Target Your Unsuspecting Abs
Your abs are notorious for being difficult to target.
To succeed in gaining 6 pack abs or a washboard stomach, you need to couple your fitness program with a low fat, low carb diet and you will have the beach or bedroom body that you desire.
It will take a month to 6 weeks just to begin to alter the landscape of your belly and you have to really, really want it to convince yourself to do the hard yards.
A training technique that will work to develop you abs involves a mixture of resistance training and intensive cardio.
Start with your favourite ab exercise (does such a thing exist?). Be it a crunch movement over a bench or with a rope pull or on an ab machine or a hanging leg lift, start you ab targeting workout with getting the blood pumping to your ab muscles.
It's actually a good idea to vary your ab exercise every few sessions to keep up the element of surprise for your poor long suffering body. You can do ab exercises every day, but doing them every second day gives them a chance to repair and regroup for your next assault.
If you are after a defined stand out six pack, go for heavy weight with 3 or 4 sets of as many reps as you can handle - it should not be many if you are doing the workout correctly. 8-10 is good.
If you want to tone up and get lean, try 3 or 4 sets of 15-20 reps on a low weight.
Either way, make sure you go as slowly as comfortable and pause for a couple of seconds at the peak of the movement before slowly returning to the start position. Keep your abs squeezed tightly throughout (don't forget to breathe!).
To effectively target your abdominals, you have to avoid 2 big mistakes that so many people make in the gym.
1. Each resistance exercise you do tends target specific muscle groups. If you use poor form and support the movement by swinging your body in any way, you are going to minimise the gains you want to make.
Keep as focused as possible on the muscles you are trying to work on. Take your time to adjust the equipment to your body and look in the mirror or have someone reliable check your movement so that your efforts are not wasted.
2. Do the movement slowly. If you race through an exercise, you are relying more on momentum than muscle. It may look very impressive indeed, but essentially it's a sad waste of effort.
You will make excellent gains by taking the time to be precise and unhurried.
After your resistance exercise, get on the treadmill and go for intensive cardio. A fast walking pace or a dedicated jog at a decent incline for at least 40 minutes will burn into your fat deposits, especially around your warmed up abdominals.
Feed your muscles after your workout. Protein shakes or bars are ideal to top up your nutrients and energy levels.
Make sure you eat 5-6 small meals, with most of the carbs (complex of course) in the first half of your day. Try to ban the plate filler type carbs like potatoes, rice, pasta and bread from your dinner time menu.
It's tough, but do you want great abs or not? It works.
About the Author: Rosie Peters gives common sense advice, encouragement and tips for weight loss, sensible diet and lifelong fitness at lose-fat-get-fit.com
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