From: Laura McBurnie
To: vocalist
Subject: Abs Workout
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Hi,

I'm hearing some worry that an intense ab workout may cause the ab muscles
to tighten up and interfere with healthy singing.
I'm not an expert, but I do a fair mix of ashtanga yoga, weights,
stairmaster, and whatever else occurs to me, and while I don't focus on my
abs, they do get worked out.
Here's what I think:
We place way too much emphasis on ab exercises in workouts, thinking that
working out those muscles as much as possible will help keep the stomach
flat. If your belly is jelly, then situps really won't do much. That's a
weight-loss issue, pure and simple. You could turn the abs into iron,
behind your belly, and it won't make much nevermind.
I'm not slender at 5'2" and 128lbs, just average, and while I do not do
situps unless it's part of an aerobics class I'm in, and apart from that
never focus on my abs except for yoga's Boat Pose, I see some muscular
definition on my stomach. There is a good double handful of fat over it,
that obscures it, but it is there, and I have never sought to turn my
stomach into a six-pack.
Your abs are there for stabilizing- try some plank poses for example- and
just plain protecting your innards! And they also have a fair bit to do
with singing, but QED you don't need to do a hundred situps a day to
sing.
Every exercise program can be modified to your own particular needs. My
doctor advised, some years ago, I stay away from crunches because my abs
were getting short from too many crunches, and it caused me to slouch.
So, often, I replace the ab exercises with something else, or do lots of
yoga to help me remember to be tall.

BUT! All of this aside, I want to point out that some of the fittest,
happiest, most flexible people I know (like my yoga teacher's teacher,
who can carry on a conversation, completely unruffled, while in the full
lotus position, balancing on her hands) don't have flat bellies. I don't
have a flat belly, and don't much care either. Tummy tucks, ab machines,
what have you... I guess the thing to do is step back and ask yourself how
necessary they really are, if you're happy and healthy. Exercise is
great; attempting to reinvent your body is sort of pointless.

My verbose $.02 (Canadian funds- I have to stretch my dollar)!
--
Laura McBurnie, Soprano
BMus Vocal Performance Student, Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 902-496-0360 ICQ#1871734
http://is2.dal.ca/~lmcburni/lhome.html lmcburni-at-is2.dal.ca
Song in my head right now: "Beim Schlafengehn" -Strauss