by Edward Scaduto, Colorado Springs Personal Trainer and Owner of Precision Fitness

“Change means that what was before wasn’t perfect. People want things to be better.” – Esther Dyson

It’s time to change your abdominal training program, change it for the better.

It’s time to say no to sit-ups; by doing so you allow room for safer and more effective exercises that will fortify and strengthen your abs and spine.

At Precision Fitness our official recommendation is to avoid the traditional sit – up.

The reason you may ask? This exercise poses too much of a risk compared to the benefits and no matter how you put it, getting hurt is not a lot of fun.

Here are 5 reasons why you should avoid doing sit ups:

1. You can’t spot reduce, you can only spot build.

I know you want a flatter stomach or you want those wash board abs so it may seem logical that doing sit-ups and crunches will help your tummy fat go away.

Fat loss just doesn’t work that way. You can build the muscles of the abs but that does nothing to reduce the fat storage sitting on top of them.

Fat loss can only be accomplished through a sound nutrition program and a comprehensive exercise program like the Precision Fitness Training System.

2. Over training one movement pattern at the expense of others is a sure-fire way to muscle imbalances.

The body was designed to move in many ways.

Nowhere in the body is that more apparent than the abs.

They help you bend, extend and twist in countless ways.

Your body strives to perfect a hundred different movement patterns that activate a countless number of muscles.

By performing the same movement over and over again, like crunches and sit-ups, you set the body up for repetitive stress injuries.

These small movements done over and over again can create muscle imbalances in the torso. This creates a sub-optimal environment that can decrease the function and the potential of your body. In worst case scenarios it can cause low back pain and more.

3. The Abs do more than flex the spine, they do much more.

The abs have two primary jobs.

The first one is bracing the body. You brace every time you reach, push, pull, throw, swing or kick.

Any athletic movement requires bracing at some time during the movement and in most cases, twice.

You also brace during every day activities like when you pick up an object from the floor with one hand and even when you’re only opening a door.

The second primary job is to create the bridge between the legs and upper body to transfer power.

Take a tennis fore-hand swing for example.

The upper body and trunk rotates back in preparation to hit the ball, then the hips will rotate forward creating power for the swing. The the abs will then brace creating the ‘bridge’ that will work to rotate the torso and arms forward to strike the ball.

This is just one example of how the abs are designed to function. If you look closely you can find many examples of this function through out our daily and athletic lives.

4. Your spine flexes all day long

We flex our spine all day long.

A typical day for the average person starts by waking up and sitting at breakfast with one’s spine flexed (bent forward).

Then this person commutes to work for an hour and then sits at work for eight hours all with the spine flexed.

After a day of sitting, the individual drives home and eats dinner flexed and then sits on the couch and watches a couple hours of TV with the spine in a flexed position.

There should be one place the abs and spine should not have to flex and that is during your fitness program.

The health of your back depends on your ability to balance the work load, movements and stress that you place on it.

5. Sit-Ups produce the same force in the disc that can create a disc bulge or disc herniation.

It’s estimated that 80% of the population will see a doctor or chiropractor at some point in their life due to back pain.

According to Stuart McGill, a professor of spine bio-mechanics at the University of Waterloo, sit ups produce the exact same force in the spine that can create disc bulge and disc herniation, two of the most common low back injuries.

Does it make sense to perform exercises that can create common back injuries?

I didn’t think so either.

The Bottom Line

These are the 5 reasons of why you need to stop doing sit-ups immediately.

In it’s place start using planks and leg lifts to strengthen your core. These two types of abdominal exercises are much safer on your spine and there are countless variations and modification that you can use.

Take these recommendations and apply them today in your program, your back will thank you for it.

If you have any questions on how to implement correct abdominal training into your fitness program please do not hesitate to contact Colorado Springs Best Personal Trainers at Precision Fitness at 719-640-0141.

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By Edward Scaduto, Colorado Springs Personal Trainer and owner of Precision Fitness.

The 5 Steps to Creating a New a Habit

“We are what we consistently do, Excellence therefore is not an act, it’s a habit” – Aristotle

1.       There can only be one.

One key to successfully creating a new habit is the ability to focus your energy and time on that ONE habit. If any of the other habits fall in place, so be it, but your energy should be focused on only one habit.

The reason, we only have so much time and energy. Think about how busy your day is. Could you manage to fit in an extra hour just to work on several new habits?

If you are like me, your energy and time is already spread thin, leaving you with very little time to add to your already hectic schedule.

So how do you create a new habit?

Focus on making one change at a time.

2.       Start Small

I understand your ambition and wanting to start big to make massive changes but tackling big habits can lead to frustration and make it difficult to accomplish your goal.

Starting small is the best way to ensure success.

It helps you narrow your focus, allowing you to put all your energy and power on the goal.

It also helps to erase any doubts. If the change is small enough, deep inside you know you will be able to do it and succeed.

You gain momentum as you build one habit at a time. The small success can then build to bigger successes in the future.

Additionally, small changes last longer. Take drastic weight loss for example. Dropping 20 pounds in two weeks is fine, but there’s a great chance you will gain the weight back and more. Instead, go for small consistent changes in your diet and fitness plan.

3.       Anchor it.

We all have habits. If you think about it, your day is habit after habit strung together. Let’s use the habits you now have in place to help create new ones.

It’s easy. When creating a new habit, just anchor to one of your existing habits. Let’s use running as an example. If you already have the habit of waking up to a cup of coffee every morning, you can anchor the new habit of running right after you have your coffee.

In time you will associate running with coffee. Then every time you drink your favorite brew, you’ll want to lace up your shoes and hit the trail. Coffee becomes the trigger.

You’ve just anchored a new habit.

4.       Allow 30 days to make the change.

It takes time to create a new habit. The exact amount of time differs from person to person and the habit they choose.

It’s estimated to take between 21 to 30 days to create a new habit. It takes that long for a habit to “sink in” so to speak. You have to work on the habit every day if possible.

Give yourself 30 days of this process to create your new habit.

5.       Tell and Report

Tell as many people as you can what you are doing. Then report to them daily if it was a success or not. They can be a great support system in helping you make the change.

Remember no one is perfect. There will be days where you may not succeed. There’s no shame in that so don’t beat your-self up for the misstep. Just try and focus your energy on the next day.

So let’s review the 5 keys again:

1. Pick one habit
2. Start small
3. Anchor it to an existing habit
4. Give it 30 days
5. Tell and report

If you follow the 5 keys to creating a new habit, you will have a much better chance of creating the healthy life long changes you’ve always wanted.

Committed to your health and fitness,

Edward Scaduto

Colorado Springs personal trainer and owner of Precision Fitness.

P.S. During the month of February I am using our Fan Page to host  One Month – One Habit challenge using the 5 steps mentioned in this article. You’re invited to participate.

You can visit our fan page here.

You wanna lose fat. And you want to do it FAST!

To burn off that fat, you’ve got to burn some extra calories. There’s no way around it.

So the most common piece of advice you’ll hear is “do more cardio.”

Easier said than done, right? Especially when you consider that there is so much conflicting information out there. Some people say you need to do hours on end of cardio. Yet others say that long bouts of cardio are a waste of time. Instead what you need is HIIT cardio (high intensity interval training.)

So who’s right!? And more importantly, what should YOU do so you can start burning off that fat faster than ever before?

When it comes to what kind of cardio to do, it depends.

The main purpose of cardio in any fat loss program is to expend extra calories once you’ve ALREADY established a caloric deficit from your diet and are on a sound weight-lifting program. So in the end, the goal is to burn enough calories to create enough of a deficit that you’ll lose weight.

Both low-intensity and high-intensity cardio can do that.

The trade-off is time and efficiency. With low-intensity cardio (like walking) you have to do more of it to burn a decent amount of calories. This is why most recommendations for low-intensity cardio are between 45-60 minutes.

On the other hand, high-intensity cardio burns the same amount of calories in half the time (roughly).

So with just 20-30 minutes of intense interval training, you can burn the same number of calories as you do with 45-60 minutes of low-intensity steady state cardio.

So what’s the best advice? Mix it up.

Do 2 high intensity sessions a week.

If you still need more cardio than that, then add in maybe one or two extra bouts of low-intensity cardio. The only suggestion here is that you want to do this gradually. That is, if you’re out of shape, start by only doing low-intensity cardio.

Once you’ve lost a bit of weight and have improved your cardiovascular system, then start adding in one intense cardio session a week. Then build to two.

By mixing things up this way, you’re reducing the chances of overuse injury. And, you ward off over-training (5 high intensity cardio sessions a week plus weight training is overkill!)

So Start small. Then build up. Then mix in both HIIT type workouts with low-intensity workouts and you’ll see your fat loss speed up.

Please leave questions or comments below, i’ll be happy to answer them here. You can also call 719-640-0141 or email me at info@precisionfitnesstrainer.com if you need further help with your fitness program.

Comitted to you health,

Edward Scaduto

Colorado Springs Personal Trainer and owner of Precision Fitness