How To Get Your Abs Beach Ready

By Tsuyoshi Suzuki

Stomach weight loss is really difficult to attain because it is an area that does not respond well to toning. While you arms, legs, and buttocks will firm up with relatively light toning exercises, your mid section needs a lot of cardio and toning in order for anything to be accomplished. This is because if you only do toning, it will create nice ab muscles completely hidden by your fat on top. It is also where most people carry the bulk of their fat.

You should start with a cardio regimen before you do anything else. You cannot see how well your stomach is developing if there is a lot of fat on top. Sadly, heavy and regular cardio is the absolute only way to reduce stomach fat. Thankfully, there are a lot of things that can make up a cardio work out. You can run, dance, swim, or bike--do anything that gets as much of your body moving as possible. Make sure you are sweaty at the end. This is an indicator of a good workout, not how long you spend doing it.

Just changing your life style can help you get in more movement if you do not have a half hour to devote to exercise every day. If you can walk somewhere in ten minutes, do not drive. Stand as much as you can instead of sitting, especially when you are watching television. Just walking around and rocking on your feet while you relax burns more calories than just sitting.

Better still, use a stationary bike during all your down time. When you do that or when you run, try to hold in your stomach and clench your muscles. This will start building up your abs while the fat melts away. Holding in your stomach helps keep it taut and uses the muscles even when you do not realize they are being used. Plus, it looks better.

Crunches are a wonderful way to get yourself in shape. They are better than sit ups because there is less of a chance of doing them wrong and less strain on your back. You lay on your back on the floor with your arms behind your head. You put your legs up with the knees bent at a ninety degree angle. You then, sucking in your stomach, lift your shoulders off the floor and bring your knees in toward your chest, contracting your stomach.

These are so much better than sit ups because crunches force your stomach to sink down into itself and be tightened from both sides. Sit ups can build really big muscle on your stomach which is not great. When it comes to toning that area, the leaner the better. If you have any fat at all on your stomach and you build bulky muscle underneath, it will merely push out the fat more and make you look like you carry a lot more weight there.

To make your crunches more challenging, get an exercise ball. These are the large rubber balls that can be found in any gym store. You sit on the ball and lean back with your feet on the floor. You do just the top part of the crunches where you lift up your shoulders. You cannot lift your legs because they are needed on the floor to balance you. It will challenge you in different ways and allow other muscles in your stomach to get use.

Make sure you have a firm foot hold. These balls are fairly stable but they have been known to roll around under people who are not very secure in their positioning. You can use them for just about any workout variation. - 31997

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