The following video introduces you to Mitch Gaylord’s innovative weight loss system, “Melt It Off.” Mitch Gaylord is an Olympic gymnast that is the only American athlete to achieve a perfect 10. His workout helps you “melt it off” and “burn those calories to a crisp.
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We accomplish several goals when we exercise. First off, we tone are muscles and make them stronger and healthier. Another goal we strive for with exercise is calorie loss. The calories we burn hopefully come from excess fat that we carry around. We all hope our exercise routines will just melt it off, but those calories and that fat are stubborn things, and we really need to work our tushies off to get the results we long for.
As we have learned, crunches are a great way to strengthen the complex and important muscles of the abdomen. Your efforts are concentrated to target precisely the crucial muscles needed for great muscle health and great good looks.
To get even better results from your exercising, it is a great idea to include a Bender Ball in your exercise program. The Bender Ball stabilizes the back and helps you to target the muscles that you need to work on. Studies show that including Bender Ball in your workout improves outcome as much as four times.
With crunches the back remains supported, either on the floor, or with an exercise ball like the Bender Ball as opposed to sit-ups where the back is actually lifted up off the floor.
Begin crunches by lying down on the floor on your back, with knees bent. You begin the crunch by curling in the shoulders toward the pelvis. Hands are kept behind the neck, or else crossed over the chest. Since pressing with force on the head or neck can cause injury it is a good idea to take care to not place the hands behind the head itself.
It is actually useful to create a type of shelf to rest the head in with your hands, to support the weight of the head so the neck flexor muscles are in a relaxed state during the exercise. There is no fear of injury to the neck as long as the neck is kept extended and the neck flexors remain relaxed, since the hands will not be putting extra force on the head.
Crunches are not only safer than sit-ups, but they work better to isolate the abdominal muscles for exercise, getting more effect from less effort. Since the hip flexors are used during sit-ups, some of the energy expended is used to contract the hips and the hip flexors in turn take away some of the movement from the abdominals.
Now that we are familiar with the anatomy of our abdominal muscles, we can talk with some understanding about how exercise can strengthen our muscles and make us healthier and feel better.
Many years ago sit-ups were the way people exercise their abdominal muscles. These are done by lying down with the back flat on the floor. Usually the knees are kept bent so to reduce stress on the muscles of the back and spine. Then the upper and lower vertebrae are lifted off the floor until everything above the buttocks is elevated off the floor. However, this exercise was found to be risky because of the high compressive load on the lumbar or lower spine. Nowadays, for the most part, sit-ups have been replaced by the “curl-up”, or crunch exercise.
Also known as the transverse abdominus, this is the deepest of the four main abdominal muscles, and it is the most crucial to lower back support. This is one dedicated muscle. It does not bend the spine, nor does it twist it or cause the spine to bend sideways. Its only action and purpose is to stabilize and support the lower back.
When you contract this muscle your waist tightens, your belly button pulls in, and the pelvis and back are stabilized.
The transverse abdominus is sometimes referred to as the “natural girdle.” It is certainly the most important single muscle when it comes to spinal stability and lower back health.
Found on the outer surface of the eight lowest ribs, on the side of the abdomen, the external oblique muscles help to stabilize and support the spine, as well as flex it. (Flexing the spine means to pull it forward.) The oblique muscles also rotate the trunk to the other side, like in twisting as well as bending the spine to the side.
Have you ever seen a really muscular abdomen? It kind of looks like six rounded protrusions, three on the left and three on the right, or like some people say, “a six-pack.” This is the rectus (straight in Latin) and abdominus, (the abdomen.) It has this name because it is the muscle that goes straight down the abdomen. This muscle is attached to the ribs as well as the pelvis and effects the moving forward of your body, like in a crunch. Together with the other core muscles the rectus abdominus keeps your spine stable and helps support your pelvis.
How familiar are we really with our very own abdominal wall? Everyone wants these mysterious “abs” stronger and shapely, but why?
First let’s talk about anatomy. Did you know there are four separate muscles that make up the abdominal wall? That’s right. The muscles of the abdominal area are called the rectus abdominus, the internal oblique, external oblique, and the transverse abdominus. There is a fifth muscle, the pyramidalis muscle, which is small and triangular in shape. It is low in the abdomen, located quite low and in front of the rectus abdominus.
These muscles work together to contain the internal organs, support the body (trunk), allow movement, and also cover and protect the internal organs.
The abdominal muscles also give support to the lower back. Weak abs can contribute to back pain.
Human beings don’t always know what’s best for them. Throughout history, white flour has been a sign of prosperity and refinement, preferred by those who could afford it over whole wheat.
Whether white bread tastes better is a subjective question, but science is pretty clear that whole wheat, and whole grains in general, have a substantial nutritional advantage. Our bodies derive necessary vitamins and minerals from those portions of the grain that would be removed in the refining process. Whole grains are also richer in dietary fiber and may help build our body’s resistance to heart disease, cancer, and a host of other maladies.
So give whole wheat a try, and you’ll be getting more nutrition in every bite!
admin | 
09 3rd, 2009| 