Exercises

Unfortunately, Google Translate sometimes makes strange mistakes.

The real cause of obesity

14 year old’s in the first six months of their growth spurt complain that the sit-up has suddenly become a lot harder and ask if they can do the alternative, the roll-up. Sadistic gym teachers have forbidden this for thousands of years. As a result, the first 3 parts of the rectus abdominis become weak. Then the 4th part becomes weak and the intestines start to hang out of the abdominal cavity, causing a fat belly. The obliques become weak and the love handles develop.

Muscle use sugar as fuel (as taught to all 14 year old’s in the Netherlands). When muscles become weak, the sugar is stored in the form of fat and people start to grow by 0.09 oz. (2,5 gram) per day.

New. Learn to walk and run naturally.

Humans naturally walk and run by contracting their rectus abdominis muscles and falling forward in a controlled manner. From over half a million years ago until the 1960s int the US and the 1980s in Europe, people used a running technique that allowed them to effortlessly run 15 km/h (9 mph). This allowed them to hunt large land animals.

I remember natural running from my childhood in the 1960s and 1970s. It felt like flying. During lockdown, I tried it again. My muscles weren’t strong enough to use the technique. But it quickly became clear how it works.

As you train the muscles you need to walk and run naturally, your love handles, butt, and belly will slowly get smaller.

Disclaimer: This method is experimental. Participate at your own risk.

Why does brisk walking and running suddenly become a lot easier after you train your obliques?

The Real cause of obesity

Cold feet? Read this first.

For this method you will need an exercise bike, an electrical stimulation machine and thermal socks.

Full disclosure: Being Dutch my bike is my only means of transport. I cycle on average about 30 minutes a day. Nevertheless, over the course of 50 years I have built up quite a belly, which is slowly disappearing. Thanks to this method.

Calf muscle exercise

This exercise promotes sweat production in your feet while working your rectus abdominis and obliques.

Do this exercise barefoot or in socks. The soles of most shoes are too stiff to push your toes down properly.

This exercise can cause cramps in your lower legs and feet at night. The cramps will go away after about two weeks. Unless the calf muscle is damaged, in which case it can take a few months. The fastest way to get rid of cramps is to stretch the muscle in question.

This exercise causes strange feelings in your toes. But you’ve probably never felt your toes before. Which means that any feeling is by definition a strange feeling.

Do this exercise until you start doing the natural running exercise.

Do this first thing in the morning.

1. Toe. Cycle for one minute at a brisk pace on the home trainer bike, placing your toes on the pedals and pushing down hard. This will train your calf muscle. Set the resistance of your bike to the lowest setting.
2. Foot. Cycle for one minute at a calm pace, sliding your feet forward until your heel is almost on the pedals. This will give your calf muscle a rest.
3. Toe.
4. Foot.
5. Toe.
6. Foot.
7. Toe.

This exercise burns about 1 kilo (2 pounds) of fat per week.

Oblique abdominal exercise 1

The oblique abdominal muscles pull in horizontal directions. In vertical directions, they prevent the intestines from hanging out. The oblique abdominal muscles are (vertically) as wide as the rectus abdominis are long. It is attached at the bottom to the fourth part of the rectus abdominis and at the top to the rib cage. When this muscle becomes slack, you get love handles.

Disclaimer: After doing this exercise, you will be able to do the sit-up again. However, that does not give you a six-pack because there is a thick layer of fat on your rectus abdominis. If you do the sit-up too enthusiastically, the fourth part will swell and you will grow out of your pants. (Stop doing the sit-up and the fourth part will shrink again).

1. Walk a few times a week at a brisk walking pace (+ 3 km/h) until you start to pant. A brisk walking pace is the pace at which your arms swing forward and backward by themselves.
2. Rotate your hips a few times a day. This gives you painful stitches in your side. This is muscle pain in your oblique abdominal muscles and will disappear in a week or two
3. Rotate your hips 10 times a day
4. Sitting on the edge of your bed, rotate your torso 5 times a day
5. After about four weeks, brisk walking suddenly becomes a lot easier. Stop exercises 3 and 4 immediately, otherwise you may get back pain.
6. Walk 100 meters a few times a week at a brisk walking pace to keep your oblique abdominal muscles trained. As your arms swing straight forward and back, they act as the counterweights that your obliques need to train. Do this until you start walking naturally.

To walk on two legs, your weight at the back must be equal to your weight at the front. When people have a belly, they automatically stick their butt out to achieve balance. With the above exercise, you can reduce your pants size. But your fat butt will only disappear when your belly is gone.

Do you hate budget cuts?

Obliques (2) and rectus abdominis exercises

1. Activate the oblique abdominal muscles. For this you need an EMS device with electrodes of 5 x 10 cm (1.9 x 3.9 in). Place the first electrode on your left and right side at the height of the belly button, about 10 cm from the belly button and the second 10 cm back. Start daily at a low level and level up as far as possible. Do this for ten minutes, shortly before going to sleep. IF your feet are cold, they will warm up and after a month they will start to cool down again. Continue with the next exercise
2. Don’t do this exercise. Take off your t-shirt while doing the calf muscle exercise. Do your rectus abdominis automatically contract while cycling? Then you can skip this exercise. IF you had cold feet, then you have already done this exercise, or something similar.
3. Heel. Put on your shoes and place the heel of your shoe against the back of the pedal. Cycle twice a day for ten minutes. Do this at the lowest resistance. After a few months, your toes will get cold. Then continue with the next exercise. With this exercise, you train your calf muscles, which gives the rectus abdominis extra energy. With this exercise, the chance of injuries is smaller than with the calf muscle exercise.
4. Ball/heel. Put on your shoes and place the ball of your foot on the pedal. Cycle for five minutes. Place the heel of your shoe against the pedal and cycle for five minutes. Do this twice a day until your toes get colder. Do this at the lowest resistance. Our body has a built-in reflex that, if there is enough energy available, ensures that the rectus abdominis muscles are contracted when the front half of the soles of the feet is extra loaded. By now, the fourth part of your rectus abdominis muscles is strong enough to pull on the obliques and produce a little extra energy that your rectus abdominis muscles can use.
5. Ball. Put on your shoes and put the balls of your feet on the pedals and cycle twice a day for ten minutes. Do this at the lowest resistance. If you get cold toes increase to two times twenty minutes and then two times thirty minutes. Then go to the next exercise.
6. Increase resistance. Cycle on the balls of your feet. 2 minutes at resistance 2 + 8 minutes at resistance 1. When this works go to 2 minutes at resistance 3 + 8 minutes at resistance 1. When you pedal harder you pull the fourth part of the rectus abdominis harder. When resistance 3 works go to the next exercise. IF you had cold feet when you started this, this might be a good time to stop. With the next exercise they cool down again for two weeks. After that your feet will warm up again. However you might have regular cold toes for months. If you stop here you will have to do the calf muscle exercise for the rest of your life.
7. Wave. You haven’t used the first three parts of your rectus abdominis since they were sabotaged when you were 14 years old. Before you can contract them, you have to get them moving. Do this exercise twice a day, just before you do the bike exercise. Pull in the upper half of your stomach. Pull in the lower half of your stomach. Relax the upper half. Relax the lower half. Repeat as many times as possible. Cycle twice a day for ten minutes at the lowest resistance with the ball of your foot on the pedals. Do this exercise for two weeks and then move on to the strength test. Your feet can cool down quite a bit during this exercise. At an ambient temperature of below 15° C they can even get quite cold.
8. Strength test. Hold on to something with one hand that does not give way when you pull on it. Bend your knees, touch the ground with the fingers of your other hand and stand up again. Fat people feel that their legs are not strong enough for this, but in reality this is a safety feature. When you stand up, you have to tense your rectus abdominis muscles to prevent yourself from standing up too quickly and falling backwards. If your cerebellum determines that your rectus abdominis muscles are not strong enough, you will feel that your legs are not strong enough. Stand with your back to a wall and bend your knees, touch the ground with the fingers of both hands and stand up again. If this goes well, you can continue with the walking exercise. If not, wait a few weeks. Your rectus abdominis muscles will get stronger by themselves. Read the next paragraph.

(While you do the above exercises your weight is fairly constant. Every week you will gain about 1 kilo because you build muscle mass and you will lose about 1 kilo because you burn fat with the calf muscle exercise.)

Throughout your life, except during the first six months of the growth spurt, your rectus abdominis are naturally good at training themselves. The weight of your arm is about 10% of your body weight. Your leg is about 20%. The upper and lower halves of your torso are about 30%. With almost all movements you make, you also contract and train your rectus abdominis. Even when you turn on your other side in bed, you train your rectus abdominis. As a result, they regularly need a little more energy than is available. You will notice this because your toes get cold, which then warm up again by themselves. It is best to wear thermal socks (in bed).

Two months after the strength test my feet are 95% of the time at 100% body temperature. 5% of the time at about 90% of body temperature. An annoying feeling but not harmful, in my opinion. For months I had that when my feet got wet they cooled down considerably. But that seems to be over now.

Butt exercise: Walking naturally

Two legged animals naturally walk by letting themselves fall forward. But if you are 1.80 m (5.9 feet) and you trip, your head hits the ground at such a high speed that it is very bad for your health. Five million years ago, our ancestors were 1.10 m (3.6 feet) and walked on the hands that were attached to their hind legs. They also had a problem with tripping.

For that reason, humans have an adaptation. We contract the first three parts of the rectus abdominis muscles. As a result, we pull the upper half of our torso and head a few centimeters (one inch) forward. As a result, our center of gravity ends up a few centimeters in front of our lower leg. This is enough to fall forward, (the extended feet only have a function in natural running), while the rest of our body remains upright, reducing the chance of falling.

When the first three parts of the rectus abdominis muscles become weak, people start to hang back and use their hamstrings to walk. But the hamstrings are actually meant to lift your lower legs and get tired quickly. Walking from your bed to your computer is enough to become exhausted. When you train your hamstrings there is a high risk of injury.

Big Butt 1

Muscles are well trained, short and thick or poorly trained, long and thin and hang out. If you do not use muscles for decades, they can become 50% longer. Your big butt consists of 50% of flabby, long muscles that hang out.

Big Butt 2

To stay balanced on two legs, you need to have the same weight on the front as on the back. So with a big belly, you need a big butt to keep from falling forward. As your rectus abdominis become stronger and pull your belly in, it becomes possible to tilt your pelvis forward and pull your butt in.

• Walk every other day for ten minutes at a brisk walking pace, preferably (partly) on an uneven surface (rough patch of grass or sand). Walking (at a brisk pace) on an uneven surface turns out to be a surprisingly good workout for all your muscles, starting with your foot and leg muscles. Do this for about six months. When you can walk comfortably at a brisk walking pace on uneven ground, you can move on to the next exercise.

(While doing this exercise you will build a few hundred grams of muscle mass in your legs every week. The calf muscle exercise burns about 1 kilo/week. So weight starts to drop slowly.)

Natural running

• As you walk, slowly lift your forearms until you can almost touch your shoulders and then slowly lower them again.

The technique of natural running is built into our body. While you make the above movements, your body is configured to run at a speed between 0 and 15 km/h (9 mi/hour). Of course, your muscles are absolutely not strong enough for that. When a child starts running, they have to train their leg muscles. We fat people have to train our rectus abdominis, back muscles and leg muscles. Our body does not have enough energy to train all three muscle groups at the same time. If you try, your toes will get cold.

I’m currently doing the sixth part of the next exercise.

1. Do this exercise once every two days, preferably (partly) on an uneven surface . While walking at a brisk pace, lift your forearms slightly. You will feel your rectus abdominis contract and your torso pull forward. Don’t do this, keep your torso upright. Now you will also feel your back muscles pull slightly. Over the next two weeks, lift your forearms slowly until you can almost touch you shoulders. This will cause your rectus abdominis and back muscles to pull harder and harder. If you run out of breath, pause. If you lift your forearms too far you can get cold toes and/or light back pain. But while you are doing the exercise it is not possible to feel that you are training too hard. So be careful.
2. Lower your forearms and again slowly begin to lift them back up. But this time, as your rectus abdominis engage, bend forward. This increases your running speed and trains your leg muscles. If you get cold toes, lower your forearms a little. If your back starts to hurt, skip a day. Over the next few weeks, lift your forearms to horizontal. You may experience muscle pain where the rectus abdominis muscles attach to the rib cage.
3. Have you ever noticed that overweight people turn their feet outward? This turns out to be because their rectus abdominis (abdominal muscles) have become too weak. While doing this exercise, your feet will eventually turn straight forward. Training your rectus abdominis, calf, and foot muscles simultaneously is quite challenging. Take a break from running and walk a few dozen meters a few times a day to train your calf and foot muscles. After about a week and a half, your feet will start turning outward again. This is a sign that you need to start running again. It takes a few days for your rectus abdominis (abdominal muscles) to regain their strength. You can start walking/running daily.
4. While standing still, bend your torso forward 30 degrees. On a grassy field, while running, lift your forearms and bend your torso forward as far as you dare. Run 10 to 20 meters.
5. While walking/running, your body has two control mechanisms.
   • The further you bend your torso forward, the faster you go and the more energy you use. Your feet rotate forward, and you place more weight on your calf muscles. This causes them to produce more energy, which is primarily used by your feet.
   • From 3 km/h (1.9 mph), you swing your arms forward and backward. By lifting your forearms, you increase the swing frequency of your arms and legs and shorten your stride length. With smaller steps you roll your feet more. Running with long strides causes you to land on your heels, which is very bad for your knees. This technique you uses your foot and calf muscles as natural springs. To stop, extend your forearms downward and your back upward. This increases your stride length, causing you to land on your heels. Using your heel as a brake. Even at a maximum speed of around 15 km/h (9.3 mi/h), you’ll stop within a few steps.
6. From now on, walk/run on a hard surface. Bend your torso forward and lift your forearms, running as fast as possible. When you run out of breath, don’t stop. Instead, slow down by lifting your torso and lowering your forearms. Once you’ve caught your breath, increase your speed again. (As you build stamina, you may not be working your calf muscles enough and not producing enough energy. If you get cold toes in the evening, do the calf muscle exercise shortly before going to bed. The next morning your toes will be back at body temperature.) Experiment with how far you bend forward and how far you lift your forearms. At a slow speed, lifting your forearms appears to place more strain on your calf muscles, which generates more energy. (Do your toes get cold while sitting at your computer with shoes on? Maybe you’ve tied your laces too tight.)

Humans have two built-in running techniques. The second is interesting because it makes the rectus abdominis exercise while cycling possible and explains why the hands on the hind legs of our ancestors have changed into extended feet.

The first natural running technique

As you run, you straighten your back and bend your knees, which allows you to fall forward more efficiently.

The second natural running technique

The second technique consists of two parts.

In order to be able to run at a maximum speed of about 15 km/h (9.3 mi/hour), people contract their rectus abdominis muscles and bend forward at an angle of 20° to 30°. This puts a heavy load on the front half of the soles of the feet, to which your cerebellum automatically responds by tensing your rectus abdominis muscles to the maximum. Now you fall forward in the most efficient way possible. If the rectus abdominis muscles were to relax by accident, you could lose your balance and hit the ground with your face at 15 km/h.

But our body uses another technique too. With every step. When you tense and lock your calf muscles, a right angle is created between your lower leg and your foot. With your knees bent, your body weight causes your ankles to tilt upward, turning your foot into a lever that push your body one foot forward for “free.” To make this movement possible, you have to engage nine muscle groups. Which makes natural running the ultimate fat burner. However, with this movement, your energy expenditure is not dependent on your speed, but on your weight. Which means that running becomes easier as you lose more weight.

About the author