Of course, most everyone does.
So if your goal is a trim waist line and a nice flat stomach, the first thing you need to do is remove the layers of fat that are sitting on top of your abs. Everyone has a flat stomach. It's just that some of them are covered with excess fat.
The most effective way to flatten your stomach is with a combination of strength training (placing an extra focus on the mid-section), cardiovascular exercises (short, intensive workouts), and a stable blood sugar level to keep you from adding even more fat (and it makes it easier for the body to use your body fat for fuel).
- You have to do some type of progressive strength training. The ab muscle is primarily used to flex your torso forward. But there are also muscles that flex your torso to the side and other muscles that rotate it. Often you will see people on their ab roller every day doing lots of sit-ups or crunches.
If you want to effectively strengthen your stomach muscles you need to incorporate these exercises:- 1-2 forward flexion exercises (sit-up, crunch, etc.)
- 1-2 side flexion exercises (side crunches, side bends, etc.)
- 1-2 rotational exercises (standing twists, trunk rotations, etc.)
- Increase metabolism using short, and hard, cardio workouts. Cardio workouts are very important because they can, if done properly, increase your metabolism for up to 24 hours or more!
This means that you're less likely to store any excess calories as body fat simply because they're more likely to be used up by your higher metabolism. Plus, you're more likely to burn off some excess body fat in the process!
Here's a simple interval workout that you can do with just about any activity (bicycling, walking, swimming, etc).- Warm up at an easy pace for 2-5 minutes
- Perform 30 seconds of hard exercise (almost as hard as possible)
- perform one minute of moderate exercise (recovery time to catch your breath)
- Repeat this process from 6-10 times
- Cool down at an easy pace for 2-5 minutes
- Maintaining a stable blood sugar level is the key. Most importantly, you have to stabilize your blood sugar level! This is by far the most important factor when it comes to shedding that excess body fat and keeping it off!
To stabilize your blood sugar level you have to feed your body frequently, about every 2-3 hours. The key is to give your body only the amount of food that it needs at that time. Your body burns calories all day long, so why would you only feed it once or twice a day?
Give your body the fuel it needs: fruits, whole grains, vegetables, nuts, berries, and lean proteins (fish, lean beef, chicken, eggs, etc).
Most people pay too much attention to how much fat is in food, or how healthy a meal is. Calories are calories. It doesn’t matter where they come from. If there’s extra it's going to body fat!
I'm not saying that what you eat isn't important because it is. It just doesn’t have all that much of an affect when it comes to losing fat. Make healthy choices whenever possible, but don’t feel like every cheeseburger you eat is guaranteed to be stored as fat. - Enlist the help of a professional trainer. Realistically, most people just don’t know enough about their body, nutrition, or effective exercise plans to meet their health and fitness goals.
Ask yourself this question, “Am I happy with my current progress or physical condition?” If the answer is no, then you should consider hiring a qualified personal fitness professional.
Don’t automatically trust the information you get from fitness magazines or from your local health club. A qualified fitness trainer can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, and in less time than you can even imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment