Weightlifters here?

[supra]

Anyone else here lift weights?

I started about 9-10 months ago last year, first off just using the leg press. I started skating March of last year, and was hooked, first in hockey skates, then about this time last year I got figure skates. I'm a 21 year old male, btw. I went from 215lbs to 180lbs in like 3-4 months. Now after lifting I'm at like 195, at 5'9, I'd like to be back at my old 180, as at 180, I'd be at a fairly low bodyfat because of the added muscle, as my old 180 was sort of flabby.

Anyway, I started just doing leg presses, then I moved onto squats the way everyone else was doing them, with a manta ray (plastic piece to keep it on your back) and not down very low. Eventually I started deadlifting, and doing clean and jerks and snatches, and then Olympic style squatting, going all the way down.

My lifts aren't spectacular, I can sumo deadlift 355, and Olympic backsquat 235, and Olympic front squat 185, and standing overhead press (with straight legs, not push press) 115. My actual Olympic lifts are pretty terrible (155 clean and jerk, 105 snatch), as they're very technique intensive, I'd say learning them is pretty much like learning figure skating moves as far as complexity, as in, you need either a coach or someone much more experienced than yourself to at least observe you and tell you what you're doing wrong, and as far as coaching costs go, it's about the same as a skating coach. They're very technical, so I'm probably gonna stop/cut back on doing them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XZU45gjKdA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMg51x7GC24 Those are the two lifts, clean and jerk and snatch (and I hope this forum is mature enough to not make sexual comments about the names of the lifts.) But yeah, I pretty much do lots of lower body exercises, and very little upper body, with the exceptions of overhead press variations. I'm starting now to be able to do pullups, so I might throw those in as well.

As far as downsides, there's a few. You can gain fat if your nutrition isn't good, as you tend to eat more to recover from the lifts. In general muscle is gained with fat, so you gotta go through random "cutting" periods to drop your bodyfat down. I feel like the extra bodyfat doesn't really affect performance too much (ie, I can jump higher at 195lbs than I could at 180) but it's a bit not fun having any extra fat on you. Also, you can tax out your CNS if you lift too much and don't sleep/eat enough, then with CNS taxed out, you can get depressed, moody easier, etc.

My routine is basically this. I pretty much don't use much of a program, but for squats, I tend to do, say, 25lbs or 35lbs per side to warmup, for 10 reps, throw on 10 more pounds, do 5 reps, then do a triple with 10 more lbs, then after that I add 10lbs and do singles, until I get myself up to max or "daily max," and I either max out, or if I don't feel it's a good day to max out, I'll do 3-5 singles with the "daily max" weight. I've learned to alternate front squats and back squats, as front squats work the quads and abs more, and back squats work the glutes and lower back more. Front squats pretty much always help, as they work the abs more, and prevent the back from rounding out when you do back squats. That and doing Olympic squats is better if you got the flexibility/can get the flexibility to get them. The powerlifting kinda squats are good for the ego, and you can lift more weight, but they don't help power as much. Deadlifts I alternate between sumo deadlifts and snatch grip deadlifts, sumo deadlifts are good for the thigh abductor muscles, but snatch grip deadlifts, lifting with a wide grip makes you have to pull the bar from a lower position higher, but you use way less weight on snatch pulls, that and snatch pulls are hard on your grip strength, so a lot of people use straps for them. High reps and me don't seem to agree, and I don't want to add a lot of muscle, so I avoid them, but high reps seem to make me pull tendons/ligaments easier, I've pretty much never gotten injured or felt bad in any way doing singles, but high reps I've pulled stuff too much. I know the USFSA recommends higher reps, and oddly (to me anyway) bench pressing, which I don't quite understand, but yeah. I don't use any machines at all, just barbell, squat rack, and occasionally dumbells. Not weight training, but I do LOVE slideboards, and will usually go on a slideboard for about a song length at a time, and occasionally I'll go on with dumbells in my hands to slow me down somewhat. I'd like to work up to pistols, but most of what's preventing those is a balance issue I gotta work on, it's the same balance issue I have with overhead squats, I naturally walk on the balls of my feet a bit more than most people, so getting the weight really far back on the heels is a problem for me, and it carries over into my skating. Pistols I feel like would be really helpful for a lot of the jumps, as a lot of jumps rely on single leg power (not that I'm really doing anything over waltzes yet.)

Uhm, yeah. I'm sorry for this longwinded boring post (my first post is a longwinded boring one, yay), but yeah, what do other people here do for weightlifting? I understand some figure skaters do it, but locally I don't see figure skaters do it too much.

[Sk8tmum]

My kid uses weights as part of off-ice training.  However, it's (relatively) low weight, high reps to build muscle endurance and not bulk; lots of squats and leg presses to build leg strength; and quite a bit of time on the slant board doing a variety of exercises to build core and ab strength; and a lot of time on upper body strength.  And, it's more "machines" than free weights.  He can, if he wants to, outlift and certainly "out leg press" most of the jocks in the gym though, and the hanging vertical leg raises seem to be a point of awe-and-respect - but, still looks like a skinny sort until the shirt comes off/ changes into a pair of shorts and you see the muscle definition.

This is part of a training program that was put together by his physiotherapist to build skating muscles and to reduce the likelihood of injury, and it does help. However, it's complemented with pilates, resistance training, a LOT of cardio, and now suspension training. 

If you check out figure skaters, you'll see that most of them have long, lean bodies without muscle bulk.  Patrick Chan actually discusses how he has to be careful not to "bulk up" too much on muscles as he gains muscle mass quickly.

You might want to check out a book called Conditioning for Figure Skaters (IIRC).  It's got quite a bit of good info for a figure skater. 

[supra]

Interesting what you say about Patrick Chan...

I think part of my problem is I'm naturally a bit "bulky" like, pre weightlifting weight, 180lbs, I was probably 18-20% bodyfat then (never got it checked then, but got it checked at 195lbs), I'm still 18-20% now, so my weight at a lean 10% bodyfat percentage would be 162lbs, so that'd put me at a 23.9 BMI. At 195, with only like, after weightlifting, my BMI at 10% bodyfat would be 25.9. So I believe BMI is basically a bad measurement to go off, and bodyfat is a better indicator of healthy weight. I'm 5'9, and let's take Johnny Wier for an example, he's 130lbs at my height, aiming for his weight would be unhealthy, as it's just that my frame is bigger. So I don't know how much this'll hurt my skating, but it seems to be something I can't do anything about.

What a lot comes down to, too, is muscle fiber types in your body. Many naturally skinny people have a lot of Type I muscle fibers, or "slow twitch" and those are fueled more by glucose, and they're better suited for endurance sports, running, etc. So slow twitch muscles benefit from lots of reps more, as their job is muscular endurance. So if your son is naturally skinny then he might be more slow twitch dominant, then. Fast twitch on the other hand, are fueled by creatine, and they're meant for short bursts of power. One pretty good indicator of if you're fast twitch or slow twitch is your calf muscles, if you have huge calf muscles, then you're probably fast twitch dominated, as your calf muscles grow just from walking. So Patrick Chan is probably fast twitch dominant, then, huh... And hmm, he hovers around a 23 BMI.

One thing is, I pretty much don't believe in isolation exercises, exercises to isolate muscles. Your muscles are meant to fire together, and your exercises should replicate somewhat of a natural movement (ie, deadlifts replicating picking things up off the ground, squats replicating knee bends in various sports.) I think the whole thing with direct abdominal exercises is a bit mistaken. Your abs are meant to work isometrically to support you doing various things, so a situp isn't very much of a natural movement. Most people's "core" weakness is their lower back, and everyone seems to care so much about having "abs" for the summer (and what marketing doesn't tell you is, seeing abs is all down to bodyfat levels) and the lower back is neglected as far as exercise goes. Some people even argue doing situps/etc can mess up your posture and actually hurt your back. I pretty much never do them, though, as when I did do them I had about zero results, and then doing squats after a week was like night and day difference.

As far as in the gym, I have to say life is fun at the gym. People will see me deadlift and do snatches or something, and they're like "What sport do you do?" Usually I'm like "Oh, ice skating." "Oh, like, hockey?" "No, figure skating." And the look on their face is priceless. I do know one other figure skater who I think lifts pretty seriously, as he was at the rink that day, and I went to the gym to warmup (I find a nice skating warmup is 2 sets of 10 squats, at a fairly low weight), and then there was high 200s or low 300s on the bar on the squat rack, and I put 2 and 2 together, and yeah...

One surprising thing about Olympic style weightlifting, the shoes. Olympic lifting shoes are almost setup like ice skates, in that they have solid heels that are quite high. The heel on Olympic lifting shoes is usually at least 3/4 of an inch, with some going as high as 2 inches. So I believe the carryover for figure skating and the Olympic style lifts is quite high. If you look at Olympic lifters, too, the ones that are in lower weight classes are quite skinny and lean, and the women look entirely "normal" up until you get to like, 75+KG weight classes. Obviously in a sport with weight classes like that, you don't wanna gain too much bulk, as you get moved to a more competitive class. One thing with the shoes, though, I do think I'll need to get a pair soon, as going down really low for the squats has stretched some tendons out. I think now I've about gained the flexibility, but the shoes would still be better.

[icedancer]

And of course pairs skaters do a fair amount of lifting and those guys are often quite bulky... or at least they look that way on TV - their female partners are often very very tiny!

[FigureSpins]

The female partner is petite, but not weak.  They also do weight training.

[Purple Sparkly]

I do cardio, resistance training, and Pilates. 

My gym workout typically starts with cardio.  I set the treadmill for a 5K.  Sometimes I finish it, sometimes I don't.  Then I will move on to the elliptical or the bike.  I like running more and I find it easier to adjust the intensity for interval training.

After I finish with my cardio, I move on to the machines.  I might eventually do some work with free weights, but, so far, I like the machines.  I do like the deadlift, though, so that would be the first one I start with for free weights.  Also, you don't need a spotter for it.  With the machines, I do lat pull down, chest press, and an exercise with the cables to mimick pulling one's arms in for a jump.  I generally do two sets of 12 for everything, at varying weights depending on the machine.  I also do a twisty ab machine that is fun and sometimes I will do hip abduction and hip adduction.  Other than the hip exercises, I don't do any specific exercises for the legs lifting weights.  I tend to have bulky muscles, anyway, and I do not want to encourage the bulkiness in my legs.  I could do low weight/high reps, but I feel that skating, Pilates, and running is enough for my legs.  Sometimes I will do some of the other machines or rowing.  The rowing machine has a fun fish game on it.  I don't know how people could just row without that little game for entertainment.

After I do my weights, I get the bosu ball and do a few landing position exercises.  I'll start in a landing position, then jump up three times, each time bringing the free leg into a loop jump position and then holding the last landing position.  I do this on both legs.  I then do a flying sit exercise.  Starting on one foot, bring the free foot forward and jump up into the tuck position for a flying sit.  I do this on both legs, too.  I like to do these in front of a mirror so I can check my alignment and my tuck position in the air.

I try to do Pilates once or twice a week, but sometimes I skip it.  I feel that this is a really great total body workout.  I always try to point my toes and stretch my legs completely during the exercises so I can get the maximum benefit.

[AgnesNitt]

I do weights with dumbbells for my arms. I can do 20lb dumbbells for some somethings, but I have a defect in the structure of my shoulders that prevents me from going any higher. Also I use resistance bands, the ball, and body weight exercises.

More importantly, I do stretching and flexibility exercises 5 days a week. I don't think this gets enough emphasis for adults.

[Rachelsk8s]

I use 15 lb. dumbbells to do squats, lunges, and a couple other exercises for my legs...not sure of the names of them though lol I do them about 3-4 times per week.  I'll tell you they have greatly improved my sit spin!!  Other than that, I don't really use free weights, although I probably should incorporate them more into my off ice regimen.  I also stretch, although to be honest I've been slacking with the stretching a little bit lately, I used to stretch religiously every night and now I've been doing every other night.  When I started skating again, I realized how bad my flexibility had become, but I committed to it and within a year I was able to do the splits again

[supra]

Speaking of lunges, one exercise I'm really liking is pretty much a combo of a deadlift and a lunge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWqNPLb6UGQ
I'll probably do that a lot more often, you really feel it in the hamstrings and obliques a lot.

I prefer deadlifting sumo, I think it has more carryover for ice skating, and it's safer on the back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp4PeXVuGwo
The really wide stances works your thigh abductor muscles.

One problem I have with machines, it's my opinion that machines are only good for trying to work around muscles because of an injury, or for rehabilitation purposes. But, besides really specialized uses, I don't think they're that useful. Because basically, your body has to work as a unit in real life, it's not a collection of individual muscles. Like when you're running, it's not just, say, your quadriceps working, you're involving your glutes, hamstrings, abs, back, etc, so it's better to work them in exercises that fire them all at once rather than going through each one piecemeal. The other issue too, which is arguable, by working individual muscles, the muscles neuroconnection with the brain becomes wrong, and the muscles don't fire in unison.

But still, my main skating strength jealousy is pistol squats, aka shoot the duck. But for those the main problem seems to be balance, I end up rocking off the toes too much. Oh well.

[slcbelle]

I'm not a "weightlifter" but I'd say I am a "strength trainer".  I train 5 to 7 days a week on machines:  leg press (3 ways), calf raises (3 ways), abductors, adductors, glutes (in a stroking position with leg extended and toe pointed), hamstring curls, leg extensions, triceps, biceps, abs, deltoids, traps, chest presses, lat pull downs, and obliques.

I also row and do stretching/flexibility/balance training 5 to 7 days a week.  I skate 4 to 5 days a week.  I hill hike/walk 2 days a week.

[Purple Sparkly]

Machines do not isolate the muscles.  When done correctly with proper form, they use just as many accessory muscles as free weights.  Free weights allow for a greater range of motion and a wider variety of movements, but can be much more likely to cause injury when proper form is not used.  It is also easier to use momentum to assist with free weights.  It is also possible to use free weights to work around certain muscle groups that are injured or for rehabilitation.

[Doubletoe]

When I was in my early 20's, I was dating a guy who practically lived in the gym, so I had to hang out there a lot in order to get any time with him.  As a result, when I was 23 I literally measured 36-24-36, and at 123 lbs, I squatted 200, dead lifted 180 and bench pressed 130.  Unfortunately, once I broke up with the guy, I was so sick of it that I never wanted to see the inside of a gym again, LOL!  I started ice skating at 27 and never looked back (and I much preferred the look of my less muscular upper body).  It's too bad I still hate gyms because I could probably benefit from some strength training now. . . Sigh.

[Kim to the Max]

I can't stand standard exercise. I get way too bored way too quick. Running is torture. Sets and sets of weights? Ugh! And then I discovered Crossfit. Not the type of crossfit that will cause injuries, but a trained motion and if I am doing it wrong, my trainer corrects me. We do a lot of squats, burpees, wall balls, lunges, box jumps, and, unfortunately, running. We never do two work outs twice and we usually do 3-5 different exercises for a certain number of reps, for a certain number of rounds and trying to make a time. For example:

20 wall balls
20 burpees
20 20 ball slams
200 meters running

4 times in 20 minutes or something like that. It is quick and very challenging.

[supra]

I can't stand standard exercise. I get way too bored way too quick. Running is torture. Sets and sets of weights? Ugh! And then I discovered Crossfit. Not the type of crossfit that will cause injuries, but a trained motion and if I am doing it wrong, my trainer corrects me. We do a lot of squats, burpees, wall balls, lunges, box jumps, and, unfortunately, running. We never do two work outs twice and we usually do 3-5 different exercises for a certain number of reps, for a certain number of rounds and trying to make a time. For example:

20 wall balls
20 burpees
20 20 ball slams
200 meters running

4 times in 20 minutes or something like that. It is quick and very challenging.

I was sorta that way until I discovered free weight compound movements. I'd go on a weight machine and just feel...dumb. Then when I started doing like...squats, it felt "right" I guess. My problem with Crossfit is like, it seems kinda random, the exercises they'll have you do, and none seem sport specific. Your program seems to be a very lighter Crossfit program, though (compared to things like doing a hundred clean and jerks or something.)

I think basically, the way exercise works is, and this is where Crossfit kinda succeeds is, you need a sport. Before skating, I wouldn't work out like...at all. Why? Because working out wouldn't help me at all in any daily activities I did, it wouldn't help me play video games and go on my computer, so why bother? Then skating comes into the picture, you define a goal you'd like to get to with skating, and then your goals fall into place around skating. So Crossfit, what it does is it creates a sport environment, you wanna get better at the sport of Crossfit. That's why the sessions are mostly done in group settings and stuff, to have people be competitive at the sport of Crossfit. And for the most part, it works. Like within 3-4 months of starting skating, I went from 215 to 180, that's how positive the impact of starting a sport can be. But, that being said, Crossfit is more or less a made up sport. But, it helps people, and people are happy doing it, so why not?

But my usual advice to people who wanna start exercising or whatever is find a sport they wanna play, or an activity they like doing (ie, hiking), and try to get decent at it. I think that's the only sustainable way to exercise, as if you liked exercising for the sake of exercising, you'd already be doing it.

[sk8lady]

I used to lift moderately seriously with a bunch of cops I worked with.
If you want to gear your lifting more towards building muscles for training, you should look for a trainer with experience with skaters (or who is a skater--one of the personal trainers at my gym is a Division I women's hockey player).
If you want to write more long boring posts about how much you can deadlift, you would be better off at on a weightlifting forum.
And I hope that, unlike the people in your videos, you use a spotter so you don't crush a major body part on yourself or someone else!

[LilJen]

I do a bit of lifting--more or less a circuit or two on the machines. Started doing it first because I realized my hip flexors were TERRIBLY weak and I kept pulling them with skating (salchows?? can be a killer!). Added on as I realized how much it helped my skating and then again as I realized I was reaching that "I weigh the same but don't fit any of my clothes because I'm over 35 and my body has begun replacing muscle with fat" phenomenon. I find it rather boring, but I do it anyhow.

[supra]

I used to lift moderately seriously with a bunch of cops I worked with.
If you want to gear your lifting more towards building muscles for training, you should look for a trainer with experience with skaters (or who is a skater--one of the personal trainers at my gym is a Division I women's hockey player).
If you want to write more long boring posts about how much you can deadlift, you would be better off at on a weightlifting forum.
And I hope that, unlike the people in your videos, you use a spotter so you don't crush a major body part on yourself or someone else!

I tried posting at a weightlifting forum, 0 replies. But at least they didn't call me a homosexual.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=147878383

This other guy tried posting, too, with the same results.
http://tnation.t-nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_thibaudeau/increasing_work_capacity_for_skaters_and_other_athletes

Yep. Seems to be uncharted territory. Oh well.

[sampaguita]

Does weight training decrease your flexibility? How do you make sure that the muscle you build isn't very hard (I don't really know the term for that)?

[supra]

Does weight training decrease your flexibility? How do you make sure that the muscle you build isn't very hard (I don't really know the term for that)?

I wasn't totally flexible to start with, but I've probably gained some from weights in getting my squats low to the ground. My goal is eventually to do pistol squats with weights (Shoot the ducks) but my balance is poor. I'd say as long as you use a full range of motion in the squatting type exercises, you probably won't lose flexibility. In the videos I posted, as you can see, they go way down when squatting for a clean or snatch.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV6sKV8nMq0
That's an example.

As far as muscles being hard, zero idea. One thing I know for certain is more muscle fibers require more time to stretch or warm up. So if you get more muscle fibers, your stretching and warmup is gonna take more time. As far as muscles being bigger, generally most people think that doing lower reps at higher weight will put less mass on than higher/medium reps at moderate weights. By low reps, I mean like sets of 3-5 or less. But that's sorta down to a person's constitution, too, if a person is Type I muscle fiber dominant, which means slow twitch muscle fibers more good for like, marathon running or something, then they'll need to use higher reps to build muscle. But if you're fast twitch dominant (sprinters, jumpers, weightlifters, tend to fall into that category) low reps may not help them. Most people have a mix of the muscle fibers, but some people have more than the other.

The other thing to consider too, is it's not really about building muscle, it's more about building strength, and the muscle will come with the strength if it needs to. Strength is mostly neurological in nature, your body knowing how to fire neurons to activate the muscle fibers. That's how, for example, you hear the stories of mothers lifting cars off their child or something. The brain overrides everything and lets you have extreme strength in scenarios like that. The main limiting factor in that is your tendon strength, your muscles won't fire unless the tendons are strong enough, too.

EDIT:
Oh I get your question about "hard" muscles now. Alrighty. That's pretty much down to bodyfat. Female Olympic style weightlifters generally look pretty good in my opinion (I have a bit of a crush on Lydia Valentin, too, haha) they have a decent amount of muscle mass, but fairly normal feminine levels of bodyfat. http://www.leighpeele.com/body-fat-pictures-and-percentages Big long boring article.
Also, one thing to consider for "hard" muscles in pictures or whatever is a lot of times they're dehydrated for photoshoots, as this picture shows:
http://www.leighpeele.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/15-percent-body-fat-female1.jpg

But added muscle mass alone, won't make you "hard" looking. As long as you keep a feminine bodyfat level (over 15%) you'll look feminine.

Here's a picture of Lydia Valentin:
http://nimg.sulekha.com/sports/original700/lidia-valentin-2009-11-28-4-43-10.jpg She's a 75KG lifter, at 5'7. So technically she's over 25 BMI and "overweight" (I hate the BMI scale) but she's gorgeous. So I'd not worry about bulking up too much just in the aesthetic department. Too much muscle mass can mess with your power to weight ratio for jumps, though, but as I was told here, it'd pretty much only affect me if I ever got to triples, which is unlikely (but shoot for the moon and land among the stars, right?) And again, as a female, to gain a lot of muscle mass in a short time, you'd probably have to use drugs and eat like a horse, so I'd not really worry.

[Purple Sparkly]

Sampaguita,
It is unlikely for you to get very bulky muscles, if that is what you are referring to.  You may experience some hypertrophy, but in order to get huge muscles, you would need to take steroids.  As for muscles being "hard," that would depend on whether or not you are flexing them and how much fat is over the muscles.  For example, everyone has "six-pack abs," but on many people you can't see or feel them because of the amount of fat that is covering the muscles.  Muscle is firm by nature, so the only way to get them to NOT feel firm to the touch is to have a lot of fat over them, which is not usually something people want.

[sampaguita]

Oh that's why they're "hard"! I only have one friend who does weightlifting, and I would check his "progress" by touching his muscles. I would always compliment him when my finger won't cause a depression on his arm.

I have an issue with body fat -- my BMI is normal at 20.9 but I had my body fat checked recently at one of those devices which ask you to touch a piece of metal to estimate your body fat. And mine was a whopping 27% (they say normal range is 18-24%)! I'm pretty happy with my weight and how I look, except for my tummy bulge. They say you can't spot train it, but that's too bad because I'm happy with the rest of my body, I just have an issue with the tummy.

[fsk8r]

Oh that's why they're "hard"! I only have one friend who does weightlifting, and I would check his "progress" by touching his muscles. I would always compliment him when my finger won't cause a depression on his arm.

I have an issue with body fat -- my BMI is normal at 20.9 but I had my body fat checked recently at one of those devices which ask you to touch a piece of metal to estimate your body fat. And mine was a whopping 27% (they say normal range is 18-24%)! I'm pretty happy with my weight and how I look, except for my tummy bulge. They say you can't spot train it, but that's too bad because I'm happy with the rest of my body, I just have an issue with the tummy.

You might have a tummy bulge from poor posture. If you pull your tummy in by tensing your core does the bulge go away?
My coach credits her good posture, from her mother reminding her to pull her tummy in as a child. My mother was too busy telling me to pull my shoulders back, which doesn't really help correct the overall posture, but they were both after the same effect. (Needless to say, my posture still needs further work).

[sampaguita]

Well, I can fake it -- tense the muscle to activate the abs. I lose about 1 inch in the bulge, but then I couldn't breathe properly, LoL! It's hard work.

I've always had that 2 in tummy bulge (largest circumference = waistline + 2 in). If I try to slim down, the 2 in bulge is still there. Seems like there's a layer of fat over my abs, and it's the last to go...

[fsk8r]

Well, I can fake it -- tense the muscle to activate the abs. I lose about 1 inch in the bulge, but then I couldn't breathe properly, LoL! It's hard work.

I've spent a lot of time in pilates working out how to hold the abs in while breathing. A sure sign to the instructor that I'm starting to struggle with this is when I break off the conversation we're having.

But I agree about the layers of fat there. I know my core is relatively strong, but there's still no 6 pack revealing itself.

[sampaguita]

But I agree about the layers of fat there. I know my core is relatively strong, but there's still no 6 pack revealing itself.

I've always wished there was a way to spot burn that area...