Thursday, October 7, 2010

3 Ways to Get Ripped Abs



How many commercials have you seen promising 6 pack abs from the latest ab workout? Does it ever work? Never! Here's a better way to get abs.

In my opinion, all you need to do to get 6-pack abs is this...

Lose belly fat with nutrition, intervals, and resistance training.

More specifically...

First, start by improving the quality of the food you eat. No more processed carbohydrates, no more sugar, no more deep-fried foods, no more fast food, and no more sodas or juices. Simply making these changes will help you lose stomach fat fast, and you'll drop your body fat percentage in just days.

Stop doing crunches. Spend that time on intervals instead. Doing hundreds of crunches won't get you results. And doing long, slow boring cardio is also an inefficient way to burn belly fat and see your 6-pack abs.

According to researchers from Australia, including Professor Steve Boucher, the only way to spot reduce belly fat is to use interval training. Intervals destroy body fat.

Once you've taken care of your nutrition, resistance training, and interval training, you can start with basic abdominal workouts. Here's what you need to know, and this will surprise you!

1) Beginners should stay the heck away from situps and crunch-type movements until they master the Plank, Side Plank, and Bird Dog.

Don't do situps.

2) Here are some my favorite no-crunch ab movements for intermediate exercisers...

a) the Stability Ball Rollout (also can be done with the Ab Wheel or as a Barbell Rollout)

b) the Stability Ball Jackknife

c) the Plank with Your Arms on the Ball (which according to research quoted in Mens Health, this exercise works your abs 30% harder thanregular Plank - all without messing your low back).

Okay, so I've given my controversial advice about what beginners and intermediate fitness levels should do for abs...Get ready for Men's Health expert Craig Ballantyne to reveal his belly fat burning strategies.

But first, I want to mention some "unknown" ab builders...

a) The Elevated Pushup

b) Straight Arm Cable Pullover

c) Front Squat

d) DB Pullover & even DB Triceps Extensions with extra stretch

All great total body moves to have in your program to burn calories and build abs at the same time.

3) What do you really need to do to bring out your abs once you have your body fat low?

My favorite advanced ab exercise is Cable Crunches, which are without a doubt, the best resistance exercise for building abs. There are several ways to do them, with one version being safer but just as effective as all other versions.

The big message I like to get across to clients is that they can build 6-pack abs without ever doing a single crunch while lying on their backs.

It shocks people, but it is true. If you want to lose stomach fat fast and see your six pack abs, focus on your nutrition, total body strength training, and interval training before you even consider adding more reps to your current ab workout.

Men's Health expert Craig Ballantyne has designed the trademarked Turbulence Training home fat burning workouts to help thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Craig's workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's beginner bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

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