I do think you’re working very hard and have a lot of sympathy for you, since I’ve had similar problems. If you do have polycystic ovary syndrome, you might want to look at this book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0007131844/102-4983078-9211315?v=glance
It suggests that a high protein diet is the best way to go if you’ve got PCOS and backs it up very well with a lot of research.
Actually, ab training is misunderstood and improperly executed by the majority of people training. People spend far too much time doing crunches and side crunches and supposed waist whittlers without understanding the purpose.
Muscle action equals joint movement and lever involvement. If you explore the movement of a crunch and spinal flexion…you can see clearly that spinal flexion does not need to be trained for strength as people seem to think. Anyone can bend forward or flex at the spine without having any strength as is supposedly gained by training with a zillion crunches and curls…weight or no weight. The more important aspect of abdominals aside for allowing trunk movement is postural support, and thus we get into the more important “core” work. For improved posture/spine health, “strong abs,” people need to train the muscles of the trunk (abs/lower back) in their capacity to provide support and stabilization.
And no, training them with an obnoxious amount of crunches will not give you a six-pack, and if you brag to me you can do 200 crunches, you are not doing them correctly. Nope. It is true as a previous poster commented, muscles all generate the same way. And there is no need to train abs daily…not if you do them correctly, not if you do the correct sequence. You wouldn’t train biceps every day, neither should you with abs. People say the same thing about calves, “you can train them every day…blah blah…” Lots of myths floating around…they just won’t go away. Weights added to your crunches do add resistance, thus some hypertrophy will occur, if that is your goal, but the more important focus should be on if they are properly engaged…lots of people do them incorrectly, and added weight and improper form can lead to injury.
Abs just don’t help with weight loss. It has to be a combined effort of aerobic training and resistance training at the proper intensity levels for your current level of fitness, then you will progress and become more fit and strong.
Finding out your BMI/body fat to lean tissue is truly important as another poster mentioned…that was an excellent point…our values of what is thin versus what is fat is certainly skewed.
I can totally sympathize with you, Mercury. I’m 30 years old and I’ve been heavy (to varying degrees) all of my life. When I was your age I walked back and forth to school several miles a day, always took the stairs, etc and it changed diddly-squat for me too.
I had my thyroid and sugar checked and it came out normal. I’d really been wishing to find out there was something wrong with me, as bad as that sounds.
When I was 25 I started on the birth control shots and weight gain is a likely side effect of any hormonal birth control. Every time I’d go for another shot they would weigh me and I’d tell them not to tell me how much I weighed. Big mistake! Since I wear over-sized clothes and avoid mirrors I didn’t realize how much weight I was gaining. I stopped the shots last spring and I’m still not completely back to normal.
I joined a gym last year. I haven’t really lost any weight but I’ve at least stopped gaining.
I find it hard to believe that 30 minutes of serious aerobic excercise a day doesn’t make much difference. Could you provide a cite or some more information on this?
It looks like there are some knowledgeable people in this thread - I’d really appreciate it if I could hijack this thread for some tips on my workout.
I’m 20 years old and unfit. My body looks fairly fit though, so the last 5 years I’ve been able to delude myself about my level of athleticism. At the moment I go to the gym maybe once a week just to do a 40 minute cardio workout (treadmill, stepper, bike). I used to have a weights routine as well but I’ve only recently begun to work out again, so I’m easing myself back into everything.
I’m looking to burn fat (mainly from hips and inner thighs), tone up, and get fitter. I have weak knees and asthma, so I’ve never gotten into running - I can take about 2 - 5 minutes jogging, but that’s it.
Any tips or suggestions would be most appreciated!
May I suggest ice hockey? Or at least take up ice skating? It melts away pounds! (I prefer hockey to figure b/c in hockey you get to wear padding!)
Note: previous post aimed at the OP, not the post before it. Obviously someone with knee issues mightn’t want to take up ice skating (though I will say it’s marvelously easier on the knees than rollerblading, but will definitely put a strain on them). Skating makes wonderful legs (trust me, I’m a 200+lb fat chick with great legs), and if you want to work on building up strength in your knees it would work but it’ll be hard on them b/c the whole secret to skating is learning to balance at your (always slightly bent) knees rather than at your waist.
Marvelous exercise though. I read in a health text once that ice hockey and lacrosse both burn about 900 calories an hour when played at full energy.
Go over here and take a look around.
Ack! I did! (Mistress Krista??? puh-leaze) After my initial horror at that ghastly positioning for a squat, (q-angle nightmares, crinkled menisci, etc.), I looked around. It took me a few minutes to move on, I was stopped dead in my tracks by that gawd-awful squat. Don’t anybody do that. Ever. Unless you have a really good goal-oriented reason, then I hesitate still. So, there are no credentials to be found…unless I missed them. Who the heck is she? Just some body builder? That’s not enough. You wouldn’t take the advice of a person who studied being a doctor, and well, years of reading and exploring on your own and taking advise of others in the same boat as yourself, and this person declares they are just like a doctor or almost a doctor…well…same thing with fitness professionals. It takes some education. It’s an okay site, but it really needs to list her credentials and sources for her advice, and there are some problems, but overall, not too bad; it’s a good starter site, and if you go here Error 404 and here http://www.health.gov/NHIC/NHICScripts/Entry.cfm?HRCode=HR2903, as well Mistress Krista, you have pretty good sources for information. I hope my links work…I’m a fitness person, not a computer person…if they don’t work, look up ACSM or American College of Sports Medicine and ACE or American Council of Exercise. There is information at both sites for consumers.
I don’t know you, I don’t know what you know, so don’t take this personally, but I don’t think that the existing credentials are worth much. Too many people take the test, get certified, and never learn anything else for me to respect the process.
And even if you do have the certificates, there’s no substitute for actual experience. There are a lot of ideas that look really good on paper but don’t pan out when you try them.
Krista may just be some bodybuilder, but how does her advice stack up against what you know? That’s the real criteria for judging someone’s qualifications to teach–not some letters after her name.
ultrafilter Quote: I don’t know you, I don’t know what you know, so don’t take this personally, but I don’t think that the existing credentials are worth much. Too many people take the test, get certified, and never learn anything else for me to respect the process.
Oh, no offense taken at all. I agree, experience is quite important. However, sometimes it means nothing. Education is quite important, however, sometimes it means means. I’ve seen both ends of things.
In this instance, “trainers,” “nutritionists,” “fitness experts” abound. They learn from others who learn from others and cannot even validate what they know. They just know what they know, it’s the way they’ve been doing it forever, from someone who’s been doing it that way forever, so it must work. Hell, if that worked, we’d still be practicing medicine the same way as we did 100 years ago, no bothering with research and updates and no need to keep up. Fitness is a changing growing field. You gotta keep up, and you gotta get the background. Too many people think it’s a simple area of expertise, and anyone can just start being a trainer, work out for some years, no real knowledge, just so-called experience, because you were in the gym, your worked out, and you might look good! In my case, I not only keep up educationally over my 20 years of never-ending continuing education and professional certifications/degree, I am “experienced” as well for the same amount of time in practical application spent in the gym, not only on working with others, but training myself. I’ve learned a lot, I’m still learning a lot, and I plan to continue learning and growing. So, simply, my background enables to give a qualified opinion (asked or not - as my classrooms full of students will attest to) on anything in my field along with the data to support me.