Turn your head

and cough OK,

so don't turn your head...but do cough. It will help you paddle better and even get you that flat abdomen you 've been dreaming about.

Talk to Gary Simon, our local kayak fitness guru (it's like talking with a colleague, that's how much he knows about exercise...but I digress), and he will tell you that you need to engage your transverse abdominal muscle to get the effect. This is one of the keys to Pilates.

If you sit up, or stand, and place the palms of your hands on your belly at bellybutton level with the fingers of each hand pointing at one another and nearly touching...(I will wait while you read that marvelous sentence again...and again), your palms will be over the tranversus abdominus muscles. Now cough, and you will feel them contract (only turn your head if someone is standing right in front of you).

Now, if you aren't already, sit in the paddling position or get on the floor on your back with your knees bent. Place the hands as above, cough and hold your abdomen in the contracted state induced by the cough. If you now paddle or do a crunch you will be exercising the muscle that you need to get at in order to look like the folks on the covers of those magazines you read. If you fail to engage this muscle group, you only get the vertical muscles at the mid line (abdominis retus).

Your welcome

Paddle safe...

DS