people throw away significant sums of money on things that don't work or provide only fleeting results.

There is a very useful Latin phrase, ‘cui bono?’ which translates as ‘who stands to gain?’ – and this is precisely the question you should be asking when confronted by any information on how to get your abs to show. There are always new and improved machines and new and improved exercise programs, all sold by well muscled trainers, athletes and celebrities and there will always be new ones coming out of the woodwork. The math is pretty simple- these programs, routines, exercises, extreme diets and classes aren’t going to produce an army of six pack sporting citizens, but rather a slew of frustrated individuals. Individuals who are not going to lay the blame on the machine/diet/DVD or trainer for failing, but who instead will place the blame squarely on themselves. Disheartened and filled with a sense of failure, they thus become the perfect consumers for another round of products and services- in the hope that this one will finally help them break through and get them a six pack. It is a cyclic system that sells you hope but not much of anything else and it works as long as the general public remains confused and unsure about what they need to do to get into shape.

Today in our society people want results and they want it now- a microwave mentality that applies not only to how people approach matters of health and fitness, but also just about every facet of modern life. If people want something, they want it now and you are willing to pay for it, a weakness that the fitness industry and media use to their advantage. People will always buy that fitness magazine because they are certain that if you do the same ‘secret exercises’ that the celebrity/athlete/model/bodybuilder is doing, you will eventually look like them.

People will always tune in to that special report on the new way to lose inches off of your midsection. News programs have devolved mostly into thinly disguised forms of entertainment, where ratings take precedence over the reporting of credible information, ratings that help them sell advertisement time at higher prices, which thus net the networks higher profits. In the final analysis, most of the information you come across about getting a six pack comes with a vested interest in making a profit and not some altruistic and compassionate desire to help you realize your goal. Unfortunately you can’t make much in the way of profit with the principles that are really needed to get a six pack. There is no instant gratification and it doesn’t come with a need for fancy machines, DVDs, supplements, books or magazines. Most importantly, you can do it without spending the better part of your life doing abdominal exercises.

The Reality Of Six Pack Abs- Proper Diet & Exercise

Cross section of six pack abs- everyone already has them -Lithograph plate from Gray's Anatomy

Everyone already has a six pack, it's simply a matter of reducing bodyfat to a point where it can be seen.

So how do you get abs? Well, for starters you already have them. Like the story of the fish that spends it’s life searching for water, most of us fail to realize that every human being already has a six pack- whether you can see them prominently or not. There are four main abdominal muscles, the transversus abdominus – which is the deepest muscle layer and it works to help stabilize the trunk and maintain internal abdominal pressure. The rectus abdominus – slung between the ribs and the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis. This muscle has the characteristic bumps and bulges that are commonly referred to as ‘the six pack’ and everyone has them. There is also the external oblique muscles which flank the rectus abdominus and allow the trunk to twist and then there are the internal oblique muscles which also flank the rectus abdominus and operate in the opposite way to the external oblique muscles.

So if everyone has these abdominal muscles, one might ask why some have a six pack that you can see and others do not- the answer is simply a matter of body fat. Most men have a body fat percentage of around 15% to 18% and most women have an average body fat level of about 22% to 25%. Now even at these levels (which are quite low for most of the general population) most people would have a layer of fat around their midsection that would hide their abdominal muscles. The muscles are always there, and all you really need to do is to reduce your body fat to levels where you can see them. Athletes typically have lower body fat percentages due to their increased activity levels.

Where your fat stores are and how high your body fat percentage is will determine how long it will take you to have a six pack. Some people with relatively high body fat percentages but with naturally low fat deposits in the stomach area can have a fairly visible six packs, while others need to reduce their body fat percentages to the single digits before they can see theirs. So how do you go about reducing your body fat in a way that doesn’t yield only fleeting results? The natural way to do it is simply a combination of:
PROPER DIET, HIGH INTENSITY WEIGHT TRAINING AND TIME.

This six pack wasn't built overnight and it took serious weight training to acheive it.

That’s one tried and true way of doing it and one that I have seen work without fail. No magic machines, no magic pills, no DVD’s and most certainly no special exercises or even cardio. I can say so with some authority since for the past 23 years I haven’t done that much in the way of crunches, sit ups and the like after my tenth year and I never did any cardio- nor did any of my clients. When I did train my abs in the early years of my career it was never more than two exercises for a total of six sets, which took no more than three to five minutes to complete. As a natural bodybuilder I was told very early on that you rely on diet only to get into shape and not cardio- as too much in the way of muscle mass is always lost in the process and because it doesn’t really work. (Read more about cardio as an ineffective method for fat loss here.) In fact during the height of my bodybuilding career I didn’t do anything for my abs and still won shows and almost every photograph of me in circulation is what I look like having not done any direct ab work for over a decade. I’m not a genetic freak by any stretch, I never used drugs, nor am I possessed of a special body type that allows me to get away with doing so little as I have been able to replicate the same results with my clients who competed successfully in fitness, figure and bodybuilding competitions- regardless of their initial body type- and without doing any cardio or hours of ab exercises. It’s not what the fitness industry wants you to hear, but it’s the truth and isn’t thanks to anything but a consistently clean diet and intense weight training.

Everyone Has Six Pack Abs- Somewhere

In my workout DVD which was filmed to document my training philosophy and show what you could do without having to resort to drugs or supplements, there are no shots of me training my abdominals. I was asked on many occasions why I didn’t include a segment on abdominal training and the reason that I didn’t is because I did not in any way want to mislead the public. Throughout my career I have strived to be as honest and upfront as possible (sometimes to my detriment one might add) and the last thing that I wanted was for people to think that if they trained their abs the way I did that they would get similar results as nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a combination of my years of careful attention to what and how much I eat, the fat burning effect of the brief high intensity training routine that I have followed religiously for the past 21 years and the metabolically active muscle mass that I have gained over my 23 years of training. That’s what keeps me in shape all year round and nothing else.

If It Won’t Give Me Six Pack Abs Do You Need To Do Ab Exercises?

Do you need abdominal exercises for a six pack? Not exactly, but you should do them anyway.

Now make no mistake- there is indeed a need to train your abdominal muscles- as it helps stabilize your entire body and such exercises are indeed recommended for everyone starting a training routine. However, your abdominal muscles get a serious workout during almost any weight training exercise and very much so if you train as hard and as heavy as I do at this point in my career using primarily compound movements. Thus I don’t need to do much in the way of direct ab exercises as they are hit pretty hard as a result of my high intensity training routine. That being said, your abdominals are muscles like anything else and training them every day with hundreds of repetitions won’t do much in terms of getting them to be as strong as possible and can result in overdevelopment. Take a look at the bodybuilders who have blocky abdominal muscles as a result of years of weighted abdominal exercises and or drug use. It might look impressive when they flex them, but otherwise those muscles protrude and give a rather pot bellied appearance. Big and thick abs don’t look too great in a T-shirt, and doesn’t present much in the way of a balanced and aesthetically pleasing physique.
The problem is that once you over develop your abdominal muscles by doing too much, it isn’t that easy- if at all possible to reverse it and you are stuck with a thick waist- which I doubt is the goal of those who train their abs day in and day out. Now the muscle tension created by training your abs several times a week makes you FEEL like your abs are tighter- but like any muscle the more you train them won’t necessarily make them any stronger or better developed. If anything it can actually hinder your overall progress (read more about how muscles get stronger here). As for ‘core strength’- time spent on an exercise ball will never give you the strength you can gain from a high intensity training program. High intensity weight training can make your core muscles strong enough to enable you to lift a car- which is a far cry from what you could do on your best day if you relied only on the modern incarnation of ‘core exercises.’ It won’t give you a six pack either.

Six Pack Abs Comes From Diet & Exercise

Now training your abdominal muscles can help make them bigger- but it can’t burn off the layer of fat that obscures them. That comes from a clean diet and ensuring that you don’t overeat. Any exercise claiming that it can spot reduce the fat around your stomach is as credible as killing chickens and painting yourself blue under a full moon to make it rain the next day. Muscle and fat are two completely different types of tissue thus an abdominal exercise will do nothing to reduce your waistline.

One or no more than two abdominal exercises done once a week at reasonable intensity is more than enough for 99% of the general population. Nevertheless, you can do ab exercises until the cows come home but it won’t do anything if your diet isn’t on point. I would honestly say that diet is 80% of the equation if your goal of a six pack. How you train creates the potential for your body to change but it’s what you eat that will determine how much you will change.

The Importance Of Diet For Six Pack Abs

What type of diet do you need to follow if a six pack is your ultimate goal? It’s a diet consisting exclusively of foods that have been part of the human diet for the past 150,000 years and one where you don’t overeat. That means no processed foods, (and that includes protein shakes- which you should avoid if you seriously want a six pack- read my article here) no added salt or sugars, no alcohol, juices or junk food of any kind. It isn’t as Spartan as one might think as it is absurd to believe that you need processed foods and alcohol to enjoy life. Humans have done it for millennia and back then most of them had that same six pack that today so many struggle to attain. Your great-great grandparents enjoyed their food, and most likely ate far less than you do today. It didn’t kill them, but on the contrary probably allowed them a better quality of life in terms of robust health.

In terms of exercise- you need to also incorporate weight training of a sufficient intensity to both increase your muscle mass which will also help you burn off the excess body fat in a manner that leads to sustainable and lasting results. So forget about doing high reps in the hopes of doing anything but wasting your time. For your body to change their must be some degree of overload and you can learn more about how this mechanism works in my article here.

Now paying attention to your diet over a long period of time in combination with a sensible exercise regiment isn’t going to give you any instant gratification. Attention to diet requires a lifetime of consideration, patience and discipline. Traits that don’t lend themselves to today’s microwave mentality but are nonetheless very much what it takes to get in shape and stay in shape. After all, it’s only logical that if it took you years to put on that layer of fat that obscures your stomach, it wouldn’t be realistic to expect it to go away in a couple of weeks. There are legitimate reasons to work your abdominal muscles directly, and that is to strengthen the muscles that support the trunk and allow for movement. These muscles also help support your lower back, so training them is not just a cosmetic undertaking. I hope this article help clear up some of the misconceptions around abdominal training, and I wish you all the best in your quest for six pack abs!

Should Women Weight Train Like Men

Does Aerobics Work- Rethinking The Need For Cardio

How Muscles Get Bigger & Stronger

How To Build Your Lower Abs

High Intensity Workouts & Fat Loss

Kevin Richardson is an award winning fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training^TM. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here. If you live in the New York City metropolitan area and need help losing weight or getting into cover model shape, give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420.

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Categories: exercise Tags: 10 minute workouts, abdominals, abs, diet, exercise, fat loss, flat stomach, high intensity training, junk foods, training, training tip, weight loss, weight training

Dealing With Injuries

September 23rd, 2011 Kevin Richardson No comments

Dealing With Injuries- A Personal Story

I remember it like it was yesterday and very often it doesn’t seem as far away as 8 years ago. I was doing cable curls in the dingy basement gym that I trained out for years in Brooklyn with the full stack of 250lbs. Every sinew of muscle in my arms was focused on getting that weight up as the burn in my biceps became more and more unbearable. I was on my eight repetition, watching the weight go up ever so slowly and struggling against gravity and steel which in the moment were my mortal enemies when it happened. The cable station I was working in had a chin up bar placed squarely in the center and there was a relatively experienced member of the gym doing pull ups right behind me as I was doing my curls. The gym wasn’t big by any stretch of the imagination and so I had been used to people working right next to me as I trained. He wasn’t a novice by any means and so I didn’t pay any mind to the fact that he was only a few inches away from me at the time.

Looking back I ask myself over and over if I should have sensed something but I can honestly say that I didn’t and what happened would have happened the same way if I could relive the experience all over again. While doing his pull ups behind me, the unthinkable happened. His hand slipped from the bar and he fell off to his left side, all two hundred and fifty pounds of him coming crashing down on my neck just as I was in mid lift of two hundred and fifty pounds on the cable curl machine. I heard a snap as his elbow stuck me right at the base of my neck and I felt a white pain stab me all the way down to my fingertips. Perhaps I didn’t fully grasp the enormity of what had happened or perhaps I was in shock, either way I gritted my teeth and did two more pain racked repetitions before putting the weight down and stopping to access the damage.

The pain of a cervical injury is indescribable but I never lost hope that I would learn to work around it.

I remember the gentleman who fell on me saying something in the way of an apology, but I couldn’t really hear him. I was too busy realizing that I couldn’t really move my arms and that I was locked in position. He took one look into my eyes and ran out of the gym, never to be seen back there again. I think he believed- quite I error- that I was going to inflict some damage on him, something that I didn’t and never have considered. It was an accident and accidents happen. The severity of the outcome doesn’t necessitate that someone always has be blamed. Everyone kept asking if I was alright and I mumbled that I would be fine, all the while feeling a growing sense of dread that this wasn’t in the category of a minor injury that I could shrug off. I was hurt and hurt pretty seriously.

I made my way out of the gym and took a car service home- with every bump in the road and sharp turn sending bolts of agony through my neck and down my arms. I remember getting immediately into bed and nothing else. The next morning I awoke with my arms locked in position and a searing pain that I would become intimately acquainted with for the next 8 years. I never had any reason to see him as I never really got injured as an adult while training, but I had a chiropractor in my phonebook who I sent all my clients and martial art students to whenever they were injured. He specialized in sports medicine- and had a strong background in acupuncture as well and I truly respected him as a practioner. I called him up and he said that he would see me immediately and so I endured the short but excruciating cab ride to his office- with even the vibrations from the door slamming seeming to send shivers of pain into my neck.

He worked on me for a while- an agony that I can hardly recall, and then placed some needles strategically in my back and neck to help relax the muscles. He said it didn’t look good and referred me to a orthopedist to see what was going on. From that night onwards and for many nights to come I couldn’t sleep very well. You don’t think of your neck very much but when it’s injured you suddenly become aware of how involved it is in almost every move you make. It hurt to keep my head up, it hurt to put my head down, it hurt to sit and it hurt to stand. Worse of all, lying down was agonizing, both with and without a pillow. Sleep consisted of periods where the pain lulled just enough for me to drift off before rearing it’s head again and waking me up with shafts of pain if I moved ever so slightly in any direction. Night and day became one long stretch of misery, punctuated only by light and darkness. My whole life became about finding a position where my neck didn’t hurt too much.

I saw the orthopedist only two or three days later and he ordered an MRI. I have no qualms about being enclosed, nor am I claustrophobic- but the act of laying flat on my back in the machine required every iota of willpower to not scream. The technicians were initially somewhat annoyed by my difficultly in being completely immobile but after they saw the results they became a bit more sympathetic. They wouldn’t disclose the results but one of them touched me on the shoulder and said that she understood why it was so hard for me to lay still. The results from the orthopedist weren’t encouraging. I had two discs in my cervical vertebrae that were bulging out. One was protruding to the left, the other to the right. He said that short of a car accident such neck trauma wasn’t common, and that it may very well have been that my well muscled shoulders were the reason I wasn’t paralyzed from the blow.

It got worse- he said that there really was little that could be done and that the pain in my neck and in my hands would probably never really go away. A spinal injury, he explained, was permanent and there weren’t any options on the table. His advice was that I stop weight training altogether and do some rehabilitation exercises to help me with the injury. I got a second opinion which was pretty much the same and I decided to very respectfully disregard their advice. I didn’t take any of the painkillers prescribed, as I am not a fan of them and in my work in social services have seen many a case of people addicted to those same drugs after months of relying on them to get through the day. I wasn’t going to be one of them- not at all out of any misguided machismo, but out of a very real awareness that if I started something that made the pain go away, I would never stop taking it.

The muscles relaxants they gave me made me feel worse for wear and so I stopped taking those, using only Neurotin- a drug that stopped the shooting pains in my fingers and hands. Two weeks after the injury and wracked with pain, I dragged myself back into the gym. If it was that I could never hold a weight in my arms ever again, I had to see this for myself and if there was a way for me to get back, I was going to find it, no matter how long it took or how much suffering it involved. My neck hurt, but I could do a leg workout as long as I didn’t turn my neck or place any weight on my shoulders, and for the next several weeks, that’s what I did. As time went on I added light, supported movements for my abs, arms and upper back- with each new exercise bringing a fresh layer of pain the next day- but I would not stop.

I filmed my workout DVD in the best shape of my life after my injury.

I had worked with dozens of clients with severe herniations, and my philosophy had always been that if we can’t fix the joint, we can build the muscles around it up to a point where they can compensate and allow for pain free range of movement. A good physician heals himself and that’s what I set out to do. I had been hurt in the summer of 2003, but by the end of winter I was back. Careful- still in constant pain- but able to do most of what I used to do before. I wouldn’t dare try to deadlift 600lbs or clean and jerk 315lbs the way I did in the past- but there was a range of movements I could do and lifting heavy was never a requirement for me- it was just what I was able to do. By the fall of 2004 I had competed in two bodybuilding contests, winning one and making the top three in the other. I did them just to see if I still had it and some said that it was the best I ever looked.

I never said anything about being in pain, nor did I ever give any outward show of it-to admit it was to be defeated by it and I had no intention of being the subject of anyone’s pity. I learned to sleep as best I could without moving and when the weather changed I learned to deal with the pain that came with an approaching rain. That year I filmed my bodybuilding documentary and in doing so, lifted more weight than I had ever thought off in my life. I never let my injuries limit me mentally or physically, and I found that since I was so attuned to how I had to train, that I become far stronger and better for it. My experience as a trainer has always been founded on my injuries and I have had many of them- torn rotator cuffs, herniated discs in my lumbar region and tendinitis in just about every joint in my body. Those injuries defined me- as they very often taught me what not to do- hard lessons that I learned at a younger age when lifting as heavy as I could took precedence over common sense.

As painful as they were they also taught me compassion and understanding. My injuries helped me understand on a very intimate level what those of my clients who come to me with a pre-existing injury are going through. I have learned not only what not to do and how to work around just about any joint or muscle condition- but also how to put myself in their shoes and help them along in the healing process. An expensive education- being injured, but one that I cannot say that I regret in terms of how it helps me do what I do to help others recover from their injuries.

My neck hurts. And probably always will. I have my good days and my bad days, but you would be hard pressed to tell by looking at me. I have learned that there are things in life that you cannot change- but what you can change is your perspective. Thanks to my training, I wasn’t paralyzed by the injury and thanks to my training I can do almost everything that I could do before and more. The few exercises that I lost are made up for in spades by the fact that I am stronger and even more advanced in my own personal physical and spiritual development as a result. Pain is a part of life- one that we can’t ever completely eliminate, no matter how hard we try. But we can learn from it and we can make ourselves more for experiencing it. Every moment can be an opportunity for learning and advancement, but only if we are open enough to embrace the inevitable and do our best to learn from it. Thanks for reading.

Kevin Richardson is an award winning fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training^TM. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and need help losing weight or taking your body to the next level give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420 or click here to get started with 50% off your trial personal training session.