Article Link Ab Myths

[lreidgreen]

Originally Posted by ~^~RedFlame~^~

Yes, I am afraid that that lower pooch you describe is mostly a matter of fat loss. We can make sure to keep the body tight underneath, but if there is excess fat, that will rule the look. THAT nasty pooch can often be a result of age, as I deal more and more with menopausal women (and I have no idea what your age is, so this is 'general' stuff) who have NEVER had a 'tummy' issue, all of a sudden there it is! Hormones ladies hormones. As our hormone levels change we can begin to store fat more like men, in our abdomens instead of so much in the butt, thighs, etc., which is usually considered the 'female' storage dump, LOL. I have seen VERY VERY thin women that have this lower tummy and can do nothing about it other than spanx. BUMMER!!! Now that I am going through P-M I keep waiting for this critter to pop up on me too!

Bummer indeed.. Yes I think in my case it is at least partially hormonal since I am 47 and have only had this problem since I turned 43 or so. Maybe this means I can just stop doing ab work!

[~^~RedFlame~^~]

Originally Posted by hch

How DARE you criticize other peoples goals!!!! I thought VF was about respecting diversity and stuff, and who are you to say a beautiful stunning teeny tiny waist that anybody would KILL for is worse than having an ugly bulky manly blocky ridgey body???? You HATER!!!

Just kidding--I totally agree! In fact, I'd call it one of the most important messages to come from this thread.

LOL, wow, my tummy was flipping when I started to read this! I thought "oh my God I pissed somebody off royally!" lmao!!

[kietsufit]

Originally Posted by Debbie M

Hi Ana,

What types of core training were you doing that thickened your waist?

Best,
Deb

I was doing weighted side bends, bicycles, ball cunches, tic tocs, etc and work similar to hip hop abs. I gained a good 1" in my waist at that time. Everything else was shrinking and my waist was getting bigger! What did I do? More ab work! Silly me!

I actually stopped, not because I thought it was the ab work just because I got bored and switched up my routine and did not include any intense ab work. It was funny but within a couple weeks my middle started shrinking and I ended up losing that 1".

Ana

[~^~RedFlame~^~]

Originally Posted by Debbie S.

Red, how many people do you train, and what is the age group? TIA

Thanks for seeing my heads up thread. I'm a true hourglass, but I'm a couple of inches taller than you. My waist is almost always 10" smaller than my bust and hips, so when I gain, I gain evenly, and when I lose, I lose evenly.

I very rarely do ab work on the ground, so the majority of my work comes from kickboxing, strength work, etc. I'm lucky though, because I've never had problems with thickening from my kickboxing workouts.

I tend to be lucky that way too, gaining fairly evenly. I do tend to hold more in my butt/thigh area, which would normally make me a pear, but I work my shoulders and back a lot to create more of an hourglass 'look' than what I had before I had shoulders, LOL.

Right now I am down to 3 clients because I am just coming out of tax season, normally with my accounting 'main' job, I can only handle about 6 at a time, as long as they don't ALL want the 6am slot before work! That is my biggest scheduling problem. Everyone wants me at their door at 6 am and there is only one of me! I currently train in the over 40 demographic. I even changed my business name to incorporate Boomer-Fit into it. I have come full circle from my 30's and being completely driven by aesthetics to being really health motivated these days. Age I guess!

[Janga]

Posted by Red Flame: "Final words of wisdom. IF in fact your genetics is such that having a strong core means it is a bit thicker than you like, no matter what work you do, then embrace that and go for it. A strong core is so much more important than just how 'trim' it looks. If it is not strong it will look muffiny and strong and firm is great no matter WHAT the inches!!"
***

Wonderful words! Thanks!

[~^~RedFlame~^~]

Originally Posted by lreidgreen

Bummer indeed.. Yes I think in my case it is at least partially hormonal since I am 47 and have only had this problem since I turned 43 or so. Maybe this means I can just stop doing ab work!

Oh NO you don't!!