A great deal of research has gone into what is the most effective way to burn body fat. The three protocols that I have found to be the most effective have been circuit training, interval sprint training and complexes. The other day I had a crazy idea – how about combining all three systems?

Another idea I had is one I stole from Dan John, a legend in the world of athletic performance. Dan uses a dice to decide what power lift he is going to focus on that day. This does not have to be used just for power workouts, it can be used for any exercise!

The method is simple, yet it is blisteringly effective. You will literally feel the fat melt as you are training. You will also have the side effect of improving your work capacity and fitness to a level you have never dreamed of.

Complexes are seemingly simple, but are also extremely deceiving. They pack a hell of a punch and will challenge you in a very unique way. The idea is to choose one implement (barbell, dumbbell etc) and perform 5 reps of 5 different exercises. I wrote about this in a previous article called GPP, which has lots of information about how to improve your general level of conditioning. It can be found in the exercise articles part of this website.

Interval sprint training is a great tool but it has some limitations. Firstly, if it is raining your ability to sprint will be limited. Also not everyone has a park in which they can sprint. Another option that works great is to perform body weight training exercises in the same fashion as interval training. This saves space and will also improve your strength.

Circuit training has been around for decades and we will use it to structure our workout. Using the dice will offer an element of surprise and randomness to our workout, so we will always be following an effective fat burning structure, just with different exercises. the same, but different!

Complex options: Which ever number on the dice you roll is the complex you will perform.

Kettle bell Complex – 5x KB Snatch, 5, KB clean and Press, 5x Single Arm KB Swing, 5, x KB Squat Push Press, 5 x KB Dead Lift

Dumbbell Complex – 5 x DB Lunge and Press, 5 x Lateral Lunge and Curl, 5, DB Dead Lift to Bent Over Row, 5x DB Push Up and Row, 5x DB Squat Push Press

Barbell Complex – 5 x Overhead Squat, 5 x Power Clean and Jerk, 5 x Front Squat, 5 x Bent Over Row, 5 x Romanian Dead Lift

Medicine Ball Complex – 5 x Staggered Squat Push Press, 5x Staggered Squat Push Press, 5 x Lunge with twist, 5x lateral lunge with wood chop, 5x low lateral lunge with push out

Body weight complex – 5x burpees, 5x jump lunges, 5x jump squats, 5x push ups, 5 x mountain climbers

Swiss Ball Complex – 5 x SB Push jack, 5x lateral ball roll, 5 x SB Lunge, 5, Sb side flexion, 5x SB reverse hyper

Simply roll the dice once to pick your first complex. Your seconds roll will decide what you do for your interval training. I recommend 20 seconds on, 20 seconds off and repeat for 4 minutes. Your 6 options could be:

Rope jumping
Burpees
Mountain Climbers
High Knee Running
Sit to Stand
Shadow boxing with bands

Using this formula a sample workout could be as follows:

Medicine Ball Complex
Burpees

Simply perform the complex then go to the interval training. Rest 60 seconds and repeat 3-5 times.

This form of training is fairly advanced so approach with caution but it is extremely effective for melting fat. Enjoy the sweat!

When we look at core strength and stability, we need to carefully define what these terms actually mean. In 2003, Hall defined stability as ‘resistance to both angular and linear acceleration, or resistance to disruption of equilibrium’. This basically can be broken down as the ability to withstand unwanted movement. Strength is defined by Kraemer and Knuttgen and Kraemer as the maximal amount of force a muscle or muscle group can generate in a specified movement pattern at a specified velocity of movement.

By looking at these two definitions we can see a big difference between core stability and core strength. Core stability can be understood as the ability of the core to resist an unwanted movement. Core strength can be identified as the amount of force the core can produce to perform a desired movement. These can clearly be seen as two totally different functions, yet they are both totally interdependent on the other. If an exercise class or modality promises to improve core strength and the majority of the exercises involve static postures while activating the core, are they training core strength or stability? In reality, they are improving stability and not strength.

What also needs to be identified is how to train the core to be stable. According to physical therapist Shirley Sahrman in her book Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement impairment Syndromes the abdominal muscles need to 1. appropriately stabilize the spine, 2. maintain optimal alignment and movement relationships between the pelvis and spine, and 3. prevent excessive stress and compensatory motions of the pelvis during movements of the extremities. To stabilize the spine we need to ensure activation of all the abdominal musculature and in what way we want the spine to be stable. At DC Health we consider spine stabilization to be the maintenance of a neutral spine under load and the resistance of rotation.

Training the core to resist rotation may seem like a strange idea. In fact, many core strengthening programs try to increase rotation, particularly at the lumbar spine. This is not a good idea, as the lumbar spine only rotates between 3-18 degrees. We generally find in our assessment protocol that our clients who suffer from low back pain actually are overly mobile at the lumbar spine and suffer from immobility at the hip joints and the thoracic spine. The mobility of these two vital areas will be addressed in another post. Mobility has become a huge topic in the fitness industry with people creating mobility exercise for every joint in every plane of motion. In reality though, some joints are inherently designed for stability, not mobility, and increasing mobility at these joints is asking for problems.

We need to teach the core stability in the frontal plane, transverse plane, the anterior sagittal plane and control of the pelvis and lumbar spine. At DC Health we have designed an integrated protocol for assessing a client and taking then through these progressions to ensure optimal stability development. Some of the exercise we use are:

Side Bridge: This exercise is excellent for developing frontal plane stability and poor performance in this exercise is a good indicator of an increased risk of lower back pain.

Forward Ball Roll: This exercise integrates the core with the hips and the arms and is a great exercise to train the anterior core.

Lower abdominal co-ordination – This exercise trains synergistic action between the external obliques and the hip flexor musculature.

Pallof Press: We use this exercise to train the abdominal muscles to resist rotation.

After we have developed optimal stability we will then look at developing core strength. The strength we will develop will take into accounts what activities a person performs and their particular goals. Some of our favourite exercises are:

Cable Wood Chop: This is a great exercise to integrate the hips, core and upper extremity to express force.

Medicine Ball Toss: Another fantastic exercise to develop strength and power. Also teaches you how to absorb force, which is very important in athletic situations.

When looking at exercise programs and what they promise we need to look at all programs with a healthy degree of skepticism. If we can critically analyze what is being done and the methods used we can easily see what approaches are effective and which ones are ineffective. Remember there is no such thing as a bad exercise, there is only a poor prescription of an exercise which is due to poor understanding of the biomechanics involved.

 The general accepted rule in exercise science is that reps of 1-4 result in primarily neural adaptions and reps of 10-15 or more result in primarily cellular or metabolic adaptions. This is true, to a point. What we need to realize is that all repetition ranges target both neural adaptions. If we can understand this and identify what adaptions are happening in what muscle fibers are what times we can improve the quality of our training and actually achieve our results!

When we lift weights there is a principle in neurology that we need to understand. It is called the size principle. What this principle tells us is that there is a certain ways that the nervous system recruits muscle fibers to perform any given task. For a task such as picking up a glass of milk your nervous system will only recruit a small portion of your muscle fibers, particularly your smaller, slow twitch fibers. This makes sense because using all your muscle fibers would cause you to throw the glass in the air! When you lift a heavy object, such as a heavy pot your nervous system will recruit all your muscle fibers for the task. This makes sense so as to make sure you do not injure yourself.

When we look at the size principle it states that the recruitment of muscle fibers will be dictated by both the load of the object and the speed of movement. If the load is light or the speed is slow the body will primarily recruit your type 1 muscle fibers which are smaller and more aerobic in nature, e.g. they can contract for a long time. If the load is heavy and the speed is fast the body will recruit the more explosive type 2B muscle fibers.

Now when we look at training this is interesting. We are told that the last few reps of any set are the most important as they are the ones that recruit all our muscle fibers. The size principle illustrates to us that it is clearly not the case. What actually happens at the end of the set we actually recruit less muscle fibers as the speed decreases and fatigue sets in. If we recruited more muscle fibers the weight would actually feel easier, not harder! 

So how do we work with this principle? It is really quite simple and when you start using it your strength, power and movement ability will skyrocket! What we do is we focus on lifting heavy loads as fast as possible and we stop the set when either the speed or range of motion reduce. If this happens it indicates to us that our type 2B explosive muscle fibers have fatigued. These particular fibers are the ones that will develop more strength, are more metabolically active and grow bigger! These are the three most common reasons people train – to lose weight, get bigger and get stronger! When we use this principle it also ensures good form as we stop each set before form breaks down. Also, in response to theories that fast lifting is dangerous when you run you absorb impact forces of 4-7 times body-weight! In sports we move explosively so our training should prepare you for the same!

Fast Tube by Casper

When we know this our ideas of reps change. When we look at the size principle we can ascertain that sets of 1-5 reps can actually be very conductive to hypertrophy training. In fact it may be the best way! So when designing your program, one method I have found very useful is to flip around your sets and reps. 

Some examples: 3 sets of 10 becomes 10 sets of 3

3 sets of 8 becomes 8 sets of 3

2 sets of 12 becomes 12 sets of 2

The combinations here are many. When we add up the weights that we will be using in this approach it is clear that this will lead to more muscle and strength gain due to the increased volume.

Example: 3 sets of 10 at 60 kg = 1800 total kg lifted

10 sets of 3 at 100 kg = 3000 total kg lifted – a difference of 1200 kg!!

So hopefully this article has inspired you with the knowledge and confidence to change around your program. Remember, if we do the opposite of what the majority is doing, we will probably be doing things better!!

Sports Kinesiology is a summation of the best of Western and Eastern medicine and health technologies. It combines methods and philosophies from osteopathy, traditional chinese medicine, functional anatomy, energetic medicine, strength and conditioning, chiropractic, nutritional medicine and bodywork therapies. It is a holistic approach to healing, health and well-being that considers all aspects of the person, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. This comprehensive approach allows us to revolutionize performance in a way not yet seen before and is the key difference here at DC Health.

Fast Tube by Casper

Here is an example of Sports Kinesiology at work. This is taken from a real case study and is an example of how sports kinesiology can fully work with the interconnectedness of the human organism. A client came in with torn ligaments in his shoulder. Surgery was scheduled. Using orthopedic assessment and a comprehensive knowledge of functional anatomy, the practitioner was able to ascertain that the injury actually originated in the opposite ankle. A look at this blog,

http://miketnelson.blogspot.com/2009/05/opposite-joints-my-elbow-hurts-you-want.html goes into detail about how the site that hurts is not often the cause of the problem. 

After treating the ankle the shoulder regained full pain free range of motion in one session. The next session was dedicated to clearing up imbalances in the shoulder musculature. Kinesiology uses neurological testing of muscles to see how the central nervous system is controlling them. A muscle has 3 possible responses. Either it has neuromuscular integrity, it has a lack of neuromuscular integrity and thus is ‘underfaciliatated’ or it is overworking and is thus ‘overfacilitated’. Kinesiology then uses different techniques to ascertain what is the actual cause of the neuromuscular dysfunction. This is what sets sports kinesiology apart. We can identify whether the problem comes from a physical problem, an emotional issue, a digestive disorder or a host of other possibilities. This gives sports kinesiology a huge advantage over other therapies. 

This clients particular problem related to some emotional issues. Each muscle in the body is related to a different meridian in Chinese medicine and each meridian has a set of different emotional issues or ‘life lessons’ that relate to it. This interconnectedness shows that each little issue we have affects our whole system and can cause a number of seemingly unrelated problems. By dealing with this clients emotional issues using gentle acupressure techniques we were able to resolve the issues and eliminate all the blocks to healing. 

The next step in this clients healing was to introduce a corrective exercise program. This included stretches, mobility drills, soft tissues techniques and corrective exercises tailored exclusively to this clients needs and particular imbalances. This combination of therapy and exercise is an invaluable step in recovery from any injury. The kinesiology in effect reset the neuromuscular system and the corrective exercise basically reinforced good patterns of movement and taught the client to move correctly again. 

In the end this client did not receive surgery and both his orthopedic surgeon and osteopath he was referred to by the physician were blown away by his healing. This is something that is not a miracle but can be a very common occurrence when the whole human body is addressed and treated. DC Health bases its training and treatment philosophy around this interconnected model. This allows us to effectively address nearly any issue our clients have and help them achieve their dreams.

Fast Tube by Casper

Posture can be thought of as the representation of our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual selves. All of our experiences in our lifetime can be viewed through the window to our posture. If the eyes are the gates to the soul, then posture is the map of the journey. Here are some common influences on our posture:

➢ Exercise programs – a poorly designed exercise program can alter posture for the worse, while a well designed program will consistently improve posture
➢ Nutrition – poor nutrition leads to organ stress which then carries over and affects the musculoskeletal system.
➢ Muscle balance – When muscles get too strong relative to another muscle on the same joint, they pull posture in that direction. A common example is tight chest muscles pulling the shoulder forward due to the weaker back muscles
➢ Emotional health – Depression has been associated with a stooped posture.
➢ Stress – Our stress levels will tense our muscular system, altering our postural mechanics
➢ Injuries – An injury such as a broken leg will shift our posture away from the injured side.
➢ Sleep – a lack of sleep will lower our available energy levels making it harder to maintain good upright posture.
➢ Hormones – Hormones have incredible effects on the musculoskeletal system
➢ Work environment – Sitting at a desk all day will alter posture towards the position which is been adopted
➢ Motor Programs – faulty movements encourage over development of certain muscle groups.
➢ Respiration – Breathing through the mouth will generally pull the head forward and collapse the chest.
➢ Vision – Poor vision will often lead to straining of the neck to see clearly.
➢ Jaw mechanics – Altered jaw mechanics will alter the mechanics of the sacro-illiac joint, Occipital/atlantal joint and the ankle joints
➢ Visceral Health – our organs reflex their stress into our muscles
➢ Sports and Work activities – This can be dominance of a movement pattern e.g. a golfer being rotated towards the side the swing with
➢ Flexibility – poor flexibility often leads to poor posture
➢ Spinal subluxations – Any spinal change will obviously affect posture
➢ Spiritual challenges – This is very similar to emotional stress
➢ Primitive reflexes – These reflexes are ingrained into our central nervous system from in utero and have a high degree of influence on our motor skills. Underdevelopment of a primitive reflex will generally impair movement skills and thus degrade posture
➢ Parental influences – Children will observe their parents and copy them
➢ And many more!

Balanced posture is a very challenging objective to achieve due to the plethora of factors that affect it. Here are some action steps and exercises that will assist you achieve optimal posture and aesthetics

1. Get your work ergonomics checked. It does not matter how good your exercise program is if you spend 8 hours a day hunched over! Your DC Health practitioner and many others can assist you in setting up an ergonomically sound workplace.
2. Get a personalized exercise program. A program customized for you is one of the most important areas of addressing poor posture. A good program will always result in a move towards better alignment. If your posture has been degrading with your current exercise program, it is time to get a new one.
3. The standing wall lean exercise

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4. Lying longitudinal foam roller mobilization. Please speak to your DC Health practitioner about getting a foam roller

Fast Tube by Casper

I want to lose weight, When is the best time to go for a run? First thing in the morning?

Is it the evening? How long should I run for? How many days should I run?

These are some of the most regular questions that seem to be asked.

The answer to the question is that sprint training is one of the best ways to shed that unwanted body fat.

Why?

Rather than going for a ridiculous run for an hour, or jogging at a steady pace, sprint training will have a far more effective result. This is because sprinting creates a massive amount of lactic acid like other taxing exercises such as squats and dead lifts. The lactic acid secretion when released causes an increase in the release of growth hormone.

What is growth Hormone?

Growth hormone is a protein hormone made up of amino acids that are synthesized and secreted by cells in the anterior pituitary which is in the brain. It is secreted in short surges during the first hours of sleep and after exercise, and it only remains in the circulation for a few minutes. So how the whole thing works is that your fat cells have human growth hormone receptors and growth hormone stimulates them to break down triglycerides and suppresses their ability to take up and accumulate circulating lipids. This helps you to burn fat and keep it off! You also need to look after yourself by getting a good night’s sleep, ideally 8 hours. This is because the majority of our growth hormone is released at night. So sprinting during the day and having a good sleep is one of the fastest, most effective methods of fat loss.

This is also a great way to maximise fat loss because it doesn’t give you a negative effect on your strength. Low intensity cardio work such as running for long periods can also work for fat loss, will take twice as long, and at the same time can overstimulate your body and cause you to increase your cortisol, (the stress hormone). This hormone is catabolic, meaning it destroys muscle tissue, which slows down your metabolism!

Here’s an example you could follow.

Sprint 400m then rest for 2 minutes. Do this 4 times.

Then that’s your work out.

Then as the weeks for by decrease the rest period by 20 – 30 seconds. Then once you get down to a minutes rest, increase the sets.

Another option is to sprint 20 seconds flat out then rest 20 seconds. Repeat 6 times for a total of 4 minutes.

My definition of a functional exercise is any exercise that achieves the desired outcome. This essentially means that any exercise is a functional exercise if the result of performing the exercise is congruent with the result you desire. This definition of functional exercise has quite a few ramifications.

1. It means that the health and fitness professional has to perform a comprehensive needs analysis as part of the initial assessment
2. It means that any exercise can fall into the modality of a functional exercise if governed by the desired outcomes of the program.
3. It means that the health and fitness professional needs to fully understand what the end result of each exercise they prescribe is, and understand how to manipulate the acute exercise variables of sets, reps, tempo and rest.
4. It means the end of generalized exercise programs given to people with no carefully planned influence on achieving the outcome.

This approach is a far more individualized approach which is far more likely to result in positive outcomes for everyone involved. It also specifies that the health and fitness professional has a far deeper understanding of exercise than is the standard in the industry today.

A full needs analysis needs to be performed at the beginning of any persons exercise program, regardless of exercise history or physical capabilities. Ideally this should include a comprehensive goal setting session, identification of orthopedic concerns that can hinder performance and cause pain, identification of past dietary history, injury history and lifestyle awareness. All these factors contribute to the determination of what truly is a functional exercise for that particular person. Consideration also needs to be made for what is the priority for the client – the resolution of a problem or an aesthetic desire. Quite often the orthopedic condition will inhibit the desired physical outcome which will not allow that goal to be achieved. Explanation needs to be presented to the client so that client satisfaction is maintained. An example of this is a client wanting to gain muscle mass in the upper body. Exercises such as barbell and overhead shoulder presses would be perfectly suitable in this context. This client however presents with a rigid Thoracic spine Kyphosis which limits their ability to extend their shoulder joint and press objects overhead. An exercise in which a weight is pressed overhead is therefore traumatic to the shoulder and is not congruent with the client’s goals. This needs to be explained and corrective exercise should be performed until the shoulder joint is fully functional again. This can also include referral to other practitioners to resolve the problem as efficiently and effectively as possible. After this has been completed the overhead press returns to its position as a functional exercise for that goal.

Exercise selection needs to be matched to the goal to be truly functional. This allows for exercises such as machine based exercises such as leg presses to be functional and exercises such as a Supine Hip Extension Back on Ball. This requires an understanding of what each exercise does. The main thing that needs to be understood by the health and fitness professional is the goals desired.

The manipulation of chronic exercise variables and the end result of any given exercise is of utmost importance when prescribing a truly functional exercise program. The effects of sets, reps, tempo rest and the actual exercise needs to be understood in regards to the muscular system, the endocrine system, the cardio-respiratory system, pressure increases or decreases in body cavities, effects on intestinal peristalsis, autonomic nervous system influence and the energy systems of the body. An example of this is understanding that long duration low intensity cardiovascular training has a stimulating effect on the aerobic energy system, the Sympathetic nervous system, an increased activation of the flight or fight endocrine system, increased vascular flow particularly to the lower extremities and increase of the use of stored lipids as a fuel substrate. It also needs to be understood that metabolically its effect on the metabolic rate is limited and lasts for only the duration of the exercise and increases stress hormone production so for the stressed and overweight individual it may not be the most functional exercise choice for improving metabolic rate and losing rate.
A exercise modality such as Swiss Ball exercise may be a better modality for this person because breathing may be controlled therefore reducing stress hormone production, be neurologically stimulating so engage the nervous system for many hours after exercise therefore increasing basal metabolic rate, improving posture and core stability therefore better supporting the organs and improving functions such as digestion and elimination, functions which are already compromised in the stressed out person and being fun, providing motivation, variety and adherence to the program.

A return to functional exercise also means the end of generalized programs given out in gyms and health clubs. With the understanding of what truly makes an exercise functional these programs become obsolete and truly personal programs become the norm, not the exception. Hopefully this article inspires you to go further with your education and learn to truly care for your clients. All it takes is a little patience, thoroughness and thought!

So, here we go…

With flattening the abs many factors have to be taken into consideration. It is not as simple as exercise and cutting calories. If it was, every person who went to a gym would have six pack abs and this is clearly not the case. Some of the factors that need to be looked at include:
Food allergies and intolerances
Digestive health
Processed food intake
Co-ordination and recruitment sequencing of the abdominal wall
Visceral conditions
Intake of medical drugs
Proper training technique
Emotional stress
All these factors add up in the body and need to be addressed to get you to your goals. Now lets look at these in greater detail.

Food allergies and intolerances are one of the biggest reasons why people can’t flatten their abs. Food intolerances are highly likely in society today with the amount of foods that we eat that have not been here in the last 100 years. According to research by BioHealth Diagnostics founder Bill Timmins over 60% of Caucasian people have gluten intolerance. When the food pyramid tells us we should be eating 6-11 servings of cereal grains a day it creates a few problems. Similar figures exist for dairy consumption but the reasons for that are enough to fill another post.

How food intolerances affect our ability to contact our abs is the inflammation they create. When we become allergic or intolerant to a food, when we put it in our mouths our immune system becomes hyper vigilant and creates a ton of inflammation in an attempt to destroy the offending food. This inflammation reduces the ability of the abdominal wall to contract which I will explain in detail later on. We generally become intolerant of a food for 2 main reasons:
Genetic factors
Poor digestion and ‘Leaky Gut syndrome’
The first factor is something that there is not much that we can do about. Leaky gut is a syndrome that is caused by poor lifestyle and poor choices. What happens in a leaky gut is that food particles in the small intestine irritate the lining of the intestinal wall. They affect the micro villi (small hair like projections that look like tentacles) and the mucus covering of the wall, create leaks and get into the bloodstream. food particles are not supposed to be in the blood stream! On another note, that is one of the flaws with the Eat Right for Your Type books. Many of the studies on food lectins ( the substances that cause our problems by causing our blood to clump together) have been done on food added to blood isolated in test tubes. This is not how food gets into our bodies. A person with healthy digestion is completely capable of handling food lectins – although this is a minority of people.

This situation creates some problems for us as we try to flatten our abs. One of the things the body does when an organ is under stress is cause pain and dysfunction is inhibit or communicate through the musculoskeletal system. This is called a viscerosomatic reflex. This is not a radical concept. For many years we have known that one of the impending signs of a heart attack is pain radiating down the left arm to the little finger. Many women get back pain every month that coincides with their cycle. It is not an unknown subject but is neglected by therapists, doctors and trainers when it comes to training programs and rehabilitation.

Beal has described the phenomenon of viscera-somatic reflexes as resulting from afferent stimuli, arising from a dysfunction of a visceral nature. An afferent nerve is a nerve that carries impulses towards the spinal cord from an organ or muscle. The reflex is in initiated by afferent receptors, which are then transmitted to the Dorsal horn of the spinal cord, where they synapse with interconnecting neurons. The stimuli are then converted to sympathetic and motor afferents and result in measurable changes in skeletal muscle, skin and blood vessels.
Abnormal stimulation or dysfunction, which is often caused by dietary choices can result in the following symptoms:
Hyperaesthesia of the skin
Vasomotor, pilomotor and sudomotor changes
Reflex rigidity of the somatic musculature
Sensory motor amnesia and the inability to voluntarily and involuntarily recruit the muscle
Sensory motor amnesia was first identified by Thomas Hanna, the creator of the Somatics school of neuromuscular retraining. It is the inability to recruit muscles in the correct patterns required for normal function. This can really affect your abdominal training efforts! An example of this is inflammation in the stomach. This can be caused by alcohol, non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs or simply stress. The stomach receives its sympathetic innervation (the same part of the nervous system that innervates the muscles) from the 5th to the 9th Thoracic Vertebrae. The external oblique, internal oblique, rectus abdominis and the Transversus Abdominis are all innervated by Anterior Primary Rami of T7-T12. This means a stress on the stomach will affect all abdominal muscle recruitment patterns! What happens concomitantly with this loss of abdominal recruitment is the spinal muscles become reflexively rigid. This loss of stabilization with extra torque can very often cause low back pain.

This illustrates to us the importance of a proper diet for flat abdominals. It becomes more complicated when you look at immediate onset of food allergy and delayed onset food allergies. An immediate onset is usually obvious. A reaction to peanuts, where a person can go into anaphylactic shick and die is an immediate onset reaction. The second kind, which is far more common, is a delayed onset food allergy. These allergies are not immediately traceable and can cause reactions in the body for as long as the food remains in the body. When it is totally eliminated the problems will stop. Unfortunately, due to modern dietary choices our transit times have been greatly lengthened. Transit time is simply put the time from which a food enters the mouth until it exits the anus. Dr Dennis Burkitt discovered while looking at native Africans that their average transit time was 12 hours. A good transit time should be between 12 and 24 hours. Many people have a transit time of 56 hours, about what you would have if you have three bowel movements a week. This is not good from a health perspective as well.

Improper co-ordination and sequencing of the muscles involved creates problems as well. The abdominal musculature is a unique system with the muscles having nine sources of innervation. Most muscles have 2 sources, a primary and a secondary. This illustrates how complex this system is. Optimal recruitment patterns are needed for proper aesthetic appeal and proper function. Much research has been done linking low back pain to an inability to sequence proper abdominal sequencing. This is not a question of one muscle not being strong enough. It is a neurological issue meaning it is due to the nervous system. As i have illustrated above, we can clearly see that what we ingest affects the ability of our nervous system to recruit the right muscles.

Training the abdominals should then progress in a linear, hierarchal fashion. The process should be:
Isolation of the muscles that are dysfunctional.
Integration of these muscles into full body movement. This sequence could go -
Static Core – Static Extremity
Static Core – Dynamic Extremity
Dynamic Core – Static Extremity
Dynamic Core – Dynamic Extremity
The goal should be to integrate correct function of the abdominal wall into everyday life and movement patterns. To help with all this professional help is needed. If this interests you please look at the practitioners listed or contact me and I will put you in touch with one in your area.

Incorrect exercise choice also limits Abdominal development. Two examples of this is the crunch and lying leg raise. I will break these two common exercises down for you and offer up some better alternatives.

The crunch is an exercise that does not look at many things in regards to function but also aesthetics. The first problem with the crunch is that it is performed on the floor. Doing the exercise on the floor limits your range of motion significantly. The human spine has the ability to both flex and extend. The crunch on the floor puts you into a position of forward flexion. This then has further ramifications. When doing the exercise you are working in a shortened range of motion. It is like doing half a biceps curl. What will happen is you will get stronger in this shortened state is you adapt. Your muscles get shorter. When a muscle gets shorter it drops sarcomeres. Sarcomeres are functional units of muscle fibers. When this happens consistently these sarcomeres cannot be regained It is estimated you can only ever regain back 80% of your lost sarcomeres.

This flexed position which you are now stuck in affects your breathing. Your rib cage is immobilized which will force you to breathe through your mouth to get a full breath. This leads to further rigidity of the rib cage and thoracic spine. This flexion in the spine then affects shoulder function. When your thoracic spine is flexed doing a pressing motion vertically is very painful as the shoulder becomes impinged. This then limits the rest of your training and stops you from performing some very beneficial exercises.

The Lying leg raise does wonders for your low back. When you see this exercise performed you will often see the trainee failing to keep their low back pressed against the ground. They will generally have an increased lumbar arch or lumbar lordosis. This means that the main muscle that they are recruiting is not the abdominals but the hip flexors, in particular the psoas. The Psoas is a powerful muscle that originates on the vertebral bodies and transverse processes of all 5 lumbar vertebra and attaches to the lesser trochanter of the femur. When it gets stronger it pulls the lumbar spine further into extension, a position that is often associated with increased pain. It is often doe at high speeds with an unstable spine putting massive loads through the lower back.

Two exercises that helps fix these problems are the swiss ball crunch and the swiss ball prone jack knife. Doing a crunch on a swiss ball helps restore healthy range of motion to the thoracic spine and the swiss ball jack knife helps maintain a neutral posture in the lumbar spine while training the abdominals and the hip flexors to work together.

The last issue i would like to talk about is emotional stress. Emotional stress can be the downfall of every good intentioned exercise program. In the field of work I do, Sports Kinesiology each different emotion affects a muscle, an organ and a gland. This is known as the muscle/meridian/organ/gland matrix. This basically means that an issue in one part of the body will compromise the function of the body in many others. This is because the body seeks to disperse stress over as many systems as possible. This allows all systems to function rather than having the total shut down of one system. To describe these connections takes a 2 year diploma to understand but the important thing to take away is that your emotional health affects your performance and can undo all your attempts to train your abdominals.

These are some of the reasons why training the abdominals is such a complicated task. Simple exercise is not the solution. An integrated and holistic approach is required to really get to the ‘core’ issues. I hope this has helped you in your quest for optimal health

Sri Ramakrishna – Indian Mystic

This quote is powerful in what it is saying and can be interpreted in many ways. The classical interpretation of this quote is that God (or nature, the universal energy, the tao etc) is always there to assist us, we just have to be aware of it and open ourselves to it.

It can also be interpreted as the feeling of the flow state. The flow state is that magical state where time seems to stop and everything is perfect. We often see this state in sporting events as athletes get into ‘the zone’ and perform incredible feats. This is the stage that I think we all look for in our training and sporting goals. This state, as the quote says is not a random thing but a state that can and should be cultivated. If this state is cultivated, it can be more easily accessed time and time again leading to better performance.

One method of accessing this flow state is visualization. This method has been highly researched and is incredibly powerful. It has been found that by just visualizing a movement it fires the same motor circuits in the body used by the muscles! Many experiments have been done where the subjects have been able to increase their strength by up to 20% by just visualizing the movement! Visualization helps refine motor programs to the state from which they become automatic allowing you to fully concentrate on the task at hand.

To put this into practice in your rest periods at the gym visualize the next set. Look at every detail and try to include that in your vision. Try to involve your other senses such as how the set feels, what sounds, what smells are involved. Before a sporting game visualize how you would like to perform. Anticipate every opportunity or outcome and prepare strategies for it. By doing this you will be preparing for the game not only mentally but preparing your physiological, neuronal and hormonal systems.

Good luck and reach your potential

Paul