abs

July 11, 2009

Great Workouts For Flat Abs


The abdominal or belly area of the body is the part that most people are unhappy with. Eating too much of the wrong foods, pregnancy, sedentary lifestyles and lack of physical activity all lead too much belly fat and soft muscles. This gives the flabby, rounded belly. The best workout for flat abs isn’t about spending grueling hours at a gym; there are strategies you can do at home to get into shape.

It all starts with what you eat. Yes, of course you have heard it all before! That’s because it is correct. We eat too much and move too little. To lose that rounded belly, we need to burn fat and build muscle. The best way to do that is to eat less and move more; we need to burn more calories than we eat each day.

Before beginning a workout regimen, think about what you eat and maybe make some changes. Try eating 5 or 6 smaller meals or snacks a day; this increases your metabolism and stops you feeling hungry. Make protein your friend as it builds muscle, and muscle burns more calories than fat. Go for a variety of lean protein and don’t forget about dried beans, lentils, nuts and seeds.

You need a balanced diet of protein, carbohydrate and fat, so eat vegetables, fruit, wholegrain cereals and breads to get your carbs, and nuts for the good fats. You need a minimum 8 glasses of water a day, sufficient sleep and rest and to stay away from fast food and anything that is overly processed.

The next stage of your workout is to get moving; do 30 minutes of something active every day, with 5 days being a cardio workout. In a cardio session you aim to get your heart rate and breathing rate higher than normal and sustain it for 20 minutes. The remainder of the session is a warm up and a cool down – necessary to avoid injury. You can walk, jog, swim or cycle; whatever you like to get you puffing a bit. You will be burning fat, building muscle, increasing your mobility and flexibility and you will start to feel great!

Undertake strength training and specific abs exercises that are aimed at increasing and strengthening your abdominal and core muscles. Toned muscle gives you more shape and a flatter belly. By focusing your training on muscles in the torso or core, you are strengthening the whole area for improved balance, coordination and a more shapely body. Make sure you warm up before doing strength training, with light cardio and stretches to prepare your muscles.

Gyms have a wide range of weight training machines, but you can do strength exercises at home, using your own body weight as the resistance to the muscle action. Good exercises include the plank and side plank and oblique crunches. If you go online, you will find many sites that give specific abs strength exercises that you can do at home as part of your best workout for flat abs, and avoid the expensive gym fees.

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Filed under Exercise by Tom Albright

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The Best Workout For Flat Abs


The abdominal or belly area of the body is the part that most people are unhappy with. Eating too much of the wrong foods, pregnancy, sedentary lifestyles and lack of physical activity all lead too much belly fat and soft muscles. This gives the flabby, rounded belly. The best workout for flat abs isn’t about spending grueling hours at a gym; there are strategies you can do at home to get into shape.

Any reduction in body fat and strengthening of muscle begins with what you put into your mouth. You hear it over and over, but that is because it is the truth. To lose body fat, you need to burn it by building muscle and getting active. You need to burn more calories than you eat – common sense when you stop to think about it.

The first step in your workout for flat abs is to control what you eat. Eat five to six smaller meals each day to keep your metabolism up and prevent hunger pangs. Eat lots of lean protein, as it is the building block of muscle. Good sources of protein are skinless chicken, fish, dried beans and lentils, nuts and non-fat dairy products.

You need a balanced diet of protein, carbohydrate and fat, so eat vegetables, fruit, wholegrain cereals and breads to get your carbs, and nuts for the good fats. You need a minimum 8 glasses of water a day, sufficient sleep and rest and to stay away from fast food and anything that is overly processed.

You need to start getting active to burn extra calories and fat. Make a decision to have 30 minutes of activity every day, but make 5 of these cardio sessions. Increased heart rate and breathing is what makes a cardio session, and you need to maintain this for 20 minutes, allowing time for a warm up and cool down. Cardio exercise burns extra fat and calories and builds muscle. What’s more, it makes you feel good!

When you are ready to move on to strength training, you focus on the muscles of the torso, also called the core. Here, you are preparing your muscles for harder exercises, improving your balance and coordination. It is important to warm up before strength training and cool down after, with a light walk or jog and some stretches.

You can use weight machines at a gym for strength training, but you can also do strength exercises at home, using your body weight for the resistance needed to build new muscle fiber. Good exercises include the plank, the side plank and oblique or twisted crunches. If you go online you will find numerous ideas for strengthening abs exercises to use as part of your best workout for flat abs program.

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Filed under Exercise by Tom Albright

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July 6, 2009

How To Reduce Belly Fat Secrets Revealed


Put down the diet books, get off the couch, and get busy learning how to reduce belly fat once and for all. No fad diet or gimmicky store bought product can do the work for you, but with a little commitment and patience you can in fact achieve the well toned stomach you dream of having.

If you want to really trim down and shed the fat from your tummy you can expect it to take a little time and a lot of dedicated work. This is not something that is going to happen overnight, but it can make such a drastic improvement to how you look and feel that it is well worth the wait.

Regardless of what you may have heard elsewhere, it is impossible to make your body spot reduce your belly. If you want to shed fat from your waste you will have to reduce the fat from every other area of your body as well. Every body will pull the fat stores from different areas first, moving into other body parts with time. If you are lucky, your body will start pulling from the belly first.

Exercise is the easiest way to begin shedding the fat. The more you move the more fat you will burn off on a daily basis, so start aiming for more cardio sessions. Strength training is also useful, but cardio is what will melt the fat layers off of the muscles you are toning. The best strategy is to get in the cardio now and burn off the fat, then bulk up the muscles for nicely defined tone when they can be seen more clearly.

Interval training is extremely effective at boosting fat burn and can be incorporated easily into whatever type of exercise you choose. Just add faster, more intense periods of the activity at regular intervals. Also, make sure to change up your routine on a regular basis. You will have to lift heavier weights, go further distances or for longer periods of times, or even add in different types of workouts on a regular basis.

As you pick up your activity level your body will need more calories to keep up, so if you are also restricting calories your body will have to turn to your stored fat to get the energy it needs to lumber through those workouts.

The best eating strategy to reduce belly fat is to eat every 3-4 hours to keep your metabolism high and stick to foods that are less likely to be stored as additional fat.

Go with whole grains instead of refined grains. Try to eat vegetables and fruits instead of sugary desserts. Substitute lean protein for fatty meats. Avoid frying your food or adding unnecessary oil and fat during preparation. Drink water instead of high calorie drinks.

If you are cringing at the idea of completely changing your lifestyle around these points, ask yourself whether you want to really reduce belly fat for the long term or if you just want to lose some weight quickly but gain it back later. This is the only well balanced strategy to burn off your fat cells and remain healthy for years to come.

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Filed under Health-and-Fitness by Chris Fowler

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July 1, 2009

How To Quickly Flatter Your Stomach


Disappointed with all the fad diets, infomercial products and workout gimmicks that all shamelessly offer quicker results for the right price? I know I was.

So, do you want to know how to drop two sizes in your first two weeks alone? It can be done for everyone in only two easy steps.

Are you ready for this? It doesn’t cost you a dime and it’s something you can do right in the comfort of your own home. It’s called resistance training and supportive eating.

I found these secrets while visiting the site I have mentioned at the bottom of the page. What I found here was that while cutting out carbs and fats might temporarily shed pounds, it will undoubtedly lower your metabolism and cause you to gain more weight that you lost in the first place. The real key to quick weight loss and prolonged health is to eat supportively!.

Eating supportively is about balance and moderation, NOT extremes, deprivation or benge eating. It’s simple, you eat 4-6 small meals a day to support and active healthy lifestyle and metabolism.

Wish there was a way to burn more calories with less energy exerted while keeping your metabolism up for over 36 hours? Welcome to the easy and focused second secrete to weight loss – resistance training. Know of any cardio session that brings you this?

Didn’t think so.

Resistance training helps you to burn more calories while you workout and while you rest. The lean muscle built raises your resting metabolic rate so you can lose while you rest.

These two secrets implemented will drastically reshape your mind and body!

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Filed under diet by Sarah Schlott

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