The Muscle Couple » Abdominal Exercise Videos

TMC’s Labor Day Weekend News

Jay Campbell — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:13:21 +0000

TMC has a busy next 14 days. Super busy.

We both started our pre-photo Shoot with Natalie Minh diets on Monday of this week.

Jay was on the road eating pre-made protein pancakes out of plastic bags layered with Almond Butter in between client visits while battling the blazing 117′ temperatures of Phoenix.

Anh was at home raising the Muscle B’s and maintaining her conditioning with Hot Pilates and sessions on the stationary bike.

She kept up with her diet as well and is looking really good about 11 days out from the shoot. Daddy continues to beam with joy at Mommy’s dedication even as all hell breaks loose around her with the Muscle B’s constant need of attention.

ANH’S DIET:

Meal 1: Egg Whites with a Couple of Yokes, Small Sweet Potato

Meal 2: Tilapia/Chicken with Small Sweet Potatoe and Nuts

Meal 3: Same

Meal 4: Post Workout Shake with Natural Oatbar(Training Days Only)

Meal 5: Lean Protein, Salad with Healthy Oil as dressing

Meal 6: Same if she doesn’t fall asleep

JAY’S DIET:

Meal 1: Protein Pancake with 2 Tablespoons of Almond Butter

Meal 2: Same

Meal 3: Same

Meal 4: Same

Meal 5: Post Workout Shake with Oatbar(Training Days Only)

Meal 6: Lean Protein, Asparagus or Broccoli

Our diets are very simple right now and small portions. Lowered kcals and Higher Protein/EFA’s is the order of the day. Both of us eat about 10-13kcals per pound and cycle up and down accordingly based on training and intuitive feel. If we’re starving or glycogen depleted from an incredibly hard HIT workout, we’ll add a few more carbs by eating another Oat Bar or splitting an extra sweet potato.

Last night we found this new High EFA Flax Granola that is low in sugar that can be used for post workout carb re-feeds. Or even a late night carb meal with some water and casein protein powder to spike up thyroid/BMR. Just have to make sure you don’t eat too much.

Because we’ve been doing this so long now, we don’t really need to measure everything out but recommend it as a safe and scientific practice for any of our readers new to dieting or competing.

We’ll eat like this up until next Friday including this weekend. We’ll have some flexibility to eat salads with protein if we’re out and about tomorrow and Sunday with the Muscle B’s or perhaps a Vegas Pool Party or two.

In fact, our goal is to take a lot of pictures from this last weekend of pool parties and then do a TMC Mega Summer Blog Pictorial with all of our best photos of the summer. You won’t want to miss that. Trust me.

Here are some video’s we’ve recently taken at Any Time Fitness in Summerlin on West Charleston.

There are lots of good demonstrations of intensity techniques including:

Negative Emphasis Training with 10 Second Eccentrics
Stopwatch Training(more on that in an upcoming post)
Slow, deliberate controlled HIT Rep Sets

As always, we appreciate your patronage of our site.

Check back on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for some incredible photos from this past summer.

Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend.

MIHWCS

Countdown to Fitness America: T-Minus 10 Days: Anh’s Current Day

Jay Campbell — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:29:37 +0000

The Muscle Couple is now only 10 Days out from Fitness America Weekend!!!!

As promised with our daily new content up to the day of the show, we wanted to relay what Anh’s current “maintain present condition” day looks like.

5:30AM

Wake Up, chase and feed Muscle Bs. Take Thermogenic Supplements VPX Redline Black on Blue and Drink Coffee. (More on the new VPX RL Black on Blue version in an upcoming post. Suffice it to say, IT’S THE BEST THERMOGENIC SUPPLEMENT WE”VE EVER USED

6AM

Cardio on stationary bike for 30 Minutes empty stomach. We call this EEW. Energy Expenditure Work. Anh isn’t working past moderate intensity forcing her body to burn free fatty acids and also ensure any carbs she may over consume to keep muscle glycogen stores full is burnt off. We’re also trying to preserve as much muscle glycogen as possible so we can still effectively weight train during the week.

7AM

First Meal/Feeding-Egg White/Oatmeal Pancakes (2) 30gms Carbs, 20gms Protein, 7-10gms Fat -Vitamin and Multi Mineral Supplement, 2gms Vitamin C, 400ius Vitamin E, 2 Capsules Bone Up-12 Ounces of Distilled Water

8-10AM

Spend time being a wife, mother and Domestic Goddess! Clean-Clean-Clean, change diapers, feed Muscle Bs, laundry, make sure meals are ready in the fridge for Daddy and Mommy-surf web and conversate on Facebook(if time)

10AM

2nd Dosage of VPX Black on Blue, Coffee if drained from the previous night due to Muscle B’s not sleeping. (Gabi is currently teething, so nights are an adventure right now)

10:30AM

2nd Meal/Feeding-Egg White/Oatmeal Pancakes (same as first meal)12 Ounces of Water

11AM

Nap time for The Muscle B’s-Anh tries to abide by this daily schedule but neither Alexandra or Gabriella are very cooperative on most days. ;)

12Noon

Cardio on Stationary Bike for another 30 minutes of EEW.

12:30PM

15 Minutes of Ab Wheel focusing on obliques and intercostals

12:45-1:30PM

Anh’s “downtime”. She usually naps until she is awakened to the sound of a baby or babies crying.

1:40PM

3rd Meal/Feeding-Boiled Chicken or White Fish with a Sweet Potato and some Sunflower Seeds-35gms Carbs, 25gms Protein, 15-20gms Fat-12 Ounces of Distilled water

2PM

3rd Dosage of VPX Redline Black on Blue

2-5PM

Mommy and Domestic Goddess time again. Feed the Muscle Bee’s, clean up after them, take them to the park, stroll them through the neighborhood, run errands.

5:15PM

4th Meal/Feeding-Boiled Chicken or White Fish with a Sweet Potato-Same as Meal 3 kcals-12-15 Ounces of water-Last meal with starchy carbs

6PM

Feed Muscle B’s dinner. If non-training day (only 3 days a week now), wait for Daddy to stop working, hand off the Muscle Bee’s and run to the tanning bed for a 12 HIT Tanning session. (You better believe HIT Tanning is the best-LOL)

6:30-7:30PM(Training Day Only)

Training at LVAC with MR. (Current training paradigm to be revealed in an upcoming post with videos)

8PM

Last Meal/Feeding-Chicken/White Fish and either Broccoli/Green Beans or Salad with some Udo’s Oil/Sesame Oil thrown in for EFA’s.

9PM

Muscle Bs go down! (For the count or Daddy instills “discipline”.

9:30PM

If Non-Training Day, 3rd 30 Minute Cardio Session of EEW. If Training Day, relax and surf web, finish what didn’t get done that day-ensure bottles are ready for Muscle B’s through the night.

10-11PM

Mommy and Daddy time. This is usually watching a couple of TV shows on high speed through DirecTv DVR. Our current shows are: The Event-Dexter-Fringe-Weeds-Hawaii Five-O-Chase-Mommy usually falls asleep on the Couch while Daddy is riding the bike.

11:30PM

Lights Out in Summerlin!

Here is a nice little ab video we recorded on Saturday at LVAC.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qCA3LkIRcs

Coming tomorrow: Jay’s Daily Schedule

MIHWCS

TMC and Markus Reinhardt: The HIT Leg and Ab Training Videos

Jay Campbell — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:15:50 +0000

The Muscle Couple is posting our last training day videos.(Legs and Abs)

The leg training video is pretty amazing. These leg workouts also included video of fitness competitor Kini Kim and they were done about 8 days ago.

You will see the sheer intensity and force of will necessary to push through certain leg training sets.

Once you commit to performing the set as intended and can learn to control your central nervous system(CNS) response to training with this kind of intensity, it becomes much easier to perform than it looks. (I know that sounds kind of silly, but it’s true) You have to learn to control your bodies desire to spasm, freak out or just quit/give up.

Initially, when we first started training this way 4 weeks ago, we’d get cramps or involuntary muscle spasms in our middle and lower backs. These are now gone.

Also the crazy desire to grip hard, tense up or to stop breathing in a controlled fashion has also lessened.

Being able to control all of these things leads to faster and quicker improvements in your physique. Once this is under control, you will be able to focus all your energies on contracting the targeted muscle fibers utilizing the proper cadence and technique necessary for a perfectly executed HIT set.

We’ll offer some more videos in about a month so everybody can see the visible changes occurring to our physiques.

HIT Leg Training Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw96NYReL5Y

HIT Ab Training Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNq6i2121ko

MIHWCS

Are 6 Pack Abs Realistic?-The Muscle Couple Tells You The Truth

Jay Campbell — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:41:24 +0000

The Muscle Couple has been asked for years by many people from all walks of life on the quickest way to attain “6 Pack Abs”.

We’ve wanted to do a blog to set the record straight.

It really is possible for anybody to attain 6 pack abs.

What is required is determination, focus, and a scientific approach practiced over a lifetime. We define this scientific approach as the TMC 3 PRONG AB SOLUTION (revealed in full detail below)

Maybe the best way for us to write/explain how to achieve this look is to analyze this incredible video from Scooby found on youtube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=95xRTID478I

Scooby has done an excellent job dispelling 6 myths about attaining 6 pack abs in the video.

TMC offers our own unique commentary expounding upon and digging deeper into his myths and even adding one of our own.

Without further adieu.

Myth #1-You Only Need to Perform Regular Ab Exercises to Get 6 Pack Abs-

Scooby’s advice here about lowering your body fat to see your abs is essentially right on the money. You absolutely must create a negative caloric balance (net caloric deficit) from either eating less calories, doing more cardio or optimally a combination of both.

There is much debate in health and nutrition circles about the type of diet best to reduce body fat the fastest. Low Carb, High Fat, Iso-Caloric (Zone), Mediterranean all provide studies proving their effectiveness.

In truth, it’s all about the amount of kcals you consume more than the type observing the all important rule of 1 gram of protein per # of lean body weight. This allows for peak metabolic efficiency and maintenance of muscle even when eating below maintenance kcals.

Myth #2-You Can Get Abs in 8 Minutes a Day-

Again, Scooby’s advice is solid. Anybody who says you can get abs in 8 minutes is a day is complete charlatan and to be avoided. It takes years of practicing the TMC 3 PRONGED AB SOLUTION

Daily, intelligent clean eating (observing periods of below maintenance calories)getting 1 gm of Protein per pound of lean body weight, high EFA consumption, and carbs from green vegies and low glycemic sources
Daily HIT/or intense cardio
EOD productive ab training contracting your rectus on every rep

Without all 3 of the above, 8 minutes a day of any form of ab training won’t get you anywhere.

Myth #3-You Can Spot Fat Reduce

We’re going to go against a bit of Scooby’s advice here and tell you it is physically possible to “spot fat reduce” through the usage of drugs and specialized training protocols. His advice about “cardio and caloric reduction” eventually leading to gradual fat loss and even pulling off the last bit of stubborn fat is however correct.

There have been a few studies performing incredibly high reps targeting the resistant area shown to accelerate fat loss and increase lipolysis at the stubborn sites. By in large, spot fat removal is a complete myth for all but a select few.

Only an advanced dieter/athlete utilizing growth hormone and/or newer chemical agents injected at the stubborn site, combined with advanced thermogenic and lipotropic lotions (designed to work through trans-dermal absorption) can achieve any success of preferentially reducing adipose/visceral fat from the stubborn area. (Realizing these are only ancillaries to speed up the process when the dieter is still maintaining a significant net caloric deficit and probably consuming additional multi-phasic thermogenic supplements)

Myth #4-To Get Abs, You Have to Buy Something-

It is impossible to disagree with Scooby’s advice here. You don’t need to buy anything to achieve abs. You just have to maintain a NET CALORIC DEFICIT and consistently observe the TMC 3 PRONGED AB SOLUTION.

You should not underestimate the importance of using thermogenic supplements in order to boost metabolism and dull appetite. These would be the only “recommended ancillaries” to buy when embarking on a rigorous diet designed to shed body fat to attain noticeable 6 pack abs.

Myth #5-To See Your Lower Abs, Requires the Performance of Special Exercises-

Scooby is right for the most part. It’s impossible to effectively isolate the “lower abs” as the rectus abdominus is one muscle and is recruited as one unit in full force.

Where he errs is in not explaining differing lower abdominal muscle fiber appearance. Hopefully the pictures displayed of lower ab muscle hypertrophy show the various and different structures based on genetics.

All of these pictures portray maximum body fat reduction and intelligent ab training. Unfortunately, not all men/women are created equal when it comes to having visible, defined, ripped midsections.

GENETICS plays a HUGE ROLE in lower ab development/aesthetics even when a NET CALORIC DEFICIT and the TMC 3 PRONGED AB SOLUTION is utilized effectively.

“6 Pack” of normal abdominal musculature

“8 Pack” Abdominal wall of genetically blessed

“5 Pack” of a “Diverse” Abdominal Muscle Structure

“4 Pack” of genetically inferior lower ab structure

Myth #6-You Need Long, Grueling Ab Workouts to Get 6 Pack Abs-

This is completely false. As Scooby reiterated multiple times in the video, caloric reduction and cardio creating a continual “net caloric deficit” will shed the body fat over your midsection. What will then be visible is your genetic abdominal wall. In order to reveal a “6 pack abs look” you must train your abs with purpose and intensity to make them hard and etched.

Your rectus abdominus although much smaller than larger body part muscles, still needs to be effectively trained in order to develop full, thick and rigid (ripped)muscular walls. You must learn to contract your rectus and utilize the principle of progressive overload when training. Train your abs to be bigger, thicker and harder(utilizing weights or progressively harder resistance) just like you were training any other muscle group.

Myth #7-This Image is A Realistic Portrait of “Everyday Walking Around Abs”

Folks this is a picture of a Contest Ready Bodybuilder/Physique Competitor who has dieted down to the last remaining day or two before his contest. This requires enormous sacrifice, water and electrolyte restriction, carb depletion and a multitude of other restrictive practices and nutrient increases/decreases like diuretics etc.

Nobody on this earth save for the MOST GENETICALLY BLESSED MUTANT MESOMORPH can actually walk around looking like this on a day in day out basis. Also remember most of the pictures you see of “ripped abs” are guys flexing or isometrically contracting their rectus to make it more pronounced and noticeable.

Please don’t ever believe the pictures of bodybuilders and athletes you see in the various muscle mags depict a realistic every day condition of somebody who has great abs.

Even somebody performing all the work to get a great 6 pack still holds a bit of water, sodium and skin over the top of them “most of the time”. Think of that natural look as something like this:

TMC trains abs “at least” 4x a week.

Usually we finish our rest pause lifting programs with either 3 sets of hanging leg raises til failure by themselves or sometimes super-setted with rope cable crunches til failure. This is determined by our level of fatigue from the prior training session.

When we’re dieting down really hard for a show or photo shoot, we will also perform abs at the end of our cardio workout.

We’ll provide much more in an upcoming article detailing the type of diet and cardio necessary to maximize the TMC 3 PRONG AB SOLUTION.

We hope this helps clear some things up for many of you.

As always, we’re available for questions or commentary about any of this.

Have a great weekend!

MIHWCS

One Incredible Ab Workout

Jay Campbell — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:32:59 +0000

The Muscle Couple was given this workout from Pro WBFF Fitness Model/Competitor Rob Riches.

Hanging Knee Lifts (using Aboriginal arm supports): 3 x 30 reps

High-Pulley Rope Crunches: 3 x 30 reps

High-Pulley Rope Single Arm Oblique Twists: 3 x 30 reps (each side)

He performs all of these exercises in one Giant Set and does it 3x in succession.

It’s an incredibly intense Ab Burn. Give it a whirl for a couple of months and tell us how much tighter your midsection becomes.

Rob is one of the more passionate and charismatic voices in the global Fitness Community.

He has an amazing physique and is only 26 years old! Look for him to become much more prominent in the Fitness scene both online and off in the next five years.

Check out his video demonstrating his ab training.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIN3IkNsNfk

Rob’s website provides a wealth of information on Contest Preparation, Diet and what it takes to live the life of a Successful Fitness Model.

He is also an excellent video choreographer. His training and interview videos are some of the best ones we’ve seen on Youtube.

Check out his site today for some inspiration and motivation in living a healthier lifestyle.

Rob Riches Fitness

MIHWCS

TMC’s Bigger Harder and More Defined Muscles: Weighted Ab Machines

Jay Campbell — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:10:51 +0000

The Muscle Couple was recently experimenting with the Hammer Strength Ab Curl Machine.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8l9V7jUf4w

Its an awesome device that does exactly everything you want when training abs.

Weighted resistance offering progressive overload

Full rectus abdominus contraction

Lower back and pelvic stability

Ability to target obliques by arranging in multiple angles

There are many Abdominal machines offering similar functionality.

We are not advocating replacing your normal ab exercises with only machines. But its a very good practice to substitute them in at times during your normal ab workout for variation. They are also great when pressed for time.

If your gym has this machine, we recommend adding it to your arsenal of Ab exercises.

Shoot for 3-4 sets of 12-15 crunches. Pick a weight that makes it difficult to finish in the target rep ranges.

Be prepared for an intense rectus burn.

MIHWCS

TMC Current Workout Updated-Rest Pause Training Videos

Jay Campbell — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:44:17 +0000

The Muscle Couple has finally gotten around to updating our Current Workout with Video of the Rest Pause sets.

We even have a couple of videos of the 7 Month Pregnant Anhski working hard.

Please check it out when you have a moment.

We believe this type of training will produce dramatic results for any population group.

It’s not a program for a beginner or novice weight trainer.

Anyone who has more than a year of weight training experience under their belt can derive great benefit from Rest Pause training.

We will probably use this form of training for the next year only changing the exercises about every 8-12 weeks. It’s that good.

Feel free to ask questions on the blog about tailoring it for your lifestyle.

Enjoy!

MIHWCS

TMC Full Body Workout #1

Jay Campbell — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:01:38 +0000

Full Body Day 1

Standing DB Delt Press(Touching Delt Caps)x3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxHNr9SKtrE

Palms Facing Pulldownsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjCMc6i9Uz0

Upper Pec Flyesx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA_289bi3BM

Rear Delt Cable Flyesx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnxFoIOah1Q

Standing Triceps 1 Arm Cable Extensionsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLeqNLsbObM

Standing 2 Arm DB Curlsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6BmfpVuj00

Lying Hamstring Curlsx3

Hanging Leg Knee Upsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M64EnU6cAA

Full Body Day 3

Hammer Incline Pressx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7QneDyYm8w

Hammer Row Undergrip Rowsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCnXeAkGayI

Standing DB Lateral Raisesx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D34nd7qI2lo

Bent Over DB Rear Lateralsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=od1YcjdExRY

Standing Tricep Push Downs SS/w Reverse Cable Pushdownsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3mHeWzniQg

Preacher Machine Curlsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPfeq_BioVA

DB Standing Lunges

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-D2VSeoRik

Decline Ab Curls

Full Body Day 5

Incline DB Inverted Pressesx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWVUhDosvqw

Hammer Lat Machine 2Arm Pull Downx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuWUx0t-GLo

Standing DB Front Delt Raisesx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dutlMls4nng

Barbell Shrugsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv-IRjqJqWw

DB Skull Crushers SS/w x3
DB Hammer Curlsx3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av1Ho04Dq1M

Leg Press Machinex3
Hanging Knee Ups

MIHWCS

TMC Exercise Videos Updated For Every Bodypart

Jay Campbell — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:16:55 +0000

The Muscle Couple has been working for weeks trying to update the Exercise Video Library!

It continues to be a work in progress but it’s looking much better. Please check it out when you are looking for some new exercises to add to your routine.

There are also a bunch of videos utilizing FAT GRIPZ. We recommend them highly for superior arm development and injury prevention.

There are not as many Videos of Anh as we’d like but it’s tough being 5 Months Preggo! Zod Bless her for keeping up still!

Speaking of Anh-

We’ll be detailing a Brand New Blog Section on her last 3.5 Months discussing:

Pregnancy Nutrition(2nd and 3rd Trimester)
Training(Do’s and Don’ts)
Her Feedback and Commentary on a weekly basis

Look for it soon!

We hope everyone has a tremendous weekend!

We’re heading to Venice Beach to let The Muscle B go wild!

MIHWCS

TMC’s Updated “Current Workout”!

Jay Campbell — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:04:41 +0000

Hey Gang!

We just changed our current workout in the last week and have updated the site to reflect it.

As a go forward, we’ll actually leave a blog post every time we change it, so we can catalog all of these different workouts for the future.

You can really do any number of sets/reps for these programs. You can also add intensity extending techniques like “Giant Sets-Drop Sets- Rest Pause etc”. We’ll have a blog post soon about how to best utilize these techniques. A few of the exercises lack videos. We’ll be updating throughout the course of the week to make sure everything is here.

We hope you find these demonstrations useful and tell your friends and exercise buddies to check them out for insight into good form and technique.

Here you go: