Sunday, July 12, 2009

Great Workouts For Flat Abs

By Wesley Thompson

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.

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.

An important step in your flat abs workout is to get active. Aim for 30 minutes of physical activity every day, with a cardio session on 5 days of the week. You can walk, use a treadmill or rower, cycle, run or swim - enough to get your heart rate up and to be breathing harder than usual. While you are doing cardio exercise you are burning extra fat, building and toning muscle, increasing your general fitness and mobility and preparing your abs for stronger exercise.

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.

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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