Knee Raise Dips: Advanced Ab Training Exercise To Get Shredded

By The Muscle Nerd, Jeff Anderson

Combine these 2 powerful exercises to see your abs FAST!

Sure there's a time for "micro-targeting" your abs to really dig in deep and shred some muscle fibers.

But you know that this is only HALF of the battle, right?

If you really want to see your 6-pack, you're gonna have to shred some FAT as well and the exercise I'm going to show you will help you accomplish BOTH...

...at the same time!

You see, by working a "chain" of muscles together, you can not only target muscle fibers for growth, but you also recruit more TOTAL muscle fibers.

This helps by increasing overall calorie expenditure DURING your workout...

...and jacks up your metabolism even higher AFTER your workout!

Here's a GREAT exercise that demonstrates this powerful principle:

"The Knee Raise Dip"

The concept is quite simple really, though it may take some working up to if you're not as strong in your upper body.

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Get yourself set up at a Dip Station (sorry...you won't be able to use the "Assisted Dip Station" at your gym if they have one).

To start, lower yourself all the way as you would if you were targeting your chest and arms (because you ARE).

Keep your elbows out so you use more "chest" than arms if you can.

This way you won't tire as quickly.

On the way UP during the repetition, you're going to continue the movement by bringing your knees up toward your chest, just as you would in a "knee raise" targeting your abs (um...because you ARE).

Then lower your knees back down as you begin your descent for your second dip repetition.

Continue in this movement until one of your muscle groups gives out.

To take it even further, once one muscle group DOES reach exhaustion, switch to doing ONLY the other exercise until you hit failure.

That may mean you hopping off the dip station and grabbing hold of a pull up bar to continue your knee raises, as an example.

Give this exercise a try and start slow to get the movement down.

You'll love this one so much, you'll make it a staple in your ab training!

The Belly Fat - Stress Connect

By David Grisaffi,
Author, Firm And Flatten Your Abs

Most people look at body fat as an enemy and they should to a certain extent. However, in understanding how to beat belly fat, it helps to understand the genetically engineered reasons that we store body fat the way we do and the differences between modern life and the way our ancestors lived. It all started with simple survival. Without the ability to easily store fat some of us would not even be here on this earth today, so thank your ancestors for improving the hardiness of your family's gene pool and keeping you in the mix.

Despite fat's value in the evolutionary scheme of things, excess belly fat can cause many problems and I'm not talking about whether you can tie your shoelaces. Belly fat - which refers largely to visceral fat, not just the subcutaneous fat below your skin - has been associated in recent years with all kinds of health problems ranging from heart disease, to strokes to diabetes. Fat can be cosmetically frustrating, but belly fat can also be deadly.

Gender is one factor that affects where you store your fat. Men store most of it in their belly, while women store more fat in their hips and thighs. Women store body fat in the lower body because of childbirth and hormonal reasons. After menopause when hormones change women also tend to begin storing more fat in the abdominal region.

But why does the fat go there so quickly and easily?

Why doesn't it just even itself out all across the body rather than concentrating in one unsightly area? And why do we get belly fat in the first place? Obviously, the first reason is caloric excess. That is always true in males and in females, so before you start pointing your finger at genetics, gender, hormones, adrenergic receptors or anything else, look at how much you're eating every day first.

At the risk of continuing to state the obvious, the second reason is not enough exercise. In today's modern technologically advanced society, we do not work like our grandparents did, and our waistlines show it. I also believe that in our society today, we are much more stressed out than our ancestors were. Sure, there were fight or flight situations in the natural environment which we no longer have today, but those occasional natural phenomena have now been replaced by continuous daily stress from our regular daily workload. Combine that with the reduced exercise and increased portion sizes and availability of food, and could this be a third reason for belly fat?

Experts argue about whether stress "causes" fat, but there is no question that stress correlates highly with fat and it creates a situation - both environmentally and hormonally - that is highly conducive to increasing fat. Because of the nature of stress hormones such as cortisol, combined with metabolic syndrome, excess insulin and insulin resistance that is the common result of sedentary lifestyle combined with refined foods, the caloric surplus is stored as visceral body fat and our bellies begin to bulge.

More and More Research Is Proving the Connection

More and more research is starting to explain, scientifically, how high levels of stress ultimately lead to increased body fat. In a paper published in the journal Hormonal Metabolic Research (Kyrou July 2007) Greek researchers said that stress may affect the thyroid by inhibiting the enzymatic conversion of T4 into the biologically active form, T3. They also noted that while stress causes a generalized catabolic state, the extended action of the glucocorticoids on the metabolic pathways eventually leads to increased visceral body fat accumulation and insulin resistance. In fact, numerous researchers now point at central obesity as the distinguishing factor in metabolic syndrome.

So although we may not be able to say that "stress causes belly fat" literally, there is very clearly a strong association between the two. How are your stress levels? What does your diet look like? How does your exercise regimen stack up? How does you belly look? Add high stress levels onto a sedentary lifestyle with an excess of calories and you have a textbook formula for gaining belly fat.

The belly fat, in turn can lead to more health problems than you ever thought. "Hundreds of studies have led to the conclusion that any fat can be problematic," said obesity expert Jeffrey S Flier, MD, "But it's much, much more dangerous when it's accumulated in the abdomen.," He added that pound for pound, fat that builds up in the abdomen is much more likely to cause diabetes and heart disease. His research is published in the Dec. 7 issue of Science.

Flier and his colleagues looked at a stress hormone called cortisol - the "fight or flight" hormone that kicks in during stressful situations. When the body produces excess cortisol, it tends to cause a build-up of belly fat.

So what do we do about all this?

In addition to the usual prescription of eat less and exercise more, it looks like we have to add something else: reduce stress… Relax and enjoy life. Stop worrying and start taking care of yourself. Consider taking up meditation. In light of the recent evidence about the stress-belly fat connection, this no longer seems like a "new agey" type of thing to do. Even of 5-10 minutes of breathing exercises daily could work wonders.

Many people are failing to reach their fat reduction goals because they have not considered the possible effect of stress on their weight as well as their health. This is one of the reasons I included a stress relief course along with my Flatten Your Abs Program.

When you combine the calorie deficit from nutrition with muscle building exercises, fat burning exercises AND stress relief exercises (which in my course include yoga and mind body relaxation techniques of Tai Chi And Qigong), you may very well have the most complete approach to a flat stomach that has ever been created.

You can learn more about the Firm And Flatten Your Abs program as well as the bonus courses, including the stress relievers program on the home page at:

www.FlattenYourAbs.net

Coach David Grisaffi,
Tacoma Washington

About the Author:

david_grisaffi.gifDavid Grisaffi majored in physical education and holds multiple certifications including 3 from the prestigious CHEK Institute: Level II high Performance Exercise Kinesiologist, Golf Biomechanic, and health and lifestyle counselor. He's also certified by the ISSA as a personal trainer and specialist in performance nutrition. David has been a high school wrestling and baseball coach and is currently an independent trainer and strength coach. He has been sought after by some of the top athletes in professional sports including world champion boxer Greg Haugen and professional golfer Michael Putnam. David’s ebook, Firm And Flatten Your Abs is an online best seller which teaches you how develop “six pack abs" while improving strength, function and athletic power at the same time. Find out more on the home page at: www.FlattenYourAbs.net

Why You Shouldn't Train Abs To Failure And The 3 Keys to Smarter Ab Training

By David Grisaffi,
Author, Firm And Flatten Your Abs

Smart trainees know that progression is the name of the game in fitness and strength training. However, as you continually test your limits of accomplishment, whether that’s reaching a new level of leanness, increasing your muscle mass or obtaining a new strength maximum, you often fall prey to the belief that you must push yourself to the point of complete “failure.” This is the point where you reach a level of fatigue and exhaustion that causes your muscles to literally give out (“fail”) and you can’t complete another rep.

Training with progression and intensity is important, but unless you’d like to trade a nice set of abs for a bad lower back, I’d strongly urge you to re-evaluate the concept of training to failure, especially when it comes to core and abdominal workouts and especially if you’re not a bodybuilder.

Why do so many people believe in failure training?

Training to “failure” became popular in part, because of bodybuilding culture and bodybuilding gurus such as Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones, and then the information filtered into the mainstream fitness world. Athletes, who tend to be as competitive with themselves as they are with their opponents, also sometimes push themselves as far as they possibly can in their quest for sporting excellence.

This approach may be misguided and possibly even dangerous.

There may be a small place for taking some sets to the point of failure in low volume bodybuilding programs. But even bodybuilders who train to failure too often may be gaining less benefit than they think, while increasing their chances of overtraining or even injury.

I believe strongly that the added stress of training to failure or total fatigue can cause more problems than it’s worth and the potential benefit is not worth the risk. I have rehabilitated many back pain patients because of their stubborn beliefs in “pushing it to the limit.”

Stimulate, Don’t Annihilate

Exercise places a stress on muscles, joint structures and the entire body. Exercising to failure places extreme stress on the muscles, body and the nervous system. There is positive training stress and negative training stress. Properly applied, training stress is “stimulation” which prompts an adaptation in the muscle – strength, stamina, size, or power. Improperly applied, training stress is damage beyond the point of necessarily stimulation. Even some of the top bodybuilders understood this, as former Mr. Olympia Lee Haney used to say, “Stimulate, don’t annihilate.”

Out of all the muscles and movements in particular, it is very important to stimulate your core and abdominals and not “annihilate” them. Be very careful not to over-train or over-stress your abs and core and this means, do not train your abs to failure.

One of the biggest problems with training the core and abs to failure is that the more fatigued you become, the more your form begins to break down. When your form breaks down, that is when injuries are most likely to occur. This is true for any exercise, but it may be truer for abs and core than any other type of exercise due to the susceptibility of the lower back.

Research by Dr. Laurence Morehouse of University of California at Los Angles found that when doing abdominal exercises, especially sit-ups, you over-work your hip flexor muscles - the psoas and the iliacus. When the exercises are performed quickly (form breaks) or all the way to failure (form breaks), the hip flexor’s pull on the lower back is increased.

When performing your core exercises, always be conscious about form, especially as you begin to get tired toward the end of a set. You should terminate your set at or before the point where you notice that your form breaks in the slightest, and that is usually a couple of repetitions before reaching muscular failure.

Progression Can Occur Without Failure

If you believe that stopping short of failure will hold back your progress, think again. Progress is a function of progression and progression can take place without failure. You can continue to improve your workouts and thereby your physique and performance by increasing repetitions and or resistance or even density… without ever training to failure.

Don’t Teach Your Nervous System “Bad Habits”

One point about proper form that few people realize is that if you train to the point of failure, which leads to a breakdown in form, this can lead to the development of poor motor engrams. Your nervous system can develop “bad habits” so to speak, as your body tends to automatically revert to what you practice the most. If the last repetitions of every set are usually done with poor form, then repeating that motor pattern is much more likely to occur in the future, leading to additional muscle and joint damage.

I design core conditioning programs in a specific way so you train smarter and avoid temptations that lead to poor form and potential injury. And that leads us to…

The 3 Keys To Smarter Ab Training

First, I recommend that exercises are performed in a certain order

By placing the more neurologically demanding and form intensive exercises first in a carefully planned sequence, I help my clients avoid a situation where fatigue and form breakdown would be as damaging. If you attempt the opposite, you increase the chance of over fatiguing the segmental stabilizers of the spine and you produce poor motor engrams.

More details on exercise sequencing are beyond the scope of this article, but you can learn more in my Firm and Flatten Your Abs program and in my Six Weeks to Six Pack abs report.

Second, I constantly emphasize form and control

Nowhere is strict form more important for your safety and results than in core and abdominal training. The simple advice of slowing down the tempo and focusing on form will increase results and help keep you out of the doctor’s office.

There are times when you may want to perform core exercises at a higher rate of speed with more velocity or explosiveness. This is often the case with athletic, sports-specific training. But speed and form are not mutually exclusive and the same rules about fatigue and failure still apply to explosive training.

I train elite boxers and when they first show up at my studio, they are often set in their old ways of failure, fatigue and overtraining. I’ve seen it over and over again: A new client’s routine consists of “workout till you drop” and then 1000 flat board sit-ups. I simply ask: “How is your lower back”? The answer usually is, “It’s sore” at best, or “It’s injured” at worst. Even if they’re simply experiencing unnecessary soreness, that gets in the way of sport-specific training and their progress is slowed all around or grinds to a halt.

Third, you must get clear about the desired outcome of your training

Many strength trainers and bodybuilders are convinced that the outcome of a workout should be “burn,” fatigue and failure. If you think that aching muscles is the desired outcome, then why even go to the gym? Come over to my garage and I’ll whack you a few times with my sledgehammer then sit you up on my barbecue grill. You’ll “ache” and “burn” alright!

Joking aside, you must get clarity about your real training objectives – they’re NOT pain, fatigue and failure. If you begin with the right end in mind, you’ll set about reaching that end more intelligently.

Your training objective is to strengthen your core region for support, stabilization and protection of your spine and body organs, and your ultimate outcomes are to be healthier, perform better and look better (perhaps in that order of priority!)

These objectives are best accomplished by performing your exercises with strict, controlled form, and by using movement patterns such as flexion, extension and rotation. However, any one of those movement patterns taken to extremes can eventually cause damage to joint structures, which can put you on the sidelines and only take you further away from your true objectives.

Train hard, but also train smart

Progression and intensity are often confused with the need to train to failure. From this day forward, I suggest you re-evaluate the scientific facts as well as your mindset towards your training. Get clear about your true objective and train to succeed, not to “fail.”

Coach David Grisaffi,
Tacoma Washington
www.FlattenYourAbs.net

About the Author:

David Grisaffi majored in physical education and holds multiple certifications including 3 from the prestigious CHEK Institute: Level II high Performance Exercise Kinesiologist, Golf Biomechanic, and health and lifestyle counselor. He's also certified by the ISSA as a personal trainer and specialist in performance nutrition. David has been a high school wrestling and baseball coach and is currently an independent trainer and strength coach. He has been sought after by some of the top athletes in professional sports including world champion boxer Greg Haugen and professional golfer Michael Putnam. David’s ebook, Firm And Flatten Your Abs is an online best seller which teaches you how develop “six pack abs" while improving strength, function and athletic power at the same time. Find out more on the home page at:www.FlattenYourAbs.net

The Lower Abdominals

By David Grisaffi,
Author, Firm And Flatten Your Abs

The lower abdominals may be the single most popular subject among fitness enthusiasts today. This is due to the fact that having flat, tight, lower abdominals is a highly desired look, but a very difficult look for most people to achieve. Many fitness professionals insist that there is no such thing as "lower abdominals", While others propose that exercises like crunches work the upper abs more and exercises such as leg raises or reverse crunches work the lower abs more.

Before continuing, first keep in mind that no abdominal exercise can "spot reduce" lower abdominal fat. Many people feel a need to perform special "lower ab" exercises, not realizing that the real reason they can't see their lower abs has nothing to do with their choice of abdominal exercise, and everything to do with an excess of fat and possibly digestive problems

Because of genetics and hormones like estrogen - the lower abdominal region is simply one of the first places most people store body fat. Therefore the same is true in reverse - lower ab fat is the last place to come off. Removal of lower abdominal body fat is a separate issue than lower versus upper abdominal muscle recruitment and body fat problems can only be addressed by creating a caloric deficit and addressing lifestyle factors. This requires proper nutrition, not special "lower ab" exercises.

Second, it's true that you cannot isolate the upper and lower abdominals from one another. Both upper and lower abdominals are activated during the performance of any abdominal exercise. The rectus abdominis is one long muscle, not two separate muscles. However, the nerve innervation of the upper and lower portions is different.

Although you cannot completely isolate upper and lower abs, research has used electromyography (EMG) testing to try and determine whether certain exercises can emphasize one section of the abs more than another. Results have shown very clearly that the obliques can be recruited more with specific exercises. However, data on lower versus upper abs is mixed.

For example, a 2001 study by Lehman and McGill published in the journal Physical Therapy said, "Differences between the portions of the rectus abdominis muscle are small and may lack clinical or therapeutic relevance." On the other hand, a study by Willett and colleagues at the University of Nebraska said, "our findings support the concept that abdominal strengthening exercises can differentially activate various abdominal muscle groups." A 2007 study by Eric Sternlicht found major increases in EMG activity (93%) of the lower abdominals simply by changing body placement on a swiss ball during the crunch exercise.

I believe it is very possible that the upper and lower abdominal areas can be emphasized to a greater degree by the choice of exercise. The abdominal region is somewhat unique because unlike muscles such as the bicep, the abdominals are divided by tendinous intersections which correlate to various segments of the spinal column. It has been proposed that these segments may be under separate neurological control.

As I learned in my internship from the Paul Chek Institute, as early as 1934, Joel E. Goldthwaite in his book "Body Mechanics in Health and Disease," determined that there was a difference between the control mechanisms of the upper abs versus the lower abs. In other words the "electrical system" that controls each section is innervated by different wiring.

Some years ago a TV special filmed a belly dancer rolling a few quarters up, down, sideways and diagonally across her belly. I have seen a similar feat with my own eyes as my brother can do a "belly roll" - an impressive feat of abdominal muscle control somewhat akin to a caterpillar inching its way across the floor, by rolling one segment of its body a time. Although this may simply be an individual trait and or a well-practiced skill, it's suggestive that different segments of the abdominals can function independent of each other, indicating that they may be on different neurological circuits.

Evidence of separate innervation may also be seen when a person with great upper abdominals experiences distention in the lower abdominal region, commonly known as a "pooch belly," despite low body fat. Explanations include gastrointestinal issues, bloating or food intolerances that allow the lower abdominal wall to protrude as a result of inflammation inside the gut. However, there may be a neuromuscular explanation as well. If the muscles that hold in the gut contents are weak or suffer from poor neural connections, the lower abdominal wall may bulge outward, independent of body fat levels.

There are many opinions on this controversy, as well as conflicting research data. Some experts believe strongly that "lower ab exercises" are just another fitness myth and that the case is simply closed. However, the abdominal and core region may be much more complex than just one long sheet of muscle running from the sternum to the pubic bone that contracts completely along its length or not at all. I believe we should keep an open mind to the possibility of being able to emphasize the upper or lower area to a greater degree, as some of the EMG studies suggest.

Assuming that the lower abdominals can be stressed to a greater degree with choice of exercise, this has significant implications for creating highly effective and individualized training programs. Lower abdominals should be trained with (1) proper exercise sequence (lower abs first), (2) proper selection and (3) proper progression. A common mistake is when a beginner with weak lower abs attempts to do advanced exercises such as hanging leg raises. This demonstrates improper exercise selection and progression and will do nothing but build muscle imbalances. These imbalances will manifest in poor posture and lead to injury and low back pain.

Upper and lower abdominals can be tested and I outline two easy assessments to find out your level of lower abdominal conditioning in my Firm and Flatten Your Abs e book. When you take the upper and lower abdominal tests before starting the program, you will easily see the difference between the two and then you will know which areas to prioritize the most, which exercises you can safely begin with and how to get the best results possible from your training program. You can get more information on the Firm And Flatten Your Abs home page at http://www.flattenyourabs.net

Coach David Grisaffi,
Tacoma Washington
www.FlattenYourAbs.net

About the Author:

David Grisaffi majored in physical education and holds multiple certifications including 3 from the prestigious CHEK Institute: Level II high Performance Exercise Kinesiologist, Golf Biomechanic, and health and lifestyle counselor. He's also certified by the ISSA as a personal trainer and specialist in performance nutrition. David has been a high school wrestling and baseball coach and is currently an independent trainer and strength coach. He has been sought after by some of the top athletes in professional sports including world champion boxer Greg Haugen and professional golfer Michael Putnam. David’s ebook, Firm And Flatten Your Abs is an online best seller which teaches you how develop “six pack abs" while improving strength, function and athletic power at the same time. Find out more on the home page at: www.FlattenYourAbs.net