Abdominals 101

Everyone has different ideas of how to train abs. In my personal opinion, I believe training abs should be more than just looking good without a top on. It's all about core strength.

If you're like me, you'll have read multiple websites saying to do 50 sit ups and so on and just keep increasing the volume. I don't believe this is effective. You run out of energy and I don't believe you truly activate the abdominal muscles from doing this.

For my first set of tips for training abdominal muscles, I'm going to go over a few techniques I've used to help my abs.

1. Train it like you would any other muscle.

Now I've read page after page saying they need to be trained different because there a different type of muscle fibre, and that we don't want to add size to our abs. I just don't think this is true. I always train for 8-10 reps on abs, the same as back, or chest.

I do this by doing either cable crunches, weighted crunches on a decline bench, and for lower abs, do leg raises with a dumbbell between my feet or use a resistance band.

2. No matter how many reps you do, it won't get rid of fat!

That layer of fat covering your abs is still going to be there after 100 reps. You need to hit that cardio in order to get rid of the fat!

Abs become truly noticeable when you hit around 10% body fat, under that and you get the real definition!

3. A strong core means strong lifts.

Having strength in your core can help with big lifts like squats and deadlifts, and vice versa. So always remember to hit those golden lifts to get those abs you're craving!

As always, thank you for reading and leave a comment!

How many reps do I do?

In the world of weights and muscles, there is a great debate as to how many reps per set you should perform in order to achieve the best results, depending on what you are aiming for.

Now for me, I just want to gain size and strength in every muscle in my body. Some people want to gain definition and some to lose weight, but how many reps should you be doing?

As you trawl through the thousands of different sites offering an answer to this question you'll notice they all tell you different. Some say to build size, you should hit 12-15 reps, others 10, and others even say 4-6 reps.

I do not believe that there is a set number of reps to achieve this.

After training in multiple rep ranges for the last two years, I've found that as long as you are pushing the muscle to the point of overload, whether it be from the number of reps, or the weight, the muscle will have to grow and adapt to the strain. As long as you do this every time you train, you will see change.

I always try to hit 6-8 reps just due to personal preference. Below this rep range shows increased risk of injury and this could stop you training all together. Above this tends to take a long time to train and I like to keep my workouts between 45-60 minutes.

As for losing weight and gaining definition, I believe that diet and cardiovascular training are where you should be looking. Obviously along side lifting weights.

You cannot target fat loss to one specific body part. This is often confused and is why you see people who are craving abdominal muscles doing hundred's of sit ups and crunches and seeing minimal results. They are training the muscle, but that isn't the problem.

You are training your abs yes, but they are covered by a layer of fat that needs to disappear before those abs will appear.

If you want definition and striations in the muscles, you need to lose fat, and regular cardio and a clean diet is the path to achieving this.

Firehouse Fitness

For a change from lifting weights, I decided last night that I'd give something different a go. I heard that two firefighters had opened a gym close to where I live and thought I'd give it a try.

It was a like a class type of training with a group of around 20 people. He explained that he'd only had around 8 people per class until this one!

We started off with a basic warm up, just some jogging and high knees and stuff, then moved on to more HIIT type training.

We pushed a weighted sled as fast as we could for 10 seconds then switched people and carried on until we'd covered the whole road there and back.

We then moved on to some circuit training with around 10 different stations. There was battle ropes, tyre flipping, shoulder press with a barrel like on worlds strongest man, and a few others.

Overall I found it really fun, and hard work towards the end. The staff were really nice and pushed you, and kept it entertaining for everyone.

If anyone is ever in the area I suggest giving it a try as it's something out of the ordinary.

Overall it was very enjoyable!

Thank you for reading!

Bowflex SelectTech Dumbells

So, my girlfriend's dad has a home gym and decided to buy a set of these Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells because they are compact, rather than having a row of different fixed dumbbells taking up loads of space.

The problem I found with these dumbbells is that if you change the weight on the dumbbell and pull it from the stand too quickly, the discs left behind can get knocked and you have to find which gap on the stand it fits in, or you can't put the dumbbell back correctly.

Another Problem with these is the length of the dumbbell. Say you're doing bicep curls with them, the length of the dumbbell imposes on the movement and the quality of the rep. As I turned my wrist to carry out this motion I found that the dumbbell tended to catch on my clothing.

A few upsides to these dumbbells is that they are space saving. They do not take up a lot of room at all even with the stand.

The grip on the dumbbell is good and doesn't slip during use.

It is quick, and easy, to select which weight you want. All you have to do is twist the disc on each end of the dumbbell to the correct weight and off you go.

However I believe that these dumbbells are very pricey for what they are. There are cheaper alternatives on the market and they could save you some money.

In my personal opinion, I would much rather have a set of fixed dumbbells or spin locks, as they are a lot cheaper, and for the amount of time you would save using adjustable dumbbells, I really don't see the point.

Thank you for reading and I hope this helps! If you have anything to add please leave a comment

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Casein

So I was reading around about protein powders and other supplements, as you do, and thought I'd give Casein a try as an addition to my normal whey protein.

First things first, the price. Almost all of the Casein supplements I found were more expensive than a normal whey protein. I always try to stick to one supplement brand and Optimum Nutrition are my favorite because their products all tend to be good.

The consistency is completely different to what I was used to. I found it quite gritty when mixing with both milk and water. This was the main downside I saw to using this supplement.

When reading the guide on the tub, it suggests to take it first thing in a morning and before bed, as it is a slow releasing protein therefore it will slowly release throughout the day and while you're asleep. Whey protein is a fast releasing protein and should therefore be used immediately before and/or after physical activity.

The content in this powder is good 24g slow releasing protein, 3g of carbohydrates and 0.5g of fat. But you can see for yourself below.

Overall, I believe this supplement is good, other than the gritty consistency, but you can't have everything. My training stayed consistent and recovery periods were short so I believe it is also an effective supplement.

When taking first thing in a morning it was effective at holding off my hunger right through until my dinner break at work. This is a plus because a whey shake fills you up, but the full feeling doesn't last half as long as with this shake, making it an ideal meal replacement.

As always, thank you for reading and if you have anything to say about this product, leave a comment.

Vince Gironda's 8X8 Training

As a change from the normal workout's you see everyone in the gym doing, I decided to try something a little more radical that I hadn't seen anyone doing before. This was when I was scrolling forums and body-building websites looking for something extra-ordinary.

Vince Gironda's 8X8 training caught my eye just from the sheer volume of reps you have to carry out just to complete one workout for one body part.

The general idea of this type of training is to progressively overload the muscle with a consistent weight throughout the 8 sets. Rest periods should be kept short (from 25-30 seconds) between each set.
As for choosing the correct weight to start with, this can be tricky due to having to last eight sets. A tip to solve this would be to reduce the weight you would normally use for eight reps by around 40% in order to last eight sets.

While performing this form of training you should aim for three to four exercises per body part, I personally carried out three per body part except on arms where I only carried out two.

I trained like this 5 days a week, no cardio, usual diet and supplementation, for around 2 months. I noticed significant increases in cardiac performance and endurance after this training as well as better muscular endurance and a decrease in rest time needed between sets when lifting weights.

As for other improvements, I've noticed increases in strength and a decrease in body fat as well as some gain in muscle mass.

Just as a general rule, I try to stick to the key exercises that nearly everyone will, or should include in their workout in one way, shape or form. I'm talking bench press, deadlifts and the squat. My variations would be incline bench press when I train chest, normal deadlifts on back day and squats on leg day.

If anyone has tried out this form of workout feel free to share your results and leave a comment!

thank you for reading,

Josh