Breakfast:
fruit salad – banana, strawberries and grapes with hemp seeds
cottage cheese

Lunch:
a small avocado
1/2 tomato
some sugar snap peas
(dessert) a mini ice cream sandwich

Afternoon:
Herbal Magic Green Elixir – a super-potent drink I made using a Green Food Feast powder and Merlin’s Herbal Magic Roots Elixir

Snack:
honey roasted peanuts

Dinner: (we ate on the patio at Panzanella in Carrboro)
some bread with olive oil
pizza
avocado soup
(dessert) a magic cookie bar

Exercise:
45-minute weight workout. Ab clenches every 15 minutes while working, as recommended on Mark’s Daily Apple.

Notes:
Since I’ve started doing ab clenches at my desk, I’ve noticed that not only has my stomach gotten harder and flatter, but my back has felt a lot better. My back is in pretty bad shape, probably due to decades of hunching over in front of a screen in front of a computer. I usually have pain in my lower and middle back and despite trying out different exercises and some yoga, I’ve had a hard time getting rid of the back pain.

I’ve noticed that doing ab clenches (I should really call them core clenches, because I’m clenching my entire core including my back and oblique muscles) has strengthened my core and seems to be giving more support to my spine. I’ve also taken Mark’s advice and, instead of doing ab crunches and other ab exercises when I work out, I simply tighten my core muscles while I’m doing each weight exercise.

Mark Sisson is 56 years old and has a noticeable six-pack

My back usually feels its worst after a hard workout, but I’ve noticed that after my last 2 workouts, where I made sure to tighten my core during each exercise, my back felt great! Once again, it seems that by tightening my core, I was making sure my spine had enough support.

I’m sure that I’m not the only person with a bad back, considering how much time people spend sitting in front of a computer. I would highly recommend that if you work in front of a computer, you try doing ab/core clenches a few times an hour.

Further Ab Clench instructions

I use a program that chimes every 15 minutes to remind me to do the clenches. You can download that program here.

See more posts by Justin Carboneau

Latest posts in the Mission: Six-pack Abs series:

• Join me for The Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Eating Meat
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Good Calories, Bad Calories
• Mission: Six-pack Abs: My latest fitness acquisition
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – I’ve been slacking…
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 53 – Photo Update
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 46 – Making progress, slowly
• Shrink Yourself: A program that helped me finally break past my weight loss plateau
• Healthy Tanning vs. Unhealthy Tanning
• Why is it so hard to stop Emotional Eating?
• 7 Ways to Recognize If You Are an Emotional Eater
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 35 – More Weight Loss Secrets
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 32 – Refocusing My Efforts
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 31 – Starting back up again
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 23
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 22
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 21 – Photo Update
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 20
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 19 (Another benefit: a healthier back)
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 18
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 17
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 16
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 15
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 14
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 13
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 12
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 11
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 10
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 9
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 8
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 7
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 6
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 5
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 4
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 3
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 2
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 1
• Mission Six-pack Abs: A Personal Experiment

Mission: Six-pack Abs