The Best "AB" Exercise

"What's the best exercise for 'abs'?"

Needless to say, I’ve been asked this a few times in my career. Almost without exception, I either say “Eat less”, or “There is no such thing as an ‘ab’ exercise”. And again, almost without exception, people look at me oddly because they think I’m being a smart ass. But in this instance at least, I’m not being a smart ass, I’m being 100% truthful and honest.

First, the appearance of your stomach is 99.9% due to the amount of body fat accumulated on top of it, not the musculature underneath. And because this is one of the first areas on our body where excess calories are stored, you’ll need to eat less to ensure no excess calories get stored in the first place. So again, best ab exercise #1: eat fewer calories.

Secondly, there is no such thing as an “ab” exercise, an “arm” exercise, a “leg” exercise etc. If you think there are you and I are on completely different stratospheres because every single exercise you do involves your entire body as one chain of movement. If you still approach your training with the mindset of “doing arms”, “doing abs” etc, you’re about 15-20 years behind the bio-mechanics learning curve. At The Training Rim, we push things, we pull things and we squat – those are the only exercises that matter, and therefore the only ones we do. So best ab exercise #2: stop trying to isolate any muscle in an effort to spot reduce.

All of that being said…

If you’re looking to improve abdominal strength and add visible musculature to your stomach with one exercise, you’ll need to do the single arm cable chest press.

A chest press - for the abs?!?

Abso-friggin-lutely.

The first thing you need to do to alleviate your confusion is to understand the function of the abdominals. Although they are able to flex the spine and twist the spine, as in the motions done when doing situps or torso twists (altogether now – uugggghhh…), that’s NOT their primary role.

The abdominals primary job is to STOP movement, not generate it. They are supposed to stop your back from arching back too far or twisting too much. This is what provides support when your body pushes and pulls things in the gym and out. People who can provide abdominal support generally are very strong for their size. People who do not provide adequate support for their spines are generally weak and injury prone. (Have you ever heard the expressions “spineless”, and “have a backbone”? Although they are used in a figurative sense to describe people who are pushovers, they have a literal beginning: people who have wimpy spines really are wimps – literally.)

When the abdominals stop the spine form moving, it allows support for the arms and legs to move and generate force. This is why people with stiff, strong abdominal muscles are strong people. And why all the above is on display during a single arm cable chest press.

What you need to do to truly strengthen the abs is put your abdomen in a position where it is forced to stop extension of the spine and stop rotation of the spine. And if specifically needs to be an “ab” exercise, you’re going to need heavy weight.

I present to you, the one arm standing cable press.

Loading up one side of your body at chest height with a heavy weight makes your body want to bend back and twist. Imagine if, as you’re reading this, someone behind you grabbed your right shoulder and pulled you back. The right side of your body would twist to your right and your spine would arch backwards. To prevent this from happening, your abdominal muscles would have to squeeze and pull you back to a normal position. This is what a one arm cable chest press does: it forces your body to stop the arching and twisting, placing a great demand on your abs.

Now that you know the “What?” and the “Why?” check back soon for the “How?”, as we’ll demonstrate how it gets done effectively.

Check back soon for the video demonstration!


"T-Woww" knows abs. And she doesn't do crunches or situps. And as you can see, she likes to be anonymous.

Cursing, Hard Work and Lessons Learned:

I’ve noticed a few things lately:

One: I’ve been called a lot of names lately. I know what you’re thinking: that’s not unusual. I get called names all the time. But this time it’s different. The source is different at least, if not the names themselves.

I’m not getting called names from the dude who played football 15 years ago and went on the internet for 10 minutes and decided that I was completely wrong on my take on stretching.

Nor are these name calling sessions from the “trainers” who quote verbose, esoteric research studies done God knows where by God knows who (probably another self proclaimed expert who also has never actually trained someone) to tell me I’m wrong. You know, some nerd in Denmark says electro-magnetic testing done on hamsters’ quadriceps after they do long distance cardio does, in fact reap benefits. Therefore, the information I’ve gathered from my gazillion sessions performed on real people is irrelevant.

No, lately I’ve been getting called pretty nasty names by my clients. Most of it unprintable. And if you know me, if I say it’s unprintable, you KNOW it’s unprintable.

Two: My clients have said quite often lately “Wow, you are in a BAD mood when you work out.”

I have indeed been trying to work out more consistently and with more intensity lately. When you operate a training business, you are always the last one that gets to workout, which has caused me to skip many workouts. (Similar to how you’re the last one to get paid, but that’s a different article.) So lately I’ve been more adamant about getting my workouts in and making sure they are worth the effort. I.e., I’ve been pushing myself. A few times, my clients have arrived mid Jon work out and asked a seemingly innocuous question just to have me bark at them with my “get away from me!” look on my face.

Three: It takes a long time for me to have the light bulb go on over my head sometimes. Because it occurred to me, after putting one and two together, that we are doing things right at The Training Rim.

I heard the voice of uber strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle in my head (yes again). Paraphrasing him, if you are a healthy individual, conditioning sessions should be absolutely miserable. If your workout is enjoyable, it’s a safe assumption your workout is a waste of time. And as usual, he’s 100% right.

Lately, my clients have been cursing me out because their conditioning sessions have been rather unpleasant. I’ve been yelling back during my workouts because it sucks moving over 4,000 pounds of weight in less than 10 minutes. Aggravating that situation is either an annoying “beep!” or voice form the workout muse telling me to get back to work, which will make you want to pull the speakers out of the walls. (I still insist my recent troubles with my GymBoss timer are the result of a client’s subterfuge.) And it definitely sucks hearing my voice while you’re going through this too. Here’s a typical conversation at the TR:

Client: “This sucks.”
Jon: “Mmm, hmmm.”
Client: “No really – this sucks you little #%&@#$!!*”
Jon: “Go to Retread Fitness and walk on a treadmill while holding on to the handrail, after you get off the outer thigh machine if you don’t like what we’re doing here.”
Client: “F&*^%$ you, you $@#%^&**!@!”

Writing it brings a tear to my eye.

So here’s today’s lesson kids: Assuming you’re healthy and practicing safety measures, you are SUPPOSED TO BE miserable during a conditioning session. And yes, feel free to let your anger flag fly. At least you know you’re getting something out of the misery - can’t say that about the outer thigh machine.

Here’s figure competitor Lori Siriani using the training ropes. This picture was taken just before she started throwing F bombs around the facility. Love how the arms are a blur!

What I'm Most Proud Of...

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reading and observing in an effort to better myself as an exercise professional, and by transference, a better person I guess. Many of the things I’ve seen, heard and read lately have kind of led me to a common theme:

I’m very proud of many of the things my clients have done over the years and things we’ve done as a group that have led to many improvements, both physical and otherwise. But the more I thought about it the thing that I am most proud of, is that the overwhelming majority of Training Rim success stories are real people.

I know you’re wondering what I mean by “real people”. I mean someone who was not born looking like a magazine cover, and/or has limitless time, money and resources to make him or herself even more beautiful. The fact that so many take exercise advice from people like that really frustrates me.

A real person is also someone who wasn’t born with once in a lifetime genetic athletic ability. I can almost guarantee you that my strength and conditioning program is superior to many professional athletes routines (I’m sure it’s better than Albert Haynesworth’s for example). But because I was born with a very bad case of small and slow, I’m never going to be a professional athlete no matter how effective my workouts are. Luckily, I figured this out relatively early in life.

Training Rim members are real people.

TR members have jobs, many with long commutes, many sedentary in nature. They have children, many who are young and require a significant investment of time. They have spouses, many of whom have jobs themselves. They have family and friends. They have homes that need to be taken care of. Many TR members have all the above.

Not one of them is independently wealthy. They can’t hire full time nutritionists, chefs, cleaning people, trainers, etc. It is NOT THEIR JOB to be lean and strong – and they are anyway. This is what I’m most proud of.

This is not a knock on Beyonce (or fill in the name of another super hot celebrity) who’s had great success. It’s just that we, meaning non uber-rich, non uber-good looking people, simply can’t do what she does and expect the same results. I have Beyonce on the brain because I recently saw her workout routine on E!: It was absolutely absurd. The amount of time wasted on idiotic stuff was beyond measure. And somewhere right now some soccer mom is doing what Beyonce/Kardashian/Ripa whoever does for no other reason than “they do it and it works for them.”

Watching great athletes train isn’t much different. I read a blog post recently from Mike Boyle (if you don’t know who Mike is, he’s generally spent the better part of 25 years getting better results with high level athletes than just about anybody on the planet.) In it, Mike wrote:

“I wrote an article called ‘An Apology Letter to Personal Trainers’. I’ve been telling them how to do their job for years and never trained a single non-athlete. Over the past few years I’ve started to, andit’s hard work. I think personal training is much more difficult than working with athletes. We’ve got 2 hours per week to counteract the other 166 hours of the week. It’s not a good ratio to try and make changes.”

As you would imagine, he’s EXACTLY right. Almost every TR client falls into the 1-3 hours per week category, trying to offset everything else mentioned above.

And the reasons TR members get results in spite of having the deck stacked against them isn’t so much a result of what we do. In most cases, it’s what we DON’T do. We don’t waste our time with things that are obviously ineffectual and/or overly time consuming. When you have two hours per week you don’t have 18 hours per week to jog like Beyonce, and even if you did, I would tell you your time would be better spent elsewhere. You have to get to the gym, get to work hard and fast and get out – period.

To paraphrase Mike Boyle again, people are always surprised when they see and try our training methods 1st hand. For some reason they think we’re alternating between bouncing on stability balls and staying still. Then I’ll get an email that says “I tried that move you had on your blog the other day – holy sh!t that hurts!”. Or, they’ll tell me “Oh that’s easy.” Then I’ll watch them try it and it will be an embarrassingly bad half assed attempt at what they thought we do. Then I correct them, and it’s not so easy all of a sudden.

We spend our time getting strong and getting conditioned. Anything else is a waste of time.

And if you think Zumba Cardio Kick Step Mocha Latte class is conditioning, you’re in for a rude awakening. Frankly, if your condition sessions are fun, they aren’t really conditioning sessions, they’re time killers.

A facility full of lean strong people with lives outside the facility. This is what I’m most proud of. (Admittedly, the fact they tell me they have fun too is a cool residual side effect though!)

A Testimonial For My Clients!

Yep, I’m writing a testimonial for my clients. I’ve received piles of testimonials over the years that have flattered me: now it’s my turn to return the favor. My friend Jon calls this a “reverse testimonial”. I don’t like the term, but he’ll accuse me of plagiarism if I don’t credit him.

Anyway, I was participating in the 5pm small group session earlier tonight. Sharon was doing the training and I asked her to give me the last 10 minutes or so – I had a new circuit I wanted to try on my clients and myself.

We completed the circuit, it went well as expected, but it WAS…NOT…EASY. I can’t emphasize this enough.

But because I had stopped my workout to explain the particulars of the circuit, I wanted to do a few more rounds myself. So I said to the group “the session is officially over, feel free to split, see you next time. I am going to do 3 or 4 more rounds though. If anyone wants to stick around and do them with me, you’re more than welcome to, but if you want to or need to split, no biggie.”

The session was over. Both in terms of time (it was 6pm) and programming – Sharon and I did everything we wanted to. I was expecting to be swinging kettlebells for a few more minutes on my own.

What I got was this: 6 blank stares and everybody holding their kettlebell. The stares said “Bring it on Rimmer. Where the hell else would I rather be than swinging kettlebells with my friends?”

Insert picture of me going “You are all some bad ass b!tches, and I LOVE MY JOB!!!”

And I know what some of you are thinking: they caved to peer pressure.

Nope. My clients know their workout is THEIR workout. Do what you need to do and peer pressure is not allowed.

And some of you were thinking, well the previous 50 minutes couldn’t have been that hard.

B.S. I wiped the mats twice because of sweat accumulation and we had the AC blasting.

And no, none of us are like those CrossFit ass-sticks who can’t differentiate between working hard and being a moron. Everybody was still bio-mechanically competent.

And yes, I did call them bad-ass b!tches to their faces and they all loved it because they know I meant it with unbelievably high admiration for their toughness and dedication to their workout, to me, and to each other.

BIG time props to L-Jo, She-Ra, LoriLori, Sasha, Shazarella and T-Woww – love you guys! Feel free to mock people who work out while watching TV and fiddling with their phones.

Stay with me people...

There’s a reason for everything. I was watching the news this morning then simultaneously clicked a link to an article from a Facebook friend. Because of those two things, we’re all here together now. Can I get a round of applause for Robin Meade on CNN and Ivonne Ward, my colleague and fellow little angry exercise and health buddy for connecting us all? Thank you!

Lately, as you may or may not have noticed, I’ve been on a tangent with people that want to lose weight. It’s such a silly concept, but so many people have that mindset, it kind of irritates me. Maybe if I were in another profession where I didn’t have to listen to, or be asked about “losing weight” all the time I wouldn’t be so irritated about it.

Then I watched the news this a.m. and listened about a study that listed all the things women would give up in exchange for “being skinny”. Things that otherwise they enjoy and make them happy.

I immediately threw up in my mouth.

Being “skinny” means you are WEAK. Being skinny means you are UNHEALTHY. Being skinny means YOU LOOK MALNUTRITIONED. And it kills me that I can’t figure out a way to get this point across to people without p!ssing them off. (And yes, smarty pants, I do try to get my point across without p!ssing people off sometimes).

Then I read this article by an author who could get these points across far better than I, so I’m posting the link below.

But the take home points that I REALLY need you to pay attention to are:

1. Exercise is the key to happiness. NOT the key to being skinny. Better health, energy, cognitive function and sleep patterns are all benefits of exercise.

2. Just because the guys in the weight room at big-box mega gym are douche bags, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULDN’T WEIGHT TRAIN!

3. Sweat does not mean you are working hard – sweat means you are hot. These are two very different things. Stay with me people…

4. You are going to p!ss more money away than you can imagine during your life, much of it on things you think will help your health. Knowing that, not paying for a good trainer because it’s expensive is SILLY.

5. What you did when you were 22 to get in shape is not applicable anymore. You were in shape then in spite of your exercise routine, not because of it.

6. Don’t go kamikaze style training for 3 weeks and think that’s going to do anything. Slow and steady always wins the race.

OK, that’s my version – move on to the better one here:

Gretchen Rubin says:

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2010/08/12-tips-for-nudging-yourself-to-exercise-regularly.html

And for the record: Re: the woman in the photo on the treadmill? That's a stock photo - she did NOT get that body by walking on a treadnmill.

The Best Way to Lose Weight!

Undoubtedly the topic that comes up the most in circles of exercise and nutrition is weight loss.

More often than not, it takes place between two people who are neither exercise professionals, nor nutritionists, which I find pretty telling. The fact that over half our country is overweight and about a third are obese I find even more interesting, considering it seems everybody has their two cents on the topic.

To me, it’s always been a silly discussion. Why someone would want to lose weight is beyond me. Lose fat? Sure. Lose weight, as in pounds? Why?

We all agree that the number on the scale tells you nothing about your appearance or your health. It measures your gravitational pull to the earth – nothing else. It doesn’t tell you if you look good or bad, it doesn’t tell you if you’re healthy or not.

There are men who weigh 200 lbs who are beyond fit and healthy. There are men who are 200 lbs who are obese. There are women who weigh 150 lbs who are smokin’ hot. There are women who weigh 150 lbs who are obese.

In over a decade in this business I haven’t met anyone who disagrees with me on this point. Yet most ignore this concept and still want to lose “weight”.

(On a side note: It’s often the beginning of some very silly Q&A sessions like this one:

Person 1: “I lost X pounds!”
Person 2: “Really?!? How did you do it?!?!”
My conscience: “Uh…, she ate less? How the F else would you lose weight?!?”)

Needless to say, I get asked my opinions on this subject often. And like many, this topic is certainly one where usually the person doesn’t want my opinion, they just want their own opinion confirmed, and will continue with their “low carb” BS no matter what I tell them.
That being said, I’m going to throw my two cents out there anyway, and I’m going to take a different path than usual, as to not repeat myself.

If you want to lose weight, just sit on the couch and do NOTHING.

Your lack of activity will bring your metabolism down to reflect the lack of activity. If your body sees you aren’t expending calories, it will reduce your metabolism and appetite to make sure you don’t eat many calories.

And by NO MEANS should you exercise. This will only increase your metabolism, which in turn will increase your appetite, which will in turn make it almost impossible for you to lose weight.

You’ll look better and you’ll feel better if you exercise. But you probably won’t lose pounds.
So go ahead and continue watching the number on the scale. Sit on the couch, don’t move and don’t eat. Just remember to give me credit for your success.

I'm OVER weight

Just started writing an article and in the process of doing a little research came across some things that made me switch gears and post this right away (rest of the article coming ASAP):

According to ideal weight charts from more than one source*, the following people are OVER weight:

I know this because picture 1 is me. Picture 2 is my smokin’ hot significant other, so I know what she weighs, and the last 2 are Gina Carano. Because Gina is a professional fighter, her weight is public knowledge.

Still wanna’ use a scale to measure your success?

*I saw several, the only one I saved is healthychecksystems.com.