7 minute abs....are you kidding me

So we've all stayed up late, or strayed onto some weird channel where there is this some deep voiced announcer saying that now YOU can have "million dollar abs" for just $14.99 + the price of shipping, CALL NOW! One of my favorite advertising lines is for The Bean The site says "The Bean's rocking action does all the work". Huh, if it is doing all the work, how the heck is that helping my abs?? As a disclaimer, The Bean does offer many other exercise options, it's just the ab statements I have a problem with. The infomercial I see the most is for a chair that looks like it'd be great for my back patio, and I bet that most of those chairs end up being just that, instead of a workout tool. Yet, these infomercial gadgets are like a billion dollar business. Couch potatoes sitting there late at night with their ice cream (KW, I'm not talking about you), thinking, SWEET, I can sit in that chair and get a six pack, all while eating ice cream and watching TV, what more could you want!!

Prior to starting my quest in fitness and getting serious about making this a lifestyle, I might have believed that doing a bazillion crunches could make my abs flatter than Kansas. I'm now a little smarter. Did you know that no matter how many crunches, sit-ups, leg extensions I do, that layer of fat that sits over my ab muscles will STILL BE THERE, hiding my 6 pack. Yep, I have a 6 pack, so do you, it's just hiding under a nice protective layer of blubber. Nice huh. I've been genetically gifted with a bowl of jello right under my belly button, it also oozes nicely to both sides of my hips. There is nothing about my body that I rue more than my bowl of jello. Now, fashion has decided to accentuate this beautiful gift by making low-rise pants, which has caused an epidemic of muffin tops.

So, how do you get a flat washboard stomach? In the kitchen! Your body fat has to be around 15% for girls in order to see a 6 pack, sometimes lower. I think it will have to be lower for me since I tend to hoard all fat in that area...apparently my jello belly doesn't like to share. (Although, as a side note, my shoe size did got down 1/2 a size when I lost weight.. apparently I had chubby feet too). Thank you,Kelly, for mentioning how tiny my feet looked in my karate uniform, although you'd be hard pressed to find someone who's feet didn't look small with 14 yards of white fabric on.

I digress, you know what I'm doing to get flat abs. Lipo! Just kidding...although I have to admit, I've thought about it. Nope, I'm doing it the old fashioned way; HIIT (high intensity interval training), lifting weights, and eating 6 small meals a day consisting of equal parts proteins and complex carbs, and lifting weights, and some healthy fats in there too. While lifting weights, I tighten my abs during almost every exercise. They are getting a workout, I just don't spend lots of time on them yet, because I still have a lot of body fat to lose. Did you know that Jackie Warner doesn't do any crunches or independent ab work!! Did you see her abs?!!

Moderate cardio is A WASTE OF TIME

One of the biggest lessons I've learned over the last year is that moderate cardio is like eating a sucker after brushing your teeth. Sure, your teeth might be better off than if you hadn't brushed at all, but the sucker pretty much ruins the work you did brushing. Same as moderate cardio, sure it's better to get moving and burn some calories, but you might just be ruining your metabolism in the process. Don't believe me...do a Google search for HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), and do some research for yourself.
When the fitness revolution started...way back when...everyone was doing aerobics, stair steppers, running on a treadmill, etc...for hours and hours a week. I, like most people, thought that the more calories your burned while doing cardio, the better off you were, and of course, the longer you were on one of those machines, the more calories you burned. More had to be better right?? Well, apparently this school of thought is on it's way out. Here is an interesting article by Alwyn Cosgrove regarding moderate vs. interval cardio Energy System Training . Bill Phillips seemed to be ahead of his times when he suggested a 20 minute high intensity interval cardio in his Body for Life book. Yes, you heard right, 20 minutes...and no that is not every day. That is 3x a week only! Most people who are new to Body for Life do not believe (or at least have doubts), that this amount of cardio will be enough to bring about weight loss...or more specifically, FAT loss, which really is the ultimate goal. Side note: scale weight is a bunch of hooey. More on that later.
So, spread the word, work your hiney off for 20 minutes 3x a week. Start with a 2 minute warm up on whatever machine you prefer...or just outside walking. Then do a "sprint" for 30-60 seconds, followed by "active rest" for 60-90 seconds, which means you don't come to a complete stop. Rinse and repeat for 20 minutes, followed by a cool-down period. There are a LOT of ways to do HIIT, but as long as you are at some point thinking you are going to pass out (what we in the BFL world call "hitting your 10s"), followed by active rest...etc, you will burn far more fat, and do a greater service to your metabolism, then staying at the same pace for 45 minutes.
JUST SAY NO TO SLOW-GO CARDIO!!