Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Best Ab Exercises to Flatten Stomach

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Hi, next article about "flatten stomach"

The best ab exercises will help you define your abdominals and get assist help you get the shape you desire. Abdominal exercises will not reduce your body fat covering the abdominals or create six-pack abs on their own though. To get great six-pack abs and a flatten stomach, you need to strengthen the abdominals along with the rest of the body to build muscle, raise your metabolism and help reduce body fat. Getting the abs of your dreams consists of following the best ab exercises, an overall exercise program to tone and define your body and increase your metabolism as well as a proper diet. The best ab exercises consist of simple ab exercises which work all your abdominal muscles.

Below are some of the best ab exercises - repeat each exercise for 12-16 reps:

The Bicycle exercise is the best move to target the rectus abdominis which makes up the 'six pack' and the obliques. Follow the following steps to do the exercise properly:

- Lie flat on the floor, face up and place your fingers behind your head.

- Bring your knees in towards the chest and lift your shoulder blades off the ground. Ensure you do not pull on your neck during the exercise.

- Straighten out your left leg out to a 45 degree angle and turn the upper body to the right at the same time. Bring your left elbow towards your right knee.

- Then switch sides and bring your right elbow towards the left knee. Continue this exercise, alternating sides in a 'pedaling' motion.

The Captain's Chair abdominal exercise is the second most effective move for the rectus abdominis and the obliques muscles:

- Stand on chair and grip the handholds to stabilize your upper body.

- Press your back against the pad. Contract the abdominals, raise your legs and lift your knees towards the chest.

- Do not arch the back during this exercise. Breathe smoothly throughout and slowly lower back down and repeat.

The vertical leg crunch is another effective abs exercise for the rectus abdominis and the obliques muscles:

- Lie down with your face facing upwards. Extend your legs straight up in the air with your knees crossed.

- Contract the abs and lift your shoulder blades off of the floor. Keep your legs in a fixed position and pull in your stomach towards the floor at the top of the movement. Lower and repeat.

The exercise ball is a great tool to help strengthen the abdominals:

- Lie face-up on the exercise ball, with the ball under your mid back or lower back.

- Cross your arms over your chest or place them behind your head. Contract your abdominals and lift your torso off the ball. Pull the bottom of your ribcage down towards your hips during this lift.

- As you curl up, keep the ball stable - ensure you do not roll during the exercise.

- Lower back down, getting a stretch in the abdominals and repeat.

The plank ab exercise is a fantastic exercise to increase endurance in both the abdominals, the back and stabilizer muscles:

- Lie on mat with face down resting on your forearms, palms flat on the floor.

- Push off the floor, raising up onto your toes and resting on the elbows.

- Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels.

- Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air. Hold for 20 to 60 seconds, lower and repeat the exercise.

The above exercises are some of the best ab exercises and will assist you in toning your abdominals but to get a flatten stomach and the abs of your dreams you need to follow a complete program. To get a flatten stomach and the abs of your dreams, you will need to lose excess body fat, tone your overall body which will also help increase your metabolism and follow a regime of the best ab exercises! It is not good enough to simply do ab exercises as excess body fat will cover your abs. You will need to find out about diet too in terms of what diet will help you lose excess fat whilst also assisting muscle growth.

Also, if you need more, you can read flatten stomach book.

Source: http://www.web-site-info.co.uk/abs/

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Flatten Stomach, Flattening Your Stomach in Four Easy Steps, part 2

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Ok, next article about "flatten stomach".. Continuation of this article

Also, you can read this book.


Exercises:

Hip lifts:

Lye on your back with your legs straight up in the air. Keep your back pressing into the floor and think about tightening a belt around your waist. Slowly pull your belly button to the floor and as you do so, feel your hips lifting gently off the floor as your legs are lifted. Do not lift with the legs, but instead with the abdominals. Repeat 10-15 times.

The Plank:

Facing the floor, get on your hands and knees, keeping your shoulders over your hands. Straighten out your body and keep your toes on the floor. You should be straight like a board with your abs pulling in tight. Breathe in and out naturally. Hold for up to one minute. Repeat 4-5 times.

The Bicycle:

Lye on your back with you knees bent. Slowly pull your upper body off the floor and support your head with your hands. Activate your abs by pulling your belly button to the floor and release any pelvic tilt. Take one shoulder and turn your torso to face your opposite knee. Go to the other side. Think of riding a bicycle as you turn slowly from side to side. Repeat for 20 repetitions.

Double Leg Drop:

Lye on your back with your legs straight up in the air. Keep your back pressing into the floor and think about tightening a belt around your waist. Keeping your abs pulled in at all times, slowly drop your legs toward the floor, keeping them pressing together. If you feel your back begin to arch, pull your legs back to the starting point. Inhale on the way down, exhale on the way up. Only go as far as you are comfortable with and go slowly. Repeat 10 times.

Diet and exercise are the only ways to get to your goals and they need to become part of a new lifestyle if you’re going to maintain the body you want. Quick fixes, pills, drinks, diets, etc are only good for short term and could have long term effects that don’t equate to your ultimate goals.

Nicole Palacios BSc, has been an integral part of the fitness industry for the past 11 years, working first as a group fitness instructor, and more recently as a personal trainer. She is certified through ACE and the BCRPA as a personal trainer, and is also a supervisor of fitness leaders. Her passions include fitness writing, weight training, and helping her clients pursue their fitness dreams. She has also started a Stroller Fit walking and toning group for moms in Vancouver, Canada.

Source: http://www.perfectfit.ws/

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Flatten Stomach, Flattening Your Stomach in Four Easy Steps

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Hey, it's my first article in this blog. Topic:Flatten Stomach. Maybe this can help you.

You look at it every day and wish it would just go away; that little pouch below your belly button that keeps staring back at you. You do crunches, sit ups, the works, and yet there it is just “hanging around.” There are all sorts of cute names for it: snack pouch, spare tire, love handles, and the list goes on. All you know is that you want it gone.

The American Council on Exercise calls the bicycle one of the most effective ab exercises out there. This exercise is one of many that should be completed as part of a lifestyle change which includes both diet and exercise. Just doing ab exercises all day will not get rid of the excess fat that you have around your waistline.

The following four areas of diet and exercise will help you gain the toned, flat stomach that you are craving.

1. Fat Intake

How much fat is in your diet? The American Food Pyramid says that a healthy diet is one that “Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts, and is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.

Following the food pyramid will help you find the fats you need in good foods like nuts and plant oils as opposed to potato chips and ice cream. You should be taking in less than 30% of your caloric intake from fat so check your labels when you’re purchasing packaged products. Many products now have the trans fats listed as well, so you can see which percentage of fat belongs to which group; saturated, non-saturated, trans, etc.

2. Carbohydrate Intake

Maybe your friends were on lo-carb diets and were amazed at the weight they lost. Maybe you tried one too? Carbohydrates are amazing in that each molecule attracts four water molecules to it and they hang out together inside your muscles. When you start decreasing the amount of carbohydrates you take in, you start to see weight loss in the form of fat loss. Oops, I mean WATER loss. No more carbs means no more four molecules of water hanging on, means lower numbers on the scale. Carbohydrate intake is essential for brain activity as well as muscle function. Our bodies feed off of glucose and glycogen which is supplied directly by carbohydrates. Eating whole wheat and whole grain is the way to go- stay away from white products; rice, pasta, bread, etc. Brown is best. Carbohydrate intake should be no more than 65% of your diet.

3. Cardiovascular Exercise

Running, cycling, swimming, aerobics; they are all using oxygen and so the prime energy source comes from muscle glycogen and fatty acids. The furnace is on and it’s burning fat. You may have heard that cardio is good for burning fat, and that is true. Cardio exercise should be done for a minimum of 20 minutes and hopefully for longer and should be done at least three times per week, hopefully more. According to the American Council of Sport Medicine, “If weight loss is your major goal, participate in your aerobic activity at least 30 minutes, for five days each week.”

You can’t melt fat off of one area specifically, but it will come off over the whole body in time. We all lose fat from different places first. Just remember that cardio is a complement to the diet and the floor work that will also do.

4. Floor Work

Abdominal exercises were once believed to be something we could do everyday. We now know that the abdominals are like any other muscle and they need time to recover and rest.

Floor work is an essential component in getting a toned tummy. There are four main abdominal muscles that we can work: the rectus abdominus, which runs from the sternum to the pubic bone, the transverse abdominus which runs horizontal all around the torso connecting near the spine, and there are the obliques- internal and external which run alongside our ribs in opposite directions.

Source: http://www.perfectfit.ws/

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