Posted on: Thursday, May 12, 2005
Get your own fab abs
| • | Expert advice — the moves that give you the abs |
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer
America is a country obsessed with abs. Pick up any magazine, from Men's Health to Self, GQ to Elle, and you're sure to be bombarded with photos of rippling, rock-hard stomachs.
Photos by Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser Muscles worked: Internal and external obliques and rectus abdominus. How: Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Place a towel or medicine ball between your knees. Engage your abs to lift your head and shoulders off the floor. Slowly reach your hand toward the foot on the same side while maintaining elevated head and shoulders. Reverse. Cues and clues: Draw your abdominals toward the floor. Keep your head and shoulders aligned throughout the exercise. Now fitness professionals are shifting the focus to "core strength." Elements of Pilates, yoga and martial arts, disciplines that emphasize a strong core, are being incorporated into individual workouts and exercise classes. It's a more sophisticated approach, tackling the abs from the inside out.
Stability balls and medicine balls have become staples in the arsenals of ab attackers. When used properly, they increase the effectiveness of each exercise.
As we head into the height of bikini season, we talked to folks who have achieved great abs to learn their tips and techniques for achieving core strength and killer abs. Our models, Kiana Gentry of Manoa and Joe Cheng of Makiki, are each 51. They work hard to maintain their hard bodies, and they didn't get in shape overnight.
Gentry exercises nearly every day. She works out at the Honolulu Club, rotating on the treadmill, stair climber and elliptical trainer for her cardio workouts. She also works out with weights, alternating her upper body one day and lower body the next.
Her hobby is also an active one: ballroom dancing, and she loves to swim and kayak on the North Shore. She does 200 abdominal exercises every day and has learned through Pilates how to do isometric exercises for her abdominals throughout the day.
She emphasizes the importance of nutrition and eats an apple every morning. "First you have to lose the body fat, then you can develop your abs," Gentry said.
Cheng runs, swims and cycles outdoors 40 to 50 miles a week. He loves to play squash, another great workout. He does weights three times a week, with moves for his upper and lower body, adding leg raises and pull-ups to further strengthen his abs.
When at home, Cheng said, he sits on a stability ball while watching TV, often adding crunches to get more ab work in. "But proper diet is a key, no matter how many crunches you do," he said with a sigh.
Reach Paula Rath at islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Since the mid-1990s, perhaps the heyday of ab obsession, TV infomercials have sold hundreds of thousands of gizmos to help couch potatoes carve their abs. However, you're more likely to see these workout enhancers in a garage sale than a home gym.
Kiana Gentry, left, and Joe Cheng, below, are each 51. They keep their bodies firm and in shape through almost daily hard work, and they caution that it can't be done overnight.
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