Abs, All The Time

"ABS, Chris. I need abs. Sculpted, chiseled, rippling abs. Like the ones I see on the magazine covers, on the infomercials...like you have."

"Oh, yeah? First off, my abs aren't cover quality this week."

"What? No washboard? No six pack? Did you stop doing sit ups?"

"Not at all. I do about the same amount of ab training as I always have. Ab training isn't really the key."

Yeah, but what about the 8 minute--or is it 7 minute--abs video. Or the Ab Roller. Or the Ab Flex? Or--"

"Pete, you can have abs without ever doing an ab exercise."

I know this throws him for a loop. He regularly reads the fitness magazines that feature all of the "Granite Abs of Iron Routines" and still subscribes to the concept that spot training is the key to revealing a hidden rack of midsection muscle.

"Oh, Get real, Chris. Abs without ab training?"

"Yeah. What's your mid-section do anyway?"

Blank. Lost in the woods. I'll drop a few bread crumbs.

"It stabilizes your trunk, Pete."

"So?"

"So you isometrically contract your abdominals each time you perform an exercise that requires some amount of balance, or alignment. You're training them without specifically training them."

Pete likes the idea, but his crossed arms and cocked gaze indicate suspicion.

"Think about doing lunges."

His eyes move up and to the right: visualizing.

"Your midsection is active throughout that exercise keeping you aligned and stable."

He nods.

"Or, place your fingers around your waist and feel your abs work while doing a side delt raise with a low pulley."

He grabs the low pulley nearby, stands, places his free hand above his hip and raises his weighted arm to the side. He feels his mid-section solidify.

Surprise and satisfaction supplant skepticism.

"You mean I can train my abs while I'm developing my shoulders? And we don't have to do abs anymore, right?"

He knows that's not what I meant.

"Uh, no. You want to do specific ab work, even though each rep of a lateral raise is essentially a rep for your abs, too. It's important to include spinal flexion and trunk rotation in your training."

"You mean crunches and twisting crunches, right?"

"Right."

Then what about getting abs without training abs?"

"Well, the point is you do, just by exercising--especially with heavy training--develop your abs. Your abs are there already. But if you can't see them then they don't exist--sort of like the sound a tree falling in the forest doesn't make when no one's around."

"Huh?"

"Pete, think of your ab training as this simple formula:

1. Your abs can be conditioned very well just by stabilizing your trunk when you do other exercises.

2. Your overall activity level determines whether or not you'll ever see your abs. More activity: more abs.

3. Eating certain foods can inhibit your progress. Look at every meal as a way of coaxing your abdominals out into the light of day."

Sensing that this perspective might indicate a lifestyle change Pete asks, "Can I get that formula in pill form?"



to april, 1999, to june, 1999

Just So You Know