Everyone wants to have a flat stomach and get rid of spreading hips. Most of the advice given involves sit-ups, crunches, curls, etc. – the usual sport conditioning exercises aimed at the abs.
I don't give such advice. Unless you're in training for competitive sport, you don't need that type of brute strength – you need flexible, total body strength.
People don't realize that over the years they're inadvertently giving in to the pull of gravity and allowing the upper body to sink into the waistline space; the stomach then has no place to go except forward, and spread into the hips. But everyone has the ability to lift the rib cage up one inch, and keep it there without holding the breath. When you do that
you create a narrower waistline and any exercise you do that reaches upward from the hips and through the waistline to the rib cage will give you a flexible strength that will make it
easier to keep the waist from expanding.
To make a permanent, total body shift I suggest a daily posture reset as follows:
• After brushing your teeth every morning, look in the mirror, inhale and lift the chin. That
simple act automatically opens the upper body and makes it easy to lift the rib cage up an inch.
• Do a stretching exercise to lift the torso, reminding yourself that motion pulling away from a large area makes that area smaller.
The way to maintain that weight shift, and eventually get those stomachs and hips back where they should be, is to walk (and sit) with upper body pride. Don't give in to the invisible pull of gravity. Stay up!
-30
pic: Ann Smith is still active in giving fitness demonstrations over the age of 80. Her exercise videos including Music, Movement and Longevity can be purchased from annsmithvideos.com.
