Six Simple But Effective Ab Tips

Six Simple But Effective Ab Tips

1) Abdominal exercises are only part of the equation when looking to tone up your abdominal muscles. Be sure to do exercises that incorporate all of your ab muscles such as abdominal crunches, bicycle crunches, and planks. When performing each of the exercises, I like to do them for a certain length of time such as sets of thirty seconds to a minute. The purpose of the timed set is to be able to focus on the form while keeping the intensity levels higher. In between your sets, rest for thirty seconds or less. The goal is to avoid rest in between your sets in order to increase intensity and stimulate the ab muscles.

2) Eat a clean diet. The saying is true, abs are made in the kitchen. Your nutrition should consist of high protein foods such as chicken, fish, egg whites, and turkey. Keep your carbohydrates to a minimum--especially the high sugar, low nutrient carbohydrates such as white flour products, fast food, candy, and anything else that is high in sugar. Consume slow burning carbohydrates such as green vegetables, oats, and whole grain foods. Eat several small meals a day--your goal should be four to six meals. Do not forget to drink a gallon of water per day to help increase your metabolism.

3) Incorporate resistance training to help build lean muscle tissue, which will help you to increase your metabolism. The higher your metabolism is, the more calories you burn, and the greater your opportunity to burn fat. Great exercises to do in the gym would be squats, lunges, shoulder presses, bench press, and back rows. If you do not have access to a gym then you can, of course, substitute jump squats, body weight squats, lunges, push-ups, and resistance band back rows for those exercises.

4) Cardio exercise is not the only way to get those summer abs, but it is important. If you have access to a gym, incorporate the stair climber, treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike, and sports of your liking. If you do not have access to a gym then take a walk outside, go hiking up hill, ride your bike around town, or go swimming at a local pool. When doing cardio training, intensity is the name of the game, in my opinion. Focus on how you feel and if you feel like you are pushing your personal limits. Your body will be the best judge of your intensity, so listen to it.

5) Reduce the stress in your life. Yes I said stress. Stress increases your body’s cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that you want to stay away from, as it is a muscle wasting and fat gaining hormone (a summer abs nightmare). Work on budgeting out some “me time” every day to help you unwind. During this time, do not feel guilty; instead, look at it as an investment. This will be the best investment you will make because it will improve not only your summer abs but other aspects of your life as well, such as being a better parent, spouse, and friend.

6) Stay consistent and, most importantly, have fun when going after your pair of summer abs. Choose the exercises and foods that you enjoy and create a routine for yourself where you can get into a “groove”. For more help on the exercises that I recommended, do a Google search on them and get a few picture and video demonstrations. Also do a Google search for high protein and low carb recipes to supplement your plan. I wish you the best of luck!