Round Belly? Crunch It
By Lynn Difley
The most common question I am asked by students and fellow Rvers is what is the best thing I can do to trim my belly? It seems a universal annoyance, the fact that as we age, our six pack turns into a keg shape and refuses to reduce no matter how we frown at it. First of all, let me say that there is no way that a 60 year old belly is going to be as flat as a 20 year old belly.
Even those who are in top physical shape, with a low body fat ratio, are going to have some belly roundness to accommodate the internal organs which need a little more space as we age. Particularly if you have been through a pregnancy–as sympathetic mate or biological mother–the muscles of the abdominal wall will not have the appearance of the supermodel on the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. That said, what is the most effective exercise you can do to keep the flab at bay and keep the abdominals strong and functioning to protect the spine–as they are designed to do.
Studies show that the bicycle move is the one that involves the most abdominal muscle fiber. The Bicycle Crunch scored at the top of the list of best exercises in a study done at San Diego State University. The study compared the favorite 13 abdominal exercises using a EMT (which rates muscle stimulus)
Here’s how you do this winner of the ab flattening contest:
- Lie on your back on a mat or padded surface.
- Keep your lower back pressed against the ground.
- Bring your knees up right above the hips.
- Place your hands lightly behind your ears. Be sure to keep those hands lightly placed, so you do not pull on your neck.
- Bring your left elbow toward your right knee, then your right elbow toward your left knee.
- Keep your back gently pressed into the floor.
- Squeeze the abdominal muscles and breathe deeply throughout.
Tip: Remember to slowly but deliberately lift your shoulders off the floor and focus on the abdominal muscle doing the work. Don’t aim to get your shoulder off the ground as much as possible but to feel the abdominal contraction. You should not focus on bringing the shoulder up with any other muscle grou, such as the neck and shoulder.
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What does this have to do with rv’s?
Yeah Jerry, I agree. I’m an “RVer” and have a 30″ waist. Is this an assumption RVers are somewhat excessively rotund? Oh well, that is up from 28″ when I graduated from high school in 1955. …..**sigh**…..say it isn’t so.
Hi Jerry, you would have to ask your fellow RV’ers whether or not they have an interest in reducing the size or their waist, the ones who come to my classes seem to find it a worthwhile topic. maybe because a gain in waist size is an early indicator of metabolic syndrome…
I would really be interested in seeing more exercises to do in the RV. Especially one to do on rainy or too cold days when you can not get out to walk.
hi gracie thanks for your suggestion, i’ll be glad to include more indoor activities, not that I want to face the fact it’s getting cold and rainy…
Hi Lynn…
I would like to know how you get Bob to do any of these things… I guess the first question is…
If he lays down on his back… can he get back up again without the aid of a fork lift… six paramedics and a good stick of dynimite…
Then….
Squeeze the abdominal muscles and breathe deeply throughout…. for bob thats got to hurt… although some roomers suggest that Bob quit breathing years ago…
Ya I’ll bet he got a few more “universal annoyance” after he passed 60… oh and them 6 pack abs… are more like a large 6 flag flapping in the breeze… almost like a accordian… wheezing for air… but like the famous hamberger place IN-N-OUT…
Sucking in that gut.. to impress the young girls.. led to him passing out the last time.. when she stopped to ask directions
too much fun… but enjoyed the article.. least someone in the family can write…
huh Bob.
some belly roundness to accommodate the internal organs which need a little more space as we age.
OK Bob.. hut hut hut…. get them internal organs in line again…. Oh and no more beer… brocks … or other stuff.. we want you healthy for the show….
Particularly if you have been through a pregnancy–as sympathetic mate…???? or biological mother–
(OH BOB you never told us about this….)
the muscles of the abdominal wall will not have the appearance of the supermodel on the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
OH I’D like to see bob in the sports illustrated swimsuit issue… don’t know about the sympathetic mate thing however…. OH! BOB!!!!! I just can’t imagine you in one of them G String Two piece the gals wear over at the beach… UGHHHHHH.. on second thought.. no I wouldn’t…. talk about porno… and abuse… can you just picture him strutting his stuff… for the gals to see…
Bob listen to your wife.. get back down their and do 100 more crunches before and after eating….
She knows whats good for you… and probably places a lot of values for you… something to the tune of about half a mill in life insurance policy….
Remember Bob your only as old as your mind thinks you are…(providing you stay awake) no pain .. no gain… hmmmm
One of the adjustments we make every time we head out in the RV is how to exercise without all of the equipment we keep at home.
I’ve always heard that you can’t exercise a particular body part in order to loose weight there. You have to loose weight everywhere. In other words, you get a slimmer waist by moving more and eating less, and not by doing waist exercises.
Once you loose that weight, you can see whatever muscle tone is or isn’t underneath.
So which is correct? Do I trim my belly by eating right and walking/running or by doing crunches?
Lynn…
No seriously now… we have heard that losing weight/ecercise is like the old which came first the chicken or the egg… One can run miles.. and lose weight… but then develope other problems like ule gibbens did… or one can quit eating and lose weight… but then you get other problems along with old age…
I think what they need is some pill or shot that you take daily and it causes you to think your full but not.. Yep they have the surgical things.. but how come they can’t seem to figure out why one is thin and the other fat when both are eating the same things… Ok ya so it motab but… shouldn’t they be able to say… here take this and life will be good…
I had to laugh when we did a add for some group that were pushing this little device that attached to your mid section… really what it did was zap ya with a bit of juice and cause the body to react by contractions… Why I had to laugh when I heard them read the script… “yes you can even sleep with it going on.. and when you wake in the morning its like your have run 14 miles…” no wonder you get up tired… I thought…
But, leave it to the youth of today to figure out how to put the device to used in other ways in the bed room… as one attaches the pad to him and the other wire goes to her… (I won’t go into the details… but it gives a new meaning to hooking up…
)
I think they eventually took them off the market because some gal wanted to develop her… well.. lets say upper parts… and put the thing across where her heart was… notice I say was… as it put her into a rymithic beating… and she never did get that swim suit body build…
People do all kinds of stress, strain and weard things to try and get into shape… like they did in their youth…
One other example of some weard ideas… was the Wii board… here you put this board on a roller… and sway back and forth… ya thats good for broken ankles and other things that happen when you fall off or loose balance… old people are known to have excellent balance… hmmm
The latest craze that can be taken along with the RV is the electronic video exercise sensor… here one hooks the thing up to their TV… a DVD plays with your own personla trainer.. who by the way doesn’t know you from the dog… and instructs you on a routine similar to what the army does to its recuits… to try and make them all they can be… I had to chuckle when I saw a group of elders all sitting around watching it.. one woman commented about … does she ever get tired? One was at least moving her arm like the instructor did.. but was sitting down in a easy chair… go figure…
All of these end up having more problems than they started.. with… but hey if you thow money at something .. I guess it makes you feel like your doing something… even if the only thing your doing is going broke…
To lose the mid drift.. one needs not only to exercise.. but more important…push back from the table… eating way too much… but thinking you need it… as you get older… however, according to the Docs… losing weight after 60 years old… is not what you want to do… without supervision.. as other things will start shutting down… and cause you health problems… I guess what you were saying about being fit THROUGH LIFE… is correct…
I found a neat computer program/homemade looking device… from years ago..at a swap meet… that had a few inputs to it.. one was your BP another was your pulse.. (like a EKG)… your breathing… a thing that went over your finger that had a red light in it…and your body temp… (0ne at the forehead and the other at your big toe) You strapped up at night and went to bed… next morning your punched the computer and it gave you a read out of how many cals you used over night… and suggested what level you should have for a intake the next day… as well as how much exercise you should do… by selecting what you liked to do.. such as bike riding, swim’n, walking.. etc… damm thing even had a way to record your night data.. and said that it could send it to your doctor.. matter of fact…. it would suggest when you should call him/her… when the readings matched something bad in its database .. such as a cold.. or other things…
Know what.. it didn’t work too good on me but on the X .. she used it for a week and lost 12 lbs… pretty cool… but it was made for the older computers which had 25 pin plugs… and the new stuff didn’t work with the program… sooooo go figure…
It was good while it lasted…
Yep I would think in todays computer age.. that one could simply plug in and find out how they are doing… (stand on this pad without cloths and it does a slow turn body scan with IR… hooked to your computer… similar to what the movie LOOKER had…would be what I would guess.. if you have something wrong and its got a hot spot.. it shows up..) but havn’t see anything yet.. except for Kaiser who allows you to buy a device which phones home … and only does blood pressure and pulse…
We just got the new talking pill bottles… wow what a hoot those are too… technology has come a long way today in a short time… medicall’y…
Oh almost forgot the best part… seems that when I was in the service USAF… some bright shinny butter bar Lt. was assigned a task to find the cheapest and best way to stay in top physical form after doing all that flying for hours on end…
Want to know what they came up with…
Two broom stick handles about 6 inches long with holes drilled through the insides… and a piece of 7 ft 1/2 inch rope… I mean it doesn’t get any cheaper than this… which later they dropped the broom stick handles… well ok it did…
What this made you was a old kids school single jump rope.. like you see in the gold gyms… and boxers using…
Yep seems that if you can use the thing.. your are working just about all the things in your body… and the time limit they set… for max effort…
a whopping 13 min a day…
Now this thing can be placed in your flight bag.. and any time your just hanging around… get it out and start hopping…
First time I did it.. I thought 13 min was nothing… well… after 10 min… it sure changed my idea of what keeping in shape was about…
Still use it today… as its a great cheap device to keep you toned up and in shape… no running.. no grunting… just hopp the rope… and keep it up for 13 min a day…
Try it you might think other of it… instead of crunches… as it requires coordination as well… so its a thinking, workout also… and just think.. no gym fees… what a piece of rope going for today at the hardware store… 3 bux…