Take The Low Approach to Great Abs

Everybody wants a six pack, including you. It is probably the most sought after goal and hoped result of working out. Working toward great abdominal muscles, not only looks great, but cuts your risk of injury and improves your performance in everyday life. Not only are rock hard abs a symbol of fitness, but strong and flexible abdominal muscles help trim your waist and end back pain. Two very important health goals of many who enter an exercise facility. It allows you to move from side to side with stability and control. Men and women want to walk on the beach and show off all their hard work by exposing their abs. From what has been seen in gym and health facilities, it is most worked on muscle group or it is the most neglected. What category do you end up falling into? There are many ways in which you can work you abdominal muscles. There is a scientific sequence to effectively shaping and creating great abs.

Most people are stronger in their upper to middle abdominals compared to their lower abdominal muscles. It is recommended that you work your lower abs first since you are freshest and have the most energy to get the most out of your stomach. The abdominal muscles react and provide optimal results visually when performed to failure. Failure occurs when the muscle is thoroughly exhausted and the exercise can no longer be executed. This means you can not do one more painful repetition. Your mid-section should be worked in this manner all the time.

Some examples for lower abs are as follows:

The reverse crunch (using the slant board) - with your hand holding the bars and your legs straight on the floor, raise your knees to your face, while bending your knees, until the fetal position. Then slowly drop your rear end until you touch the board and repeat the exercise.

Leg lifts (performed on the Roman Chair) - Start with your back on the back support and lift your knees/legs to its highest point. Feet should not be allowed to swing behind your rear end at its lowest point for safety and momentum purposes.

Hanging leg raises (performed on the cable machines) - Start by hanging from the middle pull up bar on the cable machines. The hanging leg raise is probably the most result producing stomach exercise since it is generated from the lower abs and then incorporated the upper abs at its peak. It begins by having your feet lift over and above your waist until it reached approximately where your hands are holding on. Remember to keep you body from swinging back and forth. This will cause you to use more stomach muscles and less momentum.

Then proceed to your upper/middle abs to get that desired burn.

The Ab Roller, which is great for upper abdominals and obliques, is great to start with since it promotes safety and immediate results. Exercises utilizing the ball and floor mats are great ways to end a stomach workout. The utility ball allows for maximum stretching to hit all areas of the mid-section.

Since your stomach is considered your smallest muscle, you are able - and recommended to - train them up to 6 days per week. A cardiovascular work out which consist of constant aerobic activity which last for more than 30 minutes at your 80% target heart rate is extremely beneficial and necessary to achieve that ever desired six pack.

Great abs are only obtained through hard work, perseverance and proper form. They are the central point in which your motion begins and ends. In the end, great abs will give you the needed support for your workout and your life.

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All About The Best Stomach Exercises

It is only natural, most people want to look their best, and exercising their stomach muscles is usually a huge part of most fitness programs. If so much time and energy is going to be focused on this muscle group, it is a good idea to know what the best stomach exercises are. There are many resources available for finding the best stomach exercises, and plenty of people to say what they consider the best, so how can a person decide for themselves which truly are the best exercises for working their stomach muscles?

First of all it is important to note that the best stomach exercises are those that a person is willing to do. No matter how effective the exercise is, if a person isn't going to do them consistently the exercise will not benefit that particular individual. It is also important to note that the best stomach exercises do not necessarily require equipment to perform them, although some machines and equipment may work quite well for some people.

When a person decides on a fitness program that includes stomach exercises, it is best to include stomach exercises that work the different parts of the stomach. If a person simply concentrates on one area of their stomach, there workout will not be as effective. The best stomach exercises, combine working the oblique, which are the side muscles, the lower abdominals, the mid section and also the upper section.

Some of the most popular stomach exercises are crunches. These are a very effective exercise and very convenient since they can be performed anywhere without any equipment. The next stomach exercise that is also very popular and goes along with the basic crunch is the side crunch, which works out the oblique.

Some people consider the best stomach exercises to be included in a Pilate's workout. The reason for this is because in Pilates, the whole focus is on the core of the body which is the abdominal, or stomach muscles. Every movement in a Pilate's workout will work the stomach muscles either directly or indirectly. These exercises can be found on the internet, either the exercise itself or video's that can be purchased.

Another good exercise that some fitness experts considers to be one of the best stomach exercises involves laying flat on your stomach, leg straight and then raising your body up using your arms as your hands are clasped together and keeping your body straight as if doing a pushup. Hold this position as long as you can stand. This is an excellent movement to strengthen the whole stomach.

Remember again though that just because one person may consider a specific exercise to be the best stomach exercise that does not necessarily mean it is the best for everyone. Each person's body is different and will respond differently to certain movements. Any one serious about working on the abdominal muscles will find it most helpful to try several different stomach exercises and then determine which one they can both feel and see results with. If one exercise is simply too hard to do correctly, or does not feel like it has done anything for the muscle group worked, that exercise is clearly not the best and the person should find what works best for them.

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Re-evaluating Lipoplasty-Only Breast Reduction - Health - Plastic Surgery

In 2001, after 4 years of performing breast reduction using my lipoplasty-only technique, I published my technique and results in Aesthetic Surgery Journal. During that period, I was using lipoplasty-only exclusively in all patients who requested breast reduction. Since that report I have performed an additional 276 procedures and, as a result, have somewhat modified my approach. Here, after performing a total of 751 breast reductions, I report on my modifications.

Since 1997, when I first presented this technique, lipoplasty-only breast reduction has continued to gain acceptance. In addition to my own reporting on this technique, others have also demonstrated its effectiveness and safety. In my practice, currently, 85% of breast reductions are performed using the lipoplasty-only technique. The average volume removal is 800 cc per breast with a range of 75 to 4200 cc of pure fat.

Until 2 years ago, I offered all of my patients a secondary mastopexy procedure in the event that they were unhappy with the amount of residual breast ptosis, but only 7 patients requested a secondary procedure. (Another 2 patients, young women with inadequate volume reduction, underwent conventional breast reduction subsequent to the lipoplasty-only procedure). After some time, I began to realize that some women declined lipoplasty reductions and did not schedule surgery because they were concerned that by undergoing lipoplasty-only, they would be left with residual ptosis and they did not want to return for an additional operation. Based on this observation, I began offering the option of a vertical mastopexy performed in the same session with the lipoplasty reduction, and in some cases, I simply recommend a conventional breast reduction in lieu of the lipoplasty-only procedure.

I have made a number of changes in my methods of preoperative evaluation. In the past, I required a mammogram in patients older than 40 solely because I wanted them screened for breast masses. However, after viewing several hundred mammograms, it became apparent that mammograms provide a useful tool for estimating postoperative volume by revealing the breast fat content. I now ask for mammograms in all thin patients. Also, I have been treating an increased number of patients with massive weight loss and find mammograms helpful in assessing the optimal approach in this population.

Although most patients have sufficient fat for at least a one-cup-bra reduction with lipoplasty, I have found that about 10% have breast tissue that is too dense. For these patients, I recommend a conventional reduction. In addition, I will typically offer a conventional reduction to patients who wish to be reduced more than 1 bra-cup size.

A patient who is planning to have excisions in other anatomical areas and is more accepting of scars may be perfectly happy choosing a conventional breast reduction. If there is minimal breast tissue with marked excess skin, such as in some patients with massive weight loss, I do not perform a lipoplasty-only reduction; a conventional reduction will provide a much better result.

My approach to correcting breast asymmetry has also changed. I am utilizing lypoplasty-only procedures more frequently to address this problem. Many patients choose a unilateral lipoplasty reduction, rather than undergoing augmentation, to avoid the risks of capsular contracture or implant failure.

To summarize, since my last report in Aesthetic Surgery Journal, I have modified my approach in the following ways:

1. While still performing, approximately 85% lipoplasty-only procedures, I now discuss with my patients the possibility of a vertical mastopexy performed in the same session, rather than suggesting that a 2-stage procedure may be necessary.

2.I frequently use mammograms as part of the evaluation process to help assess breast fat volume.

3.I may elect to perform conventional reductions if the patients desire more than a 1-bra-cup size reduction, has very dense breast tissues, is having other excisional contouring surgery, or has minimal breast tissue with significant excess skin.

4.I increasingly use a unilateral lipoplasty procedure to correct breast asymmetry, allowing patients to avoid the possible complications of augmentation surgery.

Technique:

There has been no change in my technique for performing lipoplasty-only breast reduction. I do not use ultrasound-assisted lipoplasty (UAL) in the breast.

In performing a vertical mastopexy with a lipoplasty reduction, you can anticipate a 3-cm improvement in nipple position when you mark the patient compared with a 5-cm improvement using lipoplasty-only. Because of the skin excision, there is less contraction. After the infiltration it is easy to deepithelialize. Follow deepithelialization with the lipoplasty reduction. Do not undermine.

Place a 2-0 supramid suture in the dermis, medial to the excision, and tighten it to the proposed areolar diameter. Perform the remaining dermal repair with Vicryl or Monocryl (Ethicon Inc., Sommerville, NJ). Close the skin with 5-0 nylon. Postoperatively, I treat patients undergoing vertical mastopexy with lipoplasty reduction in the same manner as patients who have undergone a lipoplasty-only procedure. I change dressings as necessary. Patients use antibiotic ointment on the incisions until the sutures are removed after 5 days. I do not allow strenuous activity for 1 week after surgery.

Results

Since I stopped exclusively performing lipoplasty-only breast reductions, I have performed conventional reductions in 5% of patients and lipoplasty with vertical mastopexies in 10% of patients. Because there is no undermining or flaps, there has been no dehiscence, nipple necrosis, or numbness. During the past 2 years, I have had only 1 complication, an infection that responded to antibiotics. I continue to perform lipoplasty-only reductions in 85% patients. Even though the vertical mastopexy has been a safe and effective procedure, most patients would rather avoid the additional scarring. Most patients are pleased to eliminate symptoms and are not overly concerned with ideal nipple position.

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