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To: "'VOCALIST'" <vocalist>
Subject: RE: Abs Workout
Date sent: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 00:30:50 -0500
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

On washboard abs and ab workouts:

1. Having a good abdominal routine is necessary for good health. The
abdominals are stabilizers that assist your back in staying healthy.
2. Whether or not they turn into washboard abs depends mostly on the % of
bodyfat on your body. Whoever mentioned that you can have a good, hard slab
of abdominal muscle behind a couple layers of fat is right. And, just to
iterate: Spot reducing does not work. Try the diet first, while giving
your entire body a good workout.
3. Good muscle tone generally allows for the person to feel more energized
and better about themselves. Your singing will only benefit from this.
4. Muscle tone does not indicate that you are "tight" or "tense." A
healthy, heavily-muscled individual can have a great degree of flexibility.
5. Laura, if your abdominal muscles were causing you to slouch, then (in my
opinion, since I don't know you personally) you weren't paying enough
attention to the muscles in the lower back. Bodybuilders that do all the
crunches, but never work their lower back to counter and give good, strong
support on both sides, end up with kind of a weird look to their abs, due to
this effect. There may have been no good reason for your doctor to suggest
that you stay away from crunches.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-vocalist [mailto:owner-vocalist]On
Behalf Of Laura McBurnie
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2000 9:22 PM
To: vocalist
Subject: Abs Workout


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