It’s a sad fact of life that while men control the world, they don’t control their waistlines, especially as they enter middle age. When you’re in your 20s or 30s you can eat virtually with abandon, your metabolism is fast, you’re plain revved on life. Only the future lies ahead. You have, says, Gregory Florez, president and CEO of First Fitness Inc., a personal training company based in Salt Lake City, “a sense of invincibility.”
Then blammo! You enter your 40s and things start to change.
“Men that age are combating Mother Nature; their metabolism begins to slow and they’re starting to lose muscle mass, and that’s the beginning of when they look, well, pear-shaped,” says Tony Swain, director of training at the East Bank Club. “If we start adding weight it’s going first to our waist, abs and love handles, and those are the areas from which it’ll be the hardest to come off. The body is so used to storing fat there that it just doesn’t want to give it up.”
So what’s a man to do? Fight it, of course. But first, go into battle knowing the rules of engagement. For instance, ask yourself: Do I really, really want six-pack abs? After all, they have nothing to do with health or fitness and they’re so much work.
“The guys I meet who want them, the real Type A guys, want to do something epic. They’re the guys who look at the cover of Men’s Health magazine and say, ‘I want that. What do I need to do to get it?’ ” says Florez, whose company has trained more than 30,000 clients. But a six-pack isn’t necessary. In fact, he says, ripped abs are about aesthetics only. “If you’re doing it to meet your next wife, fine, but if you’re doing it because you think it’s what’ll make you healthy, think again.”
You do, however, want these muscles strong, and not merely so you look good in your bathing suit. These muscles form the core of your body, meaning, says Florez, “that anything you do in life-whether it’s a sport, lifting kids, putting bags in an overhead bin-if you have a strong, stable core you’re less likely to get injured, and your joints and ligaments and muscles are more likely to remain healthy much longer.”
Knowing the what, when and how of getting yourself in shape (see box) is important. But know the myths too.
Florez says one widely held misconception is that quantity is as important as quality. “Men try to do too many [repetitions] and they don’t do them with the right form, so they don’t complete a full range of motion,” he says. “They try to do them way too fast and they get frustrated quickly. Most men will quit within three weeks because they haven’t seen any change.”
Also, no matter what you’ve heard, both Florez and Swain emphasize that you cannot spot reduce. No amount of willing away or prayer will increase your chance of losing fat from a specific part of your body.
Another problem-Swain’s particular bugaboo-is that men often emphasize some muscle groups at the expense of others. That’s why you see so many big-chested, bird-legged men at the beach.
The abs aren’t large muscles, like those in the legs, for instance, so exercising them alone won’t decrease the size of your waist. The back and chest (and legs) burn a lot of calories, says Swain. Increasing the size of those muscle groups will keep your metabolism high, which will allow you to burn more calories, which in turn will help decrease the flab around your waist.
“Training the legs will do more to take weight off a man’s stomach than doing abs every day,” Swain says. “The problem is,” he says, “that guys don’t train the largest muscle group, yet they’ll continue to do a half-hour of crunches till they’re blue in the face.”
Also, says Swain, “I let clients know that we can do abs three days a week but if they keep eating those steaks and downing those beers and don’t do any cardio, we’re not doing anything more than strengthening the ab muscles. The layers of fat will remain. There is some discipline involved here, and a lot of these guys don’t like it.”
One guy who does like it, and has been disciplined about maintaining a strong middle his entire life, is Vic Boff (“Let’s just say I’m in my 80s,” he says coyly), author of the 1993 book “Molding Mighty Abdominals” and the founder and president of the Old-Time Barbell and Strongmen Association. “No one wants to look old,” says Boff, just in from doing some exercise in the pool. “I got on the bus the other day and put my senior fare in and the driver stopped me. ‘Hey, buddy,’ he said, ‘pay the full fare.’ Man, that’s what it’s all about.”
HOW TO WORK IT
– WHAT
Your abdominals include several muscle groups, including the rectus abdominis, which is made up of upper, middle and lower abs; the transverse abdominis, the deepest layer, which runs straight across your abdomen like a girdle; and the obliques, found under those love handles.
– WHEN
Muscles, whether they’re abdominals, pectorals or calves, increase in size by a breaking down of the muscle followed by repairing. So your abs, like any other muscle group, need their sleep; daily abdominal workouts are self-defeating.
– HOW
The most effective abdominal exercises were determined in a recent study led by Peter Francis, PhD, at the Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University and sponsored by the American Council on Exercise. First Fitness Inc.’s Gregory Florez, a spokesman for the council, says these include the traditional crunch we all know and love, as well as three variations: the bicycle maneuver, in which you lie flat on your back, bring your knees up to about a 45-degree angle and slowly touch your left elbow to your right knee, then your right elbow to your left knee; the reverse crunch, in which you lie on your back and bring your knees toward your chest; and the vertical leg crunch. To do this one, lie on your back and, with your knees slightly bent, raise your legs so your thighs are perpendicular to the floor. Crunch while keeping your legs still. Done properly, it’s a killer.
— D.S.
