Don’t be a cliche
Do your job long enough and ya hear the same things over and over. The cliches.
Dentists hear how their patients floss every night.
Teachers hear how their students computer’s crashed.
Proctologists hear how no one has any idea how it got stuck up there.*
We Trainers hear our share of cliches. Today we’re going to run down the big one that we trainers hear all the time. Once you understand this cliche you’ll understand a little more about fitness, and a little bit more about yourself (I hope).
‘Let’s do sit ups. I need to burn the fat around my lower abs.’
We get this one a lot. And ya know what, I don’t even correct people any more. As soon as I start to explain what’s wrong with that statement the eyes glaze over and their shoulders slump. No one wants the Truth.
You gotta give the people what they want. That’s why the magazines make this very promise when they know it’s BS. Fat burning sells copy.
I’m mostly at peace with this. I’ll tell you why in a minute.
Conventional wisdom: You do sit ups; you feel a burn in your in your lower abdominals; that burning equates with fat burning; fat burning means tighter waist line. So what is wrong with that statement? Oh no… your eyes are glazing over.
For starters- sit ups suck! They put undue strain on the neck and spine. And they're inefficient: You’re only working half the time. Let’s do some ab wheel rollouts instead.
Next up: Lower abs are not a thing.
“It’s important to know that as far as biology is concerned, there are no upper abs and lower abs. There are just abs, or more specifically in this case, the rectus abdominis or "six-pack muscle," saysCalifornia-based exercise physiologist and guy I actually used to work with Pete McCall.
Blah blah blah, science, science Harvard. The burn ain’t fat sizzling off your stomach; it’s a chemical reaction: “metabolic acidosis. The concentration of Hydrogen (in a fatigued muscle) is so great that is lowers the pH (how acidic or basic an environment is) of the muscle. Seeing as all organs in the human body operate within a specific pH, when that specific pH is exceeded, the muscle begins to malfunction. This is when the feeling of pain and the burning sensation begins.”
And finally- you can’t target fat burning, i.e. doing abdominal work won’t burn abdominal fat. That is spot reduction. If spot reduction were real I’d be able to tell if you’re lefty or righty with 100% accuracy (and imagine how weird THAT would look).
I can’t say all that. I’ve tried. No one wants the truth (right Jack?) and I’m at peace with that. I hand you the ab wheel (better exercise with a decent burn) and I get subversive.
I encourage you to lift weights (you’ll move better, get stronger and raise your metabolism).
I suggest you do some cardio. Nothing fancy. 10,000 steps will do the trick.
I casually mention Abs are made in the kitchen. Eat good food and stop before you’re full (Check the infographic to see the body fat percentage at which you’re likely to see results).
(And check out the tradeoffs while you’re at it. Are you vain enough to ‘struggle in social situations, especially those involving food’?)
I mention that despite the fact that core strength work doesn’t chisel the stomach the way you think it does, it is important in you moving well and moving well help you look better naked.
Small changes + 6-8 weeks = visual results.
In the immortal words of Bell Biv Devo… ‘Now ya know.’
*There was a version of this joke on Seinfeld. Carlos Mencia I am not.