Monday, December 7, 2009

Effective Abs Exercises - Part V



Doing the following ab workouts will result in a leaner and flatter stomach after repeated sessions. Although your midsection area is quite difficult to trim down, as the muscles around this area are difficult to carve out, discipline and the proper contractions will bring your satisfactory results in your ab workouts. Be sure that you maintain your regimen of ab workouts by doing these exercises for two to three times a week, leaving a day's rest between each session. As you progress, you will need to add more repetitions to your workout in order for you to be able to increase the strain and maintain the loss around your midsection area.

Crunch and Reach.

This exercise targets the side midsection. You begin your ab workouts by keeping your body straight and supine over an exercise ball, while holding a light weight extended behind you. Next, contract you're your abdomen while lifting and bringing the light weights way over your head. While doing your ab workouts crunch up and twist your upper body to the left, thereby contracting the left side of your waist. Repeat these steps in your ab workouts for the prescribed repetitions and switch sides.

Crunches on the Exercise Ball.

These ab workouts require the use of an exercise ball, and it targets your front midsection. Instead of doing the usual crunches on the floor, lie with your back straight on an exercise ball. Your abdominals will be challenged in a whole new way in this position in your ab workouts, all the while working your entire body in the process. But be sure that when you get up from doing a crunch that you don't pull on your neck, as this may cause injury; if the ab workouts get a little too difficult for you, you may roll forward a bit to lessen the strain.

Eugene never thought he would be a personal gym trainer when he once weighed 311 lbs.He is now a total fanatic about muscle-building and crunches his way through his CSI. Now doing freelance teaching to people who require proper healthy diets, he always advocate his motto of "not giving up". Get to know more about Ab Workouts Here!

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

How to Get 6-Pack Abs Without Crunches or Sit-Ups



One of the biggest misconceptions made by people is believing that doing 100 sit-ups or crunches is going to result in rock hard 6-packs. Concentrated exercise alone will not give you 6-Packs. A more holistic approach is required.

There are 3 important elements to attaining those wonderful 6-Packs:

Diet The best eating plan does not include 3 meals a day. Our bodies are not designed to function in this manner. When limiting ourselves to 3 large meals, we are forcing our bodies to store extra food as fat. It is this fat that covers our abs and prevents 6-pack abs from being visible, no matter how hard we exercise.

In order to burn fuel efficiently, it is important to eat at least 6 meals in smaller portions. A portion should be no larger than your fist.

If you want to build muscle, cut out on the carbohydrates and increase your protein intake.

Eating in this manner will help increase your metabolism and allow your body to burn fat and fuel with greater efficiency.

Interval Training Interval training is the best way to increase your metabolism. This will allow you to burn fat a lot quicker.

Try the following out;

Run as fast as you can for 20 - 30 seconds and then walk briskly for 3 minutes. Repeat this 5 times in a session. Do this exercise for a minimum of 3 times a week. This exercise includes bursts of hard action followed by a period of less strenuous activity. Use a park, street or track.

Leg lifts Lay on your back with your hands behind your head. Using your abdominal muscles, lift your legs to approximately 60 degrees from the floor and hold them there for 10 seconds. Then let them down slowly. Do not let your feet touch the floor!

Start off with 3 times 10 - 15 reps and work yourself up to 3 times 30 reps. Do this every second day. This is extremely important because your muscles need a rest period in order to build up.

As complimentary exercises, Push-ups and Chin-ups are an excellent way to develop ribbed abs. The reason for this is that the abdominal muscles will always support the other muscles during exercises.

Please understand that a well designed exercise program is the best way to develop six pack abs without the risk of injury. This also ensures that you get maximum results in the shortest time frame possible.

If you would like to know which abs exercise program we highly recommend, click here

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Toning Your Abs



If you are serious about toning your abs, you need to do a lot more than just a few sit ups every night. You need to focus on a lot more than just muscle development and weight loss if you want to achieve your goals. The first thing you need to do is educate yourself about what goes into the most effective ab workouts, and which workouts are simply a waste of time!

The first thing you need to know about toning your abs is that there is more than just one set of abdominal muscles that need to be worked on. In fact there are three, and each of them require equal amounts of attention or your entire workout plan can be rendered ineffective. The three muscle groups you need to concentrate are your rectus abdominis, your obliques and your transverse abdominus.

The rectus abdominis is the muscle group that is most commonly associated with the “six pack” although it is not the only one responsible for ripped abs. We’ll get to this part of toning your abs later, but first you need to concentrate on your transverse abdominis. This is the muscle that runs underneath your rectus abdominis and wraps around the lower part of your rib cage. Apart from protecting your internal organs, this muscle is responsible for both your core strength and your core stability.

This part of toning your abs is the most difficult, but is the most essential part of having a well developed abdomen. Doing deep breath-and-release exercises or water exercises are both good ways of developing your core abdominal muscles. Deep breathing exercises like the Vacuum are done by filling your lungs to capacity, then breathing out while sucking your stomach in. Hold at the point where you feel your muscles tighten for two to three seconds, then release. Do sets of eight if you can, and do them every day!

Training your obliques is something that a lot of people neglect, but they are one of the most important muscle groups if you are toning your abs to look good. Men’s Health Magazine asked women all over the world what the sexiest muscles on a man were, and the obliques came out top almost all over the world. To tone these muscles simply do bicycle twist crunches. Lie on your back in sit up position, clasping your hands behind your head. Bring one knee up to your chest, and contract your stomach muscles to lift your shoulder blades off the ground. Point your left elbow at your right knee, then do it the other way. Try to do six on each side per set if you are looking to lose weight.

When you are toning your abs, the rectus abdominus muscles are actually the easiest to work with. Performing three sets of the double vertical leg lift will give these muscles definition within a few weeks. Lie on your back and lift your legs 90 degrees to the ground. Cross your ankles, and clasp your hands behind your head. Now contract your stomach muscles to both lift your feet towards the ceiling and your shoulder blades off the ground. You should feel it start to burn all over your abdominal region.

This exercise is one of the most effective for toning your abs, especially if you want to lose weight in your belly area. Doing longer sets with shorter time intervals can really burn fat, and if you do three sets of these every night you should start to see positive results in as little as two weeks.

John Ripper is a fitness freak. Discover free tips and tricks to get six pack abs at Toning Your Abs

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Simple Tips for Great Abs



The abdominal muscles support the trunk and keep the internal organs covered. They also allow movement of the body. These muscles contract to give the power for carrying out body movements.

Weak abdominal muscles can cause several conditions like back pain, muscle strain and even hernia. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen these muscles such that we can escape such conditions from affecting us.

What are the four abdominal muscles?

These are transverses abdominus, rectus abdominus, external oblique muscles, and internal oblique muscles. They are present in between the ribs and the pelvis region in the body.

Of late, developing abs and making the six-pack abs visible has become very much a requirement among people. It gives a great look to the body, boosts one’s ego and people become socially acceptable. I mean, who wants a man having a huge paunch? It presents a very unpleasant site. Besides, people are becoming more health conscious by the day. They have realized the importance of keeping slim, trim and fit and having a well-maintained physique.

Developing great abs is a process and needs dedicated efforts. It is a two-step process where you cannot neglect one for the other. Here I recommend some simple tips you should follow to develop the abs.

First, regulate your diet. Consult a dietician. Prepare a diet chart based on your body mass index (BMI). Have food high on proteins. Avoid red meat. Avoid excess dairy products, food excess in calories and alcohol. Avoid excess alcohol especially beer. These not only make you fat but also are also bad for the heart. Have plenty of water.

How does diet regulation help?

Diet regulation helps in maintaining the calories level in the body. Only the essential amount is used and excess calories are not taken in. Thus, it helps to prevent accumulation of fats in the body. Besides, high protein intake helps to increase body strength. Also food and drink items bad for heart, arteries etc are not taken.

Second, exercise daily to keep fit, physically strong, and develop great abs. At the outset, physical exercise is also in two steps. First, do regular jogging or running. If this is not possible owing to time constraints and busy work schedules, join a gym or make your own home-gym. Buy treadmills, elliptical machines and exercise bikes. Spend at least one hour daily on these three equipments. As you go on, you may add on more time as you feel.

The next part is abs development exercises. The essential exercises include basic crunches, abs rollers, abs trainers, hip-lifts and leg raises. It is always good to get training from a professional expert. Be careful while doing these workouts. A poor posture can result in long sustainable injury.

Great Abs are not only the result of hard work, they are the result of using the right tools, learn about Abdominal Exercise at http://abdominalexercisezone.com/

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