Abs, Prizes and a Contest. Oh My!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but my abs are easily the sore spot of my bod. No, they don’t hurt me. They are the part of me that I use to judge how fit I am. I look at my stomach and what do I see? Well, I need a tan. But that is not what I am writing about today. I have some stretch marks. Not much I can do about that at the moment. Damn kids. I see some saggy skin. I think that is what happens in the process of dropping almost 50 pounds....up until about 2 months ago, it was what I didn’t see that was frustrating me. I didn’t see muscle. NOTHING. I was one big blob of jiggly blubber.

I learned about 12 years ago, how to do a proper sit up. Today, I am passing that knowledge on to you because most people waste so much energy doing them wrong.  Did you know, that you do not, I repeat, do NOT go all the way to your knees? That is the wrong way to do them. You also, don’t rock or curl your head. You don’t lock your feet under the couch. You don’t curl your chin up to your chest and you DON’T hold your breath. I know it’s a lot to think about.

It’s not that difficult to make the necessary changes. To do ab work successfully, without wasting a bunch of energy, you just need to do a few simple things.

1. Lie down on a firm floor. Use a carpet or a mat if necessary.
2. Place your feet on a chair or low table so that they are at a 90 degree angle. If there is no table or chair available, place your feet flat on the floor as close to your tush as possible.
3. Concentrate on keeping your upper back and neck in a straight line. When I started doing ab work this way, I used to imagine a string on my chin that would pull my CHIN to the ceiling. This keeps your neck straight.
4. Place your hands behind your NECK (not your head) and simply use your hands to support your neck. Not to lift your head.
5. Bring your torso up to no more than a 30 degree angle, hold for 1 second and then take your bod back to a laying position. I count in my head for three counts. 1 - up, 1 - hold, 1 - down. Wash rinse and repeat.

Now, the big question is....how many of these lovely things do I do?  If you have doing them incorrectly, this way is finally going to use your actual ab muscles. I recommend that you start slow. I do abs, three days per week. I coincide the ab work out with my TKD classes. Start your first day with 10. Adding 5 each day that you work out until you are completing 50 in one set 3 times per week. Doing more than 50 will do nothing for you other than make you sore. If you are a super woman and feel that you need more, work up to doing abs every day instead of doing multiple sets.

I have been using this technique since I began in October. It is slow going. I haven’t killed myself and as of today, I can say that I have a 2 pack. Not a 6...not even a 4. But I can definitely see those ab muscles now when I stand in front of a mirror.

Which brings me to the next contest. You recall that beautiful gift certificate that we tried to give away a few weeks ago. Well, I still have it. And it’s taking up valuable space on my desk. So here is what I am going to do. Most of our readers here, have a blog of their own. MOST of you have your very own fitness blogs where you are keeping track of your work outs and your progress. I want you to take a photo of your abs. This will constitute your BEFORE shot for your brand spanking new ab work out that you just read about.  Post this photo on your blog and link it back here to this post, so people know what in the hell you are doing. And then let us know.

I know that some of you are rolling your eyes already. The thought of baring your midriff is daunting. Think of it as your belly send off though. You want to record this before belly so that you don’t get it back once it’s gone right? Post the darn photo. It will give you incentive and make you happy one those belly’s are gone. Once you post, your name will go into my OWW hat for a drawing to win that fabulous gift certificate for Ebay.  Deadline for entries is February 28 at midnight. I will draw the winning name on Friday February 29th.

NOW, I need to award the Skinny Bitch books. We had two people that expressed an interest in my offer. So those two lucky ladies will be receiving their very own copy of the book that changed my life. Congrats to Blus-Zoo and Happy!!! Now ladies, please email me with your shipping info so I can get your books off to you. Shelahd at gmail dot com.

Happy Tuesday everyone. Ciao.

Great post Queenie. I hope you don’t mind me pointing this out but: there are sit ups and there are crunches and they are different exercises.They are performed differently and they accomplish different things. You have given a good overview of how to do crunches properly, which is probably the exercise that most people want to do. If you want the six-pack though, you’ll probably need to add some additional ab exercises to work the entire abdominal area. Just my 2 cents.

Oh, and post a photo of my abs? Are you insane? No one wants to see that! Ack...Okay, I’ll think about it and try to work up the nerve to do it…

Talk about motivation!

I can post a pic of my tummy but you won’t be seeing muscle anytime soon. There’s WAY too much flab covering that area at the moment. I’ve always heard that to truly see a 6 pack pop, you have to be in single digit body fat percentages. And frankly, that’s not one of my goals right now. Right now I’m concentrating on a healthy body fat percentage!  That being said, there will definitely be improvements. Just maybe not...definition. Yet.

You asked for it. I’ll post a tummy pic when I get home tonight.

Ladies, I am so proud of both of you. I know posting photos of yourself when you aren’t feeling great about who you are is no fun. I just spent the past 45 minutes digging around on my computer, my server and my external hard drive for my before shots.

I realize that you need a more well rounded ab work out to truly get a 6 pack HOWEVER, this was a great starting point, at least for me. FULL sit ups are not good for your abs...they work more back muscles than ab muscles. Perhaps I should have stated that.

I also realize that I couldn’t very well ask that you all post your photos without being willing to do it myself. So...here ya go: Click here if you are ready

Thanks for the tip Shelah - I’ve been doing a lot of sit ups lately and do them similary, but not quite so I’ll give your method a shot.  Now as for the contest… as much as I’d want to win that gift card I just don’t know if I could post my jiggle for all the world to see.  I was going to once… and then completely chickened out.

...how about a reasonably life-like hand drawn facimile instead?

If I can put mine up...you can put yours up. Come on girlie. Be brave.

You want a picture of my flab?  Are you looking to go blind from my paleness?
I’ll do it but I have a question.
Do I have to let the tummy go too or can I still use my good posture and have it some what tucked in?

Okay. I did it.

And if I can do it, so can ALL of you. Trust me. Go see if you dare.

http://indygirl06.blogspot.com/2008/02/combination-post-warning-viewing-of.html

I win I win, yaaaaay!  How exciting!

The picture thing ... I don’t have any before shots because there was no way I’d bare my abs 15 or 30 lbs ago.  Now I’m aaaalllmost an after.  I’m sure I can get things a bit firmer, but there aren’t going to be dramatic changes at this point.  I’m disqualifying myself as a result.

That is definitely a great post.  I am now being cleared to start working on more then just walking.  So this came at a great time.

Anyway, don’t be too frightened, but I posted my pics up on my blog.

http://www.wakela.com/2008/02/19/warning-may-cause-brain-damage/

I cannot bring myself to take a picture of my gut. No way, unh huh… too scary.

Pre-baby, I was doing 100 sit ups a day. My favorite place to do them was at a park that has 2 wooden beams a few inches apart and different heights. You sit on the high beam, hoot your feet under the low beam, lean back and do your sit ups. I liked doing them that way since it never hurt my back or neck.  But, for doing them at home, I will try your way.

I also have an old Ab Roller thing. Once I get the hang of it, it works pretty good, too. It’s just big and awkward.

I’m proud of all you girls that bared your abs. can’t wait to see all your progress. I have a really bad pic taken when I was sick the first of Dec. ,but no blog to put it on just trust me when I say I look awful,my jeans are getting baggier everyday so down the road I’ll have that special pic to be proud of just like the rest of you.

Posted last night, but forgot to post the link here:

http://javachicksblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/reasons-to-lose-weight-6.html