Exercise: Six Pack Without Doing Crunches

Exercise: Six Pack Without Doing Crunches

So you are probably wondering what in the world I am talking about in the description of this article.

Well the truth is that doing crunches is fine for training the rectus abdominis muscle alone, but what about all of the other surrounding muscles and ones that are deep to the abdomen?

You see the common misconception out there with a lot of people trying to shape their midsection is that they must do tons of crunches and other spinal flexion movements. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Read on if you want to know how to get a six pack without the need for crunches.

You see if you are going to develop a strong lean midsection you have got to do the obvious first and that is to rapidly speed up your overall metabolism.

Once you do this then you will start to lose body fat altogether.

You can't choose on your body where you want to be lean. Now as far as you training the muscles of your midsection including your rectus abominis you are much better off executing movements, lifts, and exercises that engage all the many areas of your core midsection.

As a matter of fact, by engaging in standing lifts that force you to stabilize your body you stand to achieve a much more profound training result for your core muscles.

By including movements that involve the extension of your spine instead of flexion you can yield a six pack even more effectively than working on doing those traditional sit ups.

Keep this in mind when you are planning your workouts. Dumbell swings, squats, squat jumps, and static planks are all great for your core and go way beyond the act of doing a crunch!

Now I'm not saying that crunches and sit ups are bad, but there are simply other ways of getting a more ripped midsection that simply don't get the credit deserved based on what can be achieved.

Exercise: a lean, flat, and sexy stomach

Exercise: a lean, flat, and sexy stomach


Everyone wants a lean, flat, and sexy stomach. However, when it comes to an abs at home workout, most people go about acquired a flat sexy stomach all wrong.

If you want to get more results in less time and finally get the flat stomach you've always wanted, then you need to apply some simple information.

First of all, if you want a lean and flat stomach, then you absolutely must reduce the amount of stomach fat that you have. If you don't remove that fat, it doesn't matter how many ab exercises you do or how often. Without removing that layer of fat, you will never see your abs or get a flat stomach.

So your main priority needs to be on removing excess body fat, and to build lean muscle. Both of these goals with ensure that you get a flat stomach in minimal time.
For your at home workouts you need to apply a couple of simple, yet highly effective, tips in order to achieve your goals.
After I reveal these tips to you, you'll then get some at home workouts that will put you on the fast track to your goal of a flat stomach in minimal time.

As previously mentioned, you won't get a flat or defined stomach unless you remove the fat covering it. So the first important tip you must apply is: use the best bodyweight exercises. By far the best exercises are lunges, deadlifts, jumps, squats, push-ups, inverted rows, chin-ups, dips, and their many variations. You should also include exercises such as burpees, bear crawls, and sprints to your at home workout arsenal.

Those exercises will definitely allow you to burn off body fat while building lean, sexy muscle at the same time.

Second, you should perform your workouts in circuits. Using circuits allows you to complete your workouts in minimum time, but it also will cause you to burn a ton of calories and fat as well as boost your fat burning metabolism even after the workout is finished.
Now that you know how to get the results, it's time to get into the sample at home workouts.

Abs at Home Workout 1

Bulgarian Split Squats x 10-20 each leg
Spiderman Push-ups x 10
Inverted Row with Palms-up Grip x 10
Squat Jumps x 10

Perform each exercise back-to-back and complete as many circuits as possible in 15-25 minutes. After completion, rest for one to two minutes and then perform the following abdominal circuit.

Inch Worms x 10
Crunches with Twist x 10-15 each side
Scissor Kicks x 15-20 each side

Perform each exercise back-to-back with no rest in between. After you finish the circuit, rest for one minute and repeat the circuit one to two more times.

Abs at Home Workout 2

Burpees x 10-20
Handstand Push-ups or beginner version x as many as possible
Door Pull-ups x as many as possible
One Leg Romanian Deadlifts x 10-20 each leg
Once again, perform the exercises back-to-back and complete as many circuits as possible in 15-25 minutes. Rest one minute and then perform the following abdominal circuit.
Reverse Crunches with Twist x 15-25
V Ups x 10-15
Alternating Bicycle Crunches x 10-20 each side

Perform the exercises without resting in between. Rest one minute and complete one to two more circuits.

Exercise: Intense ab exercise you can do without any equipment

Exercise: Intense ab exercise you can do without any equipment!

Inch Worm

Description:

Here's an intense ab exercise you can do without any equipment.

Assume a position where your feet are on the floor (shoulder width) while your hands are flat on the ground in front of you (also shoulder width).

At the starting position your butt should be high in the air; imagine you're are making an inverted "V" with your body.

Walk your hands out as far as possible, then walk your hands back to the starting position.

Preferably, at the end position, your abs should be two to three inches off the ground and you'll look like a flying superman. You won't feel like superman, though.

This one really hurts!

Abs Routine: The Fantastic Three

Abs Routine: The Fantastic Three

You need to know three aspects that make your abs visible.

These three significant aspects will cause the coveted six pack condition.

#1 Fat Loss -- reveal your abs

#2 Build your ab muscles -- like biceps you build peaks to your six packs.

#3 Ab muscle tone -- the degree of involuntary flex of your abs when at rest.

Any of the above aspects when pursued vigorously will create a washboard waist. Now if you combine all three to a moderate level you will have outstanding abs.

Let us look at real life examples.

To illustrate fat loss, we can look at dancers, long distance runners, or fast growing teens. Each of these examples in many cases are extremely thin with body fat percentages around 2 or 3 percent.

To illustrate developed ab muscle we can look at heavily muscled body builders, strong men or power lifters. These athletes have built tremendously muscled abs with high peaks. Most of the above have considerable body fat when compared to the first group. They may have broad waists but when they flex for a pose or for a lift, magically the abs pop out! Even the smoothest body builder with no sign of ab separation can make them appear with a flex. Now pumping iron for 10 years and gaining 50 or 100 lbs. of muscle as many of these athletes have done is impractical for most.

To illustrate ab muscle tone we can look at athletes, gymnasts, martial arts, and boxers. These athletes spent countless hours flexing their abs with medicine ball work and absorbing punches. That muscle tone acts like a shield of armor for a fighter in the match. Have you ever watched a non title fight particularly in the heavier divisions. Many of these boxers may seem smooth and some are down right fat. Although this may be the case you can almost always see two or four blocks of abs.

This tone or partially flexed condition is a result of many hours of work. It is not uncommon for fighters to sequester themselves for months to train away from home and family.

So there we have the examples of three extremes. How do us regular people adopt these three aspects of ab development?

A moderate program of fat loss coupled with ab development and tone will yield fabulous results.

Here is the Fantastic Three program in capsule form:

Fat loss

3 mornings a week on an empty stomach except for a glass of water and a cup of coffee, do three 5 minute rounds of sprinting.

Between the 5 minute rounds stretch your calves and rotate your feet.

After sprinting put on a dry shirt and take a 20 minute walk.

After that its your six minute ab routine, half undressed and heading for the shower.

Fat loss analysis of above protocol:

#1 Highest fat burning in morning after eight hour fast.

#2 Water prevents dehydration and coffee aids in fat burning as well as acting as a stimulant for intense workout.

#3 Short intense aerobics followed by longer less intense aerobics promotes fat loss without losing muscle.

Ab Development:

Vacuum exercise performed in front of a mirror. It is three sets of vacuum exercise followed by three sets of squeeze exercise. Squeeze and vacuum and concentrate on your abs.

Ab Development, analysis of above protocol:

#1 Performing ab exercises that limit you rep range to under ten promotes muscle growth , more pronounced peaks and valleys.

#2 Flexing and visual feedback from mirror guarantee total ab involvement.

#3 Slowly squeezing your abs causes greater growth stimulation.

Muscle tone

During the 3 days of ab work and aerobics incorporate 3 forty five seconds of ab flexing in front of a mirror. These are done afternoon, evening or just before bed. The 45 second ab flexing looks like a posing routine for abs. Looking in the mirror as flex and try to show as much separation in your abs by twisting and flexing hard.

Ab Muscle tone, analysis of above protocol:

#1 Twice a day ab training is most effective for growth and recovery.

#2 Teaching your ab muscles to flex for 45 seconds develops the abs automatic responses to other body moves.

#3 Three 45 second intense ab squeezes stimulate and develop more ab muscle tone then 100 crunches.

There you have it. Efficient targeted routine to show off your abs.

Easy Effective Tips for Narrowing your Waist

Easy Effective tips for Narrowing your Waist.

#1 The Vacuum
This can be performed sitting, standing or walking. Performed 2 or 3 times a day for noticeable results. This is how it is done. First stand with your hands behind your head. Now exhale all the air from your lungs as you bend forward slightly. Without allowing any air back into your lungs suck your diaphragm up into your lungs as you’re straightened up. Hold for 2 seconds then breath. This sucking in technique takes some practice. After awhile you can perform the vacuum without the help of any bending or arm movement.

#2 The Squeeze
Flexing the abs as if posing for an ab photo. A mirror will help, so will placing one or both arms overhead. Static flexing is another do anywhere, anytime technique for firming and flattening the abdominal wall.

#3 Eat smaller more frequent meals
If the above two techniques narrow your waist then overeating will stretch your abdomen even if there is minimal fat on it. By eating small, frequent meals your waist remains narrow.

#4 Eat roughage
Small meals keep from stretching your abs while roughage eliminates the meals. Elimination (bowel movements) should occur 2 to 3 times a day. One big meal or 3 small meals that are not moved equal the same result, abdominal stretching. Roughage is found in whole grain, raw and cook vegetables.

The Ab flexing part of this routine
Now all of the above can easily be incorporated into your daily routine. Within 2 weeks you should see appreciable results. Small measures added together then multiplied equal large results.

Add techniques
#1 + #2 + #3 + #4 , 3 times a day, 7 days a week = narrow waist

Intense Cardio: Tremendous Loss in Body Fat

Intense Cardio: Tremendous Loss in Body Fat

For those people that consider themselves already in shape, but are having the problem of shedding those last few pounds to expose the six pack this is your solution.

A huge problem that most people have is, they go to the gym consistently and they build a lot muscle and at the same time acquire good mass gains. However while they do this and gain all this mass, they obviously are covering their abdominals up with fat.

The hard part comes when they want to expose their abs and drop the body fat because when you start to DIET, you will lose weight but you will also lose muscle along with it resulting in a loss of size in exchange for the six pack.

The solution to this problem is Intense Cardio.

The actual routine is extremely simple it is:
* 20 Second Sprint * 10 Sec Break * 20 Second Spring * 10 Sec Break

In total the runner will do 8 x 20 second sprints with 10 second breaks in between with a 4 minute warm up and warm down. It is imperative that the runner do the sprints at 100 percent effort.

If you do this simple routine for 2 months 3 times a week, you can be guaranteed to have a tremendous loss in body fat while still maintaining muscle mass resulting in a shredded body.

The science behind intense cardio is such that, when you run long distance you burn calories, and after a while you start to burn muscle tissue as well. With intense cardio you are doing just the right amount of cardio to spark a metabolic burn in your body, so when you are done with your routine even when you are sleeping your body is burning up to 200% more fat then it usually does however it sticks to only burning the fat and not the muscle since you did not do the sprints for an extended amount of time.

These are also known as Tabata intervals and can be applied to any exercise not only sprinting.

What is Visceral Fat?

What is Visceral Fat?

Visceral fat is fat that is deep inside the abdomen, around the organs.

Visceral fat, unfortunately, is nowadays thought to be much more significant for disease risk than subcutaneous fat.

Scientist have linked visceral fat to metabolic diseases like diabetes. For women, a waist size of more than 35 inches signals potential trouble.

What about liposuction to get rid of it? Actually, The New England Journal of Medicine did a study in 2004 about removing the visceral fat in women and they found out even though large amounts were removed it there were no health benefits—no changes in cholesterol, blood pressure or other risk factors for heart disease.

That is why it is crucial to be proactive and do something about it right now before it's too late.

How you get rid of it?

Eating fat-burning foods, which include lean proteins, and fibrous carbohydrates.

Another thing you can do is decrease the saturated fats (butter and high fatty foods)

You also want to take your EFA's (essential fatty acids) this will help in get rid of viseral fat (fish oil and flaxseed oil).

Also, weight training will help your body to build more lean muscle.

Make sure your workouts are fat-burning, don't make the mistake of just going through the motions during your workout, otherwise you will never get rid of the visceral fat.

What about walking?Walking isn't really going to do much to stimulate major fat loss, especially the viseral fat. You need to do interval training, if you are serious about improving your health and looking better.

Too many women just focuse on walking and not even paying attention to the resistance training.

Remember the more lean muscle you have, the leaner you will be.

If your not eating enough to support your lean muscle it will be hard to get rid of the visceral fat as well.

Visceral fat goes way beyond just looking better, commit to becoming healthy now.

Weight Loss: How to optimize your metabolism

Weight Loss: How to optimize your metabolism

These will also help to optimize your metabolic rate (metabolism) and the faster it works the better your body will use the food for energy rather than storing it as fat. They are provided below in order of importance.

1. Eat More It is important that you eat more meals and it is best to eat a small meal every 2-4 hours. They should be large enough so that you are not feeling hungry afterwards (rather than eating until you fill full up). Unfortunately eating 1 or 2 meals a day slows a person's metabolism rate down and therefore you should try for at least 4-6 meals each day. The ratio of carbs, proteins and fats that you should eat are as follows - 50% - Proteins, 25% Carbs and 25% Fats.

2. Drink More Water Many people just do not drink enough water and this means their bodies are dehydrated. There are two problems that a body has trouble doing when dehydrated the first being to release water and the body can not tone the muscles (building). So if your body is not building this means that it is losing muscle which results in your metabolism slowing and you end up looking flabby.

3. Have a balanced Workout Regime. Such a regime should consist of cardio and resistance (weight) exercises. Cardio exercises are good for burning fat and is easy to do. Whilst resistance exercises are a little as you do not often know what to do and suppose weights are not your thing then why not try Yoga or Pilates instead. Both Yoga and Pilates are good resistance exercises and can help maintain lean muscle and increase your metabolism.

4. Supplements in your Diet the smart way. This is the best solution to making sure that you get the right nutrients that your food can not provide you with. A daily multi-vitamin should be ample for most people and if you do not like taking it in pill form then try and liquid version instead. It also helps to cleanse and detox your body without you knowing it.

5. Sleep. This is a very important part of any healthy lifestyle regime and we sleep so that our bodies and minds can refresh themselves and this allows us to function at our optimum levels. Also sleep allows our muscles to rebuild themselves and this helps to increase a person's metabolism.

Abs Diet For Women

Abs Diet For Women

If you want to build muscles, particularly abdominal muscles or what we commonly refer to as a "six pack", your diet (which we'll call an abs diet) needs to be rich in protein.

However, you may wonder exactly how much protein should be in your food in order for you to reap the maximum benefits.

You may also wonder if you should cut down on or leave out the other food groups. You also need to know that in terms of content, the abs diet for women is very much different from the abs diet for men.

And depending on a woman's body size, the quantity of food in each abs diet service can vary.

Foods that are high in protein are the main requirements in an abs diet for women. If you want to have an attractive six pack, eating high protein foods is a must.

While you won't be eating as much protein foods as men who are on an abs diet, the foods on your abs diet menu are going to be similar overall.

For instance, your abs diet will consist of several lean meats like chicken and turkey. Your abs diet will also include plenty of fish, eggs, milk, and protein drinks and bars. Be careful eating the latter, though, because many protein drinks and bars have high sugar content. Make sure that you read the label first.

Aside from the protein-rich foods, your abs diet will also include fresh vegetables.

And if you really want to have attractive flat abs, you will have to refrain from eating fatty foods, junk foods and high sugar foods. Needless to say, you will need to avoid eating fast foods and greasy take out foods.

Just because you are on a high protein abs diet does not mean that you have to avoid carbohydrates altogether. You also need to eat carb foods.

For best results, eat foods that are high in fiber and are of the wholemeal varieties.

Avoid consuming white bread and food products made from bleached flour.

When you are on an abs diet, eat moderately. Avoid eating large amounts of foods. Instead of eating two or three big meals a day, eat small amounts several times a day. Not only doing this will help your metabolism, it will also prevent you from having a bloated and tired feeling after every meal.

So that's it -- a basic abs diet for women that you can follow whenever you are ready to start building your abs. Incorporate this abs diet in your daily routine, exercise regularly and you are on your way to having great abs!