ab advice for my girlfriend

[frorider6]

My new female friend (with a promotion on the horizon ) was asking me about ab workouts. She has a nice flat stomach but wants her waist to be smaller. Over the course of our conversation, she was telling me about her oblique exercises and I said that to trim her waist, she might want to lay of the oblique stuff and just concentrate on the frontal abs.

Was I right? I know she shouldn't ignore them, but it seems like obliques are something that girls wouldn't really want to develop if they're trying to get a thin midsection.

What should my advice be?

p.s. I know it's mostly about diest and body fat. She is in good shape but just wants a small waist.

 

[Sassy69]

They say working the obliques can make you look shorter in waist - like thicker. But generally there's no such thing as spot reduction - its mostly diet & cardio. Especially for women those areas where estrogen-related fat tends to be deposited are hard to get rid of. Just getting the overall body to lean out will get those spots to lean out. I always got my best results from cardio - walkign and stuff. She can also try building up shoulders and bag to create the illusion of a smaller waist....

 

[aim high]

Yes, I have read that those with thicker waists should avoid working obliques. My friend has a real boxy midsection and swears away from working obliques in order to minimize this effect. It seems to work for her.

 

[frorider6]

she already has a lot of misconceptions that I'm trying to work her through. Stuff like, I don't want to lift free weight because I don't want to get big.

She has a nice flat stomach, but she just wants more of a curve inwards on the side. I know there's no spot reduction. I just wanted to know if working the obliques and making them stronger would actually increase the taper or decrease it.

I've trained for a long time and researched all from a guy's point of view so I'm kinda clueless about women's physiology.

 

[smallmovesal]

all i can say is i have a really tiny waist, i do oblique stuff, and i haven't noticed any change in my waist measurement... i also carry little fat there.

 

[flex4life]

to get those curves, gotta build up the delts & back (I believe Sassy meant to say) for a nice V taper
if she's afraid of free weights, maybe she would begin w/ machines?

 

[new@gettinbig]

if your girl is afraid of dumbbells.......and getting to big!! not going to be a problem.....unless your girl is a genetic freak....it is needed to transform your body....little dumbbells or cybex equipment will not get ya a V taper w/ small waist etc. It takes DIET< LIFTING> CARDIO>TIME.......it all needs to be in line to get results......funny misconception women get about lifting and getting BIG....if it were only so easy!

 

[frorider6]

we talked about free weights and she said that since she has broad shoulder normally (not really at all, she has a nice build), she doesn't want to build them up and get bigger. I have a lot of work ahead of me because of her misconceptions.

She already runs most every day and uses machines. She's been working out since she was young so she has the dedication and motivation, just not the correct information.

Are there any publications I can encourage her to read that would present womens bodybuilding in a healthy informative way without pictures of the steroid-type women? She has a great body now but it would be incredible if I could convince her to throw in free weight training.

 

[BrickGirl]

There is this great place she needs to visit, one sec, can't recall the name of it, Oh yeah! I remember, its called www.elitefitness.com have her go there and go to the women's discussion board, I bet she would love it!

 

[FitFossil]

...Are there any publications I can encourage her to read that would present womens bodybuilding in a healthy informative way without pictures of the steroid-type women? She has a great body now but it would be incredible if I could convince her to throw in free weight training.

Oxygen magazine is good (http://www.getbig.com/magazine/oxygen/oxygen.htm).
They feature a lot of the top fitness women, workout routines, nutrition, etc. There is also Muscle and Fitness Hers, but it's a little more mainstream than Oxygen - the girls in there are softer, have more of a "fitness model" physique.