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!

Why The Male Abs And Female Abs "Six Pack" Quest May Prove Difficult For Some

Male abs and female abs require the same building blocks when starting an abdominal workout routine. What is the best workout for male abs? What about for female abs? The truth is, the exercises are the same.

When talking muscle building, there are differences between male vs. female. Those differences are hormones and genetics. Hormones allow a man to build bigger muscles, heavier bones and in most cases, greater height. But when we talk about abdominal exercises, the anatomy between the two sexes is the same.

The four basic ab muscles are the Rectus Abdominus, Internal Obliques, External Obliques and the Transversus Abdominus. Both men and women possess these groups of muscles and so ab exercises will be the same for both sexes.

You've seen your share of fitness magazines. On the cover you'll see a photo of a young, hot body with amazing "six pack" abs and you might wonder to yourself, how do they get those fabulous male abs, or those sculpted female abs?

There are answers, but the quest may prove difficult. Here are the basic rules for "six pack" abs:

• Genetics – be born a man. Men are genetically able to develop big muscle and they typically have a lower body fat % then a woman

• Diet – make it lean and healthy

• Abdominal Exercises – Do them properly, with good form and choose the ones that target all the abdominal groups.

• LOSE THE FAT

Having a low body fat % will allow you to see what is underneath that extra layer of fat tissue and best way to lose fat is to burn more calories than you take in. Create a fitness plan that gives you a good cardiovascular workout, mix in a good strength training routine, and stick to a lean and healthy diet.

For both men and women, functionality of the abdominal muscles is of great importance especially as we age. Start a Pilates routine to maintain balance, bone health and to remain standing tall as you age.

ACE, the American Council on Exercise, recently came out with a study showing the 6 most effective abdominal exercises. Guess what? Pilates has it covered. Each of those 6 exercises for abs has a sister exercise in the Pilates method of exercise.

It’s the smaller postural and supportive muscles that get over looked when the focus is on how a body looks rather than how a body works. Bodybuilders work hard on the big superficial muscle groups and they typically have weak smaller muscle groups, which may lead to an imbalance in strength.

Pilates ab exercises work on those smaller, more functional muscles as well as the bigger superficially placed muscles. Pilates will help men achieve well-defined male abs.

There are no differences between a male abs workout and female abs workout. Both need to be balanced workouts consisting of well-rounded exercises that are executed properly.

So remember the facts for achieving "six pack" male abs or "six pack" female abs. You may never get on the cover of a fitness magazine, but with the help of a qualified Pilates instructor you may get your abdominals into killer shape.

Susannah Marchese is a certified Pilates instructor, and the senior contributing writer to the popular and informative web site http://www.everything-about-pilates.com/maleabs-femalebs.html

Susannah Marchese - http://www.everything-about-pilates.com

The Secret Formula For Ripped, Sexy, Six Pack Abs

If you ask any man or woman what they key is to a beautiful, complete physique, they will most likely say six pack abs. The demand for six pack abs is huge. It’s the most craved bodily feature for both men and women, and rightly so. A firm, flat tummy on anyone would explode their confidence, self esteem and appearance. There are a few components that make up the formula for getting ripped six pack abs. This article will discuss these components and link them together to make getting a six pack much easier.

Genetics

Some people just aren’t meant to have six pack abs. It’s in the genes. One major key to achieving six pack abs is to have the right genes. There’s nothing you can do to change these, so the key here is to make the best out of the genes you currently have.

Nutrition

Justin Leonard once claimed, "Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym!” This is not to say that nutrition is the only component that builds six pack abs, but it is a major key and is sometimes under estimated. Here are some nutrition tips for getting a six pack:

- Cut down on carbs, sodium, fast and fried food and of course alcohol
- Drink substances containing caffeine prior to exercise because caffeine increases your metabolism and enables you to burn more fat quicker and easier.
- Drink green tea because it increases fat burning and energy expenditure.

Exercise

I’m not going to cover what exercises you need to be doing in this article because I outline all of that in my free six pack abs report but what I will say is that you:

- should only spend 15-20 minutes on your abdominal workout
- should only perform your workout routine 2-3 times per week
- should manipulate your workout every 6-8 weeks to maintain it’s effectiveness

So, the simple formula for ripped, sexy six pack abs is:

Good Genetics + Balanced Nutrition + Regular and Relevant Exercise = Ripped, Sexy Six Pack Abs

Download your free report today and discover the SHOCKINGLY simple abdominal workouts, exercises and nutritional advice that will shed pounds from your stomach & transform your flabby belly into firm & flat six pack abs. Visit http://www.firmupyourabs.com to download your free copy

Does Spot Reduction Work for Abs or Doesn’t?

Burning fat from the abdomen through exercises specially destined to the abdominal muscles was, is and will always be one of the most resistant myths.

Almost all the people with a big belly take up, with a lot of determination, sit-ups, crunches, side-bends, twists, etc., hoping that every new series or set of exercises, every session of repeating them, will help them get rid of the 'ring' of adipose tissue around their waist, also called 'the ring of death'.

Besides the fact that it is probably the most anesthetic 'deposit' of adipose tissue, abdominal fat involves many risks for the health of the person which possesses it (related to diabetes, high blood pressure, cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, impotence, etc.).

We must keep in mind, once and for all, that when we refer to the melting of the subcutaneous adipose tissue, there is no spot reduction. No matter how much we strive to locate effort in the areas we are focused on, we will only fortify the muscles under the fat, but the reduction of the fat itself will be insignificant. The explanation is simple and is connected to the energetic support of the anaerobic effort, which uses, for the exercises, muscular and hepatic glycogen, and not fat acids from the adipose tissue. For getting to the deposits of fat, what we need is cardio training (running, biking, fast walking, swimming, etc.).This type of exercises must be maintained for a long time (45-60 minutes) and they must be intense (60-70% from the maximum of heart rhythm).

An alternative is cardio training with periods when intensity varies, although the total volume is not smaller than in the case of uniformly cardio training.

A very important role in burning fat is held by the diet. It is said that the most effective of training can be sabotaged in the kitchen.

The nutritionists say that a diet which maintains caloric deficit, but keeps a balanced proportion of the basic principles (proteins, lipids, blood sugar), with a slight increase of the protein part, will always have as a consequence losing weight. Physical exercises like sit-ups, crunches, etc., without other exercises meant to involve bigger groups of muscles (thighs, chest, back) and to fortify the abdominal muscles, do not increase very much the basic metabolic rate.

As a consequence, indirect burning of calories (during breaks, post-training) is very small in comparison with the burning due to aerobic effort (especially the ones with alternative periods) – in their case, during effort taking more than 20 minutes, the energetic support is exactly the adipose tissue.

The magic formula for burning abdominal fat is a combination of hypo caloric diet and exercise – especially aerobic, but also anaerobic (focused on all the body, not only the abdominal muscles).

Isabel Curini is a fitness trainer and editor at http://www.healthfitnessworld.com. HealthFitnessWorld.com - Health, Fitness, Body Building, Weight Loss, Nutrition - Articles and Resources.

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