Article care of bigobb.com

Big O's Advice On Awesome Abs

I believe it was in Men's Fitness or perhaps Men's Health that I read the most desirable body part, ranked my women, were the abs. Along with the bombardment of the rock hard defined abs by television, movies, sports and magazines, it comes to no surprise why we, men, work so hard to achieve this holy grail of success. Just like training your arms, it seems anyone and everyone has their own personal religion regarding training their abs. Again who am I to say which method is better then the other. With this article I will give some general advice regarding working your abs and some exercises that I've had the most success with.

Guidelines and Tips

1. Diet. I firmly believe that when trying to get hard defined abs that will show, what you do in the kitchen is 90% of the work. To get your abs to show you will ideally have a body fat of less then 10% while 6-7% would be even better. That means you have to cut the fat, limiting your self to fast food, junk food, and shitty food altogether. Am I making my self clear? IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MANY CRUNCHES/LEG LIFTS/ETC YOU DO IF YOUR BODYFAT IS GREATER THEN 10% YOU WILL NOT SEE YOUR ABS. No ifs/ands/or buts about it. You are simply wasting your time if you think you are going to get a six pack with out lowering your body fat first.

2. Patience. As with most muscles but especially with abs one needs to have patience. Do not expect that after doing after doing a few crunches here and there you will have a six pack the next day. You will need to work your ass off for a six pack. That means consistently working your abs. At least once a week, possibly two or three times.

3. Workout in the mourning. By training on an empty stomach you will burn more calories and thus help decrease your body fat.

4. Drink LOTS of water. Numerous studies have shown that individuals who drink at least 8 glasses of water a day have numerous health benefits including healthy skin, increase blood flow and circulation and is essential to fat loss as it decreases fat deposits and helps the liver produce vital chemicals.

5. Weights. I personally believe that one must incorporate weights into working their abdominal as it helps increase the muscle mass of the abdominal. My personal favorite is weighted crunches on a decline.

6. Work out after you've done some running. Now only are your abs warmed up but you again will increase the amount of calories you wil burn.

7. Flex. After each set of exercise you do, flex! Long and hard. Like your stomach is about to get hit with a softball and you prepare for impact.

Here are some of my favorite exercises for abs.

Crunches-Well no explanation needed, if you don't know what a crunch is your in trouble. Try to go for burn out on these where you keep doing them and can no more. This mainly works your upper abs as well as your lower abs.

Jack Knives/V Ups- In this exercise you lay flat down then use your abs to push your lower body and upper body so they contract and your body is in the shape of a V. Hold that position for a second and then release. I do as many of these in three, forty five second sets. This works both your upper and lower abs.

Leg Raises- I believe this is one of the hardest exercises for abs since not many people work on it but it is fairly hard. It works you lower abs and should be accompanied by a upper abs workout. First lie on the floor legs flat on the ground. Then raise your leg above the ground about four or five inches and HOLD it their for about 30-45 seconds. Then drop it back to the ground you should feel your abs tighten and pulling to keep your legs up in the air. Repeat the leg raises three to five times depending on your level of experience.

Seat Raises- This is another exercise that works the lower abs, here you sit on the edge of a bench or seat and then raise your knees so that they touch your set. If you do them correctly you should feel a burn at around 20. I usually do these as three or five sets of a hundred.

Hanging Leg Raises - Hanging off a pull up bar, raise your knees to your chest and hold. For added difficulty keep your legs straight and raise them so your body forms an L shape.

Split Leg Cycling - For this exercise you can also add ankle weights to increase the difficulty. Lie on your back and then raise your legs about one feet in the air. Bring on of your knees to your chest while extending the other one. Repeat this with the other leg and you can either do this using a certain amount of sets per reps or also as fast as you can for a certain duration. Although the name has cycling in it your not exactly cycling, more high stepping while laying on the ground.

Hanging (weighted) Twist Raise - You can also use ankle weights in this lift to increase the difficulty. For this lift you will hang on a bar and then bring both of your knees up so they are parallel and to the right. You will repeat this alternating from left and right sides.

There are tons of additional exercises as well as variations on the ones I've listed but I found this to be the most successful for me.

 

Click Here For Your Free All Natural Bodybuilding Magazine
Full of useful information, exercise tips, diet tips and inspiration for us all,
also you will be automatically entered in our monthly drawing to win Free Supplements and other great prizes.
Stay informed, stay motivated, win free stuff, join today!

Sign up free by sending an e-mail to
nobsbb@aol.com

© 2007 AllNaturalBodybuilding.com