Working on your Abs

Info taken from about.com

What is the one fitness goal you wish you could achieve? If you’re like most people, you want six-pack abs. It seems easy; do hundreds of crunches a day and wait for your abs to magically appear. But, after a few months of that you might be wondering: where’s my six-pack?

It Takes More Than Ab Exercises

As you may have found, crunches aren’t enough to flatten your abs. Yes, you should work your abs, but, if there’s a layer of fat there, you’ll never see them. You’ve probably heard that spot reducing is about is effective as spitting in the wind, but when you work your abs in an effort to reduce the belly flab, spot reducing is exactly what you’re trying to do. The body can’t be forced to lose fat in a particular area by exercising the muscles directly under that area. What you should be focusing on is losing body fat and gaining a little muscle.

Deal with Your Diet

The first step to losing body fat is changing your diet. Jennifer Scott. About’s Weight loss Guide recommends:

1. Eat more often. Eating several small meals throughout the day will boost your metabolism and help you burn more calories.
2. Eat Fewer Calories. Create a mild caloric deficit by monitoring your portion sizes and making sure you’re eating less than you’re burning. It’s easier to eat less calories if you fill up on high fiber foods and make sure your meals are balanced between carbs (about 50-60%), protein (about 20-30%) and fat (about 20-30%).
3. Drink More Water. Sometimes hunger pangs are actually your body’s plea for water.

Deal with Your Exercise Routine

Once you’ve reduced your calorie intake, its time to start working out. Diet without exercise will lead to some weight loss, but at some point you’ll reach a plateau. Exercise can get you past plateaus while preserving your muscle mass. Your program should include:

• 3-5 days of cardio a week for 30 to 45 minutes in your THR zone. Any cardio will do–doing what you like will make workouts more fun
• Weight training that targets ALL of your muscle groups 2-3 non-consecutive days a week, abs included (don’t work them everyday!)
• Stretching after your workouts for flexibility and relaxation
• Warm ups before each workout, cool-downs after and plenty of water in between

Consider your Genetics and Lifestyle

The truth is, even if you do everything right and start losing body fat, there’s no guarantee you’ll lose it from your abs. Your body stores and loses fat according to your genes, so you can’t control where or when you lose fat from certain places. We all store excess fat somewhere – for women it’s often around the lower belly, hips and thighs. For men, it’s often around the middle and back.

So, does that mean it’s impossible to lose fat there? Not at all. But, it may take awhile and it may never completely go away…the only way to know is to follow your healthy diet, exercise and allow your body to respond.

You also have to think about your lifestyle. It could be that you could achieve flat abs if you managed to take your body fat to lower levels – but what if that requires more exercise or stricter attention to your diet than you have the time or energy for? If that’s the case, you may need to adjust your goals to fit the way you live.

Should You Still Do Ab Exercises?

You might be wondering if there’s any point to working your abs now that you know that ab exercises aren’t going to help reduce the fat around your belly. The answer is yes and no. Yes, you still want to work your abs (your entire core, in fact) but maybe not with the usual moves like crunches and situps.

I’m a big fan of working multiple muscles at the same time to build strength, work on stability and burn more calories during your workout. When it comes to your abs, there are a number of great exercises and tools you can use to strengthen your core with more dynamic moves. One of the best ab tools you can invest in is an exercise ball which can be used for a variety of moves like the ones featured in this core workout. Because you must stabilize your body on the ball, you use more muscle groups than traditional ab exercises.

	Ball Crunch Lie with the ball resting under the mid/lower back and place hands behind the head or across the chest. Contract your abs to lift your the torso off the ball, pulling the bottom of your ribcage down toward your hips. As you curl up, keep the ball stable.
	Crunch & Reach Begin with body straight over the ball, light weight extended behind you (not shown). Contract the abs to lift and bring the weight over the head, crunching up and twisting to the right, contracting the right side of waist. Repeat for all reps and then switch sides.
	Modified Plank Begin by placing elbows on the floor and resting body on the knees. Pull the abs tight to hold your body in a straight line from head to knees without sagging in the middle, eyes looking naturally forward. Hold this position for as long as you can, relax and repeat 3 or more times.
	Knee Tucks Start in plank position on the ball, with the ball under the shins/ankles. Roll the ball towards you with your feet, tightening the abs into a crunch.
	Woodchops Attach one end of a resistance band to something sturdy and wrap the band around your hand a few times for the right tension. Grasp the band in both hands and begin in a lunge position, reaching down with the arms Keeping the arms straight the entire time, rotate and lift the body towards the other side while sweeping the arms on a diagonal. Return to start and repeat before moving onto the other side.
	Hip Extension on the Ball Lie on the floor with feet heels propped on ball. Keeping abs tight, slowly lift your hips off the floor (squeezing the buttocks) until body is in a straight line. Hold for a few seconds and lower
	Ball Taps Sit on the ball with strong abs and straight spine, hands behind the head. Contract your abs and lift the right foot, tapping it on a medicine ball in front of you. Lower and repeat with the other foot, alternating sides. Use your abs to keep your balance.

How to Work Your Abs

• You can effectively work your abs with 3 non-consecutive workouts a week
• Do 1-3 sets of 12-16 reps of each exercise. If that’s too easy, make sure you’re doing each exercise correctly and using perfect form. You can add a dumbbell or plate to crunches to add difficulty.

Here are a few youtube videos to show you some Ab crunching excercises: