Wednesday, November 11, 2009

How to Get Abs Fast



Now that we're well into the fall and approaching winter, it's easy to slip into a lazy routine and lose those six pack abs you've worked so hard for. The holidays wreak havoc on flat stomachs thanks to large meals and cold weather. So how you can retain your sexy abs during the most testing time of year? Don't sweat (yet); it's easy if you know how to get abs fast in the first place.

The key to six-pack abs is all about your routine. Find some ab exercises you're comfortable with, create an exercise diary, and stick to it! Some of the most effective ab exercises include crunches, sit-ups, and leg lifts, and they'll have your abs back in shape or firmer than ever as long as you follow them with discipline, despite the challenging winter months.

The first ab exercise, sit-ups, is probably already familiar to you. I know, I know...you hate sit-ups, they're uncomfortable, they take too long, etc. The reasons sit-ups get such a bad rap in the quest to get abs fast is because people just don't do them correctly, or worse -- they do them lazily. First, lie on your back in a flat, open space with knees bent and feet on the floor. With your hands crossed over your chest, focus on your abdominal muscles as you bring your chest up all the way to your knees. Squeeze your abs! The most common mistake people make is that they use muscles other than their abs to pull themselves up. You don't have to do a million fast sit-ups to feel the burn in your ab muscles, you just have to do good ones where all the stress is on the abs.

The crunch, also a great ab exercise, is a variation of the sit-up. Instead of placing your feet on the floor, rest your calves across a bed or piece of furniture so that your knees are bent at a 90 degree angle. Again, visualize your flat stomach and focus on squeezing your abs as you bring your body against your knees. As you get to higher repetitions, picture your sleek, sexy abs or flat stomach with each pump (it really does motivate you).

Finally, leg lifts are a strong lower ab exercises that should get your stomach cut up nicely. While lying with your whole body flat on your back, put your hands under your butt and raise your legs about six inches from the ground, concentrating again on the ab muscles. Breathe in as you lift your legs, breathe out as you lower them and tighten your abs. You get a lot of resistance from these fast, so try to do about three more than you think you can. Remember that you want those abs fast!

Although this guide is on the abdominal exercise area of how to get abs fast, never underestimate the other factors of fitness, especially cardio work and diet. You might find that on your journey to get abs fast you're not seeing the results you expect, and that may be simply because you need to do some jogging as well. In fact, strong abs under a flabby stomach can actually make you look fat! If that's ever happened to you, doing a bit of running will bring all your hard work full circle and reveal those beautiful abs.

Ashley Gray is a personal fitness adviser with over 12 years experience. She recommends http://start-connecting.com as the best home training program available.

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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Fastest Way To Get Six Pack Abs Effectively



We are all trying to aim for the fastest way to get a six pack abs effectively. And many people will choose to go to a fitness center to get a fit body. In the fitness center, most people would focus on getting a toned abdominal. One of the most effective ways of training abdominal muscles is to do crunching exercise. Research has shown that we should lift our legs between 30 to 45 degrees. Our hip muscles will begin to take charge of the crunch movement when we lift our legs beyond 30 degrees. Crunches with bent knees and unsupported legs maximize abdominal activity without risk to the lower back.

Focus on the quality of abdominal movement by doing the exercises slowly, with control. Try to visualize your abdominal muscles contracting tighter with each exercise, stressing the importance of the contraction. Try adding light hand held weights (2 to 4 lb) to some of the exercises only when you feel you really need that additional challenge.

During the design of an abdominal workout, choose between 5 to 10 exercises. Perform 8 repetitions of each exercise before going on to the next exercise. We should add variety to our workout every 2 to 3 weeks. This is to vary the type of muscle contraction used (shortening, lengthening, and static). Shortening contractions are more useful in training abdominal muscles than lengthening contractions.

Perform the abdominal exercises with accompanying music. Slow and controlled movement is the best when we exercise. When the music is too fast, we may not be able to perform each repetition to achieve its full effects. So we should never let the music dictate the tempo of the exercise.

It is important that we train our abdominal muscles at least 3 - 5 days per week. Unlike other muscles, we seldom fatigue the abdominal muscles enough so that they need an additional day to recover. So we should always do some abdominal exercise on a daily basis to counteract the excessive tightening of your lower back muscles and hip flexors. Although the abdominals are a troublesome spot for many people, these points will us to get the fastest way to get a six pack abs effectively.

For you are seriously trying to slim your waistline, stop piling on the fats, get discipline, enforce determination and get your own personal health magazine washboard abs at http://www.trainthoseabs.info

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Flat Abs - Everything You Need To Know



Everyone wants flat abs, and if you're reading this now, my guess is you do too. But it's difficult to get flat abs though, right? Wrong. Flat abs are a combination of three key ingredients:

1. Eat right.

This is the crux of flat abs really. You see, the reason people don't have flat abs is because of the stored body fat that sits over their stomachs. For men, this is naturally where the body deposits long term energy storage (fat). For women, the body stores fat on the stomach, but mostly on the thighs and hips. Unfortunately for us, it's impossible to reduce fat in specific areas - your body will burn the fat evenly all over.

By reducing your levels of body fat, your abs will naturally flatten. The less fat you give your body the better. There's one surefire way to reduce your bodyfat levels, and that's eating low calorie foods. Aim for low fat foods, and avoid sugary and sweet foods as well

Secondly, eat lots. That might sound silly if you want flat abs, but bodyfat storage is the body's long term defense mechanism back from our days as cavemen when food was scarce. Cavemen didn't know when the next meal might be, so we developed a tendancy to stockpile energy in the form of fat. If you eat little and often (say, 4-5 small meals a day), your body will learn to stop holding onto the fat. As an added benefit, your metabolism will go up when you eat so your body will burn more calories off during the day!

2. Workout.

Flat abs are possible, but only if a) your body fat is low, and b) you have good muscle tone around your midsection. If your ab muscles aren't very strong, they may naturally push out and give your stomach a rounded look. By strengthening and firming up those muscles, your abs will be much flatter.

The second reason for working out is to help burn off excess body fat that you're already carrying. Try and do 30 minutes exercise a day, even if it's just walking (briskly) to the shops, taking the dog around the park or swapping the drive to work with a short bike ride. Once you work it into your lifestyle, flat abs will come naturally and stay forever!

3. Drink plenty of water.

This is a quick one really, but our bodies live on water. Without enough water, everything stops working properly. Drink 8 glasses of cold water a day, and see how your digestion improves, your skin tone improves, your alertness improves and so on. If your body is working in peak condition, you're much more likely to achieve flat abs quickly.

These tips for flat abs are taken from the many tips available inside possibly the best book on six pack abs (or just flat abs if you don't want a six pack), The Truth About Abs.

As the author shows, getting flat abs isn't hard, but it does take a bit of effort on your part, but so does everything else that's worth having. There isn't any magic button, single exercise or instant pill that will give you flat abs, but there are certain ways of doing everything to make sure you get the most out of what you put in. Follow the tips above, and you're halfway there - http://TheTruthAbout6PackAbs.com

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Tighter Abs – The Simple and Forgotten Stomach Vacuum!



I’m talking about the Transverse Abdominal Muscle. This is part of your midsection that runs horizontally across the abdominal wall underneath your internal and external oblique muscles. The TVS (Transverse Abdominis) muscle is responsible for pulling the abdominal wall inward and therefore forcing expiration.

The next important part of the Transverse Abdominal muscle is that it acts as a personal weight belt to stabilize your spine and pelvis region. The stronger your TV muscles are puts you at a much smaller risk of having lower back pain and will help you on heavy lifts such as squats.

Why else should I strengthen my Transverse Abdominis muscle?

Well, for the point of this article, Tighter Abs! When this muscle is stronger it holds everything else in. This can easily trim 2-4 inches off of your waistline in a matter of only 2-3 weeks.

How to train this muscle

The main exercise you must learn is called the Stomach Vacuum. To perform this you actually pull your belly button up and in toward your spine as far as you can go. While doing this don’t forget to breathe. This exercise can be done standing, laying on your back, laying on your stomach, seated or kneeling position.

Variations and Workouts

The basic workout calls for 3 sets holding in the full stomach vacuum for 20 seconds each set. Increase this up to 60 seconds as it strengthens.

The passive workout calls for tying a string around the midsection (right around the belly button) in a tighter almost full stomach vacuum position. You can leave this on anywhere from 10 minutes to all day. It serves as a constant reminder every time it tightens that you need to pull it back in.

Conclusion

Now that you know what to do there are no more excuses for the distended belly, you can do these exercises during work or sitting at a computer! Stay motivated and best of luck!

Brought to you by Patrick Flaven owner of TopBodybuilder.com

http://www.TopBodybuilder.com – Web Guide for Bodybuilders and serious minded athletes.

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