April is for Abs

While I've had some great progress in the strength department and my speed seems to be back, I feel I've been neglecting my core. I've been only getting maybe one core workout a week. For myself and my workout philosophy I am being a major slacker. I firmly believe to build a better athelete, he/she needs to build a better core. Prior to my surgery I was doing core workouts 3 times a week, going through my circuits 3 times with extra weight. Today I can only run through my circuits twice with only body weight, which is disapointing by comparison. My goal for April is to do a core workout every other day or at most every two days.

I currently have four different core workouts that I created that I'm going to cycle through. I also will use P90X Ab Ripper X as well as a physioball core workout from the American Parkour (APK ) website. I personally believe that using the most diverse exercises will build the strongest core. Reason being that if your in an athletic situation your core does so many different movements that are completely unpredictable. By using one core workout or limiting your workouts only to certain core exercises your building strength and endurance for that one particular type of move, while your core needs to be strong in a variety of differents situations and movements. By combing diverse core movements your training for those unpredictable movements you will encounter during athletic activity.

My month of April my be core focused but I want to mention "spot training". Spot training is targeting an area of the body to reduce the amount of fat in that area. The problem is science has disproven this method. It doesn't work, especially in the abdomen area. The body burns fat from certain areas first and lastly in the abdomen, so body fat percentage is purely a nutritional and caloric issue. There for trying to do crunches or any other ab/core exercise to reduce fat on the abdomen is a feeble attempt to get that six pack. But! It will help by building the core. If you build those muscles and they grow they will "pop" more making then more defined with a higher body fat percentage. This is a weight gain blog but once you hit your goal weight you'll likely have some body fat you'll want to get rid of, its just part of the process. Sadly to intake the calories to gain weight the body will store fat, but as long as you keep you caloric intake within reason, gaining no more than two or three pounds a week, it shouldn't be a big issue.

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