ABS - Exercise & Fitness Message Board

sum one that needs help · 07-09-2003, 05:02 PM

When I'm at home and I'm doing sit ups they hurt my neck.And what can i do to get rid of the fat from the lower part of your abs.And if u have good abs and your chest is not ,would that look weird like a tight stomach and a fat chest lol??¿¿??

armageddon69 · 07-10-2003, 11:48 AM

Are you putting your hands behind your neck and pulling? That could be waht is hurting them. IF you are don't do that. For a little easier situps, cross your arms over your chest. For harder ones, cross them behind your neck and put your hands on your shoulder blades.

beast69 · 07-10-2003, 09:52 PM

you cannot spot-reduce, meaning that you cannot lose fat from only one part of your body. also, doing 100's of crunches will not get you a very good 6-pack. your abs are a muscle, so why should they be worked differently than any other muscle group?
try doing weighted sit-ups/crunches, leg raises9weighted if possible), etc.

to lose bodyfat, you will need to have a proper diet(NOT the stereotypical "starve yourself" sort of diet, but eating properly to reach your goal), and you will also need to do cardio. a good type of cardio is HIIT(high intensity interval training). for simplicity's sake, i will use the treadmill as an example.

-start with a warm-up for about 2-5 mins., after this, it gets interesting

-increase the speed to a level at which you can only maintain for about 2-3 mins. stay at this pace for about 1 min.

-decrease the speed to a light jog or fast walk and maintain this speed for about 1 min.

-continue alternating between the two speeds for the set times for approx. 10-15 mins.

this is a very difficult type of cardio, but is very effective. If you are able to, try it. start off doing it about 2X a week, then when you feel comfortable with this, move it up to 3X a week, etc. I can ALMOST gaurantee that you will see results by doing this.

the beauty of HIIT is that you do not stop losing calories after you finish your workout. It keeps you in a sort of fat-burning mode for a prolonged period of time after being performed. so, give it a shot and, after a few weeks, maybe you could post your results.

Endorphin Junky · 07-11-2003, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sum one that needs help:
When I'm at home and I'm doing sit ups they hurt my neck.And what can i do to get rid of the fat from the lower part of your abs.And if u have good abs and your chest is not ,would that look weird like a tight stomach and a fat chest lol??¿¿??

If you're not used to doing situps, they'll hurt your neck to start with as you neck isn't used to holding your head up at the angle it has to when you're doing them. It should stop hurting when you're neck strengthens to adapt to it.

beast69 is right about not being able to spot reduce fat. Like he said, diet and cardio are the key, along with a whole body resistance training program. The HIT method of training is very good at burning fat and sparing muscle, but if you're not used to doing it, it'll be very hard to start with. You might want to start with some lower intensity running just to get used to the action and get your muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments ready for a HIT program. If you're already running, I'd definately go with the HIT training.

As for having good abs and no chest, yes, over developed abs with an under developed rest-of-body will look strange. It'll also create a muscular imbalance between your front and back which could cause problems. Make sure you're training all your muscle groups i.e. chest, back (upper and lower), legs (quads, hams and calves), arms (tris, bis and possibly forearms), shoulders (front, side and rear) and abs (front, side and transverse (inner)).