So a friend of my brother (or friend+ since they lived together for several years and she still spends weekends at his house) comes by last night with one of her friends and asks if I could show them some basic exercise techniques so they can "tone up." (I have a gym, my brother doesn't, and he's not into the whole physical exertion experience.)
"Okay, what kinds of exercises did you have in mind?"
"Just ab exercises."
Bear in mind here that both of these women are about 5'1" and around 200 pounds.
I got my brother's friend to try doing crunches, but that didn't get any further than her bobbing her head up and down half an inch three or four times. Her friend just wanted to watch.
Eventually, I got tired of this sort of thing and launched into the whole "there is no such thing as spot reducing" talk; doing crunches five hours a day will *not* drop your waistline from 55" to 25"
I did try to show them a few non-ab exercises, but they were both absolutely convinced that if they picked up a weight, they'd immediately end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, and they didn't want that to happen. I finally gave up on the "people don't just accidentally turn into world-class bodybuilders" argument, too. Nope, they were sure that even moderate exposure to the seven-pound dumbbells would turn them into hypermuscular freaks within minutes.
It was an unsatisfying experience all around. They remained absolutely certain that there were some secret ab exercises that would turn them into supermodels without effort, and that I was just not revealing them.
And I became convinced that whatever kind of perfume she'd ladled on before coming by, combined with even a couple of one-inch crunchlets, produced absolutely the worst smell I've ever experienced in my gym. :disgust:
"Okay, what kinds of exercises did you have in mind?"
"Just ab exercises."
Bear in mind here that both of these women are about 5'1" and around 200 pounds.
I got my brother's friend to try doing crunches, but that didn't get any further than her bobbing her head up and down half an inch three or four times. Her friend just wanted to watch.
Eventually, I got tired of this sort of thing and launched into the whole "there is no such thing as spot reducing" talk; doing crunches five hours a day will *not* drop your waistline from 55" to 25"
I did try to show them a few non-ab exercises, but they were both absolutely convinced that if they picked up a weight, they'd immediately end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, and they didn't want that to happen. I finally gave up on the "people don't just accidentally turn into world-class bodybuilders" argument, too. Nope, they were sure that even moderate exposure to the seven-pound dumbbells would turn them into hypermuscular freaks within minutes.
It was an unsatisfying experience all around. They remained absolutely certain that there were some secret ab exercises that would turn them into supermodels without effort, and that I was just not revealing them.
And I became convinced that whatever kind of perfume she'd ladled on before coming by, combined with even a couple of one-inch crunchlets, produced absolutely the worst smell I've ever experienced in my gym. :disgust:
