Why Crunches & Sit-Ups are Horrible for Your Back

The sit-up or more specifically, the ‘crunch’ has been an exercise staple for decades. Proponents of the crunch touted it as the ideal exercise for building six-pack abdominals and ridding the stomach of excess fat. Since as far back as the 1940s fitness ‘gurus’ in gyms, on television and in magazines suggested that the crunch offered a fast track to a lean, well-defined mid-section.

And for nearly as long, the real fitness experts have been saying “No, no no….the crunch does none of those things and is in fact, a horrible exercise that increases the risk of injury—particularly the back.”  Let’s take a look and see which viewpoint is correct.

We’ll start by taking a look at the crunch movement to get a better perspective. There are a nearly endless variety of ways to perform the crunch but among all of them, the basic movements are essentially the same. The movement begins by lying face up on the floor with knees bent. Next, curl the shoulders towards the pelvis with the lower back remaining on the floor. The movement is repeated anywhere from 20 to a hundred times or more. The hands can be behind or beside the neck or crossed over the chest.

Crunches can be more difficult by: placing the feet up on a bench with the back on the floor; performing the movement on an exercise ball; performing the movement on a decline bench; twisting the torso during the up movement; or even by placing a weight plate, kettle bell or dumbbell on the chest to make the up movement more difficult.

But while in theory the crunch is perceived to be a simple, relatively safe exercise, this is not necessarily the reality.

Continue Reading Here....

Critical Bench 2.0 : Mike Westerdal Hits 630 LB Bench Press

Powerlifters compete in the squat, bench press and deadlift.

And they get big and muscular because they’re strong. Again, like I mentioned earlier… if you start lifting more weight than you usually do… your body must adapt in order to handle that weight.

It does that by growing bigger and stronger.

If you don’t get ANYTHING else at all from this letter, just remember that… because that alone will give you more results than anything else you do!

Bodybuilders… on the other hand… generally train for muscle growth and for aesthetics or looks. Not all bodybuilders are as strong as they look. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But if you’re like me… you probably want to have strength… as well as the lean, muscular look.

And believe me, you can. Not only is it possible, strength and size go hand-in-hand!

If you try to get stronger… each and every week… you’re GOING to get more muscular. It’s just a fact.

So if you’re looking to gain muscle as well as strength… you need to start focusing on lifting more weight. I dare you to find a guy who bench presses 400 pounds that doesn’t have a powerhouse body to match.

Click Here to Increase Your Bench 50 lbs in 10 Weeks

Critical Bench 2.0 : Mike Westerdal Benches 405 for 5 Reps

Almost everyone you talk to says they want to increase their bench press, but unfortunately some guys skip the exercise. The number one excuse I get, "I can't bench press because my shoulders hurt." Its true bench pressing with bad form can cause shoulder injuries but there is a way to alleviate this. I had the same issues myself and thought my heavy benching days were over. That is until several years ago when I met with a powerlifting coach and discovered this tip.

As you bench press, keep your elbows tucked in close to your body. By doing this the path of the bar will change a bit. The bar will touch a little lower on your chest right below your nipples. The fact you're touching the bar lower on your chest will decrease the pressure on your deltoids.

The further you are from your center the less leverage you have. When you tuck your elbows and keep them from flaring out you transfer the load to your triceps taking pressure off the shoulder complex.

Touching the bar lower and keeping your elbows in close will allow the bar to travel in a straight line. We all know the fastest way from point A to point B is with a straight line. Give this technique a try. You may drop in poundage the first few workouts, but you'll skyrocket past where you were in the past in record time.

Gaining Muscle Weight is Not a Mystery

Today I've got a guest article for you from Mike Westerdal of Critical Bench. If you're trying to gain weight don't make it harder than it has to be…I'll let Mike take it from here…..

How you gain weight is no mystery. You gain weight by consuming more calories than you burn off in the course of a day. The excess calories, if not used by the body for energy, muscle building, or some other metabolic process, is stored as body fat. It’s stored as fat in case there is a future shortage of calories.

Much like you put excess junk you have around the house into a closet for storage, your body stores excess calories you haven’t used as body fat for future need.

The problem is, if you continue to eat the same amount of calories (or more) every day, there never is a future need and your body simply continues to store the excess as fat.

If excess calories are the culprit of weight gain, than the answer to achieving weight loss has to do with calories as well. You have to reverse the process that caused you to gain weight. You have to eat less calories.

I do not necessarily mean eating less food. I mean eating fewer calories, which is different.

There are two ways to have an impact on calorie expenditure in your body. Either eat less calories or burn more of them during exercise. I do not recommend going to extremes on either one of these but rather doing a little bit of both. When you diet and severely restrict calories, your body goes into a defense mode and begins to hold onto stored body fat.

While on a typical “diet” your body senses possible famine and holds onto body fat in case of future need. Also, your metabolism slows down because there’s not as much food to burn through and utilize.

So a drastic, sudden drop in calories is definitely not the way to achieve long term fat loss results.
Besides, how long could you possibly go on a restrictive diet before the feeling of deprivation makes you give in?

That is why diets traditionally do not work. You eat restrictively for a couple weeks and indeed have some success with weight loss.

But soon the diet becomes much too restrictive and you go back to the older, less restrictive way of eating. When the less healthy, less restrictive lifestyle comes back, so does all the weight you lost.

If you are trying to lose fat by dieting, you are always going to be in a position of playing “catch up”.

What I mean by this is, when you come off from a restrictive diet, you are going to “catch up” and eat all of the foods you felt deprived of. Instead of eating moderately and sensibly, the feelings of deprivation cause you to consume much more food than you normally would have if you weren’t dieting.

You’ll lose some weight on a diet and then gain it all back. Hence the term “yo-yo dieting” or “roller coaster dieting”

The solution? Do not eat restrictively and do not ban any specific foods.

I am a big advocate of eating regular, whole foods to lose fat. The foods you eat just have to be in smaller portions.

There isn’t any food you have to give up altogether for weight loss to occur. You just have to moderate and eat smaller portions, more often, for your metabolism to operate efficiently.

Cool, thanks Mike.

Now how do you know exactly how many calories you should be eating?

With these Done-For-You Lean Muscle Building Meal Plans they walk you through the easy steps of choosing the correct calorie plan. You get 24 different calorie plans that are each 84-days long.

Why This Works:

1. All your meals are planned for you so you don’t have to figure it out.

2. If you don’t like a food just use the substitution chart.

3. These meal plans are not restrictive and won’t leave you feeling hungry.

4. You’ll save money by only buying the groceries on your shopping list for the week.

5. They were designed by a professional nutritionist named Patrick McGuire that works with pro athletes.

Done-For-Your Lean Muscle Meal Plans — << Highly Recommended.