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Posts Tagged ‘Abdominal Training’

Six-Pack Abs Require A Combination Of Diet And Exercise

November 26th, 2009


Many of us would love to have the six-pack abs. Everywhere you look there are commercials or ads promising these wonderful abs, but what really works? There are many of these ads that say taking a supplement can give you the envious abdominals and the flat stomach you’ve always wanted. Whether or not these supplement is still yet to be decided.  One thing that we do know for sure is that exercises such as crunches and sit ups  will get you the results you want.

Not all the supplements that are available to you are safe. Who knows what they are putting in these supplements that will give you these great abs. There have been reports of serious side effects resulting from taking these supplements. The good news is there is another way to get these great abs without having to take supplements and risking your health. With a little hard work, exercise and a healthy diet you can achieve great looking abs all on your own.

First thing you will need to do is get some sort of journal to keep record of your exercise and diet program. You can choose whatever kind of journal you think will work best for you. If you want to use a little notebook that you can take with you to help you stay on top of your record keeping that is just fine. If you have a personal digital assistant you can invest in a program that will help you keep your records. Whichever way you decide will work better for you is what you need to do.

The purpose of the journal is to keep track of your progress, and help find any areas that may need more attention. Information you will need to put in your journal will be what day it is, your weight, what exercise you are doing or did on that day, and your food intake. You will also want to make sure you record the time of each of these events to make tracking progress easier.

You will also want to take your measurements weekly or biweekly depending on how dramatic of results you like to see and record these also. How often you weigh yourself is up to you as an individual, it all depends once again on how dramatic you want the results to be. Just remember that if you do it every day it may make you more aware of your goals and make you try harder to reach them. Whichever way you decide to go, just make sure you are weighing yourself at the same time of day each time.

When you track this information it will make you more aware of what you need to work harder on the next day or week. If you have a record of what you did you can look and see if maybe you skipped a day of exercise, or didn’t eat very healthy. You want to make sure you are burning more calories than you are taking in. If you keep track of your how much food you ate and when you ate it, it will be easier to see when you need to watch more carefully. Maybe you are overeating everyday at the same time of day, if so your journal will help you see this so you can fix it.

When keeping track of your exercise you will want to write down what type of exercise you did, when you did it, and how long you did it. Keep in mind that just doing sit-ups will not guarantee that six-pack you dream of. You need to make sure you get rid of the fat so that you can see the great abs you are looking for.

To maximize your results you will probably want to do aerobic exercise or cardiovascular exercise to burn fat and calories, strength training to create more muscle, and abdominal exercises. Strength training is important because muscle burns more calories than fat, and will help power your aerobic exercises. Walking, swimming or training along with an aerobic exercise tape are all great ways to get you aerobic workout in. For abdominal work you can do regular sit-ups, or try something like Pilates. Pilates incorporates strength training for your abs and uses twisting movements to get better results.

Just remember that you should exercise four to five times a week, and keep an honest an accurate journal to maximize your results. You also need to realize that you will not get your dream abs overnight; it takes hard work and time.

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How to Get Six Pack Abdominals the Right Way

November 4th, 2009

The answer to the age-old question of “What is the optimum ab excercises for getting rid of abdominal flab?” is…
None! abdominal excercises alone don’t establish enough of a metabolic change in your own body to create fat loss.
As a tutor, nutrition expert, and fitness authority, I consistently get questioned on what the best types of exercises and workouts are for getting rid of persistent stomach flab in order to bring out clear-cut 6-pack abs. The question is that a lot of people with excess stomach flab looking to try to uncover their abs are looking for some kind of “miracle ab workout program” that is going to slash the flab from their abs in no time flat.
The fact is… they are going about the problem entirely the incorrect way! The thing is that you don’t lose abdominal flab by doing ab excercises.
The problem is that focusing most of your time and effort on ab exercises and abs workouts to try to flatten your mid section and bring out 6-pack abs is simply wasting your time from doing the proper workout programs that will acutally reduce your body fat for ever.
If I were to pick an answer as to what the best exercises are for getting rid of stomach fat, my reply would contain full body exercises such as the ones listed below:
variable forms of squats, lunges, deadlifts, clean & presses, snatches, swings, presses and pulls, mountain climbers, sprinting, etc.
These types of full body exercises would embody a much higher percentage of the workouts I would use instead of abs exercises precisely targeting the stomach. The way you combine those full body exercises into a strategic workout that maximizes your metabolism is also very significant.
Don’t get the wrong idea… I do recommend a number of exercises that exactly target the abdominals and core, but these are only a very small fraction of the programs I plan for my customers as your time is better spent targeting the full body exercises that invoke the greatest hormonal and metabolic responses within the body. also, a side-effect of working out using primarily full body multi-joint combo exercises are that you always work your total midsection even though you are not specifically targeting the abs.
Keep in mind that the most important factor for loss of stomach fat to see your abs is actually in the nutrition area. No matter how serious you excercise, if the food you eat is full of garbage, then your abdominals will be layered with ugly flab. Diet is without question the “king of obtaining a six pack”.
So let’s clear this up at last…
Quit wasting so much of your time targeting yourself on situps, crunches, leg raises, and all those silly “ab machines” in your efforts to try to generate 6-pack abs. Instead focus on high intensity full body lifts by doing a mixture of multi-joint exercises all strategically combined into highly effective fat loss workouts. Couple that with a healthy diet full of natural unprocessed whole foods as close to their natural condition as imaginable, and those evasive six-pack abs will be yours in no at all!

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Correcting Bad Posture With Abdominal Training

October 14th, 2009

ADSENSE CODE #3

Copyright (c) 2008 Personal Fitness Development

QUESTION:

David: Thank you for your Q & A column – I always look forward to your next installment. I have a question about posture and your abs! I have a very swayed back, and that seems to affect the shape of my abs. My brother is in very good shape and he has the same problem, though not as noticeable as me. Do you have any suggestions on how to correct this, keeping in mind that I play hockey once a week year-round and work as a heavy truck mechanic? I just can’t seem to focus and start a workout regimen. I eat fairly healthy and don’t drink much alcohol, I’m 41 and 6′1″ tall 35″ waist, about 235 lbs., 44″ chest. My main problem is the love handles and beer belly. Keep up writing your articles, they’re great!

Regards,

Terry C.

ANSWER:

I’m glad you asked this because posture is a very important topic for functional movement in everyday activities as well as in athletic performance, but I don’t think it has been emphasized enough.

Posture is extremely important because posture is the position from which movement begins and ends. If you do not express good posture, your body is subjected to undue stress especially in your joint structures. Having ideal posture creates a balanced environment for all your supporting structures and helps avoid helps avoid injury and “deformation” of the body (such as the way you say your swayback changes the appearance of your abdominal region).

From reading your question, it’s apparent that you have several issues that need to be addressed, but first and foremost is your posture situation and what you call a “swayback.” If your brother has the same condition, then you can probably look at your dad and grandfather and find the same postural circumstances. Sometimes people get swayback confused with a flat back. Swayback is a condition that creates a posteriorly rotated pelvis (pelvis tucked under tush), rounded shoulders, bent knees and forward head posture.

Most swaybacked people are on the tall side. They tend to look down on other people, which contributes to this type of postural imbalance.

To understand it more, we must look at “upper cross” and “lower cross” syndromes. Upper cross syndrome is created by an imbalance between your trunk extensors and your trunk flexors. The trunk flexors tend to be dominating and stronger, thus creating a short tight abdominal region, pulling the rib cage closer to the pelvis.

Characteristics of this condition are forward head posture, drooping rounded shoulders and a “pigeon chest.” The knees and ankles tend to bend because they have to counter-balance the hump-backed upper body. In swayback posture, we could easily have both upper cross and lower cross syndrome and often do. One leads to the other and vice versa.

To compensate for the sway and to keep the center of gravity over your base of support (your feet), your back and pelvis tend to flatten out and drift forward. Lower cross syndrome consists of tightening of the hamstrings and abdominals while lengthening the lumbar erectors, thigh muscles and hip flexors.

To correct these postural situations we must stretch the tight muscles and strengthen the long and weak muscles.

For example: To address the rounded shoulders – stretch the chest muscles, and perform exercises such as the prone cobra, dumbbell bent over rows and alternating Supermans.

To address the lower cross syndrome, we would we need to stretch your hamstrings and abdominals and tighten the hip flexors with such exercises as like the Prone Jackknife.

The second part of your question was related to your recreational hockey playing. When looking at how to structure a training program to enhance performance in your sport, ask yourself, “What position does a hockey assume?” The answer is, a bent over position (picture the body positioned for a slap shot movement).

This position and movement is made up of several different movement patterns. The slap shot is a combination of a side lunge, and upper body twist and a push. So some exercises you would want to include would be multi-directional lunges, woodchoppers and bent over rows.

Hockey is also different from other sports because you get pounded into the boards. This can result in massive structural damage to your body. There are some steps you can take to help prepare and compensate for this type of collision. First you must have good stability in your neck and lower back. To obtain this stability, your conditioning program should include, but not be limited to Swiss ball neck training, one arm C. R. A. C. dumbbell press, and supine lateral ball roll. Your program should also include shoulder shrugs, dead lifts and high pulls. These exercises strengthen the muscles in your cervical spine area and develop good core strength.

The final part of your question was, “How do I get rid of the love handles and beer belly?” First of all, the love handles and the beer belly come from poor eating habits. Part of your body’s ability to store fat so easily has to do with your genetic code. We carry fat as a protective mechanism to guard against starvation.

All body fat will decrease in response to a calorie deficit created by exercising more and eating a little less. However, love handles and the beer belly usually come from your body having stubborn fat deposits. These stubborn fat deposits are fat cells that will not relinquish their energy without a fight. I’m sure you’ve noticed that even as you lose weight, the abdominal fat is usually the last place to go.

Stubborn fat cells are estrogen dominant cells and estrogen is a fat-producing hormone. You mentioned that you don’t drink much alcohol, but take a close look at how much is not much. Believe it or not, beer contains hops; hops contain estrogenic compounds which help you develop that beer belly (so there is some truth to the idea of the “beer belly” and you should minimize alcohol consumption when fat loss is your goal)

To rid yourself of body of stubborn fat, you should also eat more cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Avoid drinking anything from a plastic container, avoid soy proteins, eat organic food as much as possible, increase omega 3 oils (fish) and decrease your omega 6 intake.

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Spot Reduction for Ab Training – Just a Myth?

September 16th, 2009

Many new entrants to the gym will walk into the gym with the exciting goal of doing crunches until their abdominal muscles are a svelte collection of rippling muscles, cut out of the former dough that was their midsection. They€™ll enter the abdominal training area €“ despite being 30% body fat  and do an hour of crunches, several times per week. Over the months, their midsections will become harder €“ under the fat “ but to the naked eye, they’ll still be sporting the same spare tire they started with. And in some cases, it might stick out a bit further, due to the increased size of the abdominal muscles underneath the layer of fat.

There is no such thing as spot reduction. The body fat, which covers your body, does so in a fairly uniform fashion. While there are some areas, which tend to hold more body fat reserves (waistline in men and legs/glutes in women), those brand new abdominal muscles are never going to emerge until the body fat over them “ and on top of the entire body€“ is removed. New trainers to the gym don€™t realize this fact. They walk right past the cardio machines and enter the ab area, day after day. Little do they know that spending a few hours each week in the cardio area would make their abdominal effort display so much more effectively. Even more so, their chest, arms, back, and legs would look much better too, with lower body fat levels.

There is one misleading factor, which causes people to believe in the myth of spot reduction. Let€™s say you €™re a fairly well trained athlete, sitting at 12% body fat. You begin training abdominals religiously. They will begin to look better and better. They will stand out. You will look leaner, even if you are not. Your midsection will look tighter, even if the body fat is he same. This is because at 12% body fat, the muscle growth will create separation. Separation is defined as the disconnection of muscle groups. The more advanced goal “ definition €“ comes when a single muscle group is able to be separated visually, and only occurs and very low body fat levels.

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Strong Upper Abs Training

September 15th, 2009

ADSENSE CODE #5

To own Abs which is well-defined is the goal of many of us. If you already got your Abs well defined and strong like a rock I congratulate you with adding that you should maintain it. In either way, the right approach to abdominal training will be a big help to you.

Having a great set of abs is not only visually appealing, it is also so much important not just for weight lifting performance but for all aspects of your life. Strong Abs help you increase strength of your lower back and promote a healthy posture. Well developed, strong abdominals are an essential part of a complete physique for visual enhancement, strength, and health.

Those were main reasons I decided to give you insight in proved powerful methods of developing perfectly strong, visible and powerful abs. Upper Abdominal partition is usually undeveloped and untrained. In the Natural Muscle Mass Building approach we give complete and proved method which off course covers whole abdominal muscle exercise program. Here are just 2 powerful exercises for Upper Abs.

1) Twisting Crunches:

You will need Flat Bench for this one. The primary muscles worked during twisting crunches are the obloquies and upper abdominals. Secondarily are the lower abdominals.

Execution: Lie on the floor with your hands behind your head and place your legs across a bench. Exhale and curl your upper body towards the bench rotating your elbow towards the opposite knee. Control yourself back to the starting position and repeat the motion to the other side. Important! Keep your lower back slightly rounded as you perform the crunching motion. Make sure you do not pull on your neck as you are crunching. Don’t try to lift your whole body. Keep your lower back in contact with the floor at all times.

Make sure to fully contract and stretch the abdominals during twisting crunches. Let your abdominals stretch at the bottom of the movement but don’t lie flat and let the tension leave. If you want to do some oblique training you can incorporate twisting crunches without any additional weight.

2) Machine Crunches

The primary muscles worked during machine crunches are the upper abdominals. Secondarily are the lower and the obloquies. You should use the Crunch Machine in the following way.
There are different variations of crunch machines but all operate in a similar fashion. Many have a back pad with handles. Position yourself in the machine as directed. There is normally only one way you can sit in them. Once into position, exhale and curl your upper body towards your knees contracting your abs. Hold the contraction for ONE second then slowly lower your upper body back towards the original position.Repeat it until you have completed planed number reps.

Make sure to fully contract and stretch the abdominals during each rep. The abdominal muscles are only responsible for about the first 30 degrees of motion angle so the range of contraction is not that great.
Let your abdominals stretch at the bottom of the movement but don’t let the tension leave. There are quite few things you can easily do in gym, save time and energy but achieve best results. Proven muscle building exercise program is what we all search for.

The abs is a muscle like all other muscle partitions are stimulated by significant overload. Machine crunches allow you to achieve overload, however, the movement can be limited sometimes, depending on the design of the machine you are using. I prefer using cable crunches as the movement feels more natural.

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