Enjoy!
Question:
I’ve had low back pain in the past and I suspect it has to do with my not knowing how to lift properly, and that I have a fat tummy and probably very little abdominal strength. So (1) how do I turn my fat tummy into hard muscles, (2) work my abdominal core, and (3) not hurt my back in the process?
From Steve,
Answer:
Hi Steve,
You’ve listed three great questions there. With respect to not knowing how to lift properly, to fully answer that question is a full article in itself, which I will leave to a future newsletter. So without going in to the mechanics of how to lift properly, knowing how to protect your back when you lift or train your abs or back is vitally important, so let’s get into it.
Protecting Your Back While Training
When you stand with good posture, the natural lordotic curve of your spine is the same curve you should maintain while you lift. When you train your abs, depending on the movement, you want to maintain either the same lordotic curve or a slightly flexed spine.
To make sure your spine is protected when you’re lifting or training abs or back, you need to brace your whole midsection using the Val Salva manouever. Essentially, you take a deep breath, bear down hard, lock up your abdominal muscles and actually apply pressure outward against your abs. Do NOT pull your navel towards your spine as is frequently but incorrectly taught.
Protecting your back while training the abdominals is really not that difficult, but there is so much confusion, and a lot of it really comes from a lack of education as to what the muscle groups are and how they function. So let’s get a little bit of anatomy going here.
First, there are four abdominal muscles.
1. Rectus Abdominus
2. External Oblique
3. Internal Oblique
4. Transverse Abdominus
The (1) rectus abdominus helps you flex your spine like when you do crunches (which is a waste of time by the way). The (2) external and (3) internal obliques help you to twist, and more importantly help you to resist twisting. They can also help you to flex your spine too. The (4) transverse abdominus, when used correctly, braces your midsection making it stiff, solid and able to resist forces that would flex, extend, or twist it, and finally transmit external forces towards the extremities.
The transverse abdominus (TVA) is the muscle that gets people so confused. First, we get silly fitness instructors yelling out “Recruit that TVA!” to their participants. Get real man! Who the heck is going to know how to flex their transverse abdominus anyway?!?
Some smarty-pants then went and looked up the anatomy and function of the TVA and came back with the then-wise, but now-not-so-wise instruction to pull your navel towards your spine.
This is the problem with text-book ONLY education. Yes, the TVA does attach in part in the front to the linea alba, and in part in the back to the thoracolumbar fascia, which means that yes drawing your navel towards your spine does activate the muscle.
But folks, simple “activation” of this muscle is not what we’re after when trying to protect your spine. We’re after an inborn, instinctive, maximum effort recruitment of every single muscle fiber in your TVA. We’re talking about generating massive, life-saving muscle tension if necessary. While it is an instinctive process when needed, the key is to learn how to apply it day-to-day when lifting or carrying heavy objects or, of course, working out.
So whether you’re flipping heavy tires at my boot camp, doing a heavy deadlift or squat in the gym, or picking up your kid, trust me on this one.. do the same thing every time! Brace hard, and use the val salva manouever.
If you’re concerned about the safety of the Val Salva manouever, better not let your wife deliver your baby vaginally, as she’ll be engaging the Val Salva manouever for 10-15 seconds at a time for up to 2 hours to push your baby out.
It’s quite simple. If you’re not using abdominal bracing and the Val Salva manouever, start, or risk injury. Your choice!
Turn Your Fat Tummy Into Rock Hard Muscles
The truth is, unless you’re Jesus, just like you can’t turn water into wine, you can’t turn fat into muscle. But, you can burn off your fat tummy and turn your soft, thin, weak abdominal muscles into slabs of rock hard beach-ready abs!
Burning off your fat tummy is simply a matter of expending more calories than you consume. I’ve covered this quite a bit recently so I won’t get into it too much here, but 2-3 good hard sessions of weight training each week, plus 2-3 sessions of metabolic fatigue training such as www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com will do it.
Turning your soft, thin, weak abdominals into slabs of rock hard beach-ready abs requires the right training.
Before you think we’re going to have you jumping into hanging leg raises, and dragon flags, or any other crazy abdominal exercises, you have to understand the types of contractions you should and shouldn’t be doing and the progressions required to train your abs safely.
Static Contraction
The first exercises that need to be learned are exercises in which you use your abdominal muscles to resist externally applied forces.
Simple examples of Static Contraction exercises include:
- Front plank
- Side plank
- Reverse plank
- 1-Arm heavy dumbbell holds
In these exercises you are using your abdominal muscles to resist the force of gravity. Intra-abdominal pressure is maintained via the Val Salva manouever. Gradually build the length of time you can hold them. Once you can hold each of them for at least one minute, you can move into your first progression.
During any static contraction exercise, obviously you aren’t going to hold the Val Salva manouever for the entire duration. Instead, you allow short but shallow bursts of air to escape, and then you quickly pull it back in. The reason for the short, shallow breaths is to keep at minimum the movement of your midsection. Under a heavy load, if you were to exhale fully, you would be unable to maintain tension in your muscles. By allowing just enough air to escape, and then rapidly pull enough back in you are able to maintain the stiff position of your body.
If you ever feel dizzy from this, rest some, and then try again. Your cardiovascular system adapts quite well to this, allowing for significant and safe intra-abdominal pressure to protect your spine.
Progressions
Your first progression would include using other externally applied forces such as a plate on your back; your training partner pushing sideways on your hips; or even lifting a hand or foot just an inch or two off the floor. Make sure whichever progression you use, you maintain the same strict position as before. Do not let your body sag or shift out of place under the external force.
Stabilizing During Dynamic Movement
Now that you have a pretty good ability to brace your abs and resist externally applied forces, the next stage of abdominal training is to learn to brace your abs during dynamic movement of your extremities.
Simple examples of such exercises include:
- Floorclimbers
- Mountainclimbers
- Farmer’s walk unevenly loaded
- 1-Dumbbell front squats
- Dumbbell suitcase deadlifts
- 2-Arm Kettlebell pulls
These exercises teach you to use your abdominals to brace your spine during fast and forceful movements of your arms, legs, and hips.
Dynamic Stabilization During Dynamic Movement
Finally, exercises in which you actually use your abdominals to create movement as well as to stabilize your midsection are the next ones you will learn.
Simple examples include:
- Hanging leg raises
- Dragon flags
- Incline reverse crunches
- Incline leg raises
- Band crunch-downs to floor
- Blast Strap fall-outs
- Blast Strap oblique planks
- Kettlebell or 1-Dumbbell clean & press
During all of these movements your abdominals are always providing dynamic stabilization while helping to create the necessary movements of the spine. At all times, intra-abdominal pressure is maintained via the Val Salva manouever.
Here’s a sample 8 week abdominal strengthening program that a beginner could use. By the end of the 8 week program, this person will have significant abdominal strength and abdominal muscle thickness. Don’t worry, this type of abdominal muscle thickness, doesn’t make you look “thick” around the waist, instead, when body fat levels drop enough, it gives you the nice etched midsection look.
Sample abdominal Exercise Program
The prescribed exercises would be done 3 times per week, and could be tagged onto the end of your regular exercise routine.
| Week | Exercise | Sets/Reps/Time | Progressions |
| 1 | Front plank Side plank | 2 x 20 seconds 2 x 15 seconds | |
| 2 | Front plank Side plank Reverse plank | 2x40 seconds 2x30 seconds 1x20 seconds | |
| 3 | Front plank Side plank Reverse plank | 2x30 seconds 2x40 seconds 2x20 seconds | 10lbs added |
| 4 | Front plank Side plank 1-Arm heavy DB hold | 3x40 seconds 2x50 seconds 2x30 seconds x 20lbs | 10 lbs added & lift alt. feet |
| 5 | Floorclimbers Side plank Reverse plank | 2x20 reps 2x60 seconds 2x30 seconds | |
| 6 | Floorclimbers T-Twists 1-Arm heavy DB hold | 2x25 reps 5-10 ea. side 2x45 seconds x 25lbs | Increase weight |
| 7 | Floorcilmbers Farmer’s walk | 3x25 reps 2x60 steps x 15lbs + 30lbs | Increase weight |
| 8 | Mountainclimbers 1-DB Farmer’s walk Reverse plank | 3x20 reps 3x60 steps x 30 lbs 3x30 seconds | Add weight |
This is just a sample 8 week program, and while it is good and effective, it is far from all inclusive. There is so much more to complete core training than can possibly be covered in just a newsletter.
Last year a client of mine stumbled upon an abs program called Combat Core by Jim Smith, CSCS, and my client asked me if it was any good. Well it was so good, I ended up buying my own copy. If you like the information I’ve provided in this article on abdominal training, but you want even more information and more great abdominal training programs, you won’t find anything even remotely as good anywhere as Combat Core.
Jim Smith, the creator of Combat Core has worked with thousands of athletes of all different sports, and most recently helped prepare
Anyway, if you’re looking to get arguably the best information on abdominal training anywhere, Combat Core is for you.
Go HERE! to grab Jim’s Combat Core product.
Just a quick note: I've had enough people ask me for a really comprehensive product on abs, but putting together something like Jim's Combat Core would take me probably a year with the time I can commit to it. And truthfully, it would be tough to put together a better program myself. So if you don't want to wait for my product, get Jim's.
Guest Blogger Katy Sinha on Day 2 of
www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com
OK! I am impressed. Just finished day 2 of boot camp this morning and 7am did not seem as early as the first day.
The Battling Ropes of Death
Throughout camp this morning, I could hear cheers of support and words of encouragement when the drills were getting tougher. 'Cause it's true, I wouldn't be doing this alone! Such 'grunty' drills... it's fun to do it with a group though.
I even heard someone mention that we should celebrate the end of boot camp with a martini party! So, we must be having fun!!
More after DAY 3
Katy
If you’re expecting the taste of those super heavy, junky, sugar and fat laddened muffins you can buy at commercial bakeries, then this recipe is not for you.
But if you want a muffin recipe where each muffin by itself is a healthy, nutritious snack, that still tastes good even with all the healthy stuff in it, then you’ll love it!
A couple things about the recipe.
1. If you find it a little dry, add a bit of water or milk. Start with an oz at most and then make adjustments the next time depending on your preferences. We had to make the recipe about 4 times before we found the exact combination we liked the most.
2. If you want more protein, add more eggs or protein powder. (protein powder makes it drier, so use less oats and/or add some milk or water to compensate.
3. If you want less carbs, use less oats.
4. If you want less fat, use less butter and/or coconut oil
Wet ingredients
¼ cup of soft coconut oil
¼ cup of soft butter
8-10 ripe bananas
6 eggs
1 tbsp Vanilla extract
3 Dry ingredients
3 cups of oats
7 scoops protein powder
1 cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup ground flax seed (grind in coffee grinder)
½ cup dried coconut (unsweetened)
1 pinch salt
1 tsp magic baking powder
1 cup frozen raspberries or blueberries or 1 cup of chocolate chips
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In separate dishes, thoroughly mix wet and dry ingredients, then combine.
3. Bake at 350 for approximately 25minutes
Makes 24 muffins
Nutrition Facts per muffin:
| Optional Ingredient: | 1 Cup Frozen Berries | 1 Cup Chocolate Chips |
| Total Calories (kcal) | 226 | 296 |
| Protein (g) | 13 | 15 |
| Carbohydrate (g) | 18 | 29 |
| Fat (g) | 11 | 15 |
So that’s it for issue #55
If you have any questions, or comments, please leave them below in the comment section.
Until next time,
Shane Miller,
Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach
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