There are three components to working your abs to get that sculpted look—nutrition, aerobic exercise and abdominal training. Truth is, you won’t have a washboard stomach with a 6-inch layer of fat over it, no matter how many crunches you do. In order to get a good six-pack, you have to remove the fat that covers your abdominal muscles, and that takes a nutritionally balanced weight-loss diet and aerobic exercise.
You can, however, strengthen your abs even before you lose the fat; the abdominals are core muscles and strong abs stabilize your spine, give you good posture and balance and help you move smoothly and gracefully.
Protect Your Spine
When you’re doing ab training, remember that these muscles attach to your spine. It’s important to make sure you are doing exercises correctly; consult with a trainer if you’re not sure how to perform them.
Full sit ups are not recommended anymore by anyone because they 1)aren’t necessary for exercising your abs and 2)can injure your spine. We do crunches instead for building 6 pack abs.
Crunches
All ab training exercises are a variation on the basic crunch. You can raise your hips or your shoulders, but the object is to contract the abdominal muscles. Here are a few crunch pointers:
• Save crunches for the end of your workout for building good abs and loosing fat.
• Pull your stomach in to contract the abdominal muscle. Remember not to hold your breath while you’re doing this.
• Keep your abdominals tightened throughout a series of reps.
• Don’t raise your hips or shoulders more than 4-6 inches off the floor
• Do lateral crunches to work the obliques for building abs
Crunches are the key to building strong abs—regular crunches, oblique crunches, hip raises, crunches with added weight. Keep crunching and soon you’ll have great abs.
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