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Job description:Your forearm muscles bend and move your wrists. They’re

also a link between your upper body and any barbell, lever, or dumbbell you

move. If you don’t have the wrist strength to grip a barbell, you’re certainly

not going to be able to bench-press, even if your chest muscles are strong.

The training payoff:Powerful wrist muscles give you a stronger grip for

weight lifting. Wrist strength also can help prevent or alleviate tennis elbow

(see Chapter 5) and carpal tunnel syndrome— a painful irritation of wrist

nerves resulting from repetitive motions such as typing or certain assembly-

line tasks, such as tightening a bolt with a wrench.

Special tips:To ensure that you develop adequate wrist strength, wrap your

hand firmly around the barbells or dumbbells you use.

Our favorite exercises:Dumbbell wrist curl and reverse wrist curl

Abdominals ..................................................................................................

Developing a toned, flat abdomen has become somewhat of a national obses-

sion. Most fitness magazines don’t let a month go by without an article titled

“Midriff Madness!” or “Flatten Your Tummy in 3 Minutes a Day!” But don’t

delude yourself: All the abdominal exercises in the world won’t make your

tummy pancake flat; in order to whittle your middle, you need to lose the

extra body fat stored on top of your abdominal muscles. Still, ab training is

a must, both for good posture and for the prevention of lower-back pain.

Rectus abdominis ..............................................................................

Given name:Rectus abdominis

Street name:Abs (Note: Don’t refer to your abdominals as your stomach,

which is the organ responsible for digesting food.)

Whereabouts:Your rectus abdominis is a flat sheet of muscle that runs from

just under your chest down to a few inches south of your belly button (the

top of your pelvis) (see Figure 12-8). This is one long, continuous muscle;

you don’t have “upper abs” and “lower abs,” as many people mistakenly

think. Although you can do exercises that emphasize the upper or lower

portions of your rectus, all abdominal exercises do involve the entire muscle.

The muscle just below the rectus abdominis is the transverses abdominis,the

deep stabilizer of the trunk. It’s responsible for protecting the trunk and spine;

think of it as the body’s internal weightlifting belt.

Chapter 12: Your Muscles: Love ’Em or Lose ’Em 183