TRAIN OR NOT TO TRAIN?

[lilkoreangirl]

Hi ladies,

I've been told, "If you do enough cardio and eat right, your fat will melt away proportionately and your abs will come through regardless. Ab training is a waste of time...don't even get me started on crunches and sit-ups."

Is training your abs really a sham? I'm all about crunches and sit-ups and ab training machines [or whatever is best], but I don't want to be wasting my time.

I'd appreciate any insight on this. I'm getting frustrated with seeing everything thing else begin to lean out and no change in my mid-section-reflection...

Thank you in advance.
lilkoreangirl.

 

[IslandGirl]

Hi there lkg!

You are right in that with the right nutrition being almost pretty strict and enough cardio your fat will melt away, but unfortunately not proportionately. For women it is either the butt and hammies or mid-section that is the last to come in. It will come with consistency and patience, but you have to stay with it and not cave in when you see no results.

Training abs is not a sham. It will make the abs more deeper and have more depth. Sometimes you will see men and women who is really lean, but there mid-section is just flat with no depth. When doing weighted ab work, you don't need to do heavy weights. Enough where you can feel the abs working. And when doing any side bends...do not add weight. Just use your body weight.

How is your nutrition and cardio schedule like now?

Tracy

 

[lilkoreangirl]

Right now I train separate body parts every day after work with about 30 minutes of cardio in the mornings before work. I do VERY LOW/low carbs Mon-Wed and Fri & Saturday with High carbs on Thursdays (250g) and Whatever-the-hell-I want on Sundays (please don't take that away!) On Mondays I try to drop my carbs super low to make up for the binge prior. I try to get at least 150 grams of protein in every day.
Thanks for your response.
lkg

 

[IslandGirl]

Mmmm......well, you will see results with your current nutrition, but your results will take longer IMO, with your cheat day. How long have you been on this plan? If I may ask, how much do you weigh and your height? I'm currently at 115 lbs., 5'2" (prior to comp prep, I was 131) and get in at least 200 g. of protein a day. When I was at 131, I was getting in an average of 220-250 g. of protein a day.

 

[lilkoreangirl]

Of course I don't mind! I'm a big girl though! I'm 5'4 at 150. This is my third week on the plan....

 

[IslandGirl]

I wish I was a big girl! I don't mind my height, but it takes alot of hard work for me to add on quality muscle!!!

You said that you're doing 30 mins of cardio before work in the am. How many days are you doing this? Is this on an empty stomach?

 

[lilkoreangirl]

I'm shooting for 30 minutes of morning-empty-tank-cardio 5 times a week. With cardio in the afternoon on weekends. I just implemented cardio because he said I need to build it up so as to not plateau my body's tolerance for it. To fit into the I-don't-want-to-be-the-'soft'-girlfriend-at-the-bodyrock-outfit, I got up to 3 hours of cardio a day, which he says is way too much. He says I should be able to manipulate my diet and to out at 1.5hrs max of cardio a day.

 

[IslandGirl]

I agree on the cardio. I believe in only 1 hour cardio broken up in 2 sessions a day (so 30 min. each session) and that is only at the ending part of prep. You have to start slow because once you get to a max....where do you go from there?