Is this a good workout plan?

Also, when you start off building muscles, you should definitely wait a day or two in-between for the tears to heal.

Stretching helps too.

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Thanks mezzie Wink

. I am finding that even with light weights, the miltary press is doing wonders for my mid-back and arms (better than flys). I'll keep it up.

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The muscle you're talking about is not actually an "ab" muscle per se. It's the iliopsoas muscle, which is a small muscle group that connects the thigh bone to the hip, and also to the spine. It's one of the "hip flexor" muscles which is worked strongly by hanging leg raises. Many people consider those "lower" abs, though their function is distinct.

The way most people do sit-ups works the hip flexors, so it's odd that even doing incline situps doesn't work those. Usually the action of hooking your feet under a support helps engage the hip flexors. You must have an uncanny ability to isolate the abs and take the hip flexors totally out of play. Leg lifts would be a good alternative.

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mezzie wrote:

The muscle you're talking about is not actually an "ab" muscle per se. It's the iliopsoas muscle, which is a small muscle group that connects the thigh bone to the hip, and also to the spine. It's one of the "hip flexor" muscles which is worked strongly by hanging leg raises. Many people consider those "lower" abs, though their function is distinct.

The way most people do sit-ups works the hip flexors, so it's odd that even doing incline situps doesn't work those. Usually the action of hooking your feet under a support helps engage the hip flexors. You must have an uncanny ability to isolate the abs and take the hip flexors totally out of play. Leg lifts would be a good alternative.

Here's why I'm so certain of the ineffectiveness of sit-ups for the lower abdominal area - at least for me. About....hmmm......28 years ago I'd guess, I went to the college gym about 5 or 6 days a week and got very good at doing inclined sit-ups. eventually I worked up to a very steep incline. Once I got to this point, I found that I could then do any number of non-inclined sit-ups, limited only by boredom. I developed tapes of favorite music so that I could spend something like 90 minutes doing sit-ups (continuously). I wanted to see if I would ever fatigue, and, if not, what would happen. I was never able to go long enough to need to stop. Of course, I was in my early 20s, and at that age, people are pretty strong. I can't remember how many I calculated I was doing, but I do remember that the number was over a thousand. These sit-ups, by the way were done with my toes hooked under a very low lying coffee table, and my knees bent. This went on for a year or two. With all of this, that lower abdominal area was just as out of shape as ever. And it's a very important spot on the body for looking good too. It has a tendency to bulge out when not in shape. As I mentioned, a very modest program of leg-lifts, which I have continued to this day, is more than sufficient to keep that area in pretty good shape. I am happy to find another member who knows so much about exercise, because exercise and nutrition have been my hobbies for most of my life, but I rarely get a chance to discuss either.

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I'm glad you shared your experience about situps. That's a VERY common result of doing resistance training without increasing the resistance. Imagine instead of increasing the number of repetitions infinitely that you simply held a 5-pound plate across your chest for a week or 2, then gradually added more and more weight, keeping the number of repetitions the same.

I can see what likely happened in your case. Your abs were sufficiently developed such that they completely took your hip flexor muscles out of the picture when doing situps. Adding reps didn't help because the muscles didn't get fatigued.

If you had increased the resistance over time, it is likely that you would have needed to use your hip flexors more, and wouldn't have to have added a 2nd exercise. Furthermore, you would have shortened the overall ab exercise time, and not gotten so bored of situps! Smile

Personally, I do about 5-10 minutes of ab exercises twice a week. I do 3 sets of 10 reps of incline situps, with 30 pounds on my chest. I also sometimes do crunches with 55 pounds on my chest, and occasionally hanging leg raises, with a 30-pound dumbell held between my ankles.

Along with heavy squats and deadlifts, my ab region is adequately stimulated.

A general point: if your goals are to increase strength/muscle mass, and you are able to easily complete 12 controlled, slowish repetitions of a particular exercise, then you should add resistance the next time you do that exercise. Doing 20, 50, or 1000 repetitions will not help your strength or muscle mass; it will help muscular endurance. Note, it will NOT help "tone" muscles, which is (to state this again) simply the lack of fat surrounding your muscles, enabling them to be seen. Getting rid of fat is part diet, part burning calories through cardio-vascular exercise, and part building muscle to increase your body's fat-burning efficiency.

One final point: to anyone who avoids resistance training because they are worried about developing freakishly large muscles, don't worry! You WILL NOT develop such muscles unless you are a genetic freak. Resistance training is a marvellously efficient way to stay in shape, to slow the aging process, and to keep bones and muscles healthy. Combined with heart-friendly cardio exercise and a sensible diet, and you'll look and feel better than ever. Cardio by itself is good, but doesn't have any of the muscle/bone/aging benefits of resistance training.

Sorry for the ramble!

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cav,

glad to hear the military press has been a good one for you!

Flys, if you're talking about regular dumbell flys, are good for isolating the pectorals, and that's about it. Furthermore, unless you actually "have" pecs, then they are all but useless for building muscle mass. For a beginner, pushups are the way to go, and when those get too easy, parallel bar dips or bench press are great. Flys can absolutely wreck your shoulders, especially the rotator cuff area! Be careful Smile

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mezzie wrote:

I'm glad you shared your experience about situps. That's a VERY common result of doing resistance training without increasing the resistance. Imagine instead of increasing the number of repetitions infinitely that you simply held a 5-pound plate across your chest for a week or 2, then gradually added more and more weight, keeping the number of repetitions the same.

Well, actually I think I did use progressive resistance, since the way I got into that condition to begin with was by doing the sit-ups on an increasing incline. But neither doing them on an incline or without one seemed to have a discernable effect on the lower area, whereas leg lifts did immediately.

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mezzie wrote:

cav,

glad to hear the military press has been a good one for you!

Flys, if you're talking about regular dumbell flys, are good for isolating the pectorals, and that's about it. Furthermore, unless you actually "have" pecs, then they are all but useless for building muscle mass. For a beginner, pushups are the way to go, and when those get too easy, parallel bar dips or bench press are great. Flys can absolutely wreck your shoulders, especially the rotator cuff area! Be careful

I know this now from experience. They do nothing for my mid back, arms or shoulders. Smile

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I see what you're saying, Brandon. Reading your original post about the situp "marathons", I thought you were talking specifically about flat situps.

It is odd that even steep incline situps did nothing for your hip flexors, but as I said earlier, maybe your abs were so strong that the hip flexors didn't need to ever come into play!

I still think adding weight to the incline situps once they got easy would have been a useful thing to try, but who am I to argue with succes? Smile

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I found this list by accident...I thought this workout plan was more to kicky's liking:

Scientific Reasons to Have Sex
(burning calories...it beats the heck out of jogging)

Sex is one of the safest sports you can take up. It stretches and tones up just about every muscle in the body. It's more enjoyable than swimming 20 laps and you don't need special sneakers.

Lovemaking can burn off those calories you piled on during that romantic dinner. Thirty minutes of sex burns an average of 150 calories.

The more sex you have the more you'll be offered. The sexually active body gives off more quantities of chemicals called pheromones. These subtle natural sex perfumes drive the opposite sex crazy.

Scientific tests have found then when women make love they produce double amounts of the hormone estrogen, which makes hair shinny and skin smooth.

Gentle relaxed love making reduces your chances of suffering dermatitis, skin rashes, and blemishes. The sweat produced cleanses the pores and makes your skin glow.

Sex is an instant cure for mild depression. It released endorphins into the blood stream producing a sense of euphoria and leaving you with a feeling of well being.

Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world. It's ten times more effective than Valium.

Sex actually relieves headaches. A love making session can release the tension that restricts the blood vessels in the brain.

A lot of lovemaking can unblock a stuffy nose. Sex is a natural antihistamine, it can combat asthma and hay fever.

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colorbook wrote:

I found this list by accident...I thought this workout plan was more to kicky's liking:

Scientific Reasons to Have Sex
(burning calories...it beats the heck out of jogging)

Sex is one of the safest sports you can take up. It stretches and tones up just about every muscle in the body. It's more enjoyable than swimming 20 laps and you don't need special sneakers.

Lovemaking can burn off those calories you piled on during that romantic dinner. Thirty minutes of sex burns an average of 150 calories.

The more sex you have the more you'll be offered. The sexually active body gives off more quantities of chemicals called pheromones. These subtle natural sex perfumes drive the opposite sex crazy.

Scientific tests have found then when women make love they produce double amounts of the hormone estrogen, which makes hair shinny and skin smooth.

Gentle relaxed love making reduces your chances of suffering dermatitis, skin rashes, and blemishes. The sweat produced cleanses the pores and makes your skin glow.

Sex is an instant cure for mild depression. It released endorphins into the blood stream producing a sense of euphoria and leaving you with a feeling of well being.

Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world. It's ten times more effective than Valium.

Sex actually relieves headaches. A love making session can release the tension that restricts the blood vessels in the brain.

A lot of lovemaking can unblock a stuffy nose. Sex is a natural antihistamine, it can combat asthma and hay fever.

Yeah, but it's more expensive than a gym, but I'm not sure about NY, so maybe that is Kicky's problem. Ahh...it's just that he is a sensitive guy underneath all the bluster. :wink:

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Sounds fantastic. Now if I only had a workout partner. Colorbook?

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Sorry kicky, I already have a partner. Maybe you should advertise.

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Glad to see kicky again. Alas, we are not right for each other, as intime workout partners. Still, I am always wishing him well.
These posts seem very helpful so far.. especially re balance.

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Kicky-

I don't have a workout partner, but I live in Boston.

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How many calories do you burn if you think about sex?

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Sorry Kicky, but you're only to going to improve from working at it, and figuring on doing some pushups and situps here and there isn't going to do a hell of a lot, unless you're religiously doing a lot of them. And it's very easy to get sick of doing them in your apartment.

Suck it up, join the damn gym, and get on a simple weights/cardio workout program. You can go for 3 days a week, 1hr a time and see results. And you won't look a thing like Mr. Universe, believe me.

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Thanks Slappy. Probably a good idea.

Paulaj, I'll be over Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 7:00 to 8:00. Wear your breakaway sports bra!

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Ahahahahah!

What the hell am I supposed to do on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays? I have alot of energy.

BTW those sports bras don't work, their just for looks.

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paulaj wrote:

Ahahahahah!

What the hell am I supposed to do on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays? I have alot of energy.

I think Slappy is available on those days. Smile

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Is this a good workout plan?

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