I don’t give a damn about defined muscles. I work out to offset the work in front of a computer, mainly to prevent back pain. I actually have quite decent abs underneath the chubby dad bod I am rocking. The knowledge that the muscles are there is enough for me.
I don’t want defined abs; I just want my stomach to not look like a deflated tire.
I am kind of worried about the internal belly fat, as it’s supposed to be really bad for your health. I already got rid of a fatty liver through a proper diet, now I am working on getting rid of belly fat (again). In my opinion one should always do weight exercises, as muscles are always good. But they don’t really help with getting rid of fat, which is ultimately what shapes your looks. Only managing your caloric intake can help with that.
Everyone has abs. Under there. Somewhere.
Under the butter…
I’m skinny everywhere except on my stomach. My body thinks that when I diet to lose weight it’s because I want to look like Skeletor, so the first place I lose fat from is my face and it becomes gaunt and looks unhealthy.
I’ve heard that could be a posture thing. If you sit like a shrimp, you’re gonna have belly rolls, no matter how skinny you are.
I say, hunched over my keyboard like a gremlin.
I think posture does have something to do with it, because when I stand up straight and tense my stomach muscles, I look a lot better. I suspect that the problem isn’t so much that I have excess fat on my stomach (although I do have some) but rather that my stomach muscles aren’t preventing my stomach from bulging out unless I’m deliberately focusing on keeping them tense. I think better posture can be made subconscious (or else why have adults always told children to stand up straight) but I don’t think there’s a way to keep the muscles tense subconsciously. Or is there?
Speaking of posture, my new office chair has a significant forward curve at my lower back which I find uncomfortable. (I used to sit in an old-timey banker’s chair with a back that sloped smoothly backwards.) Is that because my posture is bad? Am I supposed to be sitting in a way that conforms to that curve? I know some people who strap cushions to their car seats in order to add that curve. I find those cushions really uncomfortable too, but are those people actually on to something or are their backs just different from mine?
Sorry for the double response, but I just remembered something else. Right before COVID, I was in a car accident, and crushed my pelvis. I was bedbound for a year, and had six months of PT to get my muscles back, which is where I learned a lot of this stuff.
Turns out I was also not sitting correctly. I always curled my tailbone under and was sitting on the bottom of my sacro-iliac joint, but your pelvis has something called ‘sit bones’ that you’re supposed to sit on. I find that I can’t sit ‘correctly’ in bucket seats at all, so if you’re sitting at the desk like you sit in a car, maybe that has something to do with it?
I don’t think there’s a way to keep the muscles tense subconsciously
Part of ‘better posture’ is relying on your core muscles for stability instead of your back muscles, and that’s the thing that keeps fucking with me. I overly rely on my back to keep me upright, and I have a hard time keeping my core engaged like that too. From what I’ve been told, it’s a practice thing and I just don’t do it enough for them to stay engaged without thinking about it.
The office chair is providing something called ‘lumbar support’ if you want a search term, and some people do have a bigger curve there than others. I’m proportionally short, so I have to move the cushion around until it hits the sweet spot and isn’t uncomfortable. Slouching will also make your lumbar curve flatten out, so that could be it. I think it’s just a matter of trying different things and seeing what works best for you, it’s not one-size-fits-all.
That’s just what bodies look like my dude. People with prominent ab muscles are severely/dangerously dehydrated and malnourished.
I’m not expecting prominent muscles. I just don’t want my stomach protruding like an inflated balloon even when the rest of me is bony.
Building ab muscles doesn’t burn belly fat, a six pack requires more than crunches.
1 whole hour? Oo
- walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes to warmup
- look at your phone while sitting in the toilet for 10 minutes
- walk around looking at weights/machines for as long as you can until someone notices
- pick an exercise with all the machines taken, stand around looking at phone until one frees up
- 1x8 with no weight to warmup
- 3x5 with a random amount of weight, 300 second rest
- look at the time, if you have been there longer than 45 minutes, round up to one hour
- drive through Wendy’s for a large baconator combo on the way home. Diet coke though, we’re trying to be healthy
Was more meant as a joke, because an hour seemed really much to me - although it probably shouldn’t
But looking at your training plan, this looks much relaxed than I’d have expected
Still, an hour is much commitment, respect
