Six Pack Abs - Result Not Just From The Workout But Your Mindset Also!

It pretty clear that most people want and train to have strong, cut, ripped and impressive abs. We all want 6 pack abs and there are many many exercises specific for this end results.

But in training my clients I focus very clearly and very obviously on what is the most important aspect of abdominal training....

You can do all the sit ups in the world, but if you are not focused and have 'your head in the right place' - results will not be what they could be.

The first thing to get correct is your mental approach. I've seen many people (and I used to be one of them) who throw in a few ab exercises at the end of a good workout for say chest and shoulders, they give it a 50% effort and then head to the showers.

It is so important to know that whenever you train abdominals you are training a muscle same as chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps or any other major muscle group. Yes they may be smaller - the abs - but you need to focus just as intently on this section of your workout as you would any other.

I am not saying that everyone does not do this...but it is interesting to see the obvious difference in results when people focus 110% on their abdominal training and do it with intensity, as opposd to when they just throw a few sit ups in with some other ab exercises. The mind is a powerful tool and it should be used in conjunction with abdominal training.

Because when all is said and done, six pack abs are absolutely obtainable and easier than you think. But you need to know you can do it and when you train abs - Make SURE you do it as intensely as your mind is telling you to do it.

There are no shortcuts folks, but the results are worth every second of intense focus. And results are guaranteed with this method, not only in abdominal training, but in any other endeavour you take on.

Know you can do it. And enjoy the intensity. The results will come quicker than ever.

(after all - you are going to take the same amount of time regardless...do it properly and you'll beefit greatly)

Tristan Lewis is a Certified Fitness Professional, Personal Trainer and Author of the most informative book on abdominal training on the internet. He has travelled the world training clients and has spent 15 years in over 15 Countries in the research of his book. His AbMetrics - The Global Almanac of Proven Abdominal Training was researched thoroughly and provides many new and exciting proven abdominal exercises as well as a structuring of the 'classics' that work. Get the book now http://www.fastsixpackabs.com

Washboard Abs and Bikinis By Summer? Start Now

People make the commitment to get into shape and lose weight for many reasons. On top of that list of reasons, whether admitted or not, is looking good naked. For women that means being trim and tight. For guys, it means the long sought after washboard abs.

Everyone wants to look good, and that is a great motivator. However, there is a trend that I see every year. This trend tends to leave people looking the same year after year.

So what is this trend that keeps people from looking great, or having the washboard abs? Procrastination, plain and simple.

That is right, procrastination. And the bigger problem is that the world of fitness and fat loss business is all too eager to capitalize. How many articles, ads, and products get launched a month or so from Summer? The number is astounding.

The problem with this is that people start grabbing these products and programs by the truckloads, and in the process generate a lot of sales for the fitness industry, but ultimately fail to achieve their desired success. And this happens year after year.

It is easy to get caught up in the frenzy to look good by Summer, but it is not reasonable to expect to get the body you want in such a small amount of time. This leads to feelings of failure and loss of momentum. Add to that, most of the programs that people start in the rush to Summer are of the fad variety and give quick fixes, and tend to be unsustainable over the long run.

Fitness is all about the long run, the marathon if you will, not the sprint.

Well, here it is, the last official day of Summer 2007, but the year is unimportant. You can read this anytime. I am calling everyone to task. The time to start your Summer fitness and fat loss programs is now. You can look great in your bikini or be the envy of people everywhere with your new washboard abs by Summer, but you have to start now.

So, what to do? A running start to build momentum. First, start moving, anything at first above and beyond your normal routine. Maybe walking or light weight training. Second, start consuming less food than normal, and try to make the healthiest choices possible. This is your running start.

Now that you have made a running start, meaning that you are just making minor changes at first, it is time to develop your strategy. The internet is great in this case. Start reviewing plans. Go to Amazon.com or some of the fitness sites and read reviews on books and products. Research, research, and research some more. The key here is to find the solid programs that fit your needs and to avoid the fads. Since you already have added some extra movement into your day and changed up your eating habits a bit, you can take your time and research well.

After a week or two of research, you should have found a system of eating and exercise that compliments your goals and lifestyle. I will avoid trying to steer you here as the number of systems is staggering. Find what is right for you and stick with it.

By starting this far out, you will see progress. The progress will in turn create momentum and motivation. You can have your body by Summer, and the added bonus is you have started a fitness habit that will hopefully be with you for a lifetime.

So, get with it! Don't wait until the month before Summer. Get off of the failed fat loss and fitness treadmill. You will thank yourself for starting now when you show off your washboard stomach or buy your bikini next year.

Want to see some great programs to help you get ready for Summer? Go to "Fat Loss Secrets Made Simple!" to see reviews of some great fitness and Weight loss programs.

Eban Crawford is a professional podcaster and internet marketer. His podcast, Reaching for Lucidity, started in 2005, was signed to the Podshow Network in early 2006 and is one of the pioneering music shows in the burgeoning podcast world.

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/

How to Get 6 Pack Abs

We’ve all seen them in magazines, in commercials, anywhere we go it seems – the models and fitness gurus with the 6-pack abs. There is probably no greater indicator of sex appeal than abs of steel. So how do you get 6 pack abs? You can with a little bit of discipline and a lot of hard work.

Granted, you probably won’t receive the chiselled features you see in the ads but you can lose the fat and work the abdominal muscles into shape. All the hard work in the world won’t guarantee a 6 pack because it’s impossible for some people to achieve it. The muscular structure, just like everything else in the body, is different for everybody. Some people will get a 6-pack, while others have to be happy with a 4-pack or an 8-pack.

The first thing that needs to be done is lower overall body fat. This means 10% or less for men and 14% or less for women. This can be done in two ways, and these two ways should be used together. Exercise is a must and should come in the way of cardiovascular exercise. These are the exercises that get your heart pumping and more than likely, your body sweating. They are often high intensity and include things like riding the stationary bike, running, or spending some time on the elliptical machine. This exercise should be used in combination with resistance training. This is using either free weights or weight machines to build and define muscles. This will lower the body fat and make those abs more noticeable.

To help get you started on the road to lowering your caloric intake and get that 6 pack abs, here are some tips:

· Eat about 15% - 20% below your current calorie level
· Eat 5-6 small meals instead of 2-3 large ones
· Include some high quality protein with every meal
· Choose natural, complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, vegetables and brown rice
· Avoid simple carbohydrates such as white sugar and white flour

Ricky used to have a fat belly from years of drinking. Discover his secret on how he managed to get 6 pack abs in just 6 weeks with guaranteed results. Click here to find out more.

The Quick and Easy Way to Tone Up Your Abs - Part 1

All About Abs

What You Really Need to Know About Abdominals: Two Key Concepts You Must Meet to Let Out the 6 Pack

Introduction - Understanding the Abdominals

Congratulations!

You are about to learn about a region of the body that almost everybody wants but somehow the secrets escape them. The weight loss industry may be a billion dollar a year market but a close second is all the late night infomercials about abs, 6 packs, 6 second abs and how to get ready for the beach and show off that region.

When it comes to abdominal training there are two basic areas of confusion. First, the myth exists that a 'specific' region exists like the 'lower abdominals.' Many people will claim their upper ab region is developing just fine but the lower abs are not responding to training. They are looking for a magic lower ab exercise that will target that region. If you do a search for any muscular images of the abdominals, it's clear that the rectus abdominus (a long winded name for the abs) is just a single muscle running from the sternum to the pelvis. These 'lower abdominals' simply don't exist.

The reason the lower region seems to be less responsive to training is that it is a natural fat storage area! Simply put, your entire ab region is probably responding to overall training but the lower region is simply not showing because it is covered up by a layer of fat. That area just happens to be the place that fat is the last to go. Very simply, the lower abdominal area is benefiting from your crunches and reverse crunches. The problem is, you just can't see it!

TEST: If you don't believe this then try this simple test: lie down on the floor in a typical crunch position. Place one hand on your lower abdominal area and the other on your upper abdominal area. Now perform a slowing crunching movement. You will feel both areas contract simultaneously as you curl up.

The second area of confusion revolves around exercise selection. Almost everybody still continues to perform hanging leg raises, knee-ups or similar exercises in an attempt to target the 'lower abs.' While these exercises do affect the abdominal area, they are not the best selection.

It's easy to clear up this exercise selection confusion if you understand the differences between the hip-flexion and trunk-flexion. A muscle called the psoas and related muscles (this is located deep against the spine) are responsible for hip-flexion while your abdominals are responsible for trunk-flexion.

Hip Flexion: Occurs when your lift your knee (or knees) towards your chest. For example, when you do a hanging knee-up, you will feel a burning sensation in the lower abdominal region (this alone convinces most people it's working that area). What is actually happening is the psoas is being stressed. You'll never be lean enough to see this muscle! Of course the abdominals are involved in this exercise for stabilization but it's not the primary muscle and so it's not the most effective. Other concerns revolve around the psoas being overworked that can lead to back problems.

Trunk Flexion: Occurs when you perform an exercise where the pelvis and sternum approach each other during the movement. At this point, you are in a state of maximal trunk flexion. Going any further and you'll engage the psoas muscle and you will be using hip-flexion (like in a full sit-up). When you train your abdominals you need to flex (or contact) your trunk.

FACT: For effective abdominal training, stick with trunk flexion movements (crunches and reverse crunches).

This series will focus on trunk flexion exercises so that tension is directly on the abdominals as that is the primary muscle we want to work. [Other muscles involved in stabilization will be involved but will not be the primary focus.]

That's all! The abdominals are just a muscle like everything else. There's nothing special about them that makes them any harder to obtain or develop then any other muscle group. Still, there are thousands of messages on community forums and fitness gurus everywhere get hundreds of messages a day regarding this. Not to mention the countless ab technology products that appear in stores every year promising a faster, easier way to get ripped abs. The purpose of this report is to tell you exactly step-by- step what you need to do to get ripped abdominals.

The Myths of Ripped Abdominals: - Countless crunches - Working them out every day - Strange machines or dangerous exercises - Fad diets - Fat burner pills - Marathon cardio sessions - Targeting lower and upper regions

The Secret of Ripped Abdominals: - Low percentage of body fat - Having the muscle to show

Did I just blow the end of the story for you? Hopefully not.

Key Concept #1: You Must Have a Low Percentage of Body Fat For starters, if you have a layer of body fat covering the region, you will never be able to show the abs. For men, this is the LAST place the fat will disappear from which makes it the hardest body part to show.

You "get abs" from reducing your body fat and you reduce body fat mostly through diet and cardio..

And yet, somehow this concept escapes people. In order for the abs to show proudly, you must have a low percentage of body fat! There's really not a whole lot more to it.

Men: 10% or lower Women: 15% or lower

Why is that so difficult for most people?

Simple. In order to get your body fat that low you must be absolutely focused on your diet and fat burning metabolism. 99% of people (including myself) are not as perfect on the diet as to burn off our natural body fat stores. So in order to get rid of that last layer, you must burn off the last remaining body fat stores. And to do that you must have great nutrition habits (above and beyond just being active).

Key Concept #2: You Must Have Abs to Show

First off...

If you are 110 lbs and just skin and bones and 3% body fat but no muscle really, then it's not a surprise why your abs aren't popping out every time you take off your shirt. There are a few people I've run across that are well below the 10% body fat limit and yet they are puzzled when their abdominals don't show. That's almost as easy as 1+1. You MUST have abs to show!

You can have a low body fat percentage but if you don't have anything to show, you'll just see a flat stomach (which is good) but no definition and certain no 'packs.' There are also individuals who have 15% body fat but their abs are so developed they can show off a 4-pack. While they don't have that low of a body fat percentage to classify as 'ripped' they do have great development and certainly the muscle is there. Just think what it might look like on them if they were to be 10% or lower?!

That's where ab exercises come into play. Performing key abdominal exercises is a key to developing the trunk region to the fullest. Many people are looking for the illusive lower ab exercise or performing exercises they believe to target a certain region but are really working the wrong muscle. Having abs is as simple as doing the right core exercises. That will be part of the 6 months of ab training at the end of this series.

Now that you understand some key concepts in order to get the abs to show, let's figure out how to eliminate that annoying layer of fat around them.

Stay tuned for Part 2 that will discuss why nutrition is 90% or More of Your Success.

If you can't wait, the Beginner's Guide to Abdominal Training is just one bonus book in the Beginner's Guide to Fitness and Bodybuilding http://www.beginning-bodybuilding.com

Learn the Truth About Weight Loss and Getting Great Abs

Debunking The Ab Myth

Ab training has been done to death but it's time to take another look. Why? Because people are still training their abs wrong so all that ab training information must not be doing the job.

1 - No Spot Reducing - Endless crunches will not melt away the fat from your midsection. It just doesn't work that way. And despite the "burn" of high rep ab exercises, you barely burn any calories while doing those endless crunches.

Your fat burning time is best spent elsewhere on more effective training. You also don't work the ab muscle intensely enough to develop it.

So endless high rep crunches fail on both counts - poor muscle building and poor fat burning. Two thumbs down as the cliche goes.

2 - The Abs are a Muscle and should be trained as such. You don't need high reps and lots of sets to work your abs. This just leads to overtraining.

Now, abs are a more endurance oriented muscle so slightly higher reps may be more effective. However, you should keep the reps at 20 or lower and work on increasing the resistance.

Yes, you should be increasing the weights on ab exercises, just like your other exercises. The stronger your abs, the better they will look when the fat is stripped away.

Ever see a really thin guy with a flat stomach but no abs? The abs haven't been trained and aren't developed enough to stand out even when the fat is stripped away.

3 - Don't train the abs - What the heck do I mean by this? Well, your abs get a lot of indirect work from other exercises so you really won't need more than a couple of hard sets of weighted crunches to work your abs.

Your abs are a factor in exercises such as squats, deadlifts, seated or standing presses, dumbbell pullovers, pulldowns, etc. Don't believe me?

Next time you work out, do a few hard sets of standing stiff armed pulldowns on the lat machine and tell me your abs aren't sore the next day. I did them yesterday and my abs are more sore than my back today.

If you want to develop a flat stomach with your abs visible, you need to treat your abs like a muscle and train that way. And you need to strip away the fat with a proper training and nutrition program designed around total fat loss, not trying to spot reduce through endless crunches.

Is there anything out there in the fitness world suffering from more misinformation that how to get abs?

The number of ab machines constantly coming to market is mind boggling. Especially considering that they aren't needed and won't give you the results that you want.

Let's set the record straight on ab training right now and give you the real information you need so you can say no to the next infomercial ab machine and yes to actual abs.

1 - Training your abs consistently will eventually give you the flat stomach or six-pack that you want.

No. It's not gonna happen if your abs are covered by a layer of body fat and doing endless sets of ab exercises is not the way to rid yourself of that excess body fat.

2 - Train your abs everyday for best results.

Again, no. Your abs are a muscle, just like your chest, lats, arms and so on. You should train your abs just like these other muscles, with progressive resistance and high intensity - then allow them to rest and recover. Never train your abs more than 3 days a week.

3 - You need to do hundreds or reps and feel the burn to get great abs.

Yep, again the answer is no. The abs a muscle just like I mentioned above. To get six pack abs you need to strip off the fat, but you also need to build the abs to get them to really pop out.

If the muscle isn't developed, you'll just have a flat stomach but no abs. The name of the game is progressive resistance for sets of 8 - 20 reps, just like your other muscles.

4 - Train the abs with lots of sets and high reps to burn off stomach fat.

You guessed it. This is also false. Spot reduction just isn't going to happen as much as we'd all like it to. You can't burn fat on your stomach by doing endless crunches.

You need to put together a proper weight lifting program, nutrition plan, and cardio in order to rid your stomach of that stubborn layer of fat and bring yout your abs.

Gregg Gillies

Gregg Gillies is a speaker, consultant, fat loss expert, trainer and author. He teaches fitness via his articles, books and courses at his web site http://www.buildleanmuscle.com . He is the author of two books: Complete information on his books, along with lots of free articles are available at his site. And while there, don't forget to sign up for his free newsletter, "Fit Physique".