Are You Sabotaging Your Own Abs Workout?

Abs workouts are like most things in life. There are is a good and effective way to do them and several ways to do them wrong. In the case of exercises, doing the things the wrong way can get pretty bad and often result in pain and injuries. Here are some tips that will help you do things the right way.

Repetition Freaks

There are people who do way too many repetitions. More repetitions won't mean that you'll get a six pack overnight! What matters most is the form, and with normal repetitions you'll get the most out of an exercise. If you feel it isn't working for you it must be the form or an ineffective abs exercise for you.

Control Your Knees

When doing crunches, the most basic stomach exercise, put your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent so they are pointing the ceiling. Keep them like this all the way. Don't lean them or widen them. It can lead to back injury.

The Straight Leg Lift Problem

Avoid this exercise because it does more for your lower back pain than for your abs.

Sleeping

The ways you sleep help shape your abdominal workout. If after sleeping you get back pain, then you are sleeping in a wrong way and need to recover. Use a good pillow, or an orthopedic pillow to relieve sleeping problems. The worst way to sleep for stomach exercises is on your stomach on a soft mattress, since it requires you to arch your back.

Lack of Resistance

To develop your abs or any other muscle you must work with resistance. Even crunches have resistance - gravity. So avoid those twisting exercises where you have no resistance, they are great for warm up but not for strengthening.

Remember also to give a rest once in a while to your abs. Rest is required to make the muscle grow. It is true that abs muscles don't need too much rest but when starting out, give them just a day so they'll be stronger the next time you engage in your abdominal workout.

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How to Get Hard Abs Without Busting a Gut

Ever thought about really putting the effort and getting a set of ripped lean and defined set of abs? I'm sure you have, who hasn't. They look so dang good, how can we not hope for looking like this some day. In this article a I expose a little ignorance and give you a few interesting ideas about getting hard abs without working too hard.

First and foremost, you must realize what you want. There seems to be a lot of confusion about the abdominal body part. The confusion lays in working them. It seems logical, that if we want better looking abs we should work them and grow them. This fact is responsible for more people quitting and never bothering again. The confusion is understandable, but you should approach this intelligently and you will get the results you are after without too much work.

Getting a good set of hard abs is about presentation and not the muscles themselves. Its about a visual balance and aesthetics. Working your abs for hours and hours a week actually has the opposite effect, hence this is why most people give up. Their muscles grow around the waist as a response to their diligent work outs. Then they despair as they notice something strange. They dont look good!

If you have a layer of fat across your abs, and you do the work outs that make the abs grow too, you are actually making your torso look bigger. But wait? Isn't that the point? Ummm...no. Heres why. A set of neat tight abs on a muscular body make a great center piece. All muscular bodies are not complete without the familiar six pack. But....when the eye looks at a muscular body it focuses on the six pack because it is a natural resting place. The eye follows the V shape, the wide shoulders and rests at the point of the V the bottom of it, the abdominals. The eye searches for this natural shape, the V or a triangle and is naturally more satisfied with a smaller V The wider the top, the more tapered the bottom, the more satisfying it is to look at.

So if we work out our abs and grow them...we are actually doing the opposite of what we want. A nice tight torso. The key to a nice tight center piece is reducing your body fat. That is really how abs are made. The bumps you will find quite easily and naturally once your skin layer is absent of the access fat which hides them!

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Better ABS

Ten steps to rock hard abdominals.

Step One
Go to the gym. This is a very important step because if you don't leave your house, chances are you won't make it to the gym. This article is for gym rats that want the six pack. I will talk about home training in another article. So, just get out and join a good gym.

Step two
Start drinking more water. This is a very valuable nutrient that I think most people forget about. At least 8 glass a day and thet will be fine.

Step Three
Make a ab workout with variety. You know that it is the spice of life. It's also the spice of your abs. Make sure you use at lease 6 different exercises for your ab routine. If you don't think you can do that, try 3 different exercises and make them intense, holding the last rep for at least 10 seconds.

Step Four
Man those carbs are killing you. Ok, im not gonna tell you to go out and diet hard but I will tell you to leave the carbs in the evening alone. Try to have a cut off point. You know how much weight you need to lose in order to show your abs. So, if you need to lose 20-30 pounds cut the carbs real early, like 12:00 pm. If you need to lose 5-10 pounds, try cutting your carbs around 3pm. If you really wanna get ripped, try this bodybuilding technique. You can take a day off from carbs. One day on and one day off. This works for many bodybuilders.

Step Five
If you want to have great looking abs you should strive for great flexibility. Stretching adds great symetry to your body. So if you are flexible it will make your waistline appear to be smaller. A tight waste tends to look bulky and thats not nice to look at.

Step Six
If you don't see the results from holding your reps use resistance. You can use a medicine ball with a weight vest. Just get that burn you desire.

Step Seven
Train your abs for feel. In other words if your abs arent burning you aren't doing anything. Make all your workouts feel intense. Thats the only way you will reach your fitness goals.

Step Eight
Get your cardio on. Make sure you do at least 1 hour of cardio every session with at least 4 sessions a week. Make sure your workout is versatile. You will never stick to a boring workout. Try to have at least 4-6 different cardio exercises.

Step Nine
Use a journal. Try to keep track of your progress somehow. Wether its in a journal or just jot them down on a piece of paper. Keeping track of your progress is the best way to reach any goal. It has to be written in order for it to be real.

Step Ten
Have a spiritual escape. Have something that you do everyday that relaxes you such as draw, read, bubble bath with candles, prayer, meditation, collect things, surf the net. What ever really relaxes you, do it at the end of everyday. It will make a difference in your attitude knowing that you have something to really releave your stress when you get home.

With these steps you should be on your way to great abs and good health.

Thank you,

Antoine king is a well known personal trainer from the New York area. He is emerging as a super talent. Very enthusiastic and a hard worker. He has over ten years of fitness experience and he worked for the New York sports club.