2 New Studies To Help Your With Your Abs

One thing I love and hate about being in the fitness industry, is that it is such a new industry to be in.  Exercise for weight loss in particular has not been around for that long.  So more and more studies come out each week helping us find the best exercise techniques and nutrition programs to follow.  The pain is that as we learn more and new studies do come out, we find that things we thought were true may not be.

After browsing through the latest issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, I found two studies that I know would beneficial for my readers.  I will warn you.  With this first study you probably won't like what you hear.

In this first study, participants performed a leg extension exercise on one leg.  Researchers wanted to see what amount of muscle built and fat burn occurred specifically on the leg muscle trained vs. the rest of the body.  The participants performed 1 set of 900-1200 repetitions on the leg extension.  They found that there was significant fat burned during the exercise, but they found more significant fat loss in the upper extremities and trunk.  I know this may not sound correct but this is not the first study to show this.

I can't tell you how many times I get the question, "What's the best exercise to get rid of fat on my [insert body part]?"  It just doesn't work this way.  You can do 1000 crunches everyday and loss fat from your arm, but not your stomach.  It's not fair I know, but that's life.

So what should you do?  Stop trying to perform exercises with the purpose to lose fat in that area.  It won't work no matter how hard you try.  Instead first focus on burning fat in general.  Higher intensity exercises that work multiple body parts work best.  If you have little fat over an area and want to see definition or muscle tone, then you can work on that specific muscle more intensely.   And of course don't forget about your diet.

The second study had to do with ab training as well.  So I just mentioned how ab exercises don't necessarily burn fat in your stomach.  It will burn some, but it may come from other places as well.  But this doesn't mean you never should do ab exercises ever.  We will want to work on building strength, endurance, and stability for our abdominals.  This second study compared sit up and curl up exercises two different ways to see what was more effective.  

They had participants perform 2 minutes of sit ups and curls with and without their feet restrained.  The study found that when the feet were restrained during sit ups and curl ups, there was higher activation of the abdominal muscles.  This sounds great, but there is a concern here.  They also found that during these exercises there was a greater activation of the hip flexor muscles.

In the past these types of exercises have shown to increase shear and compressive forces placed on the lower back.  This is likely due to increased activity from the hip flexor muscles.  So even though the feet restrained produced the best abdominal response, it comes at a cost of increase low back injuries.  So even though there was not as much ab activity when the feet are not restrained it may be the better exercise choice, especially if you have back issues.

Try this during your next workout if you plan on doing sit ups or curls ups.  When you raise up try not to allow your legs to move or lift at all. When they lift it means the hip flexors are starting to take over.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training