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It's my understanding that there is a saying in Norway that translates to: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." Yes, the weather around here can be unpredictable, and yes, it's still so valuable to get outside.
I find that when I am emotionally, spiritually, or physically in a rut, spending some time with Mother Nature helps me feel so much better. I don't have to run, walk, or skydive if that's not what feels best to my body or within my abilities. I might need to rest on a bench, swing on a swing, or lie in the grass (or snow); it will get me some fresh air and healing energy. We can take the kids on a nature scavenger hunt, or just take a 10-minute work break. Let's soak it up!
Our latest thoughts
Six-Pack Abs: Are they good for more than just the cover of Men's Health Magazine?
We see it on health and fitness magazine covers everywhere: the sculpted 30-something in her half-sporty, half-sexy tankini advertising "SIX PACK ABS FAST! GET THAT PRE-BABY BODY BACK IN 6 WEEKS!" What about that 6-pack? Does having one say something about how fit we are? Does it mean we are a certain kind of strong? Is it even better to have an 8-pack? Does it make us better-looking? That last question gets a subjective answer that won't be addressed here. But let's do think about what those magazine abs say about our health and fitness --
Nothing.
Wait, what?
Let's rewind. Who has a 6-pack? Do you? Yes. Do I? Yes. Does your neighbor? Yes. Does that pot-bellied guy at the gym that walks around kibbutzing and doing nothing but one bicep curl every hour? Yes.
The formal name: rectus abdominis. Pretty much everyone's got one, save some rare genetic anomaly or trauma. Some are covered with stretched out skin, some are covered with adipose tissue (nice words for "fat"), some are split apart down the middle, usually from pregnancy. Still, the muscle is there. If you see someone's more than someone else's, it's likely because the one you can see has much less skin or other tissue covering it. That's it. So how much do you need to work it out? How much do you need to see it?
You don't.
Wait, what?
That's about right. Cross that 10 minutes of crunches off your list at the gym. They are meaningless.
HOLD. ON. (You say.)
What about your bikini-ready body? What about your Speedo-ready body? What about being strong? What about keeping the rest of your body healthy via the ever-important "core"? All valid concerns. Let's answer them in order:
1. Bikini-ready: According to this author, to be bikini ready means to put on a bikini, get oneself to the pool or beach, and relish in the sun, surf, lounging with book, or whatever else happens there. Done.
2. Speedo-ready: Don't do it. Just say No.
3. Being strong: There are so many ways in which we can be strong. Some people abhor lifting weights but love a 26.2-mile run. Some people hate the gym but carry a child on each hip as they move throughout the day, cooking, shopping,... Some people can break a board in half with a bare hand but cannot swim a lap across the pool. Not one of these people is stronger than the other. And six-pack abs don't qualify us either. Why? The six-pack, the rectus abdominis, is a relatively thin layer of muscle that attaches to the pubic bone (about 5 fingers-width below the belly button) and to the sternum (breastbone) and a little bit of the inner edges of some ribs. Muscles are like rubber bands in how they stretch and contract. If you stretched a rubber band straight up from that pubic bone to the sternum and shortened it (which is what a muscle does when it contracts), it would pull those two parts of you toward each other. Picture the "ab crunch." If you crunch or curl your ribcage and chest straight down toward your pelvis (as if you're trying to get a really close-up look for lint in that wonderful belly button), you are using the rectus abdominis. Now let's ask this: When or where in life is it important to be really strong in curling your chest toward your belly button, or vice versa? If there were an Olympic event called Sit-ups or Ab Crunches, this movement would be a necessity. If you had a spinal cord injury and couldn't fully move your hand to your mouth to eat, you'd want to be able, if possible, to curl your head and chest down toward your hand to eat. If you are a gymnast or diver and need to curl your hips and knees up to your chest to do a back somersault, you need that six-pack. The challenge is for the rest of us to come up with good reason otherwise to need this muscle group.
4. Isn't the six-pack part of the "core"? Isn't it, as they say in the fitness or rehabilitation world, a "spinal stabilizer"? No. No it is not. Basically for the reasons listed above. It doesn't attach to your back, so it doesn't have any beneficial effect on keeping a back healthy. (Not-so-Side note: the crunch position or movement and an overworked rectus abdominis can actually have an unhealthy impact on the back and hips. Also, after pregnancy, crunching and other similar ab exercises can keep the rectus abdominis from closing back together in the middle, and they can have a detrimental effect on continence, which is already often a challenge postpartum.) There are so many muscles that attach directly or indirectly to the spine and pelvis that are part of the "core" and part of keeping us injury-free. They include: internal and external obliques, transversus abdominis (wish there were a shorter name for this), latissimus dorsi ("lats"), gluteus maximus and medius ("glutes"), thoracolumbar fascia (not actually a muscle but is an important connector), a number of lumbar extensors, etc. Would you believe the core can be worked by standing on one leg, lifting the other leg out to the side a number of times? You've heard of the "plank" maybe? This works the core like a gem. Sit-ups? No.
So here is a quiz: Which exercise is better for your core -- 5 assisted pull-ups, or 100 ab crunches?
Check back for our next blog post. It will answer this question (though at this point in the reading, it's a giveaway, right?), and it will give us some great exercises for a healthy, strong body. If you can't wait till then, call Terra PT at (440) 409-9622 to learn the best ways for your body to be strong and healthy and safe .
In the meantime, love your abs, just as they are, however they are. Your 4-pack, your no-pack -- love that it works enough to have you sitting up reading this. (And if you're lying down, switch to your belly if you can. That propped-up-against-the-headboard-reading-before-bed position is not the best. Yet another blog post...) Those abs on the cover of Ladies' Fitness magazine are Photoshopped anyway.
Stay tuned for some real exercises for some real bodies.
We see it on health and fitness magazine covers everywhere: the sculpted 30-something in her half-sporty, half-sexy tankini advertising "SIX PACK ABS FAST! GET THAT PRE-BABY BODY BACK IN 6 WEEKS!" What about that 6-pack? Does having one say something about how fit we are? Does it mean we are a certain kind of strong? Is it even better to have an 8-pack? Does it make us better-looking? That last question gets a subjective answer that won't be addressed here. But let's do think about what those magazine abs say about our health and fitness --
Nothing.
Wait, what?
Let's rewind. Who has a 6-pack? Do you? Yes. Do I? Yes. Does your neighbor? Yes. Does that pot-bellied guy at the gym that walks around kibbutzing and doing nothing but one bicep curl every hour? Yes.
The formal name: rectus abdominis. Pretty much everyone's got one, save some rare genetic anomaly or trauma. Some are covered with stretched out skin, some are covered with adipose tissue (nice words for "fat"), some are split apart down the middle, usually from pregnancy. Still, the muscle is there. If you see someone's more than someone else's, it's likely because the one you can see has much less skin or other tissue covering it. That's it. So how much do you need to work it out? How much do you need to see it?
You don't.
Wait, what?
That's about right. Cross that 10 minutes of crunches off your list at the gym. They are meaningless.
HOLD. ON. (You say.)
What about your bikini-ready body? What about your Speedo-ready body? What about being strong? What about keeping the rest of your body healthy via the ever-important "core"? All valid concerns. Let's answer them in order:
1. Bikini-ready: According to this author, to be bikini ready means to put on a bikini, get oneself to the pool or beach, and relish in the sun, surf, lounging with book, or whatever else happens there. Done.
2. Speedo-ready: Don't do it. Just say No.
3. Being strong: There are so many ways in which we can be strong. Some people abhor lifting weights but love a 26.2-mile run. Some people hate the gym but carry a child on each hip as they move throughout the day, cooking, shopping,... Some people can break a board in half with a bare hand but cannot swim a lap across the pool. Not one of these people is stronger than the other. And six-pack abs don't qualify us either. Why? The six-pack, the rectus abdominis, is a relatively thin layer of muscle that attaches to the pubic bone (about 5 fingers-width below the belly button) and to the sternum (breastbone) and a little bit of the inner edges of some ribs. Muscles are like rubber bands in how they stretch and contract. If you stretched a rubber band straight up from that pubic bone to the sternum and shortened it (which is what a muscle does when it contracts), it would pull those two parts of you toward each other. Picture the "ab crunch." If you crunch or curl your ribcage and chest straight down toward your pelvis (as if you're trying to get a really close-up look for lint in that wonderful belly button), you are using the rectus abdominis. Now let's ask this: When or where in life is it important to be really strong in curling your chest toward your belly button, or vice versa? If there were an Olympic event called Sit-ups or Ab Crunches, this movement would be a necessity. If you had a spinal cord injury and couldn't fully move your hand to your mouth to eat, you'd want to be able, if possible, to curl your head and chest down toward your hand to eat. If you are a gymnast or diver and need to curl your hips and knees up to your chest to do a back somersault, you need that six-pack. The challenge is for the rest of us to come up with good reason otherwise to need this muscle group.
4. Isn't the six-pack part of the "core"? Isn't it, as they say in the fitness or rehabilitation world, a "spinal stabilizer"? No. No it is not. Basically for the reasons listed above. It doesn't attach to your back, so it doesn't have any beneficial effect on keeping a back healthy. (Not-so-Side note: the crunch position or movement and an overworked rectus abdominis can actually have an unhealthy impact on the back and hips. Also, after pregnancy, crunching and other similar ab exercises can keep the rectus abdominis from closing back together in the middle, and they can have a detrimental effect on continence, which is already often a challenge postpartum.) There are so many muscles that attach directly or indirectly to the spine and pelvis that are part of the "core" and part of keeping us injury-free. They include: internal and external obliques, transversus abdominis (wish there were a shorter name for this), latissimus dorsi ("lats"), gluteus maximus and medius ("glutes"), thoracolumbar fascia (not actually a muscle but is an important connector), a number of lumbar extensors, etc. Would you believe the core can be worked by standing on one leg, lifting the other leg out to the side a number of times? You've heard of the "plank" maybe? This works the core like a gem. Sit-ups? No.
So here is a quiz: Which exercise is better for your core -- 5 assisted pull-ups, or 100 ab crunches?
Check back for our next blog post. It will answer this question (though at this point in the reading, it's a giveaway, right?), and it will give us some great exercises for a healthy, strong body. If you can't wait till then, call Terra PT at (440) 409-9622 to learn the best ways for your body to be strong and healthy and safe .
In the meantime, love your abs, just as they are, however they are. Your 4-pack, your no-pack -- love that it works enough to have you sitting up reading this. (And if you're lying down, switch to your belly if you can. That propped-up-against-the-headboard-reading-before-bed position is not the best. Yet another blog post...) Those abs on the cover of Ladies' Fitness magazine are Photoshopped anyway.
Stay tuned for some real exercises for some real bodies.