Fitness Tips: Strong Abs Can Do Wonders - Toronto NewsFIX

1Dec

Most men would like to have “abs of steel” although few are willing to even begin the requisite torture required to get them. That’s too bad because the abdominal muscles of most older men look more like “Slurpies” than “six-packs” and because maintaining strength there is necessary for a healthy, active life.

Sit-ups and crunches are included in all professional exercise routines not because consumers and members of the opposite sex respond to abs of steel but because those exercises are good for you. But whether or not a middle-aged guy — or anybody, for that matter — really needs a washboard stomach is another question altogether. And if not, what sort of muscular development does he need in the midriff area, and how does he go about getting it?

Fitness Tips: Strong Abs Can Do Wonders

Experts agree on the importance of strong abs because stomach muscles play crucial roles in the function of the body. For one thing, they support the spine and help during lifting by providing a countervailing force that protects the back from injury. Consequently, exercising the stomach muscles is necessary if one is to continue an active lifestyle that includes such basic motions as picking up a golf bag or a sack of groceries.

The abdominal wall, a sheath of muscles, also holds the abdominal organs in place — stomach, liver, intestines, kidneys and reproductive organs. The importance of maintaining the integrity of this sheath is obvious to anyone who suffers from a hernia, which is the penetration of that wall by soft tissue that forces its way between or through weak muscles and incapacitates the sufferer. Hernias can be caused by heavy lifting, persistent coughing, and diarrhea or constipation. The protruding tissue must be pushed back into place and the muscles sewed up or otherwise tightened to prevent a recurrence.

Finally, the abdominal muscles help in breathing, so any strengthening of them is obviously beneficial. However, here the health benefit levels off and the cosmetic one rises. For older men, it is unnecessary — as well as practically impossible — to replicate the glistening “six-packs” they see on the televised tummies of 20-something gym hounds. Those who try are deluding themselves because much of the “cut” one sees in the bodies of these models is the result of genetics, not just training and youth.

But even a 60-year-old can rack up a set of stomach muscles that will be the envy of his peers. The danger, as with any training routine, is over-use and consequent damage. Individual muscles within the various groups can be torn or otherwise injured, which is not the same thing as a hernia. The inflammation and pain may require anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, bed rest and sometimes hot or cold compresses, but not surgery.

Even if abs of steel aren’t necessary for the stomach to be strong and to perform efficiently, men still fantasize about them. Some have closet abs of steel that cannot be viewed because of an overlay of fat. Exercise alone can’t dispel this no matter how strenuous or often it is repeated because beer bellies and love handles will not succumb to muscle work alone, a fact that most men are unaware of.

You can’t spot reduce, when you burn calories, you burn them from everywhere, and not just from the area you happen to be exercising. Instead, you have to look at the way you eat. In other words, to get rid of fat, get rid of excess calories. Meanwhile work on all the muscles, and the growth and the cut will add to an overall appearance of the slimmed-down body package.

Abdominal exercise should be part of a more-involved conditioning routine that does not concentrate on target areas like arms, chest and legs. People should work on core stability, the abdominals, lower back and buttocks. Start with the foundation, just as if you were building a house, and expand into other areas.

I recommend “curl-ups” (as opposed to the more macho “crunches”). To do, lie flat on your back with knees bent and hands on your thighs. Raise your shoulders using — and concentrating upon — your stomach muscles while keeping the small of your back flat on the floor. This exercise should not be done with hands behind your head because the tendency is to pull with them, which reduces pressure on the abdominal muscles and can also injure the neck.

Even a regular routine of two sets of a few curl-ups will have a good effect on aging stomach muscles. Three sets of 35 curl-ups three times a week will produce a genuine burn and something close enough to abs of steel.

It is a good idea, while in this prone position, to also perform what is known as the pelvic tilt. Keeping your shoulders and buttocks flat on the floor, lift your pelvis and then lower it and press it against the floor. Repeat the exercise five to 10 times, and do two sets. This strengthens the muscles of the lower back, which, as we all now know, is the foundational yin to the abdominal yang.