Re: For and the silhouette

[Guest guest]

Diane Bayley wrote:

>

>

> Hello group, this is my first posting. I don't have enough time to get

> on the net, but I have been reading alot of what the group has to say,

> and I wish to mention I worked as a nurse for over 30 years so I have a

> little medical knowledge there too.

>

>

> : I remember reading about the Minnesota Experiment [done in the

> late 1940s] to evaluate starvation, and one thing always stuck in my

> head with their findings. They found that even NORMAL [ie. THIN]

> people--after finishing the experiment [where they lived on a starvation

> diet for a time]--gained weight in one specific area after they went

> back to eating " normally " ......sadly, the area most women are always

> trying to lose weight in, the " lower " half of the body......sigh, the

> reason almost every women's magazine has articles and articles on

> " firming your abdomen " and " getting a great butt " ?

>

> If there is one thing to blame it seems to be genetics and our

> ancestors. Seems that this was a way to hold what fat we needed to

> exist while " wandering the plains in search of food " ........seems that

> the little bits of fat like to stay in that one area, try as we will to

> get rid of our big " bellys and butts " . And if your weight has gone up

> and down in your lifetime, it seems that the first place the new fat

> goes to is......think you can fill in the blank there also.........and

> the last place it leaves from also......

>

> Group: thank you for the very concise and detailed postings that are

> here. This is one of the best groups I have belonged to in , and

> it is a pleasure to check the website for new postings every day.

>

> =^.+.^=

>

> Diane........who's lost over 100 lbs and knows how that " silhouette "

> sadly will stay that way.......

>

>

>

>

>

Nothing is cast in stone... our bodies are pretty plastic when it comes

to muscular remodeling.

I recall after losing a great deal of weight being disappointed by not

seeing well defined Abs emerge from my middle. I developed the habit of

doing 300 easy crunches every morning before I get out of bed. It takes

all of 4 minutes and helps with the transition between sleep and

wakefulness. After it became established as habit I don't even think

about it.

While I don't have a ripped 6-pack, I have about a 4 1/2.

JR

[Guest guest]

>

>Nothing is cast in stone... our bodies are pretty plastic when it comes

>to muscular remodeling.

>

>I recall after losing a great deal of weight being disappointed by not

>seeing well defined Abs emerge from my middle. I developed the habit of

>doing 300 easy crunches every morning before I get out of bed. It takes

>all of 4 minutes and helps with the transition between sleep and

>wakefulness. After it became established as habit I don't even think

>about it.

>

>While I don't have a ripped 6-pack, I have about a 4 1/2.

>

>JR

My sports medicine doctor recommended that I do exercises to

strengthen my abdomen to avoid future injuries. (And help a current one to

heal)

I'd been doing the conventional

crunches, planks, supermans, and found that I made little progress over

time.

I told him that I'd read a book on how to strengthen your abs and

the exercises looked like the kind of things I did in karate class as a

kid. He told me that Pilates is better and is less likely to cause injuries.

I started going to Pilates classes and found that these were a lot

of fun. There were two different Pilates instructors at Cornell and they

taught classes that were quite different: one class used a " Swiss Ball "

(infaltable ball 60 cm in radius) most of the time, while another was

entirely exercises done on the mat using rubber bands for resistance.

The " conventional wisdom " is that building up your abdominal

muscles will make your abdomen thicker, but I'll tell you that the women

in the Pilates class had the best figures I'd ever seen -- from age 20 to

age 60.

Here's my take on how it works.

Your muscles always need to push against something in order to do

their work. This is true for your little muscles (typing on a computer

keyboard) and for your big muscles (hauling rocks around.) In most

cases, you push against your center of gravity. Any

motion, therefore, involves a chain that goes all the way back to your

center of gravity, or your " core " . Your abdominal muscles are the last

link in that chain.

Muscles have multiple roles. One role is to push and pull things

in your environment, but another one is to stabilize joints and the action

of other muscles. It can get complicated: for instance, your quad-riceps

have four branches. The vastus medialus is on the inside of your leg and

pulls your kneecap in, and your vastus lateralis is on the outside and it

pulls your kneecap out. Your quadriceps can stablize your kneecap, or it

can pull it out of alignment with the rest of your knee.

Most people don't think about it, but your brain is capable of

firing the four branches of the quadriceps individually. Once you become

aware of them, you can learn to control them via a biofeedback

process. For me, a major goal in recovering from PFS is reprogramming my

brain to fire the vastus medialus while I do everyday activities... It

turns out, however, that this involves a complete chain that involves

muscles in the feet, lower legs, hips and abdomen. At first I curled my

toes when I started using my vastus lateralis while walking, but

eventually I learned I could complete the chain by pushing down a little

with my big toe.

In Pilates, you do a " tuck " which involves conciously engaging

many of your abdominal muscles, including the pelvic floor muscles. When

you do this you also find that your gluteal muscles kick in to balance the

pulling from the front. In Pilates you do all kinds of motions involving

your upper and lower bodies, while holding the " tuck " ; the point is that

you're not just strengthening the abs in the context of one artificial

motion, but you're strengthening and training your brain to automatically

fire them in all kinds of situations -- giving them a massive workout while

improving your biomechanics of everyday life.

One basic Pilates exercise involves standing tall with your heels

together and your feet pointing out at 45 degree angles -- like the corner

of a square. You do the tuck and conciously engage your hips to squeeze

your thighs together. Talking with my physical therapist, I realized that

this creates a perfect " platform " to engage my vastus medialus. I got

cramps in my hamstrings when I first did this exercise, so my PT gave me a

specialized stretch that helped out.

I do this exercise many times a day for " training " , but I also do

it whenever I'm worried about the position of my kneecap. My pain levels

have dropped dramatically and I'm noticing that my kneecap is out of whack

less often than before.

Pilates also has excellent exercises to target the smaller muscles

in the arms, such as the biceps and triceps than the usual bodybuilding

exercises you'll get at the gym. Overall I've been happy with dumbbell

curls for my biceps, but Pilates exercises for the triceps are a huge

improvement over skullcrushers and cable pull downs.

------------------

There's a lot of talk about " exercise " on this forum, often about

quantities, but I think quality is just as important. An exercise program

can impair your mobility as much as it can increase it. Most people who go

to a gym will see a " trainer " who gives them a cookie-cutter exercise

program. Most people will get some improvement from such a program, but

also a risk of injury. If you look deeper in the literature and find

better people to work with you'll discover that there's a science that

covers everything from recovering from severe injuries to training people

for high levels of function in sports.

I'm worried for my mother-in-law, who is waiting for surgery for

a serious knee injury. She's been on opiates for about a month -- her

insurance is going to pay a fantastic bill for her knee surgery, but it

won't pay a dime for physical therapy afterwards... Without PT, the

surgery is likely to be ineffective -- her insurance is really throwing

away the money they're spending.