The Best Exercise for a Smaller Waist. Back in the day, bodybuilders were judged on having small waists. And they actually trained using exercises to . In fact, the TVA acts as a natural weight belt. The TVA also plays a huge role in preventing back pain. To train the TVA, start with the supine vacuum, then progress to the quadruped vacuum, the seated vacuum, and then functional variations. How would you like to shrink your waist by performing one simple exercise? Want to know something that's even cooler? The same exercise that's going to decrease your waist circumference is also likely to remedy your lower back pain. The V- Shaped Physique. Many lifters today prefer the old- school bodybuilding physiques as opposed to the modern day behemoths. A large part of that preference has to do with the sleek waists possessed by those classic, V- shaped bodybuilders. Back in the 7. 0's, bodybuilders didn't just think about building individual body parts; they thought about the appearance of the physique as a whole. That's what bodybuilding, whether recreational or competitive, should be about - creating a visually appealing physique in its entirety. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was a mass monster in his day, had a really small waist. And when I'm talking small waist, I'm not talking genetically small as in left- to- right (narrow iliac crest or hip width). I'm talking about small front- to- back, which is something that is within your control, unlike your bone structure. Guys like Arnold, Frank Zane, and Lee Haney didn't just stumble on these tiny waists and the incredible ability to hit a vacuum pose from any angle - they earned them. They actually made it a priority in their training and contest prep to work on performing the coveted vacuum. To them, working on pulling in their midsection was every bit as important as working chest and biceps, and I'd argue that we should have a similar perspective. Science of the Vacuum Exercise. Let's geek out a little bit and look at a little science behind this vacuum- thing. When Zane was hitting his famous vacuum pose, he was intensely contracting a muscle we sadly don't think much about today, which is the transverse abdominis (aka transversus abdominis), or TVA. The TVA, which lies under the rectus abdominis and obliques, is the deepest of the abdominal muscles. Laura Lewis. I am a former fat girl, and I’m not thin now (size 8) but I am fit and toned. I have a tender spot in my heart for fat girls in the process of doing. Mr Ginseng: Benefits and Virtues of Medicinal Plants: Ginseng, Guarana, Ashwagandha, Rhodiola, Ginkgo, Harpagophytum, Maca, Turmeric, Ginger, Spirulina, Lemon. Yo-yo dieting slows down your metabolism, which can lead to low energy levels. When the body doesn't have the necessary calories to function. How would you like to shrink your waist by performing one simple exercise? Want to know something that's even cooler? The same exercise that's going to decrease your. It's a unique muscle because it doesn't connect to and move bones closer together like most other muscles. In fact, many of its fibers don't connect to bone at all. Instead, they run across the midsection, hence the name transverse abdominis. So the TVA runs left to right across your midsection, much like a weight belt. And, in fact, that's precisely one of the primary functions of the TVA, to act as a natural weight belt. When the TVA contracts, it increases intra- abdominal pressure and stiffens the spine. Again, just like a weight belt. But the TVA isn't just for use when we're lifting; it also serves to hold our internal organs up and in our abdomen where they should be. Think of the TVA as the anti- distended- abdomen muscle. And that's exactly why you need to train it! Sleek and Pain Free. A tight midsection isn't the only reason we're going to pay attention to the TVA. It also plays a huge role in preventing low back pain. In fact, numerous studies show that most people with low back pain have a . Given that you'll get the assistance of gravity, the supine (face up) version is where we'll begin. Supine Vacuum. Start by lying on your back with your hips and knees flexed such that your feet are flat on the floor or bed. Next, exhale as much air as possible. This raises your diaphragm and, much like an empty stomach, allows for maximum contraction of the TVA. Lastly, pull your navel in as close to your spine as possible. Bile Duct Cancer Life Expectancy. Bile duct cancer life expectancy refers to the number of years a person is expected to survive after having been diagnosed with the. I loved my job there. I LOVED my clients. I loved making a connection and sharing my knowledge. Bodybuilding legend Lee Labrada shows you how to use a low carb diet to burn fat without losing muscle. The more your navels draws in, the more the TVA is contracting. In the beginning, try to hold the vacuum for about 1. As with any exercise, you'll want to progress over time. Work up to holding the vacuum for 6. Now, don't let your inability to hold your breath keep you from doing these longer sets. Take small breaths as needed. Start with three sets and, over time, work up to five sets if you're serious about getting results. By the way, to make an obvious point, no exercise works unless you actually do it. And from an adherence standpoint, I've had best results doing these first thing in the morning upon awakening, even before getting out of bed. Not only does this make it easy to create a habitual routine, but it's also advantageous in that your stomach will be empty. As such, your midsection will be naturally flatter at this time of day. This makes it easier to get a nice, full contraction of the TVA. Quadruped Vacuum. Once you can do five, 6. The quadruped vacuum is a bit more difficult than the supine version, primarily because you'll be working against gravity. Begin in the quadruped position with your shoulders vertical over your elbows and wrists, hips over your knees, and your neck in a neutral position. At that point, the execution is essentially the same as the supine version, as in 1) exhale and 2) pull your navel in as close to your spine as possible. If you worked up to doing sets of 6. Again, work up to doing sets of around 6. Do five if you suffer from back pain or have a tendency to relax your midsection. Seated Vacuum. Taking only gravity into account, the quadruped vacuum should be the more difficult exercise, but due to the fact that other spinal stabilizing muscles come into play, the seated version is actually more difficult. Begin by sitting on a stable surface, but without leaning against anything. As with the other versions, exhale and pull your navel in toward your spine. Again, work up to a few sets of 6. To speed up progress, perform your seated vacuums on an unstable surface like a Swiss ball. The next step on the progression ladder is what I call the functional (real life) vacuum. Don't stop doing the above variations. Instead, do one or more of them in addition to the functional version. Functional Vacuum. Now we're getting into a version of the vacuum exercise that's essentially how you're going to use your transverse abdominis throughout the day. Simply pull your navel in while you're seated throughout the day. The primary difference here is that you're holding it in (lightly contracting your TVA) indefinitely, and obviously breathing throughout the movement. No need for me to recommend sets here. It's simply a matter of being conscious of your TVA and not allowing it to relax when seated, which is typically what we do. Sadly, most of us tend to sit more than stand. If that's true for you, getting the hang of pulling your TVA in while seated will increase neurological tone and will carry over to the standing position to the point where you won't have to think much about it. That said, make sure you're lightly contracting your TVA when standing, too. Before long it'll just come naturally. TVA & Rectus Abdominis Co- Contraction Exercises. To bump up the intensity and functionality of your vacuum training, do some exercises where you're contracting the transverse abdominis and the rectus abdominus at the same time. Simply put, you'll first do a vacuum, and then you'll do a crunch- type maneuver (spinal flexion). The pulldown crunch would be perfect: You could also do a more basic, supine vacuum- crunch exercise. Simply contract your TVA by drawing in your navel and then doing crunches, making sure to exhale as you come up to the contracted position. Note for Physique Athletes. If you compete or plan to compete in bodybuilding, do yourself a favor and, in addition to these exercises, practice vacuuming your midsection when you practice posing. Keep in mind that the judges can see you from the moment you begin to walk out on stage and they can see you between every pose, not just when you're actually locked into the pose. Having a sleek, tapered midsection will most certainly improve the visual appeal of your physique, but the only way you're going to be able to present a sleek waist on stage is to practice the vacuum regularly. The same goes for you beach/pool goers. If you train your TVA adequately, your midsection will naturally stay drawn in without you having to think about it. Related. Triple Threat Core Training. Related. Ab Training Made Simple. How to Raise HDL - Perfect Health Diet. In the earlier two posts of this series (HDL and Immunity, April 1. HDL: Higher is Good, But is Highest Best?, April 1. HDL is central to the immunity and toxin clearance, and that it’s probably desirable to have more of it than our body’s natural levels, since we are in a more pathogen- and- toxin- rich environment than the Paleolithic and evolution hasn’t caught up to the situation. The question is: how? Disease Can Upregulate HDLChris Kresser left two great comments (here and here): I tend to view HDL > 8. I don’t have the reference handy, but I came across a study associating elevated HDL and CRP (occurring together) with INCREASED risk of heart disease. When the body is fighting infections, it upregulates its defense mechanisms, including HDL. Mario added a great comment along this line: This could explain why runners have higher levels of HDL: to fight infections that abound among them! And, the fact that pathogen- fighting HDL particles do not go back to the liver can explain why the half- life of HDL in runners is much higher than in sedentaries http: //www. These facts lead us toward one possible strategy for raising HDL: swallow a lot of pathogens! Our Strategy: Benign Hormetic Stress. But this isn’t likely be desirable. Higher HDL may do some good, but the pathogens are likely to do a lot more harm. So we have to look at tactics for raising HDL that do more good than harm. I think it’s useful to classify tactics in three groups: Beneficial Methods. These methods have no known toxicity, but cause the body to increase HDL levels – perhaps because of an association with danger in our evolutionary past. Mildly Toxic, Plausibly Beneficial Methods. These methods have some toxicity, but there is a plausible case to be made that the toxicity is innocuous or insignificant, so that the benefits of higher HDL will outweigh the harms. Damaging Methods. Intentionally swallowing HDL- increasing pathogens or toxins is probably a bad strategy most of the time, and should be avoided. I’ll look at tactics one by one. Coconut Oil- Induced Ketosis. One of the most powerful, and probably also benign, ways to raise HDL is intermittent fasting or ketogenic dieting, with ketosis enhanced by the use of coconut oil or MCT (medium- chain triglyceride) oil. Ketosis stimulates the ketone receptor GPR1. A, which strongly induces HDL synthesis. GPR1. 09. A is better known as the receptor on which niacin acts to raise HDL, but its physiological ligand was not known until recently when it was found to be the ketone beta- hydroxy- butyrate. However, it’s easy to imagine plausible stories. Ketosis would have been a frequent event in the Paleolithic, since most hunter- gatherers probably ate low- carb diets. However, ketosis would have been associated with times of stress: Ketosis occurs during fasting, and involuntary fasting is a threat to health that forces eating of marginal foods from which infection risks are high. Ketosis can also be induced by a lack of carb- containing plant foods; this would naturally lead to a shortage of animal foods, and famine, soon after. Famine depresses immunity and increases risk of infection. Drought was probably a common cause of both lack of carb- rich foods and famine. Drought would tend to force reliance on marginal, polluted or infected water sources. In the modern world, we control our food intake and can generate ketosis safely without ever reaching a famine state that significantly depresses immunity. There are safe ways to activate GPR1. A via intermittent ketogenic dieting with minimal risk of ill effects. I believe the chief risks from ketogenic dieting are: 1. While ketogenic dieting is helpful against bacterial and viral infections, fungi and protozoa are eukaryotes who can metabolize ketones in their mitochondria. In fact, because ketones are water- soluble small molecules and diffuse into pathogen mitochondria, while glucose and fatty acids are chaperoned through the human body by transport molecules, ketones are a uniquely available energy substrate for parasitic fungi and protozoa. Moreover, glucose is a major resource for the immune defense against these pathogens, and induction of ketosis by carb restriction can diminish immunity against protozoa and fungi. Since protozoal infections such as Toxoplasma gondii and fungal infections such as Candida are now common, each afflicting perhaps 3. I’ve done a series on this (it started here). The solution is to achieve ketosis intermittently, through tactics like daily intermittent fasting, and to induce it positively through the consumption of short- chain fats such as are found in coconut oil or MCTs, or through leucine supplementation. A healthy diet, ketogenic or not, should meet our recommendations of at least 2. Physical Activity. Exercise is another method for raising HDL that seems entirely healthful. In the evolutionary environment, continuous exertion probably signaled danger: either a difficult hunt or, more likely, some form of warfare with other humans. In either case, injury and a need for wound repair was a likely prospect. Breaching of the skin barrier by wounds mean infections. Since HDL plays a role in wound repair and infection resistance, it would make sense to upregulate HDL production during exertion. In one 1. 2- week trial, HDL was raised by 2. It turns out that daily sitting time strong predicts low HDL – and it only takes a day for HDL levels to adjust. In rats, 1. 6 hours of daily inactivity caused a 2. HDL levels by the end of the first day . Obese sedentary women raised HDL by 1. To repair that I recently built a standing desk. Now I stand, kneel (on a padded bench), or half- kneel half- stand throughout my working hours. I strongly recommend a standing desk as an effective way to increase HDL. High- Fat Diets and Dairy Fat Consumption. When long- chain fats are eaten, they are transported from the intestine by particles called chylomicrons. Researchers injected radiolabeled chylomicrons into rats to determine the fate of the components. They found that chylomicrons frequently turn into HDL: Catabolism of chylomicrons is associated with a rapid transfer of phospholipid, apo. A- I, and possibly apo. A- IV into HDL. Chylomicron phospholipid appears to give rise to vesicles which are probably incorporated into preexisting HDL. Chylomicron surface components may be an important source of plasma HDL. A case can be made for dairy fats. There is a clear association between eating dairy fats and having high HDL. Blood levels of trans- palmitoleic acid, an omega- 7 trans- fat obtainable only by eating milk products from ruminants, is strongly associated in prospective cohort studies with higher HDL. High dairy fat consumption is associated with improved health in prospective cohort studies, for instance much lower rates of diabetes and lower CRP levels. The mechanism could be via chylomicron breakdown, and other fats might work nearly as well. People who eat the most dairy fats probably eat high- fat diets that are low in omega- 6 fats, and omega- 6 fats reduce HDL; so the dairy fats could just be a marker for high- fat low- omega- 6 diets. However, it’s possible that the ruminant trans- fat CLA is especially beneficial. It might not hurt to copy Seth, and eat a lot of butter. Alcohol. Interestingly, drinking alcohol may be a healthful way to raise HDL. We’ve previously discussed epidemiological evidence for health benefits from drinking and the matter of how to drink safely (Is It Smart to Drink?, Sep 9, 2. HDL. Well, it’s significant. Alcohol increases HDL- C level, with higher doses of ethanol leading to higher HDL levels and lower rates of coronary artery disease. This works as long as there is no liver damage. Once liver damage begins, alcohol lowers HDL. As long as alcohol is consumed only with saturated fats, it is likely to be beneficial to health. Here’s some numbers relating alcohol dose to HDL increase: One beer per day raised HDL by 4. William Davis of Track Your Plaque fame is an ardent advocate of niacin, as are many other cardiologists. Niacin increases HDL the same way ketones do, by activating the ketone receptor GPR1. A. Gram doses of niacin are roughly equally effective with tablespoon doses of coconut oil in raising HDL. For instance, four grams of niacin per day for 6 weeks raised HDL levels by 5. This is why these are sites of niacin toxicity: the toxins from niacin conversion are localized here. Skin flushing is the most obvious sign of niacin toxicity, but organs can also be damaged. As one review states, “Unfortunately, when used as a pharmaceutical, niacin has more than its share of drug toxicities, including hepatotoxicity, gastric toxicity, glucotoxicity, and, most commonly, skin toxicity.” . Niacinamide, an alternative form of vitamin B3, is converted to NAD and NADP without toxicity, but does not stimulate the GPR1. A receptor and does not raise HDL levels. Time- release niacin is especially prone to poisoning the liver. Time- release niacin causes more niacin to pass through this high- toxicity liver pathway. Another issue with niacin is that NAD is the rate- limiting vitamin for bacterial metabolism. Excess vitamin B3 intake, therefore, promotes bacterial infections. In general, I consider niacin to be an alternative to coconut oil- driven ketosis rather than a complement to it. Both niacin and ketones act on the same receptor, and the HDL increases from coconut oil alone are so large (commonly to 1. Since benefits from niacin against atherosclerosis probably come either from HDL increases or from other effects of activating GPR1. A . The exception would be people who have significant protozoal or fungal infections but not bacterial infections. Since ketones feed the former while niacin feeds the latter, such people may benefit from niacin instead of coconut oil. Some other HDL- raising factors. In general, good nutritional status supports high HDL levels.
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