Flat, Sexy Abs in 5 Moves
Tired of pinching an inch (or two)? Target your abs in a whole new way to get your leanest, firmest torso ever!
A whittled-down waistline plays harder-to-get with age because, even if you don't gain more weight, more fat is stored in your middle compared to elsewhere in your body. But you can't fight the flab sitting down. Flattening your abs takes a two-pronged approach: You need to firm up weak muscles and reduce the fat that surrounds them. Our five core exercises will tighten your torso, and adding more cardio to your week will slim it down.
Research has shown that the best formula to reduce ab fat is to eat healthfully and accumulate from 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity on most days of the week. Don't worry if that sounds like more exercise than you do in a month—even household chores count, and you can break up the minutes into shorter periods throughout the day.
The good news is that regular exercise is a proven way to flatter abs. So commit to a program of core control and see your belly shrink in as soon as eight weeks!
How to do it:
- Start by performing one repetition of exercise Numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5, holding each move for 5 to 10 seconds. Work up to longer holds, aiming for 30 to 60 seconds. Then work up to three sets of each hold. Rest when you feel fatigued or if your back or any other joints feel strained. For exercise Number 3, perform one set of six slow reps on each side and gradually work up to three sets.
- Do this workout four to six days per week.
- Follow the recommended moves, or adapt them as needed to suit your fitness level by clicking on a similar exercise that is easier or more challenging.
- Get your daily dose of cardio by incorporating a mix of low- and high-intensity activities into your day to add up to 60 to 90 minutes. For example: Play tag with your kids, shoot hoops, take a brisk walk, dance to your favorite songs, use an exercise bike or stair stepper, jog around the school track, or take a fitness class.
What you need: A resistance band
Martica is a Manhattan-based exercise physiologist and nutritionist and an award-winning fitness instructor. She has written for a variety of publications including Self, Health, Prevention, The New York Times and others. Martica is the author or co-author of seven books, including her latest, Cross-Training for Dummies. (Read her full bio.)
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Weight Loss vs Fat Loss in Getting Well-Defined Abs
There’s one one common misconception people have in mind
that makes them think fat loss and weight
loss is the same. This is not entirely true. They are slightly different
but this small difference could means getting firm, developed abs or getting
flat, plain abs.
First of all, to uncover your abs you need to get rid of belly fat that covers
them. From this, you see that the goal should be fat loss.
But if I lose fat, I lose
weight…so if I lose weight, I should lose
fat too, right?
Not necessarily true. Your body weight comprises of many substances: water,
fat, muscle, etc. Now, if you only use weight scale to measure your progress,
how do you know which substance you lost most?
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BALANCE, BALANCE, BALANCE...
The key
to getting a flat stomach, and even six-pack abs is training ALL muscle
groups, performing intense cardio, and reducing calorie intake by no
more than 30% of your maintenance calories. These 3 things create
a balanced approach to reducing body fat percentage and building lean
muscle mass, which will naturally flatten your stomach and allow your
six-pack to show through. The Fat Loss Toolbox on
Fatblastzone.com has FREE sample diet menus and exercise guides that
can help. Also, check out the Attack the Fat article. The message boards on MSN are also great for getting advice and solid tips.
A.J.F., youre going to need someone from a biophysics lab to answer that one. Im a pretty fit individual, so my argument might not mean much depending on your physical condition. I find the plan to be one of the easier core exercises, in fact, I use it as a warmup preceding hanging leg raises.
The plank, in my opinion, does not due well enough to strengthen the back but creates an imbalance with the abs if your back is not strong/flexible enough. In that case, any abdominal exercise would cause harm to the lumbar, unless light enough to promote a stretching of the back(spinal erector). I used to have mild back pains a a year back, but that was due to overworked abdominals and neglect on the rest of the core.
Im just an enthusiast who loves to train though.
Here's something I continue to see that they (the so called experts) dont bring up in these exercies, or even talk about, yet nearly everyone deals with, and that is what type of forces are produced by these exercises on the discs, ligaments, and articulations of the joints of the lower back and neck?
99% of the "myth exercises" for so called strengthening the core are in truth harmfull orthopedically on the spine. They strictly focus on the muscles, yet do not address what effect is takning place on the joints.
Here would be an interesting question to answer.
The above exercise that is pictured. The plank. Someone who knows the answer to this question, please inform all of us, as I have yet to hear anything that resembles a real answer.
What forces are produced by this exercise in the lumbar spine, and how does the body safely & effectively stabilize those forces?
The answer should relate to forces produced and transmitted on the discs, ligaments, and articulations of the joints.
I am anxious to see what comes of this question.
Aaron J. Forbes
Director of Player Development
Athletic Spinal Fitness Institute
The fact is, the real solution to seeing a visible six-pack is simply bringing your body fat % down to a low enough level to where the abs become visible. Most people already have a six pack hiding underneath their stomach fat and don't know it. This is generally about 10% body fat or lower for men, and about 16-18% body fat for women from my experience.
here is a Great reading about this same topic
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