Getting a Six Pack: Situp and Crunches Aren't Enough

Abs exercises, diet, workout, weight training, train abs, get abs, six pack

Realizing that abs exercises won't help you get abs is pretty much like discovering that santa isn't real. You'll first resist the idea, but later on you'll come to sanity and just accept it because it makes perfect sense.

Yes, if you are trying to lose your belly fat then sit ups are not the way to go. Abs exercises will help you develop good abdominal muscles, but they will not burn the fat that covers them.

If you have been trying to get abs by doing sit ups and crunches, you're welcome, now you know why it is not working.

By solely training abs you will probably develop some monstrous abs but they will still hide under your body fat, and that's why this approach doesn't work.

If you want to see fast results then what you have to do is focus on reducing your overall percentage of body fat. I mean, have you ever seen someone who has abs and yet he has some flab hanging off his hips, or ass? or about anywhere else in his body? It doesn't exist, because your body distributes fat equally on your whole body, and when he burns it, it's done pretty much the same way, so you can't have ripped abs along with a chunky body. It's a whole package deal!

The first thing you have to do to make this happen is by adjusting your diet. It is pretty easy, you will only have to cut off the saturated fat, and high glycemic carbs (a simple google search will show you the list of foods that contain these substances. If you are too lazy to do researches then check out my other articles, I have talked about these things before) and consume less carbs than what you burn.

Once you devise a good diet then associate it to a good workout program, and there you go. You have the perfect formula to get abs.

I find weight training the most effective way to burn fat, as you'll develop more muscle mass which requires more calories to maintain, and your exercise routines will get more and more intense as you get stronger. It is a pure win!

Remember to focus your workout on full body movement exercises. You can combine some abs exercises into your routine to make your midsection stronger, but do not focus your workouts solely on abs exercises as this will minimize their benefits.

You don't need hours upon hours of cardio to burn fat. All you need is an intense workout that stimulates your metabolism and fat burning hormones and a balanced diet that can speed up this process.

IF you are new to weight training, or you don't know how to devise a diet you can get a step by step program that will teach you everything from basics to advanced techniques that top shape athletes use here.

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Are You Getting The Recommended Amount Of Exercise?

No one argues that regular exercise not only improves overall health and fitness levels, it also cuts the risk for many life altering, chronic diseases. Now it seems a new study has found that American women aren't as likely as their male counterparts to be getting the 30 minutes recommended amount of exercise daily.

So, what is moderate to vigorous exercise? It's the kind of workout where you're working hard enough to get your heart rate up and start to sweat. You can talk but not sing a song aloud. Examples of moderately intense aerobic activity include walking fast, water aerobics, biking on level ground, playing doubles tennis and mowing the lawn with a push mower.

Vigorous intensity activity has you breathing hard and fast, with your heart rate up quite a lot. You won't be able to say more than a few words without pausing for breath. Examples of actions at this level of intensity include jogging/running, swimming laps, biking fast or up hills, playing singles tennis or playing basketball.

The most recent research, conducted at Oregon State University included over 1,000 men and women from a nationally representative sample. Examining the data, the researchers saw that women only got about 18 minutes exercise a day, while men got the full 30 minutes. Of the study population just over one in three women had been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, and one in five was reporting symptoms of depression.

What sets this study apart from others is that it used an objective measure of activity. The subjects wore a device known as an accelerometer that is able to measure how much activity they were doing each day. And though females in the study population did have better health behavior, not getting that full 30 minutes (or more) puts them at a disadvantage healthwise.

Those who took at least the recommended amount of exercise had a lower chance of reporting being depressed, were less likely to experience problems like high cholesterol and therefore less apt to be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. It was noted during the study that being depressed ups the risk you would carry abdominal fat, and perhaps have insulin resistance, both conditions that are risk factors for potentially dangerous metabolic syndrome.

As to why women aren't getting that all-important 30 minutes per day of exercise there are varied explanations...

Some experts suggest that it is around age 5 to 6 years old that exercise patterns begin, and since parents are often more concerned about the safety of girls, they restrict their activity more than that of boys. Another suggestion is that women being caregivers just can't find more than 18 minutes per day of time for themselves. Many can't find even that.

Exercise won't just help keep your body healthy and your weight under control, it will also cut the risk of metabolic syndrome. This is the name given to a group of indicators (high cholesterol and blood pressure, extra body weight) that raise your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and even debilitating stroke.

The take home message of the work - women need to make an effort to get the recommended amount of exercise (30 minutes or more) a day. It needs to be either moderately or vigorously intense, and should not include the time you spend warming up or cooling down. Even ten minutes at a time is fine... if that's all you can fit in for now. Just be sure that you end the day having reached the all-important 30-minute mark.

FREE Bonus Secret Health Reports - For a limited time you can grab 5 FREE essential health reports from the Daily Health Bulletin. Click through now to discover other health benefits that are achievable by following the recommended amount of exercise.

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It's About Time - Getting In Shape

"How many rest stops is that now, 2 or 3? Try 4. Well, don't worry, we're about at the top. We're almost there." Sound familiar? Have you been out trying to have a good time on a daytrip, or on vacation looking to explore and see the sights, only to find yourself hindered because you ran out of energy too soon, or worse, didn't have the energy to begin with? My wife and I were doing just that, looking for some fun and adventure, visiting Mesa Verde National Park for our 10th anniversary, when we got a wake-up call, when we had the cold hard reality of our physical conditioning, or lack thereof, pushed upon us. When we should have been able to fully appreciate and freely maneuver through one of our nations most beautiful national parks unhindered, we found instead we had to pace ourselves, and limit our explorations to the less advanced areas and activities, the equivalent of the "bunny hill" in snow skiing terms.

Even the simpler hikes, you know the ones for the whole family, the ones where little school children on a field trip dart past you on the trail, required a rest, a few rests actually, every time the panting got too bad. But we weren't the only ones. We noticed several others of the 40-50 yr.

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5 Easy Ways To Screw Up Getting Six Pack Abs

I was at the gym recently and was bored waiting for a machine I hadn't used in a while so I decided to walk around to kill time. I ended up on the treadmill which is where I brainstorm, and I reminisced about something from a few years ago. Here's a little summary of what went through my mind.

I was talking to a buddy of mine about getting six pack abs recently as he is having trouble with that last bit of body fat that needs to be burned. Granted it was a "free consultation" and all, but it dawned on me that there's all this talk about how to get six pack abs, but nobody covers ways to make sure you do not get a six pack! So I figure that could be something fun for me to write about. I'll give a small discussion on each one.

Procrastination

When we think of ways to do anything, we never talk about ways to totally screw it up. I was going to give you an example but I'll do it after I shave instead. Kidding, to an extent. Procrastination should be considered a mortal sin for numerous reasons, the most important in my opinion though is that it prevents you from doing anything! Procrastination treats getting six pack abs no different than studying for the Bar to become a lawyer.

Excuses

Getting a six pack is no different in the basis of their theory of achievement than any other function in life. You are either going to go and get them, at least hit a starting point, or you will tell yourself "nobody in my family was successful in getting six pack abs so I'll workout with less effort." If your mom was a dwarf, and your dad was aldo a dwarf than you may end up being a dwarf. Because mom or dad was unsuccessful in getting six pack abs you will be unsuccessful in getting six pack abs? Rarely you can blame genetics and this is probably not one of those times.

Improper Milestones

Not giving yourself challenging milestones with a "next step" will ensure getting six pack abs is going to be that much tougher. If you know where you are going to go and where you need to end up prior to getting to your finish line, regardless of the distance it is far easier to arrive at your destination.

Lack of Confidence

This is a really nasty prevention for getting six pack abs. A lack of confidence not only cuts down your chances, it can prevent you from even arriving at a starting point to get six pack abs!

No Underlying Reason

This has to be the cream of the crop. It's always nice to work toward something in life but if you have no "why" you can't generate a "how" or a game plan. In life you are either just doing something and wasting your time away. With this not only is it difficult to setup milestones, it's even more difficult to implement them!

In a way each of these could be a cause of the others and they all relate to one another. Regardless, they are fatal to getting six pack abs. If you want to add to this list of ways to screw up getting six pack abs feel free to do so below!

If you found this article enticing or eye opening, you really should read these additional 4 ways to screw up getting six pack abs. If the diet is your arch nemesis, as it is for countless others, read through these 10 best diet books as picked by my personal training clients. Do me the favor of leaving a comment, it'll be greatly appreciated!

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Are There 7 Easy Ways To Lose Weight? What You Need to Know About Getting Healthy and Fit Again

In the last couple of years each year sees the launch of easy ways to lose weight with the hyped up launch of a new magic pill solution. These programs usually promise 3, 5 or 7 easy ways to lose weight. Why these numbers you might ask. The answer is very simple: it's just a marketing technique to grab people's attention. It has nothing to do with the products or their effectiveness. This article will aim to give you cornerstones you can rely on when you are planning to get healthy and fit again.

With the new spring on our heels everybody starts to think about losing weight and becoming more healthy and fit. Like many mass marketed products from the past, this year is definitely bringing a brand new magic solution. Savvy people who have fallen prey to such promises several times know that the real solution to getting healthy and fit lies somewhere else. Their problem is that they don't know where to look and how to start being actively involved in taking their well being into their hands.

What you need to know first of all is that you need to do some sort of exercise in order to get your body "oiled" again to work flawlessly and well. What has been demonstrated countless times is that without doing some kind of exercise you won't achieve long lasting results. What's more, you even harm your body more than if you left it alone especially with the artificial supplements that don't give the body the needed vitamins, flavonoids and enzymes; instead they burden the body down and cause it to work even harder to get rid of this artificial stuff the body cannot utilize.

As you can probably tell by now, in order to get healthy and fit again you MUST start doing exercise. The question is what type of exercise to chose, how much time to spend initially on a daily basis and what brings great results in a short space of time. These are highly important questions as you don't want to end up with a heart attack on the first day because you started running after x years of inactivity thus exhausting your body with your sudden over activity. You need to start with a "light" program that is easy to do and you can fit it into your busy everyday life.

Luckily there are several alternative methods that give you just that: they are easy to learn, easy to do and they take up little time from your daily routine while bringing in great results. Usually you start feeling much better in your body within the first week of your practice and start getting healthier and fitter after each day. Chikong is one such great method with a history going back to more than 7000 years of effectiveness. The movements are easy to do and learn and what's more you can do them even while watching TV! It is considered an easy way to regain your well being as it requires little effort from you, while it brings fantastic results within a short period of time with a continued practice.

As a summary we can say that regardless of whether you only want to lose weight or get healthy and fit you must start with some form of exercise that helps you instead of doing more harm to your body. As I mentioned above, there is a great method that has all the prerequisites to get you off the road towards complete well being which is chikong. The beauty of it is that you not only get healthy and fit but you also enjoy doing it and especially the results the daily 15 minutes bring to you. As will likely be the case in not too little time chikong will rise to the top of its field of helping preserve your well being in the western world as well, as more and more people realize that the real solution to losing weight lies in methods that have proven to be effective for thousands of years.

Erzsebet Bogyo is an avid follower of the effective alternative methods. She runs an informational website that provides an online chikong course and also offers a free report to help people start taking their well being into their hands. To take advantage of this cool stuff and more make sure you check out Erzsebet's site at http://chikongmadeeasy.com

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