Change your activity level to match age
Personal trainer Alison Storey’s weekly column, answers your questions on fitness and wellbeing.
Q: What’s the best ab exercise? A: Anything that uses the entire range of the abdominal muscles; in layman’s terms the upper, lower, side and oblique parts. So, a mixture of exercises like crunchies, bicycle crunches, leg lowers and cross crunches should work the whole lot. You of course need to check with a professional that you’re doing them correctly to get the best value out of your effort and remembering that the abs are endurance-oriented muscles you can literally do hundreds of them a day. Remember also, that fat lies on top of muscle so if it’s definition you’re after, you’re also going to have to do something that works your ticker and makes you sweat to burn some off, so you can see them.
Q: How do I stop middle age spread? A: It’s no secret that our bodies Do you have a question for Alison? You can contact her via her website,
or email her on: alison@storeysport.co.nz change biologically over the course of our years. Also, what we did when we were 20 doesn’t usually have the same effect on our body when we’re 50 for various reasons. Usually it means a conscious change up in activity level – many people are less active as they get older for reasons like office jobs, stress, kids and family commitments and less competitive sport. Bearing in mind these extra stressors, hard out kickboxing or the like may not be a good idea as you could be adding to your stress levels and prompting your body to store more fat, however to stop the spread usually takes something more intense than a daily walk. Body composition change also