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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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The Truth About Six Pack Abs

November 23rd, 2009

If I was born fat I will be fat forever. If I was born with wide hips I won’t be able to change it. These prejudices are very common. You know, almost 90% of people aren’t satisfied with their body. They want to look better, to have a slim, toned body with flat stomach or even six pack abs and that’s why they are very disappointed when something goes wrong, so they try to explain their failures. Don’t believe in these prejudices. Everything is in your hands and only you can change your body. That’s why I am writing this article telling you about amazing weight loss ebook called the truth about six pack abs, which has helped many people to get toned body.

The book “The Truth about Six Pack Abs” is a hit with readers around the world that are looking for the truth, and a good honest program that reveals the tried-and -true training and nutritional strategies to lose your stubborn belly fat and develop a flat lean six pack of abs for life. The author of the book – Michael Geary, holds a Bachelors of Science degree from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. He is a professional fitness instructor and a certified nutrition specialist. That’s why the Truth About Six Pack Abs isn’t full of hype, it doesn’t promised anything that can’t be accomplished by you, or anyone who decides that now is the time to change their life for the better. The Truth About Six Pack Abs is a guide that reveals the correct way to train your abs, and it is all about burning the fat. Moreover the ebook reveals exactly how to do that in a very short amount of time. Michael reveal the same tried and true training methods and nutrition that his customers use to strip away the stubborn stomach fat. However this book is not just a book about training your abs. As mentioned above, Michael is a professional nutrition specialist and his book is different because it explains directly how to use foods to burn fat away too.

Many people think that the book is only for men. But that’s not true. It will suit anyone at any level of fitness. It doesn’t matter whether you are a man, woman or child, everyone can benefit form what you’ll learn.

Are you satisfied with what you see in your mirror? Are you ready to change your body and stop hiding your it under layers of clothes? If you answered yes, the truth about six pack abs is undoubtedly the book you need. I don’t want to ramble on, but I really do recommend this book whether you have 5lbs to lose, or even 50. Just visit the link in my author’s bio to learn more.

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Excess Abdominal Fat – a Serious Danger Beyond Vanity Issue

November 19th, 2009

ADSENSE CODE #3

Did you know that the vast majority of people in this day and age have excess abdominal fat? The first thing that most people think of is that their extra abdominal fat is simply ugly, is covering up their abs from being visible, and makes them self conscious about showing off their body.

However, what most people don’t realize is that excess abdominal fat in particular, is not only ugly, but is also a dangerous risk factor to your health. Scientific research has clearly determined that although it is unhealthy in general to have excess body fat throughout your body, it is also particularly dangerous to have excess abdominal fat.

There are two types of fat that you have in your abdominal area. The first type that covers up your abs from being visible is called subcutaneous fat and lies directly beneath the skin and on top of the abdominal muscles.

The second type of fat that you have in your abdominal area is called visceral fat, and that lies deeper in the abdomen beneath your muscle and surrounding your organs. Visceral fat also plays a role in giving certain men that “beer belly” appearance where their abdomen protrudes excessively but at the same time, also feels sort of hard if you push on it.

Both subcutaneous fat and visceral fat in the abdominal area are serious health risk factors, but science has shown that having excessive visceral fat is even more dangerous than subcutaneous fat. Both of them greatly increase the risk your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep apnea, various forms of cancer, and other degenerative diseases.

Part of the reason visceral fat is particularly dangerous is that it apparently releases more inflammatory molecules into your system on a consistent basis.

If you care about the quality of your life and your loved ones, reducing your abdominal fat should be one of your TOP priorities! There’s just no way around it. Besides, a side effect of finally getting rid of all of that excessive ugly abdominal fat is that your stomach will flatten out, and if you lose enough stomach fat, you will be able to visibly see those sexy six pack abs that everyone wants.

So what gets rid of extra abdominal fat? Is there actually a REAL solution beyond all of the gimmicks and hype that you see in ads and on commercials for “miracle” fat loss products?

The first thing you must understand is that there is absolutely NO quick fix solution. There are no pills or supplements of any sort that will help you lose your abdominal fat faster. Also, none of the gimmicky ab rockers, rollers, or ab belts will help get rid of abdominal fat either. You can’t spot reduce your stomach fat by using any of these worthless contraptions. It simply doesn’t work that way.

The ONLY solution to consistently lose your abdominal fat and keep it off for good is to combine a sound nutritious diet full of unprocessed natural foods with a properly designed strategic exercise program that stimulates the necessary hormonal and metabolic response within your body. Both your food intake as well as your training program are important if you are to get this right.

I’ve actually even seen a particular study that divided thousands of participants into a diet-only group and an exercise & diet combined group. While both groups in this study made good progress, the diet-only group lost significantly LESS abdominal fat than the diet & exercise combined group.

Now the important thing to realize is that just any old exercise program will not necessarily do the trick. The majority of people that attempt getting into a good exercise routine are NOT working out effectively enough to really stimulate the loss of stubborn abdominal fat. I see this everyday at the gym.

Most people will do your typical boring ineffective cardio routines, throw in a little outdated body-part style weight training, and pump away with some crunches and side bends, and think that they are doing something useful for reducing their abdominal fat. Then they become frustrated after weeks or months of no results and wonder where they went wrong.

Well, the good news is that I’ve spent over a decade researching this topic, analyzing the science, and applying it “in the trenches” with myself as well as thousands of my clients from all over the world to see what works to really stimulate abdominal fat loss. I want to help you succeed in finally getting rid of that extra abdominal fat that is not only UGLY, but also DANGEROUS.

Don’t waste another day allowing that nasty abdominal fat to kill your confidence as well as contribute to your risk for MAJOR diseases.

The only reason most people fail in their fitness goals is that they have good intentions at first to adopt a new lifestyle, yet after a few weeks or months, they abandon their good intentions and slip right back into their old bad habits that gave them the excess body fat in the first place.

Get the solution to rid yourself for life of this abdominal fat problem by reading more details in the free report below.

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Abdominal Exercises – the Truth

November 12th, 2009

 

Abdominal exercises are one of the hottest, and yet, most controversial topics in the fitness and exercise industry. Hundreds of ab gadgets, gimmicks, and exercise machines have flooded the market for people looking for sexier and flatter abdominals… that sexy six-pack abs appearance that everyone seeks.

 

The problem is that most of the abdominal exercises that are recommended all over the internet, and in magazines, etc, are not necessarily the best method to get that six-pack abs appearance. First and foremost, the most important aspect for great looking six pack abdominals is losing the extra belly fat that is covering them up. To be honest, most people already have decent abdominals underneath, yet the six-pack abs are simply covered up by all of that extra flabby stomach fat.

 

Instead of focusing so much on abdominal exercises to make your stomach flatter and more like a six-pack, you will lose much more body fat by focusing the majority of your training time with special combinations of high intensity full-body, multi-joint exercises. The best exercises for losing that abdominal fat are the exercises that work the largest portions of the body at once.

 

Exercises that work the large muscle groups of the legs, upper and lower back, and chest give you the biggest metabolic bang for your buck in terms of abdominal fat loss. Combining these types of big multi-joint exercises in high intensity super-set, tri-set, or circuit fashion gives you the biggest fat-burning and metabolism boosting response from your workouts.

 

And that is one of the best kept secrets for flat sexy abdominals that are actually visible as a six-pack!

 

Now when it comes to abdominal-specific exercises, another mistake most people make is mindlessly pumping away with hundreds of crunches and other meaningless abs exercises that barely give your abdominals much resistance to work against. If you want to actually develop your abdominals to the best extent possible, don’t waste your time with exercises that you can do more than 20 or 25 reps… that means you are definitely not doing an exercise that provides enough resistance to the abs. Exercises that give you enough resistance to get you down into the 6-15 rep range per set works great for the abs.

 

Generally, higher resistance abdominal exercises that provide a much larger stimulus to the abs come in the form of exercises that involve raising/curling the legs and pelvis either upward or inward closer to the trunk. A couple great examples of these higher resistance abdominal exercises are hanging leg raises or knee raises using a “pelvic curl up”, or an exercise like lying hip thrusts. Many times, the same people that can do 50 or 100 crunches, can’t even complete more than 2 or 3 properly executed hanging leg raises.

 

If you really want tighter flatter abdominals that look like a six-pack, remember that losing that extra belly fat is the MOST important factor. Also, when it comes to abdominal-specific exercises, always remember higher resistance exercises that involve curling/raising the legs and pelvis upward or inward are what develops the abs to the best extent possible.

 

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Training for six pack abs – FAQ

November 10th, 2009

ADSENSE CODE #5

Q1: How do I get abs like Dexter Jackson?Getting visible abdominal muscles or “abs” depends on reducing the amount of fat covering the abs, see Question 3. Getting hard, lumpy abs depends on developing the underlying muscles, for details, read on… ——————————————————————————–Q2: Should I do lots of situps to reduce fat around my middle?No. Exercising the area from which you want to lose fat is called “spot reduction”. Spot reduction is now believed to be a myth. Research shows that fat is lost all over your body, not just in the area that you work. Situps are also bad for your lower back (see Question 5). ——————————————————————————–Q3: How do I reduce the fat covering my middle?The answer comes in two parts: diet and aerobic exercise.DIETTwo principles loom large when trying to “sculpt” one’s body:* Calorie accounting: To lose fat, one must reduce calorie intake and/or increase energy expenditure so that stored fat is utilized as fuel for the body.* Biology is destiny: fat cells, whether increased in size, number or both, cannot turn into muscle cells.Reducing the fat accumulation in one area of the body is not easy. The usual measures to lose weight (including reducing calorie intake, increasing exercise or both) may lead to weight loss but not necessarily in a single area. In fact, short of having cosmetic surgery (such as liposuction), you cannot easily choose the area from which the fat will be lost. This is the reason that some women notice that their breasts (which are largely composed of fat) get smaller when they diet.And weight loss is more than just reducing “calories in” compared with “calories out.” The difficulty many people have in losing weight probably relates to a well-established phenomenon that seems terribly unfair: As you take in fewer calories, the body’s metabolism changes, so that fewer calories are burned with normal body function. In studies of persons losing 10 percent to 20 percent of their body weight, “calories out” diminished, despite similar activity levels, which slowed further loss of weight.Given this grim reality, you cannot readily transform an abdomen with excess fat into the physique of your dreams simply by doing lots of sit-ups. You’ll lose the fat by diet and/or exercise, and you’ll increase muscle mass by exercising those muscles. Of course, there may be other reasons to do sit-ups — for example, strong abdominal muscles reduce the chances of back problems; but shrinking your abdomen is not one of them.This is controversial, but most people agree that eating very little fat and lots of complex carbs (like rice, pasta and potatoes) helps ensure that you don’t add additional fat. Then you have to work at using the fat you already have stored which involves…EXERCISEAgain a bit controversial, but it’s widely agreed that regular, moderate, aerobic exercise 3-4 times per week works best to burn fat that’s already stored.”Moderate” because intense exercise burns glycogen not fat, so keep the intensity at about the level where you are beginning to puff a little.”Aerobic” means (very vaguely) the kind of exercise that requires you to inhale more. Some suggest that building more muscle through weight training helps as well, since muscle burns fat just by being there and moving your body about; so some weight training couldn’t hurt and will probably help.Many misc.fitness people agree that exercise periods of more than 20 minutes work best. But note that the longer you exercise, the more prone you are to injury since your muscles also begin to weaken. Two things which help prevent injury are:a good warmup 5-10 minutes of light exercise to warm your muscles, try to break a sweat stretching cautious 20-30 sec stretches for every muscle .——————————————————————————–Q4: How do I exercise the abs?The abs are designed to perform one main task, to shorten the distance between your sternum, or breastbone, and your pelvis. The only way to do this is to bend your spine in the lower back region.In short, any exercise which makes you move your sternum toward your pelvis or your pelvis toward your sternum is good. To do this safely, the lower back should be slightly rounded, not arched.In general when exercising the abs, try to maintain the natural arch of you lower back. The lower back will round slightly as you perform the exercises. Don’t fret about pressing your back into the ground. ——————————————————————————–Q5: What’s wrong with situps?Traditional situps emphasize sitting up rather than merely pulling your sternum down to meet your pelvis. The action of the psoas muscles, which run from the lower back around to the front of the thighs, is to pull the thighs closer to the torso. This action is the major component in sitting up. Because of this, situps primarily engage the psoas making them inefficient at exercising your abs. More importantly, they also grind the vertebrae in your lower back.They’re inefficient because the psoas work best when the legs are close to straight (as they are when doing situps), so for most of the situp the psoas are doing most of the work and the abs are just stabilising.Putting the thighs at a right angle to the torso to begin with means that the psoas can’t pull it any further, so all of the stress is placed on the abs.Situps also grind vertebrae in your lower back. This is because to work the abs effectively you are trying to make the lower back round, but tension in the psoas encourages the lower back move into an exaggerated arch. The result is the infamous “disc pepper grinder” effect that helps give you chronic lower back pain in later life.Q6: What are good ab exercises?We’ve divided the exercises into upper and lower ab exercises. Note that there aren’t two separate muscles that you can truly isolate, so all the exercises stress the whole abdominal wall. However there are “clusters” of muscle separated by connective tissue (these make up the “washboard” or the “six-pack”). You can focus on the upper clusters by moving just the torso and the lower clusters by moving the pelvis.For the lower abs, in increasing order of difficulty:lying leg raises reverse crunches vertical lying leg thrusts hanging knee raises hanging leg raises For the upper abs:ab crunches 1/4 crunches cross-knee crunches pulldown crunches Lower Ab ExercisesLying Leg RaisesLie on your back with your hands, palms down under your buttocks. Raise your legs about 30cm (12″) off the floor and hold them there. Now trying to use just your lower abs, raise your legs by another 15cm (6″). Do this by tilting the pelvis instead of lifting the legs with the psoas. Make sure your knees are slightly bent.If you’re big or have long legs or both, you should probably avoid this exercise. For people with legs that are too heavy for their lower abs strength, this exercise pulls the lower back into an exaggerated arch which is bad (and painful). For reasons why it’s bad, see Question 5. If you have this problem you can either try bending your knees slightly and making sure you keep your lower back fairly flat, or just try another exercise. Reverse CrunchThis exercise can be done on the ground or on an incline situp board. All you need is something behind your head to hold. If you use the incline board, use it with your feet lower than your head.Lying on your back, hold a weight or a chair leg (if lying on the floor) or the foot bar (if using the situp board). Keep the knees slightly bent.Pull your pelvis and legs up so that your knees are above your chest and then return to beginning position.This exercise is very similar to a hanging knee raise, but a little less intense. Vertical Lying Leg ThrustsInitial position:Lie on your back. Put your fists under your buttocks to form a cradle. Raise your legs in the air 20-30cm (10-12″) off the ground, knees slightly bent. If you feel any strain on your lower back, bend your knees a little more. Raise your head and shoulders off the ground slightly if you can to help keep the abs stressed. The exercise itself has four phases:Raise your legs until your feet are above your pelvis; focus on contracting the abs. Thrust your heels to the ceiling, breathe out, keep contracting the abs raising the pelvis out of the cradle of your fists. Lower out of the thrust back to your fists, leaving your feet above your pelvis. Lower your legs back to the initial position. Legendary Abs II recommends these as safer than Lying Leg Raises. Hanging Knee RaisesYou need a chin-up bar or something you can hang from for this. Grab the bar with both hands with a grip a bit wider than your shoulders, cross your ankles and bring your knees up to your chest (or as close as you can get). Your pelvis should rock slightly forward. Pause at the top of the movement for a second and then slowly lower your knees by relaxing your abs. Don’t lower your legs all the way. Repeat the movement using just your abs to raise your knees.Make sure that you don’t start swinging. You want your abs to do the work, not momentum. It’s important that you don’t move your legs too far or your psoas muscle will be doing a lot of work and possibly causing back problems as in a situp.Make sure your pelvis moves, your lower back stays neutral or slightly rounded, not arched, and that your abs are doing the work, not your hips. Hanging Leg RaisesJust like knee raises except you keep your legs straight. This requires good hamstring and lower back flexibility.Although Legendary Abs recommends these, The American Council on Exercise’s Aerobics Instructor book warns that they have the same back problems as conventional situps. This makes sense since, like situps, the legs are kept straight and the hips move. The Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) also regards hanging leg raises as dangerous.For safety you should probably stick to leg thrusts and knee raises.If you do do hanging leg raises, make sure your lower back stays neutral or rounded.There is an isometric variant done by gymnasts called the “L-Support”, which basically consists of taking the leg raise position with the legs held straight at a level just above the hips. The position is held for 10 seconds. When you can complete this easily, try a higher position. The same cautions about back position still hold.Upper Ab ExercisesAb CrunchesLying on your back, put your knees up in the air so that your thighs are at a right angle to your torso, with your knees bent. If you like you can rest your feet on something, like a chair. Put your hands either behind your head or gently touching the sides of your head.Now, slowly raise your shoulders off the ground and try to touch your breastbone to your pelvis, breathing out as you go. If you succeed in touching your breastbone to your pelvis, see a doctor immediately.Although the actual movement will be very small (your upper torso should move through less than 30 degrees) you should try to go as high as possible. Only your spine should bend, your hips should not move. If the hips move, you are exercising the psoas.Do these fairly slowly to avoid using momentum to help.You can increase the difficulty of the exercise by extending your hands out behind your head instead of keeping them at the side. Make sure you don’t jerk your hands forward to help with the crunch, keep them still. 1/4 CrunchesSame as an ab crunch except that you raise your shoulder up, instead of pulling them toward your pelvis. You can do these quickly, in fact it’s hard to do them any other way. Cross-Knee CrunchesLike ab crunches, take the lying, bent-knee position, but this time crunch diagonally so that you try to touch each shoulder to the opposite hip alternately. At the top position, one shoulder and one hip should be off the ground. Pulldown CrunchesDrape a towel or rope around the bar of a pulldown machine so that you pull the weight using it instead of the bar. Kneel facing the machine and grab hold of the towel and put your hands against your forehead. Kneel far enough away from the machine so that the cable comes down at a slight angle.The exercise is the same movement as an ab crunch, but using the weight instead of gravity. The emphasis is still on crunching the abs, pulling the sternum (breastbone) towards the pelvis and making sure you exhale all your air at each contraction. ——————————————————————————–Q7: Is there a specific order I should do exercises in?According to Legendary Abs, you should exercise the lower abs before the upper abs and do any twisting upper ab movements before straight upper ab ones. Twisting exercises work the obliques as well as the upper abs. ——————————————————————————–Q8: How do I structure an ab routine?According to the guidelines in Legendary Abs:Try to do sets in the 15-30 rep range. Follow the ordering rules in Question 7. Pick easy exercises to start with and when you can happily do about 2 sets in a row of an exercise, try harder ones. Only rest when you absolutely must, so take a short (10-15sec) rest between two sets of the same exercise, but none between lower and upper abs. Try to take about 1 second for each rep, except for ab crunches which you do slower (2 secs/rep) for a better contraction and 1/4 crunches which you should do fast (2 reps/sec) because you’re hardly moving.

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