Ab Workouts

Most people would dream of a six-pack, wash-board midsection. The abdominal area,
or most commonly referred to as the AB, has been the main area of interest whenever weight loss or fat loss comes into the picture.

In a few previous posts, I mentioned that spot reduction (losing fat from a particular part of your body) is almost entirely impossible. Most of you would probably know what by now, and would want to know about some ab workouts that can be done in order to strengthen, and hopefully one day make visible the six-pack that's lurking somewhere beneath the surface of your bellies :)

Here is a simple workout, that can be done right in the comfort of your home.

1. Abdominal Crunch

• This is probably the simplest of all workouts. You need to firstly start out by lying on your back. With you knees bent, cross your hands on your chest (while still laying flat on the ground of course)
• Start raising yourself, while pushing your back to the floor. DONT GO ALL THE WAY! Because that would limit the effectiveness of the workout. Just raise your back a bit, and maintain the pose for say, 2 seconds.
• Then slowly return to the 'laying flat on your back' position. There, 1 abdominal crunch done :)
• Repeat for another 15-25 times, depending on the pain you are able to tolerate. Then rest for one minute (or a minute and a half).
• Do two or three sets of these 15-25 crunches, along with the resting periods.

Tips: Remember, do not go all the way up. Raising your body all the way will reduce the effectiveness of the workout. Also, try to lay on a surface that's not too soft nor too hard. This is so that you feel comfortable during the exercise :)

HOW TO LOSE BELLY FAT

People often wonder how they can lose that bulge/flab from their mid section. Most would
resort to machines such as ab-rockers, abs-tronic-like devices, weight loss pills, fat loss patches, and the worst of them all... LIPOSUCTION!!! Countless people have thought, or still think that the way to get rid of their unwanted gut is through doing hundreds or even thousands of crunches per day. This is a huge misconception, and needs to be corrected :)

The SIX PACK, Fat and Your Tummy

The six pack in the abdominal area does indeed exist. They exist in all normal human beings. Doing tummy or stomach targeted exercise serves to strengthen these ab muscles, but they do very little to get rid of the flab.

The reason why you cannot see the muscles is because there is too much fat covering them! Your six packs or literally camouflaged by fat accumulated through the years! It's as simple as that. Get rid or the fat (or reduce it to an acceptable level), and VOILA! Your six packs are ready for flexing.

But it's easier said than done. Why? Because normally, fat in the mid-section (around your belly), is the hardest to get rid of! It's the most stubborn piece of flab that you can ever get onto your body. And for most people, fat around the tummy is the first place fat starts to accumulate.. So, abiding by the rules of fat loss, what goes in FIRST, comes off LAST. This means that, the tummy is usually the last place fat starts to melt away. Just imagine, have you ever seen a guy with a nice layout of six-pack abs having a flabby chest or fat cheeks? :P

That's why, even after an 8-12 weeks on a good fitness or fat loss program, the bulge around the stomach (even though decreased in size) is still visible... seems like it will never go away! But don’t' worry, for it will one day, through persistence and discipline. Nevertheless, it won't go away without a fight! It's going to haunt you until the day it 'dies'. Scary sounding ain't it. :P

The MYTH of SPOT REDUCTION

Ok. Spot reduction means to get rid of fat form a particular part of your body. Fir instance, you don't like how your cheeks plump out. You decide to do cheek exercises hoping that the fat would melt away from there. Unfortunately, this will almost NEVER happen (unless that's where that fat lastly accumulated).

Many have been lured by TV commercials and exercise gimmicks to believe that you can get rid of fat from any part of your body that you choose. In a way, this is true... but it's only going to happen on (like I mentioned before) a FIRST-IN-LAST-OUT basis. You cannot make fat disappear unnaturally, from a chosen body part! ... unless you choose the deadly 'sin' of LIPOSUCTION of course (Yikes!).

Just remember that SPOT REDUCTION is never the way. Lose fat naturally, and all will be well.

What to do to lose belly fat

In order to lose those love handles, the best way is to BURN THE FAT! And unfortunately for people who want a quick fix, this can only be done through proper meal intake, as well as exercise. There's no other way! You need to BURN THE FAT!

There is another way... which is to STARVE THE FAT. This step would not be ideal, because for one thing, it's going to take (wayyyyy) longer. Secondly, because starving the fat means restricting calories (a.k.a. FOOD), most people cannot maintain such a lifestyle. So, after a while (and usually it's not that long), the 'diet' dies off, and the fat now is getting fed again.

If you choose to BURN the fat, not only will it be extra faster, but there would be other benefits as well... such as better stamina due to the cardiovascular (aerobics) being done, as well as an increased metabolism (meaning your body burns fat better!) due to frequent meals - plus the exercise again.

So, how do we burn?

1) EAT HEALTHY! - Low fat foods

2) EAT FREQUENTLY and IN SMALLER PORTIONS! - 4-6 meals per day, with a complete combination of carbohydrates, proteins, healthy fats, and vegetables

3) DRINK PLENTY OF WATER! - more than 8 cups per day :)

4) EXERCISE! - Do cardio 3-5 times per day. It would also be EXTREMELY beneficial to add weight training to the equation, because MUSCLES help BURN FAT! Don't worry about getting big like Arnold Schwarzenegger, because you have no idea how hard it is to even get a pound of muscle on! :P

5) PERSISTENCE and DISCIPLINE - Most under rated aspect of the whole fat loss process. At one point you will be demodulated... but persistence will help you find your way. With persistence, discipline will follow. And after a while, that belly beer gut is going to disappear before you can even say uncle :)