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Don't understand Seated Twists

bb1fit Posts: 11,105 Joined: 2001/06/30	2003/05/16, 12:02 PM ANY place you gain muscle,whether your obliques, abs, biceps, etc., you will look bigger if you do not change your diet. The new muscle underneath the fat just pushes the fat out even more. Diet is your answer to any muscle tone showing anywhere!! No type of exercise alone will make definition show. Do the exercises by all means, but fix your diet to your needs for definition. -------------- As far as genetics go, the skies the limit. You are limited only by your mental perception of it. Ron
Big-E Posts: 248 Joined: 2002/08/07	2003/05/14, 09:48 PM Hi All! I just don't understand Seated Twists. I must be doing them wrong. I can understand them being used for stretching the obliques, but I don't get how they can be good way to get rid of love handles... The recommended reps are 10, but if I do as many as I can I would be in or near the 100's! Please help me perform this exercise correctly, I just don't see how it provides any resistance besides stretching. I am using a bar.. its the pulldown bar I have (not weighted).. Thanks all! Here is the exercise detail: ----------------------------------------------- Specific Exercise: Seated Twists Primary Muscles: Obliques Secondary Muscles: # 1 This exercise is performed seated on a flat bench or a stool, with a weighted stick or a broom stick. # 2 Hold the stick across your shoulders as shown in the pictures. # 3 Turn to one side, then to the other side, keeping your lower body steady. This exercise is great for getting rid of love handles! Try to avoid swinging your body through the motion.
jhadams Posts: 175 Joined: 2003/03/27	2003/05/14, 09:55 PM You should be squeezing your stomach the whole time, and use your stomach to do the turning, not your shoulders or arms. I admit, it doesnt feel like the rest of the ab workouts, but it is a good stretch and you can feel the obliques working while ya do it. Just concentrate on feeling it in the stomach... A couple more weeks and you will be doing them standing and leaning over...
Ogun Posts: 559 Joined: 2002/08/11	2003/05/14, 10:30 PM I recommend strongly against any "high-resistance" twist exercises for obliques. I'm very conscious of spine stuff since I hurt my back, and there is a nautilus machine that has you sit, reach your arms out over these bars, and twist which runs along a pulley system to lift weights. The only thing more dangerous that twisting in the gym, for your back, is twisting with weight. For obliques, I'd recommend seated crunch, incline crunch, and abstract sit-ups on a ball, meaning no real pattern but slow, changing motions as you sit up from left to right, right to left, center to left, etc. If you're comfy with the risk, more power to you. But my doctors advised that heavy weight combined with twist will result in damage to the back. The obliques don't need huge resistance anyway. Good luck ;D -------------- --There are no versions of the truth.-- Jeff Goldblum, Jurassic Park II
bb1fit Posts: 11,105 Joined: 2001/06/30	2003/05/14, 10:59 PM You are right to question twists for love handles. These will do nothing for them, you can twist all day and they will not help. Love handles are fatty deposits, and diet is what gets rid of them. Most people who use the torso rotation use it for the mistaken idea it will work the love handles. This is for the obliques, and will do nothing for love handles. Don't waste your energy here. -------------- As far as genetics go, the skies the limit. You are limited only by your mental perception of it. Ron
Miyu Posts: 118 Joined: 2003/04/15	2003/05/15, 02:36 AM So the seated twist instructions should have a content edit? (The comment about getting rid of the love handles.) I'm wondering, what's the point of doing it? Does it help build up your abdominal muscles? It seems almost too easy to be doing anything worthwhile. I do contract my abdominals when I do the seated-twists, but I find that they don't exercise my oblique muscles very much, not that I can feel at any rate.
Ogun Posts: 559 Joined: 2002/08/11	2003/05/15, 07:25 AM You can't target fat loss. You can target muscle. The premise that is behind the statement you heard is that as muscle grows and tightens, it can pull fat inward to change appearance. But the blubber still sits there, just looks a little different. Like bb1 said, you can twist all day and they will not help.
azredhead57 Posts: 1,651 Joined: 2003/04/11	2003/05/15, 02:06 PM Has anyone else ever seen this? At our gym several people were doing it so my husband and I tried it. You stand back to back, not quite touching, and turn from side to side handing each other a medicine ball. It's more fun than some stuff, but now you've got me wondering if it is helpful.
jefado Posts: 443 Joined: 2003/04/03	2003/05/15, 02:44 PM :o) Now that's what I call working out together <smile> TOO COOL! From what I understand, twists will strengthen your obliques...so twists are helpful. But oblique exercises will not get rid of love handles...only diet/cardio can do that... at least that is the info I've gathered so far :o)
Big-E Posts: 248 Joined: 2002/08/07	2003/05/15, 07:20 PM I was doing oblique exercises before (w/weights) but quit because I read several places that as you gain muscle it will just push OUT the fat around your obliques.. lol.. I don't need that.
fsimmons Posts: 77 Joined: 2003/03/24	2003/05/16, 10:43 AM they do contract your abs but only if you continue looking straight ahead. try them again but fix your focus on a stationary object directly in front of you and try not to move your head. as far of spot reduction... good luck, but don't count on it.
marcbarton Posts: 1 Joined: 2005/05/17	2005/05/17, 10:33 PM Agreed...anyone that uses the excuse that they dont want to build muscle because it will show off the fat more is giving just that... an excuse... proper eating, weight training and cardio will burn overall fat percentage. It is impossible for a particular exercise to burn fat from a specific area of the body. Your body uses it's fat stores evenly thoughout your body (as one big store of energy), not pulling from specific areas to feed specific muscles. -------------- Marcus http://spaces.msn.com/members/marcbarton
Artemis-75 Posts: 208 Joined: 2005/03/25	2005/05/18, 08:38 PM I wasn't satisfied with the seated twists either. I started doing them a little differently: Lean back to ~45 degrees Hold a medicine ball (my gym has a set of various wieghts) in you hands with your arms outstreached. (You could also use a dumbell, etc.) Now twist slowly to one side and pause. Twist back to centre and pause (don't swing through) Then alternate sides. Now I feel like it's doing something! :big_smile:
smokeferrari119 Posts: 3 Joined: 2005/03/11	2005/05/25, 02:34 PM hi..i still don't really understand the seated twists...does ne one have a pic?...or know where i can find one?
penster1965 Posts: 2 Joined: 2010/03/24	2010/03/24, 01:52 PM So what im reading her there really isnt anything that will per say target the obliques.:(Focus on the diet and cardio??.I have a figure show in less than two months and that area is driving me nuts i feel like its never going to go away or at least go down some so i look half way decent in my suit.
Carivan Posts: 8,542 Joined: 2002/01/20	2010/03/25, 03:31 PM Oblique tucks (hanging), hanging leg raises,stability ball crunches, Cable crunches if you have access to a machine All for the obliques. There are exercise routines for every muscle. -------------- Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. Ivan (GO HABS GO!) Montreal Canada (City of Festivals)