1,000 Crunches Down...

I am miserable.

This entire week I have been doing my crunches, obeying my own rules, but it has been a  struggle.
I feel ridiculous. I am sorry, but crunches are ridiculous. They make no sense to me. Someone told me not too long ago that they thought cross body mountain climbers look dumb-- no, no, my friend, crunches look dumb. They're like some sort of awkward, broken see-saw. I just.... *sigh*.... I just feel ridiculous doing them. Further increasing my levels of embarrassment, I have started using those lame crunch machines at the gym. I figured, why not? I'm already making a fool of myself.

More important than my feelings of ridiculousness and embarrassment, however, is that I have found crunches have no lasting effect on my abs. They burn while I'm doing them, but as soon as I've finished my set the burn ceases. Furthermore, my abs have not been sore at all. Not one iota. Which is odd, because usually when you do a brand new exercise or one you haven't done in years (such is the case for myself and crunches), then that exercise will make you extremely sore. Yet another testament to the ineffectiveness of crunches.

Yet my saga continues. I will stay vigilant!
Follow my journey on this little meat site for the next two weeks and there will be an electronic prize for you at the end!

The 3000 Crunch Experiment!

Starting tomorrow, I will embark on an ab journey of epic and miserable proportions. I, Allison Crerie, The Meat, Hater of Crunches, will do 3,000 crunches over the course of three weeks. That means I'm going to do 200 crunches a day, 5 days per week, for three weeks and I will be ceasing all my other usual core training (i.e. functional and stability training). Why would I subject myself to such misery? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, to make a point (I hope) about how ineffective crunches are. I will be providing photographic proof of any transformation that might take place over the course of this three weeks; my prediction is that there will be no physical change in my abs at all and that my abdominal strength and functionality will decrease. The second reason I'm doing this is to see "how the other half lives," so to speak. I want to fully experience how terrible doing hundreds of repetitions of crunches truly is, and how frustrating to do all this work and see very little result. Granted, I am not going to be dishonest in this experiment. If my abs improve, if I see positive change, I will not lie about it-- again, there will be photographic evidence. Who knows, maybe I will change my mind about crunches (highly unlikely).

Anyway, here is my before picture, which was taken Friday, June 11. And yes, I am flexing. You would be too if you were standing shirtless with a camera pointed at you.

It all begins tomorrow-- Monday, June 14th. Make sure to check back for updates and a super awesome video starring yours truly.

Little Changes Make Meaty Differences

Really, when it comes down to it, all exercises are derived from the same 3 basic movements: pushing, pulling, and rotating. Granted, there are many different ways to include these 3 movements into a varied workout program, but sometimes things get stale and it's time to switch it up. I'll tell you something, it really does not take much creativity or exercise knowledge to change-up a workout program. You'll be surprised how making little changes in how you usually do an exercise can make a big difference.

For upper body exercises, change up the grips you use. For instance, if you usually do lat pull-down overhand, try it underhand or with a neutral grip. Same thing with overhead press, switch between neutral grip and wide grip; or even better, try an Arnold Press, which is just an overhead press with rotation:




Even though you're still working the same groups of muscles, you are targeting them differently. If your gym has cable machines, such as Freemotion, try doing the same exercises you're already doing but on the cable machines. These machines incorporate more stabilization and work and the left and right sides of your body evenly.

Same thing goes for leg exercises. When do bodyweight squats and lunges, try them with your arms in the doing Y, prisoner, or "touch down" positions, this will engage more core in the movement. Lunges are easily changeable-- reverse lunges, diagonal lunges, walking lunges, split squats, bulgarian split squats. If you usually do squats with the barbell across your shoulders, try doing front squats instead:



Even simply just slowing down the pace you lift can increase the intensity of your workout.

Also, let's not forget that we shouldn't be lifting the same weight forever. Many of us (myself included) get in a psychological rut, we get in the habit of setting the same weight every time, regardless of strength gains we have likely made. Try increasing the weight, you can lower the reps if you need to, but usually I find that I can still do the same number of reps. It's all in your head! You would be surprised how much the mind limits the body, I see it every day at work when I'm training my clients. Even if you do the same exercises as usual, give yourself a challenge.

Speaking of a challenge, I have a challenge in the works for myself, which I will document on this little and meaty website. Stay tuned...