Personal Trainer Marian
on MERRY CHRISTMAS! The gift of
La Tablette de Chocolat
Originally published in WIRE Magazine December 25, 2008

No, not the kind you're thinking of even if David Barton Gym is giving them to members this year! It's what the French call your six-pack which I know you guys covet above all else. How do you get those abs to kill for, that definition? Not so easy because everybody would have them.

First off, even though it's holiday time and we're all eating and drinking too much, think D-I-E-T. The second helping of that Christmas cake you may as well apply topically to your waist because that's where it's gonna' go! You may have the greatest rock hard ab muscles on the planet but who would know if they're hidden beneath a layer of fat?

Body fat as you've probably heard, disappears evenly from all over when you're getting rid of it - "spot reduction" is a myth. You have to burn more calories (exercise) and at the same time reduce incoming calories (diet) to really shift it off. When the opposite happens (horrors!) the fat DOES accumulate in more specific spots, especially the waist and stomach. hey, life ain't fair. The one food ingredient that's gonna deposit around your waist is sugar.

So, you can get on that ab machine and load the whole stack doing thousands of reps and still not cut it. D-I-E-T!

Yes, you do need to do ab exercises. This is the only muscle group we can train every day. The key to ab training is high repetitions, not extra resistance. The basic abdominal crunch is a good place to start and at least
 
twice a week you need to add a leg-raise or reverse crunch for the lower abs and a movement for the obliques (side walls hit as right shoulder crunches toward left knee, etc.) The obliques are hardest and of course, the ones that have the greatest effect of tightening up the waist. Lots of guys avoid these because they think obliques will thicken the waist - WRONG! That's just a cop-out because they're so difficult. Pay attention here - don't use weights on oblique movements. How much is enough? Three sets of 50-rep crunches, 3 sets each of 30 rep leg-raises and obliques at least three times per week nails it.

In case you ever noticed, we use our abs ALL the time except when sleeping - so when you're standing, walking or running practice contracting them, lifting the ribs and sucking the stomach in a bit. Breathe with the diaphragm - don't blow your abs in and out. This helps shape up that six-pack and guess what?...you're posture just improved - VOILA!

Start the New Year by chiseling that six-pack. Fuck going to the beach to look at the sea, give us those buff beach abs...

By Marian Socash; Personal trainer & Fitness Coach


Print this article