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.

The Real Secret To Six Pack Abs

Usually, I perform my workouts at my private training facility which is nice because I don't have to deal with a crowded gym. It allows me to get in and out without spending more time than I have to in the gym.

I do have a public gym membership which allows me to train on my off days away from work since the gym is only a few blocks away from my home. Today was one of those days I chose to train at the public gym.

As I walked in I noticed an infomercial on one of the big screen television sets on the wall. The informercial was for a new kind of ab training device. Now, usually I don't pay too much attention to these infomercials, but this one caught me eye.

Not, because it was some revolutionary ab training device, but because of how it is being marketed. It looks somewhat like one of those big stability balls you see at almost every gym/health club these days.

But, it is a bit longer which provides more support for your body. And that's how it is being marketed. As a comfortable alternative to a stability ball which is meant to reduce potential low back pain.

Sounds great doesn't it? So, why was I shaking my head in disbelief?

It's because just about everything in fitness today is marketed toward being easy and comfortable. Think about it. Almost all the machines you see at your gym are designed to be performed sitting down in a stable seat.

Some machines even have seat belts so you can brace yourself in the thing. Again, comfortable. People like to be comfortable. But, there is a big drawback to this thing of comfort.

What so many people fail to realize is that the reason why 99% of the low back pain population exists is because their bodies have lost the ability to properly use their muscular system to stabilize themselves.

This is even more important when it comes to abdominal training. Many people claim to experience low back pain while performing exercises on the stability ball. This happens because the stability requires you to properly use your abdominals and hips to stabilize your body while you perform the exercise.

Unfortunately, so many people cannot do this and as a result their bodies develop compensatory strategies to perform the exercise. Compensatory strategies are the body's way of performing a movement and are very inefficient often resulting in pain and/or injury.

And, the more training is performed on comfortable machines that have reclined seats and seat belts and do all the stability work for you, the more your body loses its ability to be able to use its own muscles to provide stability.

To illustrate this better think about how you move outside of the gym in your everyday life. We all walk up stairs, lift laundry baskets, unload groceries from the car, reaching up in the kitchen cabinet, carrying our children, playing sports and on and on it goes.

When your body cannot stabilize itself properly pain and/or injury is eventually the end result. That is why you probably know of someone who hurt their back lifting something very light off the floor or while bending over doing something.

Crunches and sit-ups are just not the entire picture when it comes to developing lean, well-defined and strong abs. In fact, crunches and sit-ups are the main exercises in almost every "core" and ab routine out there today and are 5 reasons why people end up with low back pain There is an entire host of movement patterns our bodies were designed and meant to perform. We performed them as babies. Our bodies were meant to bend, extend, laterally bend, twist and turn and much more.

There are 2 exercises that are not ab exercises but they will help flatten out your midsection faster than most others.

Kevin Yates is the owner of learn2burnfat.com and the author of "5 Major Mistakes That Are Keeping You Fat & How To Easily Correct Them", a free report that shows you how a few simple strategies almost nobody knows about can help you burn fat fast. Get your copy here

Forget Crunches If You Want Six Pack Abs

That can't be right can it?

Surely if you do nothing else but do ab crunches all day long you'll end up with a stomach like a washboard?

Er, well no, that's not strictly true...

In fact, not only is it possible to get six pack abs without a single crunch, it's also possible that relying on relentless crunching is moving you away from your desired flat stomach!

Ok, before I get carted off by the men in white coats, let me explain. Come to think of it, even if you *did* call the men in white coats, it would be *me* they would agree with!

It's all to do with the physiology, the construction of the body around the abdomen. A six pack is a display of defined abdominal muscles. Crunching is a superb way of strengthening and building these muscles, but it's vital to bear in mind, that if you currently don't have that six pack, your ab muscles will most likely be covered with a layer of fat. It doesn't have to be a rippling spare tire, Homer Simpson style, but there will be a layer of fat covering those muscles.

If you simply concentrate on building the abs, but do nothing about the fat, then as your abs develop, not only will they not be visible, but they will actually be pushing the layer of fat outwards! This is the last thing you want!

The layer of fat is one of the hardest areas to get rid of, so you need to start an all-round fitness regime if you really want a six pack. Try to focus on a good cardio workout, some sort of aerobic type exercise that will get your blood pumping and keep it in your target heart rate zone for at least 30 minutes and do your cardio at least 5 days a week for best results. Brisk walking, jogging, swimming and TaeBo are all good examples of a cardio workout. Gradually, and this won't and cannot happen overnight, as the fat layer disappears, your ab muscles will become closer to the surface, and therefore more visible.

Take it from me, as someone who's done it, the ab muscles get plenty of workout in everyday life, so are often defined enough so that once the fat layer had gone, they give off that familiar six pack look.

So there you are, a simple explanation of biology has got rid of almost any need for those horrible crunches! You may want to do them to buff up your abs once the can be seen, but blimey they are hard enough to do at any time let alone if the effort is just going to waste!

Getting that elusive 6 pack doesn't have to be hard, you just need to know the facts. To learn the best way to get Rock Hard Abs and receive a free copy of the special report "The Stubborn Fat Solution" please visit:http://www.squidoo.com/flatten-your-abs