OC Outdoor Fitness

OK, so this is a pretty common question. I get a lot of people who say they work their abs all the time, and they can't seem to get rid of the pouch or muffin top that forms.

First of all... if you aren't doing cardio and watching your diet you will never have a six pack. No matter how many infomercial products and 6-minute ab workouts you try if there is any subcutaneous fat on top of the muscle it will not allow the muscles to "pop" through, however you can get a stronger core regardless of the fat layered on top.

That being said I have included a video by 2 pilates instructors tha texplain the 4 layers of muscle. While the twinsies are a bit creepy they do a great job with this explanation. Please watch now.

OK, so basically that Transverse Abdominal muscle (we label it TVA) is the key to the Holly grail of getting your abs in shape.

When you are preforming a "crunch" you are typically targeting the rectus abdominal the muscle layer on top (Rawbie, this is why your back hurts when you are working on doing crunches) The TVA is the musclethat supports the back.

Try to first work on just learning to contract this deeper layer Transverse Muscle. By laying on your back, bending your knees, put your hands on your belly. Now.. COUGH, and LAUGH. When you cough and laugh both of these are involuntary contractions of the TVA. Now the trick is being able to voluntarily contract that muscle and talk and breath atthe same time. This takes practice.

So continue to lie on your back and take 1 deep breath in, now exhale,exhale, exhale (until there is NO breath in the belly) and feel almost as if you are blowing up a balloon, feel that muscle contract at the end there? That is your TVA.

Another way to practice engaging this is an exercise that is sort of cheating. See ideally you want your spine and pelvis to stay neutralwhen contracting the TVA BUT at first you have to learn how to contract that muscle, so I have a temporary cheat method.

Continue to lie on your back. now press your spine down into the flooras if you were squashing a spider between your spine and the floor.

Now extend the right leg along the floor and then lift it up about 3 inches off the floor

do NOT let the back move!

keep pressing it into the floor

now extend the opposit hand up and back behind you (like your stretching it out)

Check your back! Is it moving??

Now cough or laugh to double check that you are engaging that TVA muscle. and continue to press the spine into the floor.

Now why is this a cheat method? Because a True TVA contraction involves no other muscles, and here we are asking for assistance from the hip flexors and the glutes to keep the back down. Now if done correctly youwill feel a lot of work being done deep into your abdominal wall. it should feel differently then the "burn" of a crunch.

I would suggest you do the above exercise holding that leg and arm out for up to 40 seconds (start with 20 seconds if this is very difficult) repeat on both sides, and do it every day for 10 days straight.

When you are ready to move on.

Add in slow abdominal crunches. with the knees bent inhale as youslowly exhale all the air (like in the above exercise) keep exhalingeven when you think you are done, and get your shoulders up up up! andthen Slowly come back down. This should take 8 full seconds, and shouldbe very slow (10 crunches should feel very difficult if done properly)

Repeat this everyday for 10 days straight.

When you are ready to move on let me know!

I will try and video tape these both using one of my clients so you get a better understanding! Being so prego I am not a good example of howto work the abdominals