| rachyyy
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I'm a 22 year old female. About 5'7, 125 lbs. I know there's not a lot of weight I can lose, before my BMI starts saying I'm underweight. However, I really just want to be more toned, I guess you could say. I want my abs to show up more. To my understanding, you have to do some kind of cardio, because there is a layer of fat over your muscles. I'm not really sure how long I should run, or how many days a week, or anything. Also, I know my eating habits are really messed up. I go to college full-time, which makes me have to stop for fast food about 3 days a week. I would think if I was exercising enough, though, I should be able to eat whatever I want. Lol. I could be wrong, though. I have a treadmill, so I can use that. I could also handle eating the same thing everyday... if it's easy... if it would help me achieve all this.
So, if anyone could tell me how much to run, how fast I should set the treadmill to, how many days a week, etc. As well as any other types of exercises [how many, how many days a week, etc...], that would be great. I really just need a set schedule to follow, and I don't know enough about all this to set it up myself.
Thanks! |
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Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:47 pm |
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| oldpjams
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Maybe after I eat my lunch. Seriously.
Before then, I would say that abs are a billboard for your overall health and diet. If you don't eat well, it's very difficult to get and maintain great looking abs. |
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Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:54 pm |
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| rachyyy
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oldpjams wrote: Maybe after I eat my lunch. Seriously.
Before then, I would say that abs are a billboard for your overall health and diet. If you don't eat well, it's very difficult to get and maintain great looking abs.
Yayyy. Thanks. I hope you can help! |
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Thu Oct 11, 2007 4:01 pm |
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| Jadzia
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If you want your abs to be more toned, maybe you should add some abs exercises to your routine.
Crunches are great for that, but there's a lot of exercises to choose from ! |
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Thu Oct 11, 2007 4:03 pm |
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| oldpjams
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| Long slow cardio @ 60-80%MHR tends to be the most effecient way to burn fat in the beginning. Over time you need to make changes to keep your body challenged and to force your body to continue to adapt. At that point intervals often help. Your core can be stressed and forced to adapt by incorporating those muscles into all of your weight-bearing exercises, e.g. sitting on a stability ball while doing bicep curls or standing on one leg while doing squats or deadlifts with dumbells. Crunches go without saying. Do them on a stability ball, make sure your form is correct, and add weight as soon as you can do more than 12. You core should be trained as a fast-twitch muscle, NOT as a slow twitch muscle which is what many trainers will do. They are wrong, unless you participate in a particular sport that requires your abs be trained slow twitch (unlikely). |
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Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:39 pm |
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| RedRox
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| Do you train them as fast twitch by doing core exercises more rapidly than more slowly? Can you give an example of a fast twitch exercise and a slow twitch exercise? Or could it be the same exercise, just paced differently? (which is really question 1 restated I think!) |
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Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:02 pm |
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| rachyyy
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| okay. so, so far today i've ran for 30 minutes. not altogether, because i'm too out of shape to do that. so, i ran for 10 minutes 3 times. i ran up and down the stairs 10 times. lol. it sounded like a good idea at the time, but the stairs made me way more tired than any of that running. i did 100 of... some time of leg thing. i don't know what it's called, but i did it while i was resting from running. i'm going to do crunches later, but i'm not sure how many i should be doing. i have a pilates dvd, so i might do that later, too. does anyone know how affective pilates is? i've used this dvd before, and it seems like they just have you do a bunch of weird stretches... then the next day your whole body hurts. so, i don't know. |
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Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:24 pm |
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| oldpjams
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RedRox wrote: Do you train them as fast twitch by doing core exercises more rapidly than more slowly? Can you give an example of a fast twitch exercise and a slow twitch exercise? Or could it be the same exercise, just paced differently? (which is really question 1 restated I think!)
Doing 200 crunches is training the abs as slow twitch muscles. Doing three sets of 10-12 reps (with weight added if necessary) is training as fast twitch. The importance is that your abs protect your spine and you want them to turn on quickly in the event of an impact. Doing 200 crunches de-trains your abs for this function. ATMO. |
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Thu Oct 11, 2007 11:45 pm |
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| nygirl22
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rachyyy wrote: i have a pilates dvd, so i might do that later, too. does anyone know how affective pilates is? i've used this dvd before, and it seems like they just have you do a bunch of weird stretches... then the next day your whole body hurts. so, i don't know.
lol. Is it a "good" hurt?
I believe pilates is very effective, but I guess it also depends on exactly which dvd you have. If you're wanting to target your abs, then you'd want to get one that includes ab work. A lot of them include stretches (especially for back) because people can hurt themselves if they don't stretch as needed. It usually feels good IMO.
Of course I am no expert. I'm simply speaking from the experience that I've had - I think it's great. |
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Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:56 am |
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| RedRox
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oldpjams wrote: RedRox wrote: Do you train them as fast twitch by doing core exercises more rapidly than more slowly? Can you give an example of a fast twitch exercise and a slow twitch exercise? Or could it be the same exercise, just paced differently? (which is really question 1 restated I think!)
Doing 200 crunches is training the abs as slow twitch muscles. Doing three sets of 10-12 reps (with weight added if necessary) is training as fast twitch. The importance is that your abs protect your spine and you want them to turn on quickly in the event of an impact. Doing 200 crunches de-trains your abs for this function. ATMO.
Thanks! So really more of the reverse than it sounds. |
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Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:27 am |
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| oldpjams
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| The other part of the rant is that most trainers have you do crunches on the floor -- which limits your range of motion (you can't extend your spine backwards) this detrains your abs further in the event of an impact from the back. |
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Fri Oct 12, 2007 12:09 pm |
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| VallieGal
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This is really interesting guys!
PJams - question for you, since you seem to really know your abs exercises. Do 'scissor kicks' give you the results of improving abs? And if so, can the 'scissors kicks' exercises on an apparatus that allows you to have to hold your bottom half of your body off the ground (like a half bench with handles for stability above your head, etc) give you the same range of motion you're looking for on a stability ball?
Also - on the ball, where are you holding the weight? On your chest? In both hands, above the chest with arms in? Or somewhere else? How much weight should you start with after you can do 12 without weights?
Thanks for sharing this info. That's one thing I Really want to see again are my abs. Of course, I also need to find something to reduce the 'pooch' over my lower abdomen too - and from what I've always heard/learned, that area is very difficult to change. |
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Sat Oct 13, 2007 12:42 am |
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