From: markf@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Mark Friedman)
Newsgroups: misc.fitness
Subject: Re: Abdominal Workouts
Date: 14 Apr 92 15:32:17 GMT
Reply-To: markf@zurich.ai.mit.edu
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.
In-reply-to: wood@kong.siemens.com's message of 14 Apr 92 01:38:42 GMT

In article <wood.703215522@kong> wood@kong.siemens.com (Jim Wood) writes:

** apr92_20@doe.carleton.ca (Anand Raju (Temporary Account 97.589)) writes:
** 
** >A friend lent me a booklet called "Legendary Abs"
** >...
** >Would I get results faster if I increase it to every day?  I can
** >see why working out other day is preferred if you want to increase
** >muscle mass, but these exercises are to tone rather than build.
** 
** I do abdominals 5-6 days per week religiously, and my goal is to
** *tone* rather than to build mass.  For toning there should be no
** restriction to every other day, unless you just plain don't want to
** do it!

  Here I go up on my soapbox again.

  I think that what most people call "toning" is just a combination of
bodyfat reduction and moderate muscle growth, that is, they want some
definition in their body. It seems that many people think that this
combination of goals requires a different basic training paradigm than
"ordinary" weight training or fat reduction techniques. This often
leads them to everyday workouts and/or spot reduction attempts.

  What people don't seem to realize is that this combination of
bodyfat reduction and muscle growth is pretty much exactly what
bodybuilders aim for and they have developed some fairly effective
basic guidelines for achieving them. Two of them which seem to be
consistantly violated by the "toners" are to give bodyparts at least
two days of rest (i.e. don't work them every day) between workouts and
to do multiple sets of roughly 6 - 15 repetitions per set.

  I belive that part of the reason for why some people want to do
believe in toning is that they don't want to look like a bodybuilder,
so they figure that they should workout differently than a
bodybuilder. What they don't realize is that the body that they do
want is on the path from where they are now to where serious
bodybuilders are. It's just much closer to where they (the
non-bodybulders) currently are.

  I'll repeat something here that I have said to a number of women
(who seem to be especially subject to this fear): You will not wake up
one day with big muscles. Your muscles grow a little bit at a time.
Once you get your body to look how you want it to, you can stop
bodybuilding (actually, you probably just want to ease up). The same
idea applies to bodyfat reduction. Just stop when you have achieved
the definition that you desire.

  The point is: Why use an inefficient approach (toning) when you
could be using an efficient approach (bodybuilding)?

  I should point out here that even many experienced bodybuilders seem
to take the "toning" approach to abdominals. I (and Legendary Abs)
don't accept it. I don't see why the same guidelines that work for
every other muscle group should not apply to abs. I think that it's a
vestige of belief in spot reducing.

  Thanks for listening to my ravings.

-Mark
--

Mark Friedman
MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
545 Technology Sq.
Cambridge, Ma. 02139

markf@zurich.ai.mit.edu
Newsgroups: misc.fitness