Everyone wants to have a six-pack. Whether you’re having a relaxing day at the pool, or you’re strolling down the beach on a sunny afternoon, nothing says sexy like a tight mid-section. To get tight, sexy abs, there are three main areas that must be in alignment. These areas are proper nutrition, cardio training and an abdominal workout.
The following abdominal workout will hit your abs from a variety of angles, including your obliques and serratus. Here’s what to do.
1.
Crunches on a Swiss Ball – Doing crunches on a Swiss ball supports your back and helps you get a much better stretch in your abdominal muscles.
Do 100 total reps. If you can’t get all 100 reps at once, pause and keep going until you reach 100.
2.
Hanging Leg Raises – You can do these with a harness or by holding yourself up, if your grip is strong enough. These will really focus on your lower abdominals.
Do 50 reps with the same premise as the crunches. Keep going until you get 50 reps.
3.
Oblique Twist – You can either stand or sit to perform these. Using a broomstick or a small barbell, place it behind your neck as you would if you were doing a squat. Twist your torso to the right as far as you can go, keeping your lower body stable. Twist back to the left. This is one rep.
Do 100 reps of these.
After doing these abdominal exercises, lay on your stomach on the floor. With your forearms flat to the ground, push your torso upward. This will help to stretch out your stomach wall and abdominal muscles. If you haven’t been training your abdominals, this will be a critical step in reducing soreness.
Doing all the crunches or abdominal workouts in the world will not help to show off your tight mid-section if your nutrition is out of alignment. These exercises alone are not going to be enough to get rid of stubborn belly fat. Along with the above abdominal workout, you need to have a sensible eating and cardio plan.
For cardio, you don’t need to spend hours upon hours on a treadmill. Try doing just 20 minutes a day at a moderate pace. You can also mix things up quite a bit when it comes to cardio training. Take a kickboxing class or Zumba. Spinning classes or swimming are also great cardio choices to incorporate with your abdominal workout. Your gym probably offers a wide variety of classes to help break up the monotony of cardio training.
Proper nutrition should be your foundation for losing stomach fat. A low carbohydrate diet plan may help you lose stomach fat faster, but it should be eased into. All too often, the low carb diet causes people to become miserable because they immediately stop eating carbs. This sabotages progress because it is such a shock to the body. Gradually stop eating sweets, fast food and fried foods and you will see the results come much easier. Don’t forget about the plethora of
fat loss supplements out there to help give you an extra boost along the way.
Incorporating cardio training and sensible eating habits with your abdominal workout is a three-way attack on stomach fat. With strict adherence to these three rules, six-pack abs will no longer be a fitness fantasy.
Tim Mielke Author and Supplement Expert
www.i-supplements.com
Tim Mielke has been involved in the supplement industry for over 15 years. As a former competitive body builder and personal trainer, Tim has extensive first-hand knowledge of the benefits and pitfalls of fitness supplementation. Knowledge so extensive that his book, “The Book of Supplement Secrets: A Beginners Guide to Nutritional Supplements,” was recently published and is currently available through Amazon.com. Tim brings this supplement and bodybuilding know-how to www.i-supplements.com as a contributing author and researcher.
