Scott Richmond on Sport Posture

“I’ve been around athletics all of my life, and count on my body to perform when I need it. I love how intuitive and specific the Sport Posture approach
is. Not only does it strengthen and teach my body to perform as a single stable unit, I know it’ll make me a significantly better athlete and help me avoid injuries in the future. I recommend the Sport Posture program to both amateur and professional athletes that want to be one step ahead of the curve! I’ve really enjoyed working with Rob Williams and Scotty Marchant. Their cutting edge techniques are second to none! “

Scott Richmond – Pitcher

Team Canada – 2011 PanAm Games Gold Medalist

Toronto Blue Jays – 2009-2011

Hip Mobility – Bridge with Flexion/Extension

Maintaining hip mobility and strength is very important for hockey players. If there is a deficit in pelvic/core stability, muscular strength or gross range of motion, the skating stride will be compromised, as will overall on-ice playing strength and performance. One simple exercise for evaluating and enhancing hip function is an adaptation of a basic bridge position.

Start by lying on your back with your legs bent to 90˚ and feet flat on the floor. Lift/bridge your hips upward, until your body is straight from your shoulders to your knees. In this position, use your core and hip muscles to stabilize your pelvis as you raise your left foot off the floor and extend the leg to full length. Keeping the left leg long, slowly lower it to touch your heel on the floor, without letting your pelvis drop or twist. At this bottom position your left hip should be in 10-20˚ of extension. Now raise the leg back up, slightly higher than the level of your right thigh, and repeat. Perform 5-10 repetitions and switch to the right leg.

Hockey Angles

Even more than most other sports, hockey is a game of angles. How efficient you are as a skater and player is determined by how well you manage those angles. To illustrate my point, with an example from another popular sport, consider a cyclist cornering at a high rate of speed. As the cyclist enters the corner and begins to turn, they must lean their body, and their bike, inward against the forces that are trying to carry them straight forward. At the tightest part of the turn, the rider’s body and the bike must be leaning inward on the same angle to maximize turning efficiency. Now consider what would happen to that rider if, at the apex of the turn, they suddenly leaned their body outward. I think its safe to assume the rider and bike would flip outside the curve and crash.

As a hockey player, your body is subject to these same forces every time you change directions or corner while on your skates. During the lateral change of direction with your skating stride, to carving around a corner, it’s important to make sure your body is in the best position possible to maximize movement efficiency, speed and strength. If any part of your body slides or collapses outside of it’s optimal alignment, energy and stability are lost.

One simple drill to begin training your body for efficient movement is lateral bounding, with control. This can be done side-to-side on the spot or traveling forward in a zig-zag pattern as shown in the attached video. The focus should be on maintaining a compact, neutral body alignment during the transitions. The angle of the spine should parallel the angle of the leg, with the pelvis and shoulders at parallel angles that are perpendicular to the spine.

It’s best to perform this drill in front of a mirror so you can watch your body mechanics. If you notice your hips sliding too far outside your landing foot, it’s likely your glute muscles aren’t doing their job. If your upper body and torso lean outward when you land, or wobble around too much on top of your pelvis, you probably need to focus on improved core activation for spinal stability.

-Rob Williams is a kinesiologist, elite personal trainer and posture specialist. He has been practicing for 20 years and currently operates an exclusive private training studio Mixx Fitness Studio, with a team of 10 trainers, as well as a multi-disciplinary posture facility, Performance Posture Clinic. Rob is an accomplished writer and speaker in the fields of fitness, posture and nutrition. He is a sought-after posture and performance coach for professional and amateur athletes and celebrities.

The Power of Posture

Over the holiday season I was fortunate enough to work with four elite Canadian athletes, from two different sports, each playing at the national and international level. I have to admit that I continue to be amazed at how important posture is for overall health and athletic performance.

With each of these athletes, a preliminary posture analysis was performed to identify any asymmetries in their standing and neutral athletic positions. These observations were closely related to existing or prior injuries that these individuals have been managing during their playing careers. It’s always rewarding for me at this stage to watch an individual have that ‘AHA!’ moment, where they can actually see how their posture is contributing to their problems.

Once I’ve analyzed someone’s posture, it’s important to get an understanding of how their body functions. This is done through manual testing, for things like core function, joint range of motion and muscle flexibility, as well as with analysis of movement patterns and strategies. Poor posture causes faulty movement, which leads to pain and injury. In each athlete there were weaknesses identified that were clearly related to the athlete’s performance limitations or prior injuries.

Through thousands of posture assessments and related training sessions, I’ve observed how closely postural alignment is related to dysfunction at various parts of the body. The most notable areas are the neck, shoulders, lower back, hips and knee joints. If you’re dealing with overuse or chronic injuries in one or more of these areas, try improving your posture as part of your corrective rehabilitation program. You’ll be surprised how much it can help.

As always, consult your physician before beginning or modifying your exercise program, and be certain to perform an effective warm up.

Posture and back pain

If you deal with chronic lower back issues, or get recurring episodes of acute pain, there’s a good chance that your posture is part of the problem. Because of the complexity of the spine and pelvis there are many things that can go wrong to cause pain and dysfunction. Making sure that you sit, stand and move in the best position possible will prevent muscle imbalance, joint stress and increased pressure on the intervertebral discs of your spine.

One of the most common posture deviations is the anterior pelvic sway, where your hips and pelvis begin to drift forward of your body. As the pelvis migrates it often tilts forward as well and the upper body must lean backward to keep you from falling face first. These displacements result in an increased or sharpened curve in the lower back, as well as a rounded upper spine with forward head carriage. This increased curve in the lower back puts strain on the joints and extra pressure on the discs. One way to prevent this is to remember that your ribcage should always be aligned directly above your pelvic ring, with 360˚ support from the entire core complex.

Posture and shoulder injuries

Clients often come to me with mild to moderate shoulder problems caused by sports or their occupation. Most of the time they’ve already tried various forms of therapy and treatment, but not had any permanent resolution to the problem. When this is the case, a posture assessment usually gives some indication of why.

Most posture deviations result in changes to the position and alignment of the upper spine and torso. When this happens, the arms will hang forward of the body and the shoulder blades will swing outward around the ribcage, often winging or rolling forward. This is one of the worst positions because it increases the risk of shoulder joint injuries. By realigning the rest of the body, the arms and shoulders will become more neutral, and the joints won’t be as susceptible to trauma.

Posture and how you move

Rob training Scott Richmond on Core X

Likely the most stimulating aspect of my professional practice is the part where I get to analyze a client’s movement strategies and improve upon them by optimizing their dynamic posture and alignment. Everyone should understand that training their bodies to maintain the best positions possible during movement will maximize their strength, balance and function. Even the elite athletes I work with see an instant improvement in their stability and athleticism when I coach them into better body position. This might involve getting deeper into the hip joints to encourage the big glute muscles to fire, or neutralizing the curves of the spine so that the core muscles can work from a position of strength.

When considering your own body position, check if your spine and pelvis are square and neutral and that your core system is engaged. Be sure you’ve balanced your bodyweight between your two feet, keeping them active rather than collapsed. All movement should begin from the center of your body, and happen with efficient precision. Try to avoid excessive, unnecessary motion, or weak, imbalanced body positions.

Rob Williams is a Vancouver based multi-business owner in the health and fitness industry. He is an entrepreneur, health and fitness columnist, presenter, inventor, athlete, father, prominent downtown vancouver personal trainer, coach and mentor to many young athletes on the North Shore www.williamshealthgroup.com

Take it of in 2012

Weight loss is no laughing matter. Although it’s probably the number one New Years resolution, successful weight loss eludes most people, including those who need it most. I’ve written about weight loss before, and shared my most effective strategies, yet I realize that there are still many people who struggle when it comes to dropping a few pounds.

Because there is so much conflicting information about how to lose weight, many people are confused and overwhelmed by the thought of it. Every second magazine I see in the stores promises to help you get a flat tummy or rock-hard abs in a few short weeks. I saw one the other day that was advertising how you could lose 30lbs in 3 months like a famous pop star.

If you’re determined to lose weight and are looking for some direction, here’s a no-nonsense, tried and true program for building muscle, burning fat, and being happy with your body. I can’t actually make you follow through every step of the way, but I can be sure you know what to do and how to do it. Always consult your physician before beginning or modifying your fitness program.

Weekly training schedule

I truly believe that an individual should be able to maintain their bodyweight at desirable levels by doing regular resistance training and eating properly. You shouldn’t need to grind away at cardiovascular exercise for hours each week just to keep from gaining fat. If this is the case, then you’re eating too much. For anyone whose goal is to steadily lose body fat, I find some cardio is helpful, and the following schedule works very well:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday – Full body resistance training program  40-60-minutes

Tuesday/Thursday – Cardiovascular exercise   30-45 minutes

Saturday – Be active

Sunday – Rest

The full-body resistance training sessions will jump-start your metabolism by stimulating your muscle tissue. This will increase the number of calories that you burn during all activities. By training the body on non-consecutive days, you’ll give your muscles time to recover and repair so they’re ready to go for your next workout. The cardiovascular activity days will help to remove waste products and deliver healthy nutrients to your muscles in-between your resistance workouts, and will improve your cardiovascular health, while burning extra calories. Having a day on the weekend for activities like cycling, hiking, kayaking or sports will ensure enough variety in your week to prevent boredom, while providing a cross-training benefit. Resting your body one day per week is essential for re-charging your engine and keeping your energy levels up.

The Workout

The full-body workouts recommended in this program aren’t specific when it comes to particular exercises, and the exercises can be changed from one day to the next. The important thing is that you use as much of your muscle mass as possible for the duration of the training session. The more muscle mass you use, the more calories you’ll burn, and the greater the benefit, both during the workout and afterward.

One approach is to take all of the major muscle groups in the body and pair them up. The three larger muscle groups that require compound exercises are the legs, back and chest. The smaller muscle groups that are targeted with more isolated exercises are the shoulders, biceps and triceps. Pair a large group with a small group (ie. legs + shoulders, back + triceps, chest + biceps) and choose two exercises for each muscle group. Perform 3 sets of 10-15 reps of the first exercises, alternating between the muscle groups, then move on to 2 sets of 10-15 reps for the next exercises. Repeat for each pair of muscle groups.

A workout might look something like this:

Warm-up

Squats and DB Shoulder Press – 3 x 10-15

Walking Lunges and Upright Rows – 2 x 10-15

Seated Cable Rows and Overhead Tricep Rope – 3 x 10-15

Lat pulldowns and Bench Dips – 2 x 10-15

Incline DB press and Barbell Curls – 3 x 10-15

Pushups and DB Hammer Curls – 2 x 10-15

Core Work

This may seem like a lot of sets but if you keep moving from one exercise to the next, and only rest when changing exercises, you’ll easily get through the whole workout, including warm-up and core work, in 45-60 minutes.

Nutrition: The Key Ingredient

There are dozens of books and internet websites devoted to eating for weight loss. Personally I’ve seen so many of my clients succeed with the approach of eating 4-5 small meals, evenly spaced throughout the day, that I’m not sure why anyone would do anything else. Choose high-quality foods, avoid snacking, and keep sugars, fats and alcohol to a minimum. Limit the amount of carbohydrates that you eat in your last two meals of the day. Diarizing everything you consume will help keep you accountable, and drinking lots of water will improve your digestion, absorption and removal of waste products.

-Rob Williams is a Vancouver based multi-business owner in the health and fitness industry. He is an entrepreneur, health and fitness columnist, presenter, inventor, athlete, father, prominent downtown vancouver personal trainer, coach and mentor to many young athletes in the North Shore community.www.williamshealthgroup.com

Cherries can help with Post Workout Pain

Think sore muscles post workout are a given? Maybe not, British researchers recently found that people who drank 1 ounce of concentrated cherry juice twice daily for 10 days bounced back faster from their workout, an intensive leg-resistance training session on day 8, than those who skipped the juice. Why? The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in cherries act as natural NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprophen and aspirin), reducing exercise-induced muscle damage.

Other health benefits of cherries;

There are only 4 calories in one cherry, and 74 calories in one cup of cherries. Cherries are low in fat and have a high-water content. Research has shown that increasing water consumption will boost energy levels and increase metabolism.

A recent study from the University of Michigan reveals new evidence linking cherries to heart health benefits. The study found that a cherry-enriched diet lowered total weight, body fat (especially the important “belly” fat), inflammation and cholesterol-all risk factors associated with heart disease.

Cherries are rich in vitamin C and carotene (9 times more than blueberries or strawberries) and potent antioxidants. Carotene is converted to vitamin A and is essential for maintaining good vision.

While there’s no established guideline yet on how many cherries it takes to reap the benefits, experts suggest that 1-2 servings of cherries daily can help provide some of the health benefits identified in the research. So go ahead and hit your local fruit stand and buy up a bunch of cherries! Here is how you can freeze them for the winter months…

Pit fresh cherries. Lay them flat on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once frozen transfer to a freezer bag, remove all air from inside back. Put them back in the freezer to enjoy in the rainy, cherry-less months.

-Rob Williams is a Vancouver based business owner in the health and fitness industry. He is a kinesiologist, posture expert, entrepreneur, health and fitness columnist, presenter, inventor, athlete, father, prominent downtown vancouver personal trainer, coach and mentor to many young athletes in the North Shore community. http://www.williamshealthgroup.com/index.htm

Sport Posture for Golf

When listening to Mixx clients talk about the swing technique of the touring professionals, there are a number of words that are consistently used. Smooth. Powerful. Fluid. Quick. Effortless. All of these words can be used to describe a good golf swing, yet these are words that don’t often get used together to describe one athletic movement.

In my opinion the golf swing is somewhat unique in the world of sports. In many athletic movements the athlete is either looking to generate power or is emphasizing finesse. The golf swing requires both. My golfing clients constantly comment that their drives are longer and straighter when they relax and don’t try as hard. This happens when we see maximal club head speed and power derived through fluid body mechanics. This is a rare combination of power and control.

To be able to consistently reproduce an exceptional swing, a golfer must train his or her body appropriately. Like any other sport, there’s no substitute for practice. At the same time, there’s significant additional benefit to be derived from off-sport conditioning to improve posture and alignment, enhance core stability and functional range of motion, and increase power.

When working with any athlete who performs their sport in a standing position, there are certain requirements for optimal performance. Neutral athletic position, effective core engagement and proximal to distal movement are all essential for fluid swing mechanics.

Following are three great exercises for golfers. Always remember to do a proper warm-up, and make sure that you consult your physician before undertaking a new fitness program or making changes to your current routine.

Like most athletic movements, golf requires stability in some parts of the body and mobility in others.

Ball squeeze torso pendulums

This movement will help you to maximize power to the ground by engaging both your adductors and abductors of your legs and hips as you create fluid rotation of the torso and upper extremities. Start by placing a small exercise ball on the floor between your legs and drop into a neutral athletic position, with your hips, knees and ankles slightly flexed and your core engaged. The ball should just fit between your legs when you’re in your standard foot placement as you address a golf ball. Place your legs snuggly up against the edge of the ball and lightly weight the inside edges of your feet. This should activate your inner thigh muscles just enough to lightly squeeze the ball. Hold a light medicine ball in both hands at arms length in front of your pelvis. Without letting your pelvis move at all, begin a small arcing motion from side to side with the medicine ball, being certain to create the rotational movement from your mid section, and not your arms. Be diligent about maintaining constant pressure through the ball and neutral alignment of the spine as you perform 30 turns. Gradually increase the speed and range of the rotations.

Lauren Taylor physiotherapist knows that by changing movement strategies, it is possible to create more mobility in tight joints.

Hip closer breakouts

Many golfers don’t have enough internal rotation at their hip joints, resulting in inefficient swing mechanics and unnecessary stress to their knee joints and spine. I find that this is especially prevalent in men. Stretching or other forms of muscle release are only effective if you re-train the movement patterns that caused the restrictions in the first place. To improve hip mobility, start in a neutral athletic position, with weight equally distributed between your feet and core engaged. Initiating the movement from the pelvis, break forward with your right leg, stepping slightly across in front of your left foot, while keeping your upper body facing forward. Holding a golf club in both hands across your chest can help you to maintain alignment. Be certain that your left leg doesn’t spin or flare outward, but stays in neutral forward alignment. Pause in this position, with equal weight on both feet, then fire back to the start position before repeating on the other side. Perform 2 sets of 30 breakouts. Focus on good head position and spinal alignment, remembering to breathe comfortably throughout the set.

When stretching pay close attention to balancing out your range of motion on both sides of the body

Quadruped golf twist

Rotational mobility is critical for golf, and symmetry in the body is very important. Start on your hands and knees with your back flat and spine neutral. Reach your right arm out and upward toward the ceiling as you rotate your torso and shoulders to your right side. Be certain to keep your hips and pelvis neutral to encourage greater spinal rotation. Breathe comfortably, letting your spine, shoulders and hips stretch out thoroughly for 15-20 seconds before taking a deep breath, exhaling and reaching even further upward for another 15-20 seconds. Perform this stretch on both sides of the body to ensure balanced flexibility.

-Rob Williams is a Vancouver based business owner in the health and fitness industry. He is a kinesiologist, posture expert, entrepreneur, health and fitness columnist, presenter, inventor, athlete, father, prominent downtown vancouver personal trainer, coach and mentor to many young athletes in the North Shore community. http://www.williamshealthgroup.com/index.htm

Breakfast: Timing is everything

Burn More Fat before Breakfast

Always eat a balanced breakfast

Most of us know the importance of eating breakfast, in fact, one study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, skipping breakfast isn’t just associated with being overweight, but with obesity. Eating breakfast stimulates your metabolism and signals the body to start using fuel, instead of hoarding fuel.

So when is the best time to eat breakfast? According to a new study in The Journal of Physiology, you will shed more pounds by eating after your morning workout than before. During the 6 week study, participants who ate a high-cal, high fat breakfast before hitting the gym packed on an average of three pounds. The after-workout eaters gained almost no weight-although they ate the same breakfast. Exercise elevates levels of the fat-burning hormone adrenalin, says lead researcher Karen Van Proeyen, Ph.D. But when you work out after eating, the insulin your body releases to help you digest the food, blunts the spike of adrenalin.

So go ahead and eat breakfast but if you are trying to shed some unwanted fat, fuel up with healthy food, after your morning workout.

Reaching your weight loss goals

When it comes to health and fitness goals, there is none more popular or pervasive than weight-loss. Maybe there are a lot of people out there who are genuinely, 100% satisfied with their current body composition, but from my professional experience over the last 20 years, it certainly seems that the majority of people would like to have more control over their bodyweight.

For our purposes, I’m going to present this goal as ‘fat-loss’, because it specifically identifies the issue, and there’s no doubt it’s a serious one. Worldwide obesity levels are rising. Children are getting fatter and increasingly unhealthy. With all of the ‘diet’ and ‘fat-free’ products on the shelves, the countless books and weight-loss programs available and our advanced knowledge of the importance of maintaining a healthy body composition, the general population still struggles for control of their body-fat levels.

So let’s assume you’re one of the people who’s made the decision that you’d like to get rid of a little extra body-fat. Maybe it’s 10 pounds, or maybe it’s 50. The number doesn’t matter as much as the decision. Once you’ve decided it’s time for change, the last thing we want is for you to struggle or falter because you don’t really know how to go forward.

What I’m going to do is summarize and simplify the information necessary to help you gain control of your body composition once and for all. I do want to point out that achieving fat-loss goals can be difficult, even if you have all of the correct technical information, because it requires modification of habits. Again, this is where true experts like Larry Birckhead at The HabitShift Institute are invaluable.

Building muscle reduces body fat

Build muscle – I’ve mentioned before, but since I end up in this conversation almost daily, it’s worth repeating here. In my opinion, the best thing about the Biggest Loser reality show phenomenon is that anyone looking to lose body-fat needs to be performing regular, high-intensity resistance training. For many of my clients over the years, we changed their bodies completely without doing any extra cardiovascular training at all. Just by stepping up the frequency and intensity of their strength workouts we were able to burn more calories and boost their metabolism enough that they leaned out and lost the extra body-fat. Of course we had to be careful with their nutrition plan, but if your goal is to lose fat, you should be closely monitoring your eating anyway.

The more you move, the more you burn, the more you lose.

 Burn calories – People who try to lose weight without exercise are truly at a disadvantage. Because they aren’t burning a lot of calories, they have to eat tiny quantities of food, which leaves them perpetually hungry and allows their metabolism to gradually slow down, making the process more and more difficult. I can understand how it seems like the best way to lose weight is to eat fewer and fewer calories, but a better solution is to burn more. Of course there’s a happy medium here. Assuming you’re taking in enough fuel each day for healthy nutrition without having any extra to store as body-fat (more on this later) then successful fat-loss is easy. All you have to do is make sure you’re burning more calories than you’re taking in, and there are all kinds of ways to burn calories. Treadmills, elliptical trainers and stationary bikes are all effective pieces of cardiovascular training equipment, but you can also go for a walk, run or do calisthenics. Just make sure your heart rate is elevated to safe levels and you keep your body moving as much as possible.

Fuel your body – As the most important aspect of successful fat-loss, proper nutrition doesn’t have to be complicated, and I’m going to simplify it even more. For myself, by eating 5 healthy meals of 400-500 calories each, at 3-4 hour intervals, I’m able to control my body-fat. If I’m really strict on this, I begin to get very lean. If I stray from this plan or start eating too many sugary foods, I start to gain fat. Because I’m 40 years old, over 200 pounds, and train with weights on a regular basis, I need more calories than most people. For smaller women I usually recommend portion sizes of roughly 300-350 calories per meal. For men it’s usually around 400. The trick is to start eating this way and see what happens. If you lose weight too quickly, increase the size of the meals slightly. If nothing changes within a few weeks, down-size the meals a tiny bit. Just stay consistent in your timing, and don’t snack between meals. Also, remember that proper hydration is essential for fat-loss and for a healthy body, so drink lots of water through the day.

-Rob Williams is a Vancouver based business owner in the health and fitness industry. He is an entrepreneur, health and fitness columnist, presenter, inventor, prominent downtown vancouver personal trainer, athlete, father, coach and mentor to many young athletes in the North Shore community. www.williamshealthgroup.com

Fitness Myths

Top 3 Fitness Myths

Maybe it’s the internet, or the late-night infomercials, but compared to my early days in this business, today’s personal training client is a lot more astute when it comes to the facts and fallacies of fitness. One example is the general understanding that weight training isn’t just for bodybuilders or narcissists, and that functional strength, better bone health and more stable joints are all among the benefits of resistance training. People have also come to accept the fact that personal trainers aren’t just for the Hollywood celebrities and filthy rich, and that there really is a benefit to having someone follow you around the gym telling you what to do.

Yet, in spite of the mass of fitness-related information on the world-wide web and in the popular media, there are still a lot of faulty notions and beliefs circulating among consumers. These mostly relate to what does and doesn’t work when it comes to success in a fitness program. I can understand how this has happened, because there’s been so much conflicting advice put forth, usually by someone trying to sell their ‘revolutionary’ diet or fitness product. In my experience I’ve probably heard at least a hundred different myths of this kind, but there are a few that seem to pop up more regularly than the rest, and that still surprise me in their persistence. Just to make sure I was on the right track I polled a couple of my other trainers and these little gems were among their top picks as well.

So, here they are, in no particular order. Some readers will laugh at the simplicity, while others will be shocked to read that I disagree with their deep-seated beliefs. In either case, I welcome comments and criticisms about my selection, as well as questions relating to other long-standing fitness theories.

Women should train hard and not worry about building too much muscle.

1- Myth #1 – Women should avoid lifting heavy weights or they’ll get too muscular.

This is likely the single most prevalent myth that I’ve come across in my career. In fact, the majority of women that have started training with me have mentioned this concern at some point. I usually promise them that I could train them as hard as they’d let me for the next year, trying to put on as much muscle mass as possible, and at the end of the year I’m certain that they would be thrilled with their appearance. The reason for this is that very few women have enough natural testosterone in their systems to facilitate significant muscle growth. Instead, intense resistance training develops firm, functional physiques.

2 – Myth #2 – You need to lose the extra weight before starting a strength-training program.

If you’re carrying a few extra pounds you’d like to get rid of, it’s essential to perform a smart resistance program in conjunction with regular cardiovascular workouts and healthy nutrition. Strength training activates your body’s muscle mass, elevating your metabolism and increasing your caloric output. Losing weight without strength training is more difficult and usually results in a loss of muscle mass. This lowers the metabolism and decreases the amount of fuel you can consume without gaining weight.

Losing the love handles takes more than just a good ab routine.

3 – Myth #3 -  Spot-reduction!

By now this myth should be long gone. Unfortunately consumers cling to it in hopes that 5 minutes of abdominal exercises each day will get rid of the extra body fat and give them the flat stomach they’ve always wanted. Training a specific muscle or muscle group will improve the shape and conditioning of that muscle, but won’t significantly reduce the amount of bodyfat covering it. Unless you’re already very lean, getting your abs (or any other muscle group) to show is dependent on losing body fat through intelligent calorie burn and optimal nutrition.

Rob Williams is a Vancouver based business owner in the health and fitness industry. He is a kinesiologist, posture expert, entrepreneur, health and fitness columnist, presenter, inventor, athlete, father, prominent downtown vancouver personal trainer, coach and mentor to many young athletes in the North Shore community. http://www.williamshealthgroup.com/index.html