Shop Your Way to a Six-Pack

By Steve Edwards

With the holiday season now in full swing, many of us dread losing the fitness gains we just spent the last 11 months working our tails off to get. And, with a party around every corner and a to-do list on which WOWY® (Work Out With You, our virtual gym) keeps getting pushed to the bottom, it's hardly a far-fetched possibility. But fitness solutions are our business and, no matter how dire the situation becomes, we've got an angle to help you. Today, it's how to improve your fitness when your life seems like a month-long shopping marathon.

This is the part where I fess up to a bit of hyperbole. You're not going to get a six-pack with this or any workout alone. A visible six-pack is dependent upon a few different factors, such as your body fat percentage and how developed your core muscles are. The cool thing is that you can strengthen some of these muscles without having to sweat. In fact, you can even do it while you're sitting in a car or standing in line at the mall.

This workout will train your pelvic girdle and your transversus muscles. The pelvic girdle consists of many small internal muscles that hold your organs in place. The transversus muscles serve to keep your abdominal wall from protruding. While you don't see these muscles, they are responsible for giving you a flat stomach.

These muscles should be engaged when you train your abs. You do this by essentially sucking in your gut and keeping the entire core region "small" and rigid as you do your normal ab exercises. But these are support muscles, not prime movers, and should be trained more often than the larger and stronger muscles that you can see. Keeping these muscles strong is vital for your general health as well as allowing you to train those larger and more visible muscles longer and harder.

You exercise the pelvic girdle muscles by doing what are called Kegel movements. You may have heard of these as they are prescribed as sex therapy exercises as well. Kegels are performed by clenching your insides—like what you'd do in order to cut off the flow of urine.

The transversus is trained by performing a "vacuum" movement. To do this, simply suck in your gut, pulling your belly button as close to your lower back as you can get it. It's easiest to begin by imagining a vacuum pulling all of the excess air out of your core. Then focus on breathing slowly while holding the contraction.

You can do these exercises in numerous ways and almost any time you wish. If you feel as though you're too tired to do them, it's a sign you could be "overtraining." It's unlikely that you'll reach this state, unless you're fanatical, because they mainly consist of slow-twitch muscle fiber.

Here's a quick and easy workout that you can do in your car, standing in line, or almost anywhere you've got a few minutes with nothing to do.

The warmup

These exercises are subtle so it helps to have good body awareness. Being that it's a simple warmup, it will help you have better focus on the main exercises—not to mention your life in general.

• Take deep breaths in through your nose; slowly exhale out through your mouth.
• Bring your shoulder to your ear in a circular motion. Alternate sides.
• Rotate your wrists in both directions while opening and closing your fingers—one arm at a time (not really recommended when you're driving, of course).
• Exhale quickly and contract your abs. Hold. Breathe in through your nose.

The workout

These don't have to be exact, so counting will be easier than using a watch. Also, don't feel the need to do all of it. Since these movements can be done often, just fit them in whenever you can. Some is always better than none.

• 20 short Kegels: 2 seconds on. 1 second off.
• 10 vacuums: 10 seconds on. 5 seconds off.
• 4 medium Kegels: 15 seconds on. 5 seconds off.
• 4 vacuums: 30 seconds on. 15 seconds off.
• 2 long Kegels: 1 minute on. 30 seconds off.
• 2 long vacuums: 1 minute on. 30 seconds off.