Ethan Halfhide Personal Training

TAG a Starbucks lover that’s been wondering where those ghost pounds have been coming from! That whipped cream packs a punch! ☕️

If you’re not tracking, you’re guessing!
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Try it for 3 days and watch how you’re awareness rises 😁
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Keep it simple. Start today, do what you feel comfortable doing. At home bodyweight workouts are a great place to begin. Then add some resistance bands or light dumbbells. Once you feel comfortable head to the gym for some short strength circuits until you feel more comfortable.
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Repeat after me “SQUARE IS NOT SEXY”
This one is for the ladiessss 👱‍♀️👩👵👩‍⚕️
**Core Comprehension Part 2**

What am I going on about today? Something that my client still repeats every time we do core exercises because she thought it was hilarious the first time I said it...and it’s successfully helped her tighten her waist to the point that she needs new pants😳

See if you do conventional core exercises for long enough you will build out your core similar to the way you would probably want your July calendar man or Wall poster cowboy to look like with his shirt off. But chances are while you find it visually appealing, as a women you don’t necessarily want that same look do you.

The answer lies in the transverse abdominis which is nicknamed “the corset muscle”. If your core has ever hurt from laughing or coughing or even from a rough night of drinking in college that may have ended up with those cranberry vodkas coming back up the same way the went down. You can thank the Transverse abdominis (TrA). That’s one way to get a core workout isn’t it; laugh, catch a cold, or get really drunk (please don’t take this literally) (yes you, I know you just typed out a text to the girls saying “I have an idea!”, don’t send it...it’s a bad idea Joanne).

WHY do we want to activate this muscle? As you may have guessed from the activities that make it sore, it is responsible for squeezing the abdomen. Simply put: traditional crunches alone won’t tighten your core, you need to do exercises that activate the Transverse Abdominis to accomplish that.

So now you’re asking HOW do we activate the corset muscle effectively? Listen carefully my little minions...There are 4 exercises I want you to do to do a NATURAL tummy tuck.

1. My favorite core exercise is a great way to target this. The MYOTATIC crunch will have you feeling like you just watched your favorite comedians newest special on Netflix. I talked about this exercise in my last article so check it out or google the exercise.
2. Russian Twists- idk why Russia gets all the credit but oblique twists (keep your legs off the ground) work really well at activating the Transverse abdominis.
3. Good ol plank- but try it with one leg up and to the side (also in my video)
4. Bird Dogs- whaaa yes even bird dogs work! Try them with either an ankle weight around your leg or dumbbell in your hand to make them even harder.

ON A SERIOUS NOTE- a lot of people don’t even know this muscle exists. Therefore it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s very weak in the majority of people who aren’t actively working out (call me captain obvious). Other than squeezing the abdomen this muscle is also responsible for spinal stability so if you or someone has lower back pain it may be directly (or indirectly) caused by a weak transverse abdominis.

I hope this helps 💪🏽🔥💪🏽🔥

Healthier Every Day

Leave comments or suggestions for future writing topics below

“The ONE exercise you need to do everyday to strengthen you core without wasting your time” **Core Comprehension Part 1**

Tired of having to poke new holes in your belt? When you sit down do you feel a little bit like the Michelin man/lady? Well here’s one way to strengthen your core so when you begin mobilizing fat from your midsection you will have some muscle to show!

Well first I’ll tell you what’s wrong with most core exercises. They only use HALF of your core’s active range of motion (ROM)! If I did a bicep curl and only did the bottom half of the curl every time I worked out do you think I would eventually get arms that look like my favorite emoji??💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽

No, because I’m not doing a proper eccentric/ concentric (stretch/contract) motion in order to elicit an adaptation in my muscle tissue. So right now I’ll give you one exercise that was not used in the study but does a great job of utilizing the full ROM in order to elicit a muscular adaptation , this is not the ONE core exercise I am talking about but it is definitely top 2-3 on my list for its ease and effectiveness.

THE MYOTATIC CRUNCH - for this you will need an exercise ball or a bosu ball. Here’s a video of how to do this the correct way. This exercise is a great way to fully stretch and contrast the abdominal muscles while also activating the Transverse abdominis aka “the corset muscles”. I’ll talk more about why these are so important (especially for the ladies) in part 2.

There was a study conducted with the sole purpose of finding out which traditional core exercise was the most effective. They used electrodes and an EMG (electromyography machine) to measure the nervous systems signal to the muscles (aka electrical activity of the muscles during activity). They had participants do a series of exercises including (traditional crunches, bicycle crunches, planks, sit ups, and more). These electrodes measured the power of the stimulation of the muscles in the core for each exercise and what they found was amazing.

We have been doing hundreds if not thousands of repetitions of the WRONG exercises!!
Here’s what the study found were the best exercises to train your core.

The traditional crunch was given a 100%

The ab roller was given a 105%

Seems good right? 100% seems perfect! But does is it actually good? Let’s find out....

The vertical leg crunch was given a 139%

The Captains Chairs were given a 212%

And drum roll please... the winner was:
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THE BICYCLE CRUNCH COMING IN HOT AT 248% ACTIVATION OF THE RE**US ABDOMINIS

1. Bicycle crunch
2. Captains chairs
3. Vertical leg crunches

So with this information not only do you have the top 3 core exercises to include in your next ab circuit but you have the #1 Most Effective Core Exercise that you should try to do at least once a day.

** Wondering how you can get over 100% activation of a muscle? When a score is greater than 100% (very effective exercise), it simply means that the average activation throughout the repetition is higher than the average activation recorded from a maximum isometric voluntary contraction.

Hope This Helps You Get Healthier Today
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Im happy to take suggestions and comments below

🔥🔥Instant results from working out, place your focus here for the best possible outcome 🔥🔥

What you should really be focusing on when beginning your journey back into the gym.

It’s great to have a long term goal/vision of where you eventually want to be or look like from working out consistently over a period of time. But that shouldn’t be your daily focus.

Listen I understand the feeling of wanting to look like those IG models (yeah the same ones doing those backflip burpees I talked about in my previous post) but I quickly realized that was such an unhealthy motivator.

Over time I saw the many immediate mental benefits of exercise and that is where I placed my daily focus. Walking out of the gym after a tough workout I’m initially so tired that I’m usually stumbling and mumbling “have a good one” to people I most likely don’t even know. But in 15 minutes or so I’m feeling like a whole new man.

The endorphins kick in, my energy levels shoot through the roof and I’m feeling on top of the world. Not only do I feel accomplished and productive but I experience an overall feeling of well being and happiness...after every single workout. That’s what keeps me coming back day after day, not the fact that 6 years ago I would watch Videos of Gregg Plitt workouts on YouTube and head to the gym telling myself I want to look just like him!

Those days are long gone, and truth be told when I had that mindset I missed many workouts because it was short term motivation, now I’m sustainably motivated to keep on coming back to the gym to gift myself with exercise.

The cognitive benefits of exercise far outweigh the physical benefits in my opinion. You experience them a lot quicker and more frequently so if you focus on them, chances are you will stick with exercise long enough to see the physical benefits 😉

Hope this helps 💪🏽💪🏽🔥🔥