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Apr 2 10 tweets 4 min read Read on X
THE GIRONDA APPROACH TO AB TRAINING.

"Sharp, well-built abdominal muscles are worth a king's ransom. To my mind, there is no more treasured possession," said Vince Gironda. Here are the fundamentals of his approach to training the abdominals. 👇 Image
1. NO SPOT-REDUCTION.

Sorry, but no amount of sit-ups will burn the fat off your stomach. Fat loss doesn’t work like that: it isn’t specific to the region that is being worked. Vince knew this way back when, and it’s been wholly substantiated by scientific studies as well. Image
2. IT'S NOT THAT HARD.

Once you know you can't spot reduce, and you instead focus on reducing your body fat levels by dieting and intense exercise, things become much easier. Image
3. DON'T DO THOUSANDS OF REPS.

You don’t need to do thousands of reps to develop your abdominals. The abdominals should be trained just like any other bodypart, Vince says, in the same rep ranges (8-12, generally). You don’t need to do Roman-chair crunches for an hour and a half like Frank Zane to get great abs. In fact, doing so is likely to be counterproductive.Image
Vince cautions that beginners shouldn't even train their abs at all, at least not directly. Training them might even hinder progress, since they’re already getting more than enough stimulation being worked as support muscles during other exercises.
4. STOP WITH THE SIT-UPS

Neither sit-ups nor leg raises are pure abdominal movements. Although the abdominals are involved, these exercises work other muscles primarily. As Vince reminds us, the abdominals function to “shorten the distance between the pelvic basin and the sternum.” So if you want to work the abdominal muscles, that’s what you need to do. For this reason, a partial sit-up—“lifting the body only one-quarter or one-half of the way”—will target the abdominals much more specifically than a full sit-up.

To ensure that the abdominals are properly worked when shortening the distance between the pelvic basin and the sternum, you must ensure the small of the back is in constant contact with the bench or board.
5. DON'T WAIT AROUND

Vince's general approach to progression was to increase density (the amount of work performed in a given period of time), rather than simply increasing reps per set, number of sets or weight. For this reason, with abs Vince recommends keeping rest periods between sets to a minimum, and reducing them consistently to progress, rather than drawing out the exercises with more and more reps or added weight.Image
6. DO VACUUMS

The vacuum was a staple of Silver and Golden Age bodybuilding. With the arrival of the “mass-monster” era, however, the vacuum got lost along with the trim waists of the past, as bodybuilders went all-out on size.

The vacuum is an isometric abdominal-hollowing exercise that targets the transverse abdominis, a deep muscle that acts like a belt around the waist. Tighten the belt, tighten the waist. Remember what Vince said about the importance of “creating the illusion.” If you can slim and tighten your waist, in an instant your shoulders become wider, simply by comparison.

In The Wild Physique, Vince recommended performing sets of eight reps.Image
7. DO THE FROG CRUNCH.

This is Vince's signature crunch, which he advocated instead of the traditional sit-up. This is a special crunch that is designed to isolate the abdominals. Lower back flat, ankles crossed. Here's how Vince describes it.

"Lie on your back on the floor. Put your heels together and place your hands behind your head. Pull head forward to a tight contracted position. Hold for two seconds and repeat."Image
For more Gironda ab training, check out this article on my Stack and the rest of my Gironda series, THE OG.

raweggstack.com/p/the-og-abdom…

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More from @Babygravy9

Jul 10
VINCE GIRONDA'S 6-WEEK AB SPECIALISATION COURSE.

This course does exactly what it says on the tin: it provides you with a six-week course focused on abdominal development. Add it to your normal weight-training regimen. 👇 Image
The course is not intended for absolute beginners. Vince believed beginners shouldn’t train abs at all. For beginners, according to Vince, general training, and especially compound movements, is enough to stimulate the abdominals. Only later, after the bodybuilder has gained some experience, should they then start to train abdominals specifically.
The six-week course consists of six one-week regimens to be performed one after the other, in order. Each regimen contains a different exercise or exercises, which Vince describes in detail.

Some weeks, such as week two include different exercises depending on the practitioner’s skill level. Weeks five and six are based around the same difficult exercise—the shoulder planche.
Read 11 tweets
Jul 5
TAMPONS ARE LACED WITH HEAVY METALS.

A new study shows that tampons are laced with heavy metals including lead, arsenic and cadmium. Every single tampon tested in the study had lead in it. 👇 Image
The researchers analysed 60 tampons representing 14 different brands from the US, UK and EU. These included name brands and store-brand products. The samples were tested using a process called inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to identify metals present. Image
The researchers found lead and cadmium in 100% of samples. Arsenic was detected in 95% of samples.

Interestingly, the highest concentrations were for zinc and calcium.

UK and EU tampons generally had lower quantities of metals in them than US tampons.
Read 9 tweets
Jun 7
I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this study is absolute junk, which it is. But let me tell you one reason why, which you may not be aware of. 👇
The study starts from the position that there must be some evolutionary reason for the persistence of genes for same-sex attraction, since they persist despite being apparently maladaptive (gay people don't reproduce).

The researchers therefore devised a "desirable dad hypothesis": that men possessing traits associated with same-sex attraction are actually more likely to be attractive to women.

Here's how the researchers describe this in the study abstract:

"Same-sex attraction, a heritable trait with a reproductive cost, lacks a comprehensive evolutionary explanation. Here we build on a hypothesis invoking antagonistic pleiotropy, which suggests that genes linked to male same-sex attraction remain in the gene pool because they have conferred some fitness advantage to heterosexual men possessing them. We posit the “desirable dad hypothesis,” which proposes that alleles linked to male non-heterosexual orientations increase traits conducive to childcare; heterosexual men possessing same-sex attracted alleles are more desirable mating partners as a function of possessing superior paternal qualities."Image
They then conducted three separate studies to investigate this hypothesis.

In the first study, women were asked to assess personality traits associated with parenting via surveys. In the second, a small group of women were presented with male dating profiles classified as masculine, neutral and feminine and asked to rate them with regard to their prospects for relationships, both short- and long-term. And in the third, these same women rated the same profiles they’d seen in terms of their perceived parenting abilities.

The results of the three studies were a resounding “yes” to the question, “Do women prefer feminine men as partners and mates?"
Read 9 tweets
Jun 2
SUNLIGHT STOPS YOU GETTING FAT.

Apart from cholesterol, sunlight is probably the most demonised "substance" in all of health. You're told sunlight is harmful, but the opposite is true, as a new study shows. UV light makes you eat more, but it also ramps up your metabolism.👇 Image
What the researchers found in this new study is that mice exposed to consistent UV radiation (one of the main components of sunlight) exhibited increased appetite, which could be seen not only in eating behaviours, but also in levels of the hormone leptin, which regulates appetite.

Regardless of whether or not the mice were fed a normal diet or a high-fat (i.e. junk-food diet) they didn’t gain weight. Yes, you read that right: even mice fed a junk-food diet, if they were exposed to steady UV radiation, didn’t gain weight, even when they ate more.

But how?Image
Because the UV radiation triggered the release of norepinephrine, which not only reduces levels of leptin, but also increases energy expenditure by turning white fat into more metabolically expensive brown fat (yes, not all forms of body fat are created equal).

The researchers found that the increased energy intake of the mice was converted to heat before it could accumulate in white fat, and so the mice didn’t put on weight.
Read 8 tweets
May 26
SOME NEW MICROPLASTIC STUDIES.

There's now massive amounts of research being conducted into microplastics and their effects. Barely a day passes without multiple new studies. Here are a few I saw on my travels today. 👇 Image
No surprise: single-use beverage cups release significant quantities of microplastics when hot water is added to them. Interestingly, rinsing the cup with pure cold water before use reduces plastic release by over half (up to 65%). Image
Microplastics are in fish-oil capsules. Most probably get their from the manufacturing and packaging process. Image
Read 5 tweets
May 12
AIR IN 99% OF CARS CONTAINS TOXIC CHEMICALS LINKED TO CANCER AND HORMONE-DISRUPTION.

A new study shows that virtually all car interiors are off-gassing harmful flame retardants. 👇 Image
Researchers analysed the air in 101 electric, gas and hybrid cars made between 2015 and 2022, and found that 99% of the samples contained a flame retardant called TCIPP, which is being investigated as a potential carcinogen, and two others, TDCIPP and TCEP, which are already considered to be carcinogenic.Image
These chemicals are also considered to be endocrine-disruptors, meaning they interfere with the body’s natural hormone balance, and they are linked to neurological damage.

“Considering the average driver spends about an hour in the car every day, this is a significant public health issue,” said Rebecca Hoehn, lead researcher.

“It’s particularly concerning for drivers with longer commutes as well as child passengers, who breathe more air pound for pound than adults.”
Read 6 tweets

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