Thursday, June 25, 2009

Core Training Mistake #1

Training for Hypertrophy (“big muscles”).

Somehow we all agree that if we do tons and tons of bicep curls we’ll get bigger biceps. But for some reason, many exercisers feel that if they do tons and tons of crunches, their abdomen will get smaller.

If that isn’t classic gym logic for you, nothing is…

All 1 million crunches are going to do for you is give you a larger rectus abdominus, and a bad back. Unless you’re a professional bodybuilder, this is a bad thing.

1st thing you need to do is lose the myth of spot reduction. You can’t make one area of your body smaller by using it more often. If this were true, all gum chewers would have a skinny face. All tennis players would have a skinnier playing arm than their non playing arm (when in
reality, the reverse is true…).

Secondly, you need to understand that visible stomach musculature is the result of extremely low body fat – NOT due to big muscles. Achieving this is the result of a) genetics, b) ridiculous levels of nutritional commitment, and c) tons of calorie expenditure. In most cases, you’ll need all three of the above to get a 6 pack.

Notice that crunches, sit ups, etc. have NOTHING to do with those three causes and therefore nothing to do with getting you a 6 pack.

I’ll paraphrase another trainer with this one, but truer words were never spoken:

The best way to get a 6 pack is pass on a 6 pack.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

5 Mistakes in "Core Training"

To start off the new blog, I'm going with a topic that is generally of interest to everybody who's interested in exercise: the "core". My first topic of discussion will be "The 5 Most Common Mistakes In Core Training". However, it's actually 6 mistakes - the first mistake most of us make is the actual definition of the term "core", as it applies to exercise.

Problem #1 is that there is no universally agreed upon definition or parameters of what constitutes the core. If you asked 50 trainers what the core is, you'd probably get 50 different answers. For our purposes, we define core musculature as any muscles that attach to the lumbar spine, pelvis or hips.

Yes - you're right - that's about 2/3 the muscles of the body (I might be exaggerating a little bit, but not too much...) Therefore...

Lat pull downs? Core exercise.

Lunges? Core exercise.

Push Ups? Core exercise.

Have I ruined your pre-conceived notions of core training yet? I hope so - admitting you have a problem is the 1st step in fixing it!

So for future reference and when the next blogs explain the 5 most common mistakes in core training, here's my definition of a core exercise that we use at The Training Rim:

Any exercise where the primary purpose of the exercise is controlling the lumbo pelvic hip complex through lumbar stabilization and neuro-muscular control of both the hips' mobility and stabilization simultaneously.

Sound complicated? Don't worry - it really isn't as you'll see in the next blog, "Core Training Mistake #5".

See you next time - until then, stop with those silly crunches.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Up and running soon!

Hey everybody -

We've made many changes to the site and business lately, so things are still somewhat "under construction". Thanks for your patience - the best source of fitness and exercise information will be back to full speed before you know it!