Waist Your Breath - Breathing For A Thinner Waist
The crunch exercise is the backbone of abdominal training. It develops the muscles of the abs to help you build that much-desired six-pack. But did you know that there is a way to do crunches that can actually decrease the size of your waist? The key to this technique is the top position of the crunch where your abdominals are contracted as hard as they are able to. When you're in this top position, I want you to breathe in and out slowly a few times. Try to relax every other muscle except the abs. This breathing in and out will intensify the contraction (as you will find out very rapidly). Here's how it works: The muscles of the abdomen are arranged in layers around your midsection, similar in concept to the rings in a tree. While you are contracting the rectus abdominus (the top-most front layer of your abs, also known as your six-pack) continuously, the deeper abdominal muscle fibers are relaxing and contracting each time you breathe. Each time the deep fibers relax, your rectus abdominus (because it is contracting so hard) will squeeze them in a little more, making your waist-area a little smaller and tighter. The reason this works to decrease the size of your waist is simple. Usually, most people's abdominal muscles just kind of sit there. They don't stay tight, therefore your midsection tends to slouch forward and outward. This technique teaches your abdominals to maintain a degree of tightness and tone in them even when you are relaxed. This keeps your abs in, leading to a visually smaller waist. For more information on how to properly execute the Abdominal Crunch, go to http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Exercises/Crunches.htm?news About The Author Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness, and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of" at http://www.thebestexercises.com or visit http://www.fitstep.com. You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.
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Stretching can be great, but it can also make existing injuries worse or even bring about new ones!
The key to making stretching work for you is knowing which stretches you need to be working on? and just because a muscle feels tight, that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be stretched.
For example, many people stretch the hamstrings because they feel tight and they think the hamstrings are limiting their flexibility?
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As you can, when the pelvis tips forward the hamstrings get pulled upward and are constantly held in a stretched position?
And this is why millions of people can stretch their hamstrings every freakin day and never make any improvement in their flexibility?.
Are you one of those people?
If you are, you need to stop stretching your hamstrings and find out exactly which muscles you need to be targeting by reading the rest of this article?
Not only does this forward tipping of the pelvis (which is caused by muscle imbalances) keep the hamstrings tight and make it very difficult to make improvements in the muscles flexibility, but it also leads to the following:
? increased stress / wear and tear from the ankles all the way up the spine
For example, the forward tipping of the pelvis places uneven pressure on the ankle, knee and hip joints and also many of the vertebrae in the spine.
? weakens the hamstrings, inhibits normal functioning and increases the likelihood of hamstring pulls
When the hamstrings are constantly being strained because of the muscle imbalances, the muscle is weak, not able to function as it normally would, prone to injury and without correcting the muscle imbalance recover can take up to 9 months to a year, or longer!
? creates excess curvature in the lower and middle spine
This tipping of the pelvis places excessive amounts of abnormal stress on the muscles, vertebrae and discs in the lower and mid spine and this sets you up for potential injuries to the muscles of the lower and middle back?
Plus, it also causes the discs between your vertebrae to wear down and deteriorate much faster than they normally would and this sets you up for degenerative, bulging, protruding and herniated discs along with numerous other spinal conditions like arthritis, spinal stenosis, and the oh so popular sciatica!
This hamstring example is just one of many? muscle imbalances are responsible for nearly every ache, pain, injury and condition out there!
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? ankle pain (Achilles tendonitis, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, etc)
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When you compare a targeted stretch to general stretches like the ones found in Yoga, Pilates and the corny ones your doctor, chiropractor or physical therapist gives you, it's no surprise they give little or no pain relief and almost always fail to get rid of the problem.
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