Six-Pac The ultimate achievement is get ripped, firm and cut abs. You have to work very hard at develop them, but once you do, just imagine how great you will look and feel. Now that the summer is here you can show them off to everyone!
Men and women both look great with perfect washboard abs and by watching what you eat and training hard you can have them. Remember, your abs is the visual center of the body and the focal point of your strength and your center of balance. The abs is where the eyes are inevitably drawn.
Strong abs are not just a cosmetic thing but also important for good health. Strong abdominal is essential to maximizing performance in almost all sports. Well-defined abs is one sign of being in top condition and being lean, hard and strong. The most important goal of abdominal training should be definition. To achieve definition, you need the combination of a strict diet and high reps and sets of abdominal exercises.
In the beginning, the most important thing is to build up the basic strength of the abdominal area and next you need to increase that strength and begin to put more emphasis on the adjacent muscles.
Abs should be trained every day. Five sets of sit-ups or crunches and five sets of leg raises are a good start. Sit-ups and crunches work the upper abdominal while the leg raises work the lower area. Beginners can start working abs immediately by blowing out all of your breath, sucking in your stomach as far as possible, then trying to hold this for fifteen seconds. Holding in your stomach and tensing your abs is a good way of firming and strengthening them and making yourself aware of how to control this area of your body.
Working your abs at least four times a week is also key in having flat and strong abdominal. Work your abs slowly and contract the muscles as you breathe out and complete each repetition. After you see your weight dropping and your abs strength increasing, you will want to add weight to your abs routine. Without using weights you will have a difficult time getting those six-pac abs that you are working towards.
Make sure you include crunches and leg raises in your abs routines. You will want to do three to four sets per exercise and fifteen to twenty reps per set.
Sit-ups: For the upper abs. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor, your hands crossed over your chest or placed behind your head. Sit up and bring your head as close to your knees as possible. Lower yourself slowly back to the floor. Do this exercise very slowly and keep your chin into your chest.
Crunches with your knees in the air: For the upper and lower abs. Lie on your back on the floor, hands clasped behind your neck. Keeping your knees bent, raise your feet in the air and place your feet against a wall or bench for support. Raise your head and shoulders toward your knees with a sit-up motion and simultaneously lift the pelvis and feel the contraction of the abdominal as the upper and lower body crunch together. At the top of the movement flex the abdominal even harder to get the fullest contraction possible and release and return to the starting position. Breath out on the way up and in on the way down slowly and keep your chin into your chest.
Leg raises: For the lower abs, sit on the end of a flat bench or lie flat on the floor. Lie back with your legs extended straight out and your hands underneath your buttocks or behind your head for support. Keeping your legs straight, raise them as high as you can, then lower them slowly until they are below the level of the bench or if your are on the floor, almost touching it with your feet.
Pull down Crunches: Drape a towel or rope around the bar of a pull down machine so that you pull the weight using it instead of the bar. Kneel facing the machine and grab hold of the towel and put your hands against your forehead. Kneel far enough away from the machine so that the cable comes down at a slight angle.
The exercise is the same movement as an abdominal crunch, but using the weight instead of gravity. The emphasis is still on crunching the abdominal, pulling the breastbone towards the pelvis and making sure you exhale all your air at each contraction.
