A Gracefull Place

If there is one area of the body that we as women stress the most about,  it has to be the abs/tummy area.

You’ll remember from a previous post, how trainer Webra Price-Douglas said we need to be kind to our tummies!  They bore us children, they digest our food, they help us with our immune system (80% of your immune system is in your gut–no kidding!).

I don’t expect my tummy to be absolutely flat–my goal is not to look like I never had children or like it did in my 20s!   However, I know my extra flab there is from a lot of stress eating and from not taking as good of care of myself with my eating.

As my belly has started to go down, it encourages me because it shows that I am metabolising better.  I had all the signs of metabolic syndrome starting.  I did not want to keep going down that track!

(Let me insert here that I do not go by BMI.  Trainer Michelle Barbuto is nowhere near fat nor obese by a loooonnggg shot, yet her BMI says she is!)

Staying consistent is the first key!

Secondly, following the curl your core advice from Michelle (can be found here) is paramount.

Third, keep those ribs UP!  This helps with the shoulder/hip alignment Michelle talks about in the aforementioned post.  Try it right now (yes, I see you slouching at your computer!)  Sit tall.  Bring your ribs up out of your tummy, and your shoulders automatically go back without feeling like you are standing at “atten-TION!”   Now push your hands into your thighs just a little bit and push the ribs up a bit more–while pulling lats down. 

What about floorwork? Don’t we need to do sit-ups and crunches to lose off the tummy?

No!

I did very little floorwork with T-Tapp until 2 1/2 years after I started.  I did Hit the Floor Softer and Hit the Floor, as well as LadyBug Floor several times, but although it helped, I still didn’t get fantastic results.

And there’s a reason for that!

You first need to “connect” with those abs.  Remember, T-Tapp is about neurokinetic or “mind-to-muscle” connections.   If your abs aren’t “connected”, when you do the floor moves, you may certainly burn some fat off there, but you will not strengthen the muscle.  You could actually end up with a hard, round tummy! 

And most people, if not neurokinetically connected, will end up using their back and leg muscles instead of their abs, which defeats the purpose entirely!

Organs in Place (OIP) is a move you should do daily–even twice daily.  Just before your workout and just before bed are good times, although really, anytime is fine!   You aren’t really moving your organs so much as pushing the muscles back to where they’re supposed to go (gravity kind of pulls things “south”!).  And by pushing on the muscle, you help it stay tight throughout the moves.  Think of it as a natural girdle! 

Once you feel you have the hang of OIP and can feel some strengthening of those muscles, you can add in Half Frogs (HF).  If you have a hard time keeping your core curled on the floor (see Michelle’s post linked above), then use a small handtowel. Roll it up and place it just below the tailbone–it is forming a “wedge” to help you tuck/curl your core and flatten your lower back against the floor.  You must keep it flattened against the floor while doing floor moves! (Except OIP).   As you do the Half Frogs, both as you bring your knees in and when you bring them out, push your knees as if you were doing it in thick mud.   Think to push your thighs away from each other, then to pull them towards each other.   At the same time, think to tuck/tighten/curl core to keep that back flat. 

There is a link for Organs in Place and Half Frogs on the Try Before You Buy Section here.  (You may want to view that without family in the background, as the lady is in workout shorts and a cropped workout top.) 

If you are uncomfortable doing the Half Frogs, you will still get results with Organs in Place. 

What if you have a hard time getting down or up from the floor?

You can do them standing!

I had posted this link  a few posts ago where Teresa did a short video clip for My Fox Atlanta awhile back.  In it she does the “Mitten Chop Box”.  It’s a tweak on the original Box from Basic Workout.   It is a phenomenal tweak, and I do it all the time now with my classes!  I also do it a few times a day here and there (a visit to the bathroom is a good time to “sneak” it in!   )

As you reconnect with your abs, they will get stronger and continue to form that natural “girdle” and cinch in.   You will be amazed how much better you can curl your core throughout your workouts, translating into even more fat burning and inch loss!

Be forewarned–often as the muscles cinch in, that pushes the fat up and out—meaning you may have what is called a “fat shift”.  I experienced it when my lower abs lost quite a bit…only to gain at my waist and have a muffin!!!  It took awhile, but with focusing on my core, and eventually adding floorwork (as I connected with my abs), it has whittled down quite a bit.

Now, about the floorwork…yes, I eventually added it back in.  However, for a little over a year, I have done very little floorwork other than OIP, Half Frogs and a few other moves.   When I did start floorwork regularly (about 2 years ago) I started with a dvd called Critter Crunch.  It’s a master class style workout filmed at Safety Harbor 2007.  I split it up over two days (it’s a long one!) and although it doesn’t go quickly like a “workout”, I definitely felt it in my abs the next day!  I basically did it three times over a six day period of time (doing it over 2 days), and could really tell a difference in my mind-to-ab connection!

Then I tackled Hit the Floor again.  My rule was, when I lost activation, that move was done.  I would just reset for the next move.  There were many moves where I only got two repetitions in!  But by following my “rule”, I eventually was able to work up to all ten repetitions without losing form!   That was in the summer of 2009, and in February 2010, when I took an online class, the trainer had us adding in just a few floor moves, but because I had more muscle activation, those moves added to my regular routine helped me finally start to really burn that muffin off.  It had been slowly coming off, but that seemed to really kickstart it!

Right now, since I am training to be a trainer, my main focus has to be on the Total Workout.  But I still add in OIP and Half Frogs, and recently I’ve added the new Mitten Chop Box.  And I’m confident that I’m going to see continued results!

So can you lose off the tummy without doing 100 sit-ups and thousands of crunches?

Yes you CAN!

Happy Tappin’!

P.S.  Next week I will host a give-away—so do come back and check it out!

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