At 3/4/07 03:30 AM, Musician wrote: I'd rather avoid pushups since I have equipment.

Take whatever your max is. Then minus about 30 pounds from that. Do 10 reps. then for next set 2 min after that do 10 pounds more for 8 reps then next 2 min 10 pounds more than that for 4 reps. Do that every other day to become built.

Blah, still about 5lbs away from getting some nice abs. they're toned but covered by a now tiny layer of flab.

Anyway, I really need to get back to deadlifting. I've been working on wide-grips and such for a hwile now, and its done little for tone, so I figure going back to my roots is best.

I've eased into a less-strict diet as I get close to the finish line. I now allow myself to have 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter daily (16g fat, of which 2g is saturated), as well as a jam sandwich or two per day (2 slices of whole-wheat low-cal bread, 1tbsp of Sugar-Free Smucker's Strawberry Preserves, 1tbsp of Sugar-Free Smucker's Concord Grape Jam), and more dry cereal (1-3 cups Cheerios/Toasted Oats/Total per day). I still keep my calories under 2000 a day though, even when I exercise. It's just a habitual thing, and it doesn't seem to be doing any harm, though I think one day I should try carb cycling and just do a carb-heavy, 2,500 calorie day, because I've heard it can help fat-burning and boost metabolism. However, the issue is that I don't know if I can come down from it once I go up there.

In other news, I've been toying with recipes lately (I'm a big fan of cooking & baking, and you know what they say, a great physique starts in the kitchen), and found a recipe for brownies with only 10g carbs, 0.3g fat, and 50-60 calories per brownie. I plan to treat this as my rare, comfort food treat (Generally I stick with low-cal Jell-O or low-cal Cherry/Orange/Grape Zoomer Pops). They're delicious too.

OK, so i barely eat and when ido its only fast food. I need some sort of drink that could make me gain some more weight before i start working out cause i'm pretty skinny. anyone know any good shakes for me to drink or something to help me out?

yes milk and whey protein are the WAY TO GO! Even Ensure protein shakes worked wonders on me maybe for you as well...

Do NOT ever use creatine to gain weight!!!

I dont see why gaining weight is a problem. i could gain 50 pounds in 2 months if i wanted to.

Hey guys, just thought I'd say that I'm a qualified gym instructor soon to be personal trainer and I'd be more than happy to drop in every now and then to help people out. If people wish for me to do so I could also write programs for them for weights and/or cardio.

I had a read of this thread just before and to be honest I was horrified at the amount of crap thats floating around in it.

For a start I should tell you Buddhist that you should stop doing wide grip military presses. First of all it sounds as if you're not able to lift nearly as much as you normally do which in it's own should be a reason to stop doing an exersize. Also, that pain you're feeling in your shoulders is you straining your rotator cuff muscles which are a group of muscles in your shoulder which hold the head of your humerous - the bone in your upper arm - in place.

Contrary to popular belief the normal grip military press works the same muscles as the wide grip military press and it works them just as well. It is also much, much better for your shoulders.

I also saw something about toning and working out in different ways to shape your muscle but I can tell you that thats all crap.
I know a lot of people say you can tone the muscle by doing high reps at low weight. Now if you knew anything about muscle physiology you's be laughing right about now.
To be honest I have no idea how doing high reps a low weight could do anything other than build lactate in your muscles some people, however mistake the burning sensation caused by the buildup of lactate to be 'exploding fat cells' or 'splitting muscle fibres' however, neither of these are the case.
'Toning' is not only a waste of time it also unnececarily reduces your training capacity dur to the lactate build up.
The only way to 'tone' your muscles is to do some cardio and work off the subcutaneous body fat on top of the muscle

As for shaping your muscles their shape is determined by genetics and whilst you're welcome to try and change their shape by working out in different ways I can tell you now that you will fail. As you age, however, your muscles will change shape slightly and become much more defined. I'm not quite sure what causes this but I presume it's got something to do with the rapid atrophy - degeneration - of skeletal muscle once you pass about 25 years of age.

I don't pretend to know everything about the fitness industry and I'm more than willing to admit that there are some areas such as nutrition that I know very little about. but If anyone wants a fitness program written up for them or wants a rumour they've heard in the gym cleared up I'd be more than happy to help.

Just a note to those guys that are a bit unsure in the gym.
I've found that the best way to get a full body workout is to use the push, pull, leg formula. Using this formula it is possible to get a full body workout from only 3 exercises.
The formula is scientifically proven to work and it involves doing 1 push exercise eg bench press, 1 pull exercise eg lat pulldown and 1 leg exercise eg squats.
Following this formula you can work every skeletal muscle in your body - if you don't believe me you can throw a few muscles at me and I'll name a push, pull or leg exercise that works that muscle as well of a breif description of how it does so - doing only 3 exercises giving you a full body workout in 30 mins or less. If you factor super compensation in as well you can get massive strength gains going to the gym once, max twice per week for 30 mins.
I know that sounds like crap but if you were to look at it from a scientific and biological point of view you could start to understand the logic behind it. When I was first told about it - by my personal training instructor, not just some random bum at the gym - i though it was a load of crap . Thankfully he convinced me to give it a go and I found out that it really does work.

Buddist how much protein are you getting? You may not be losing the weight you want because of excess carbs or fat. If you are doing all the weight lifting you say you are extra protein in your diet is a must if you want to see even greater results. Remember muscle burns calories at a much greater rate then fat. So gaining lean muscle is a great way to shed those unwanted flabby areas.

Hey metalstorm i got a question for you. Is pain weakness leaving the body?

At 3/14/07 07:43 AM, VirginLungs wrote: Buddist how much protein are you getting? You may not be losing the weight you want because of excess carbs or fat. If you are doing all the weight lifting you say you are extra protein in your diet is a must if you want to see even greater results. Remember muscle burns calories at a much greater rate then fat. So gaining lean muscle is a great way to shed those unwanted flabby areas.

Indeed, I don't take in much fat (~25-30g a day, 35 tops, & generally 1/2 of the fat grams comes from the daily 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter), so it's likely the carbs. Lately I've gone back up in carbs, so I need to get back on the protein. I've been munchin' on too many Cheerios, I s'pose. I guess I'll go back to the mealplan of 2 buffalo steaks at dinner, 1-2 chicken breasts at lunch, and 1 chicken breast at night. That's roughly 120-140g of protein, plus like 8g from the daily glass of milk, so we're nearin' 130-150g of protein then. Think that's enough, or should I add in some egg whites?

What's a good amount of carbs I should take in? ~200, ~100, whereabouts?

At 3/14/07 08:54 PM, MARINE wrote: Hey metalstorm i got a question for you. Is pain weakness leaving the body?

I've never actually been asked that before but I'll do my best to answer is as best I can. Being a serious athlete myself I'd say that training to the point of pain is no achievement, anyone can do that. To get to the stage where youre really hurting and your body it telling you it's had enough but you contunue to push through the pain barrier because you want to get that little bit extra out of your workout, thats when I believe that the weakness is leaving your body so to say.
It also depends on the type, intensity and region of the pain. for example if you're doing a deadlift and you can feel a sharp pain in your lower back then it would be stupid to push through that pain because the pain is a result of incorrect techniquie as you should not be using your back at all to lift the weight in a deadlift.

At 3/14/07 10:50 PM, Buddhist wrote:

At 3/14/07 07:43 AM, VirginLungs wrote: Buddist how much protein are you getting? You may not be losing the weight you want because of excess carbs or fat. If you are doing all the weight lifting you say you are extra protein in your diet is a must if you want to see even greater results. Remember muscle burns calories at a much greater rate then fat. So gaining lean muscle is a great way to shed those unwanted flabby areas.

Indeed, I don't take in much fat (~25-30g a day, 35 tops, & generally 1/2 of the fat grams comes from the daily 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter), so it's likely the carbs. Lately I've gone back up in carbs, so I need to get back on the protein. I've been munchin' on too many Cheerios, I s'pose. I guess I'll go back to the mealplan of 2 buffalo steaks at dinner, 1-2 chicken breasts at lunch, and 1 chicken breast at night. That's roughly 120-140g of protein, plus like 8g from the daily glass of milk, so we're nearin' 130-150g of protein then. Think that's enough, or should I add in some egg whites?

What's a good amount of carbs I should take in? ~200, ~100, whereabouts?

Ya thats good but are you eating spuds and whatnot with those protein-rich dinners? I'd say get the protein shakes into you man. They have about 25g of protein with about 5g of carbs.. Absolutely perfect if you wanna gain muscle and lose fat.' Cos if your cooking all your protein source foods your still getting some unwanted cards/fat y'know?

Yo VL... you know that weight regime thing you wrote for that guy ages ago?
Reckon you'd be able to write up a similar thing for me. A sorta of three times a week thingy. Cept that utilises a barbell (one of those curvy ones for bi-ceps- dunno the technical name) instead of dumbbells, and a bench...?

At 3/15/07 07:58 PM, VirginLungs wrote: Ya thats good but are you eating spuds and whatnot with those protein-rich dinners?

Nah, usually just a salad with either low-cal, low-carb, fat-free ranch dressing, or vinegar with seasoning salt. I don't think I've had potatoes since like...December, possibly earlier. They kinda lost their taste anyway. For the most part, the carbs were coming from my cereal, which I ate 2 cups of in the morning, and usually 1-2 cups later in the day. Cutting out all but 1 or two cups of that, and replacing Cheerios with whole-grain Total (less fat, less carbs, lower in calories) also helps, especially when I don't have time for eggs or oatmeal, which tends to be a lot more than I would like it to be.

I'd say get the protein shakes into you man. They have about 25g of protein with about 5g of carbs.. Absolutely perfect if you wanna gain muscle and lose fat.'

Yeah, I have the whey powder but I always forget to drink some. I guess I'm gonna have to keep it out to remind myself better. I usually go with fat-free milk though, rather than water. It has more of a milkshake-like thickness to it, so it goes down smoother, yknow?

Cos if your cooking all your protein source foods your still getting some unwanted cards/fat y'know?

True. I tend to pick the least fatty meats, but buffalo has the most fat of any meat I eat (boneless, skinless chicken breast has 1g fat per breast, buffalo has 2.5g fat per medallion steak). To be honest, I don't know how I veered off the track in the first place. I went back to a high-protein mealplan today and I'm a lot more filled up, on a lot less calories.

At 3/15/07 08:10 PM, Nev wrote: Cept that utilises a barbell (one of those curvy ones for bi-ceps- dunno the technical name) instead of dumbbells, and a bench...?

You mean the bar that's used for preacher curls, like this one?

http://www.johnberardi.com/images/mechadv/tri _ext_chin.jpg

At 3/13/07 09:10 AM, metalstorm wrote: Just a note to those guys that are a bit unsure in the gym.
I've found that the best way to get a full body workout is to use the push, pull, leg formula. Using this formula it is possible to get a full body workout from only 3 exercises.
The formula is scientifically proven to work and it involves doing 1 push exercise eg bench press, 1 pull exercise eg lat pulldown and 1 leg exercise eg squats.
Following this formula you can work every skeletal muscle in your body - if you don't believe me you can throw a few muscles at me and I'll name a push, pull or leg exercise that works that muscle as well of a breif description of how it does so - doing only 3 exercises giving you a full body workout in 30 mins or less. If you factor super compensation in as well you can get massive strength gains going to the gym once, max twice per week for 30 mins.
I know that sounds like crap but if you were to look at it from a scientific and biological point of view you could start to understand the logic behind it. When I was first told about it - by my personal training instructor, not just some random bum at the gym - i though it was a load of crap . Thankfully he convinced me to give it a go and I found out that it really does work.

Explain this "crap" to me, how many sets are you doing for these 3 exercises?

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/5x5_Pro gram/Linear_5x5.htm
is it like this?

day1
Squat 5x5
Bench 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5

day2
Squat 4x5
Incline or Military 4x5
Deadlift 4x5

day3
Squat 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Bench 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Barbell Row 4x5, 1x3, 1x8

If this is what your talking about then it should take longer than 30 minutes unless your intensity is really crappy in which case your probably undertraining.

At 3/15/07 08:32 PM, Buddhist wrote: You mean the bar that's used for preacher curls, like this one?
http://www.johnberardi.com/images/mechadv/tri _ext_chin.jpg

Shizzle.

Or 'yes'.

At 3/16/07 10:22 AM, Sacked wrote: Explain this "crap" to me, how many sets are you doing for these 3 exercises?

Well when I was first taught about it I pretty much refused to believe that you could get muscle growth from going to the gym 1 to 2 times per week for only about 30 minutes. I always though that if you wanted to get big you need to go to the gym every day and work every muscle individually with maximal lifts because thats what bodybuilders do. Whilst there is a lot of truth in this, most people would see very minimal, if any, results from this kind of training because they dnt have access to steriods and all the other suplements that bodybulders use to help their bodies recover at superhuman rates.

With this program you only need to wourk out no more than 2 times per week is because it allows for supercompensation.
Anyone whose had a heavy workout at the gym would have surely had doms - delayed onset muscle soreness - before. Most people will usually just wait until this soreness has gone away before they go back to the gym. Doing this gives the muscle time to recover but does not provide ample time for the muscle to adapt. Supercompensation theory states that you should wait another 2 days before returning to the gym. This is because weight training is seen as a catabolic process ie it depletes your muscles of all the 'good stuff' such as glycogen, amino acids, creatine etc. The extended period of rest allows your muscles to replenish all these nutrients plus some. The result should be that the muscles will store more nutrients than they originally had, and thus will be bigger and stronger. You should be able to lift about 5kg more than normal if you supercompensate hence allowing you to get much more out of your workout.

I also had some trouble with the whole 'being able to work almost every muscle in the body in three exercises' thing. but this does actually manage to work all the skeletal muscles of your chest, arms, back and legs. seeing as I really can't be bothered analysing every single push, pull and leg exercise you're just going to have to trust me on this one.

I will usually do 2 sets of 4-6 reps when I do this.

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/5x5_Pro gram/Linear_5x5.htm
is it like this?

day1
Squat 5x5
Bench 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5

day2
Squat 4x5
Incline or Military 4x5
Deadlift 4x5

day3
Squat 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Bench 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Barbell Row 4x5, 1x3, 1x8

If this is what your talking about then it should take longer than 30 minutes unless your intensity is really crappy in which case your probably undertraining.

That program does use the push, pull leg formula but the guy who made the program obviously has a lot more expreience with making programs than I do. At the moment all I have is a certificate 3 in fitness. It seems to be a very good program but the only problem I have with it is the potential of overtraining dur to it having you down at the gym 3 times per week and working the same muscle groups all three times. The one major benefit of this program however is that it strongly encourages improvement which is something that the majority of programs lack.
Most of the programs I'm making at the moment are targeted at beginner an intermediate gym-goers so they're much more simple. I also realise that beginner and intermidiate gym-goers dont want to have to go to the week 3-4 times a week for 2 hours each in order to see results and if I gave them a program like that they would just drop it and stop going to the gym because it was taking up too much of their time.
As a result, most of my programs will consist of one push, one pull and one leg exercise and maybe 1 or 2 suplementary exercises as well. As far as sets and reps go theres quite a few variables there but for a standard intermediate gym goer who wanted to gain muscle mass i'd give him 2 sets of 8-12 reps for each exercise.

At 3/16/07 10:22 AM, Sacked wrote:

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/5x5_Pro gram/Linear_5x5.htm
is it like this?

day1
Squat 5x5
Bench 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5

day2
Squat 4x5
Incline or Military 4x5
Deadlift 4x5

day3
Squat 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Bench 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Barbell Row 4x5, 1x3, 1x8

That's a ridiculous workout. I mean 80% of it is just bench pressing, barbell rows and squats! Overtraining anyone? You should give body parts about three days before resting them so as to let your muscle fibers rest and regrow bigger and stronger. Also it doesn't really target your abs, arms, calves or back. Alright doing a barbell row may work your arms to some degree - but not that much that will produce significant gains.

At 3/20/07 05:42 AM, VirginLungs wrote:

At 3/16/07 10:22 AM, Sacked wrote:

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/5x5_Pro gram/Linear_5x5.htm
is it like this?

day1
Squat 5x5
Bench 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5

day2
Squat 4x5
Incline or Military 4x5
Deadlift 4x5

day3
Squat 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Bench 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Barbell Row 4x5, 1x3, 1x8

That's a ridiculous workout. I mean 80% of it is just bench pressing, barbell rows and squats! Overtraining anyone?

You've got to remember that this is obviously a workout for fairly advanced weight training and possibly even bodybuilding although a bodybuilder would also add in all sorts of isolation exercises. If you were on this program you would obviously have to be taking supplenents such as creatine or even steriods or you would undoubtedly overtrain, plateau and possibly even lose some strength.

You should give body parts about three days before resting them so as to let your muscle fibers rest and regrow bigger and stronger.

Can't argue with that. I'll usually go back to the gym 2 days after the muscle soreness has subsided as this allows the muscles to recover AND adapt.

Also it doesn't really target your abs, arms, calves or back. Alright doing a barbell row may work your arms to some degree - but not that much that will produce significant gains.

In this one I disagree with you on all counts.

The barbell squat is arguably the single best core exercise you can do. If you have correct technique and know how to properly brace your core it will work your rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis and internal and external obliques far better than any variation of any specific core exercise will ever be able to. Your core muscles serve only one purpuse and that is to suppost and provide stabilty when you are upright. Why then would you lie down to work them? It just doesn't make sence.
The squat also works your calves although unless you are able to squat several hundred kilos it is unlikley you will see any noticable muscle growth on them. If you weighed 60 kilos just goin for a walk exerts 2-3 times your bodyweight with every step and your calves deal with that easily. Take that up for a run and your calves have to deal with 5-6 times your bodyweight. Taking into account the fact that the only way to build muscle mass is to 'shock' your muscles this would mean that someone who weighed 60kg's would need to be doing calf raises with more than 360kg's. I don't know about you but my max is about 200. If I were you I'd give up on trying to work your calves. Even Ronnie Coleman has hardly increased the muscle mass of his calves.

Bench press works your pecs and your triceps.
Barbell row works your biceps, delts (shoulders) and your traps (back). It can also work you lats depending on what variation you do.

I've recently been working out again, and I know hot to do regular sit ups. But could someone direct me to a sit up that focuses mainly on my lowers abs? And maybe a work out that'd get rid of minor love-handles. Please :)

At 3/20/07 11:07 PM, Vegeton wrote: I've recently been working out again, and I know hot to do regular sit ups. But could someone direct me to a sit up that focuses mainly on my lowers abs? And maybe a work out that'd get rid of minor love-handles. Please :)

Contrary to popular belief there is no such thing as upper and lower abs. If you look at where the muscle attatches to the bone this will become more obvious. It is also not possible to activate a certain part of a muscle whilst leaving other parts of the muscle dormant. This is the 'all or none' theory ans it pertty much just states that if a muscle is activared then 100% of that muscle will be activated 100% of the time.

Personally I'm not a big fan of situps because they are an isolation exercise and they only work your rectus abdominis whilst neglecting your transverse abdominis and your obliques.

I also don't like situps because to me they just don't make sence. The purpose of your abs is to provide core stability. When you're lying down your abs can switch off and go to sleep because core stability is not needed when you are lying down as your centre of gravity is so low. So why then would lie down to work out your abs? To me that makes about as much sence as lying down to perform a bodyweight squat.

It also takes most people quite a while to start feeling the burn when they are doing situps. i know that when I do them it takes 30-40 situps before I start to feel anything. Because it takes so long to complete that many situps you actually move out of the phosphate energy system - the energy system in which all weight training should be done - and into the lactate energy system hence the majority - if not all - of the burn you feel wil be the result of lactate acumulating in your muscles and not microscopic muscle tears. Pretty much all lactate training does is wear out your joints, It may also increase the muscles tolerance to lactate if you perform the exercises regularaly. If all you do is lactate training I can tell you that you may see some minimal increases in strength for the first few weeks if you have never worked that muscle out before, - due to neurological adaptations to the increased weight/stress on the muscle - but you won't see any muscle growth occuring.

I find that the best way to work your abs is to first brace your core as this activates your transverse and rectus abdominis as well as your internal and external obliques. Once you have done this then you should do an exercise which requires you to stabalise yourself such as a chinup, dip or a squat which is arguably the best core exercise you can do.

There are two methods for bracing your core and they both work just as well as each other.
With the first one you just need to cough and just hold your abs in that position.
The second requies you to draw - not suck - your bellybutton in towards your spine and then to tense your abs.
If you brace your core correctly you should still be able to breath and talk normally.

If you want to get rid of your lovehandles the best advice I can give you is to do regular cardio. This will also help you get rid of any fat on your abs and give you some definition. You don't need to have particularily 'big' abs at all to have a 6-pack, you just need to have low bodyfat.

^It's a shame that even with regular cardio I can't get my BF% low enough to have good ab definition. I can feel them, I know they're there, and they have minimal tone, more when I flex them, but still, I have a couple pounds of excess flab on my stomach that's been itching to be rid of.

Think I should be eating more? I don't eat much usually, it's almost always under 2000 calories, so yeah.

i dont have weight or nething like that so what should i do..

Why is it that everyone here is so hellbent on counting their calorie intake? It's really not necessary to do so. As long as you eat at least 3-5 meals per day at regulat intervals and do some cardio at least 2-3 times per week - frequency and intensity will obviously vary depending on the results you want to see.
I've been doing this for the past 6-8 months now and I've got my bodyfat down to just below 8.1%.
Note: This was from a skinfold test administered by a personal trainer and not just some random internet test.

At 3/23/07 08:30 AM, Trypper wrote: So, since you seem to know your shit, what is your heigh, weight, and lifting stats? I need some comparison around here. :P

You'd be lifting a lot more than I am. Im about 175cm and 64kg. I don't actually do that much lifting - rarely more than 1 session per week - because I focus much more on cardio and trying to get my 5 and 10k times as low as posible but just for comparison sake I usually bench about 50-55kg. Dunno what my 1 rep max is but I know that 3 years ago my 3 rep max was 65.

At 3/22/07 11:08 PM, Trypper wrote: Eat alot of nutritious foods, more than 2000 cal. of course.

Yeah, I get an assload of protein with under 2000 calories (sometimes as much as 200g, though I try to stay lower, maybe a max of like 175 because i've been told it's bad for my kidneys to overload on protein), so really the only things that would end up being added would likely be more fats (i.e., my all-time favorite, peanut butter), more dairy (in the form of skim milk or in yogurt), or more meat (either buffalo or chicken). I usually don't touch carbs other than in the morning, so yeah. I guess I could push it up to like, a max of 2200 or something? I dunno, my issue is that if I spike in calories to try and raise my metabolism back up, I fear I'll end up increasing calories more & more whilst keeping the same weights & running routines, would could be an issue. Any thoughts on that really? It's really my only fear that keeps me from barging over 2000 kcal, because I know I don't take in enough fats or carbs to really gain any fat weight.

Are you doing any heavy compounds? They will help with core developement aswell burn fat when intensity increases, I know I was sweating my ass off doing deads earlier. Just do high intensity training once or twice a week, I'm sure the fat will be shredded off. Just don't neglect lifting.

Ye, I do my deadlifts, benches, and some squats, though I really suck so much more at squats than at calf lifts, dunno why, but I gotta work on it I suppose. Generally I do running for 30-60 minutes 2-4 times a week (down from daily 60 minutes, became too time-consuming for now). Any aerobic exercise(s) you would say I should do to really burn the remaining fat & feed the muscle, Trypper?

I think my deadlift max has fallen as my weight has fallen, but it's still ~200lbs, and still my favorite exercise. However, my benching has far and away been my worst loss. At 160lbs, I had a lot more body fat, but I could also press a max of like 130lbs, if not more. Now, at 148lbs, I generally struggle with regular benching that's over 100lbs (incline presses are a different story). I usually have to go with like 70-80lbs, which kills me because I know it's my chest that's been lacking, because I can do cleans & jerks with much heavier weights without any real issues. It makes me feel so puny. :\

BTW, I've been trying out an old boxer's technique to strengthen your abs and overall core, which they use to help them take punches to the gut. It's called plate drops, I dunno if any of you have done it before. What you do is you take a 10lb weight, tighten your abs, & drop the weight onto your abs from 3" above you. Once you get that down, you move it up to 6", then 9", etc., until you can drop it from your fully-extended arm and take it without any issues. At that point, you move up to a 25lb plate and go back down to a 3" drop and work your way back up. The objective of the exercise is to eventually be able to do a full-on, fully-arm-extended drop of a 45lb weight plate onto your abs. I've been working on it and it's been going pretty well, no real hurting or anything. Plus, now when I tighten my abs, they feel more and more like a freakin' brick wall. It's awesome. :D

Hey I'm tryna lose a bit of fat off my pecs and abs so they start to show, I already have alright developed muscles there but need to burn a bit of skin fat in particular around my lowers abs. Got any suggestions and whats a quick day to day ab excercise I can do for like 5 minutes a day. Cheers.

At 3/26/07 02:09 AM, Jesse-Ray wrote: Hey I'm tryna lose a bit of fat off my pecs and abs so they start to show, I already have alright developed muscles there but need to burn a bit of skin fat in particular around my lowers abs.

The only way to get rid of fat is to work it off. Doing specific exercises will not just burn fat from that area as a lot of people seem to think it will. I'll pretty much always suggest running to someone wanting to lose excess fat but almost any exercise that gets your heart pumping will suffice.
It may be a while before you see any noticable results- because you lose fat from the extremities of your body first - but when you do see the reults you'll be glad you went to the effort.

Got any suggestions and whats a quick day to day ab excercise I can do for like 5 minutes a day. Cheers.

Just a few posts up on this page I made quite a comprehensive post on ab workouts.
The best exercises for your abs are anything that requires you to stabilise yourself. Some of the best ecercises for your abs are squats, chinups and dips.
Squats are widely regarded to be the best exercise for your abs but most of my clients would tell you that they feel their abs working much more when they do chinups. Most actually say they feel their abs burning before their biceps. I actually seem to see the best gains on my abs when I do dips so the best thing for you to do would be to just play around and see what works for you.
Gym balls are awesome too. I got one about 6 months ago and now whenever I watch TV I'll just balance on that instead of sitting on the couch. Initially I could hardly even balance just sitting on it and now 6 months later I kneel on it with 5kg weights in each hand. If you don't already have a gym ball you can get a cheap one for like $20 and they're well worth the money.

What about laying on the floor feet together and holding your heels a few inches of the floor?

I really feel it tensing my gut but is it any good and is it gonna target the muscles I want? and are there any cardio excercises I can do inside every now and then if it rains or its late etc?

At 3/26/07 10:14 AM, Jesse-Ray wrote: What about laying on the floor feet together and holding your heels a few inches of the floor?

I really feel it tensing my gut but is it any good and is it gonna target the muscles I want?

That exercise will only target your rectus abdominis which is one of the muscles you want to target. As I've stated earlier the best ab exercises are ones that require you to stabilise your body as they work your rectus abdominis, transveres abdominis and your internal and external obliques. You will also be able to get a much better 6 pack if you're working all of these muscles.
Every single sit-up type exercise that I can think of is an isolation exercise that only works 1 or at best 2 of these muscles. In most cases isolation exercises should be avoided as much as possible as it can lead to muscular imbalances which can in turn lead to injury. This often happens with footy players. They'll do heaps of work on their quads to increase their power and speed but neglect their hamstrings. Because the hamstring is no where near as strong it will struggle to deal with the added demands placed on it by the quads and this can often result in a hamstring tear.

and are there any cardio excercises I can do inside every now and then if it rains or its late etc?

The only one I can think of it skipping. I'll do it occasionally when I feel like cross-training and I must say that it works wonders for your fitness.