| To: "'VOCALIST'" <vocalist> Subject: RE: Abs Workout Date sent: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 00:30:50 -0500 Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
On washboard abs and ab workouts:
1. Having a good abdominal routine is necessary for good health. The abdominals are stabilizers that assist your back in staying healthy. 2. Whether or not they turn into washboard abs depends mostly on the % of bodyfat on your body. Whoever mentioned that you can have a good, hard slab of abdominal muscle behind a couple layers of fat is right. And, just to iterate: Spot reducing does not work. Try the diet first, while giving your entire body a good workout. 3. Good muscle tone generally allows for the person to feel more energized and better about themselves. Your singing will only benefit from this. 4. Muscle tone does not indicate that you are "tight" or "tense." A healthy, heavily-muscled individual can have a great degree of flexibility. 5. Laura, if your abdominal muscles were causing you to slouch, then (in my opinion, since I don't know you personally) you weren't paying enough attention to the muscles in the lower back. Bodybuilders that do all the crunches, but never work their lower back to counter and give good, strong support on both sides, end up with kind of a weird look to their abs, due to this effect. There may have been no good reason for your doctor to suggest that you stay away from crunches.
-----Original Message----- From: owner-vocalist [mailto:owner-vocalist]On Behalf Of Laura McBurnie Sent: Friday, January 14, 2000 9:22 PM To: vocalist Subject: Abs Workout
Hi,
I'm hearing some worry that an intense ab workout may cause the ab muscles to tighten up and interfere with healthy singing. I'm not an expert, but I do a fair mix of ashtanga yoga, weights, stairmaster, and whatever else occurs to me, and while I don't focus on my abs, they do get worked out. Here's what I think: We place way too much emphasis on ab exercises in workouts, thinking that working out those muscles as much as possible will help keep the stomach flat. If your belly is jelly, then situps really won't do much. That's a weight-loss issue, pure and simple. You could turn the abs into iron, behind your belly, and it won't make much nevermind. I'm not slender at 5'2" and 128lbs, just average, and while I do not do situps unless it's part of an aerobics class I'm in, and apart from that never focus on my abs except for yoga's Boat Pose, I see some muscular definition on my stomach. There is a good double handful of fat over it, that obscures it, but it is there, and I have never sought to turn my stomach into a six-pack. Your abs are there for stabilizing- try some plank poses for example- and just plain protecting your innards! And they also have a fair bit to do with singing, but QED you don't need to do a hundred situps a day to sing. Every exercise program can be modified to your own particular needs. My doctor advised, some years ago, I stay away from crunches because my abs were getting short from too many crunches, and it caused me to slouch. So, often, I replace the ab exercises with something else, or do lots of yoga to help me remember to be tall.
BUT! All of this aside, I want to point out that some of the fittest, happiest, most flexible people I know (like my yoga teacher's teacher, who can carry on a conversation, completely unruffled, while in the full lotus position, balancing on her hands) don't have flat bellies. I don't have a flat belly, and don't much care either. Tummy tucks, ab machines, what have you... I guess the thing to do is step back and ask yourself how necessary they really are, if you're happy and healthy. Exercise is great; attempting to reinvent your body is sort of pointless.
My verbose $.02 (Canadian funds- I have to stretch my dollar)! -- Laura McBurnie, Soprano BMus Vocal Performance Student, Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 902-496-0360 ICQ#1871734 http://is2.dal.ca/~lmcburni/lhome.html lmcburni-at-is2.dal.ca Song in my head right now: "Beim Schlafengehn" -Strauss
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