[srmb60]

Let's talk about torso's for a few minutes. Yup, I've been awake for a long time thinking. Actually, I've got a head cold and been snowed in for a few days so I've had a lot too much time to think. Some of you, who have been at 3fc for a while, know that I do this ruminating thing once in a while ... ignore me. Lot's of people do.

If you actually have an awesome torso ... please chime in!

Let's assume for the sake of simplicity that your torso is only that part of you between your bra band and your hip bones. (boobs are another story and don't even get me started on lower bellies and c-section scars). Okay?

Lay on your back on the floor with your knees up, like this o_/\_
Get hold of your lower ribs and check it out. Poke along down to your hip bones. Look! You have a torso! Now, find your xyphoid process (cool word, huh?) It's just the lower tip of your breast bone. Poke your way down again until you reach you belly button.

If you're anything like me, it's easy enough to find that xyphoid thingee but as I poke further down, I become mired in much softer stuff. It's fat. But if you poke deep enough, you'll find muscle.

Now you can go check in a mirror but I assure you that your torso has a back side too. You've got spine there and on either side of your spine there is muscle. It holds you up! The muscles in the front side do a lot of the holding up too. An awesome machine don't you think?
A big percentage of back pain sufferers have weak muscles in both the back and the front of their torso's.

If you're still on your back ... poke deep enough to find your abdominal muscles. If you put abdominis rectus in a google search you'll be able to find good drawings of the stuff we're poking here.

Don't try to tell me that you have no abdominal muscles. This part of your torso is full of wiggles and squiggles of bowel. If you can stand up and you have no loops of bowel hanging around on the outside ... it's muscles that are holding you all in. They are there. Honest.

As you are poking, you will find them. It's what you are poking through that has to go! It's fat and skin. The more fat I lose ... the more my birthday suit looks a size too big right there. Tummy tuck? I dunno.

But I do know what to do about the other. Those muscles that we'd like to be able to find more easily, that we'd like to hold us up and in more efficiently? They're in there. Fat goes! If you've lost one pound, you know that.

Fat loss is where it's at! Work your torso ... go ahead. It's good for burning calories. It's good for your back. It's good for your bowels. But as for finding your slender torso .... it's already in there.

[LadyFirelyght]

I most wholeheartedly agree with you, Susan! For about 5 years I've been telling everyone "I'm a slender gal... under all the fat". It's definitely encouraging to feel muscle, no matter how little of it you think you have.

[kykaree]

I've been getting in touch with my inner torso recently. My back has so much more strength now, it hurt to sit at my computer all day, doing exercises like the rower hurt, and some of my weight exercises felt like they were putting way too much strain on my lower back.

So for three months I have been very dutifully doing core, changing my exercises up frequently, and wahey what a difference.

3 minutes on the rower used to kill me, now I can do 30.

I still have a bit of a fat suit, but I know if I do the right things, that will be gone. And I'll have a lovely torso there when I'm done!

[blues4miles]

I love it Susan. I was just wondering on my way to work this morning what the purpose of abdominal fat is...I mean, it must have some kind of biological purpose. I can guess at the purpose of other fat stores in the body, but why the abdomen? I also just read an article where some non-medical person claimed the colon stores a bunch of excess food and becomes inefficient due to the typical american diet and promoted some kind of procedure to flush out your colon, than move straight to fiber-heavy foods. However, I'm not sure I really believe it (the author said John Wayne when he died of colon cancer complications had over 40 lbs in his colon of undigested food, which seems like some silly urban legend) and I would guess that any time someone has a colonoscopy or such you'd see a major reduction in their stomach, which I doubt. So anyways, on that wonderful note...

What is the purpose of abdominal fat? I was playing with mine in the mirror yesterday, and pondering how much it might reduce itself when I am closer to goal. I kind of smushed it up to reduce my lower belly and found that I didn't like it at all. I think it looks natural to have a little belly there, though we'll see how I feel about my little belly later on.

Thank you for the info and the perspective Susan, as always love your thoughts and conclusions on all sorts of matters

[srmb60]

When you're my age Miles and you can ... um ... see the corn you ate yesterday (insert flushing sound here) you'll know for sure that's an urban legend. What do they tell us to do if our children or dogs swallow a few pennies?

From the stuff we hear lately about belly fat being the stuff what's gonna cause heart disease etc ... my best guess is that belly fat is for the prevention of overpopulation!

[Jayde]

Originally Posted by SusanB

From the stuff we hear lately about belly fat being the stuff what's gonna cause heart disease etc ... my best guess is that belly fat is for the prevention of overpopulation!

Scary.. funny.... some truth...

[srmb60]

Bumped ... cuz something came up the other day about fat and muscle.

[SarahinBalance]

My yoga teacher says that we should have soft bellies to protect the vital organs in there... she also agrees with have a strong core, but a soft belly. I think about this sometimes when I lament over my "soft belly"