Non-Fad Way to Achieve Six Pack Abs

Hard abdominal muscles can make a person look healthy and attractive. But it requires hard work in order to get flatten stomach fast.
In spite of what the commercial world would have you believe, there is no magic pill you can take or no one exercise that will help you achieve it instantaneously. It takes hard work, determination, and most importantly a healthy lifestyle.

The first step to achieve six pack abs is to lower your total percentage of body fat. Although it is possible to strengthen, tone, and increase the size of your abdominal muscles without this step, those muscles will be surrounded by fat and therefore obscured. This will not give you the look that you are after. Men need to be at ten percent body fat or lower, and women need to be at fifteen percent. To achieve this, it is important to get regular cardiovascular exercise and eat healthily and you can get flatten stomach fast.
Don't starve yourself, as this will only make your body conserve fat, but do make sure that you are eating no more than the recommended calories for your gender and size. Moreover, each of these calories should be from a good source, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grain, and lean protein.

Exercise should consist of 40-45 minutes of cardio work at least 5 days a week. Anyway, it is recommended not to lose more than 2 pounds a week. Any more than that is not good for your health.Once you are within a healthy weight and body fat range, you can begin to target your abdominal muscles for those six pack abs.

Be aware, however, that this can not be done with only one exercise. It requires a varied, well rounded workout routine that targets all of the muscle groups in the abdominal area. Of course, this includes crunches. To be affective, these must be done with your back flat against the floor and your elbows back. Lift yourself up with your abdominal muscles, rather than pulling on your neck.

A well-rounded abdominal exercise routine also consists of reverse crunches, which consist of lying on your back and pulling the knees toward the chest, and twisting exercises that target the oblique muscles.It is not necessary to do an outrageous number of repetitions of these exercises get six pack abs fast.
If you are doing the exercises properly and performing a variety of them, three sets of each for 12 to 20 repetitions should be enough. It is suggested to work with a trainer. Not only can he make sure you are doing the exercises properly, but he will help to keep you motivated.

#1 Key to Longevity: Building a Community

You eat right and exercise. You get your flu shot. You even drink cod liver oil because it is the world's best source of omega-3 fatty acids AND vitamin D, all together in one foul cocktail that you burp until lunch. Preventative care is your middle name. But there is one healthy living tip that you may not have heard. A tip so powerful that the evidence supporting it is even more compelling than than that of cigarettes causing cancer or obesity causing heart disease, according to Drs. Willcox, Willcox and Suzuki, authors of the famous longevity study The Okinawa Program.

It turns out that the number one factor under your control in regards to how long you live (and probably how worth living that long life will be) is: a positive social community. All this time you thought you were just loving your friends and family because they're great people but it turns out that love fest is doing you a lot of good as well.

Recently I was asked by the delightfully accented Jamillah Knowles of the BBC (you like how I just drop that into conversation? I WAS ON THE BBC!! I might have business cards printed up saying "Charlotte, proprietress of The Great Fitness Experiment, BBC interviewee." I'd put it on my resume if I still had one.) about my best tip for keeping your healthy living resolutions. My answer? The Gym Buddies. Listen to the whole podcast (of me sounding hilariously awkward and repeating the word "absolutely" way too many times) to learn more about fitness community building!

Not only are my peeps good for making me run faster sprints and lift heavier weight and sweat a bigger, nastier puddle in Turbokick but they have also been known to circle the wagons when I have a wardrobe malfunction and laugh with me when I might prefer to be crying. The healthful benefits of having a close circle of loved ones extends far beyond the gym though. Research has shown that people who have at least 6 close social connections but poor eating health habits live longer than those who eat clean and exercise but have 3 or fewer relationships. Of course those who live the longest have both healthy habits and a strong social network.

Friends have been getting some bad press lately (remember the whole "your friends make you fat" furor??) but they might just be the best thing that's happened to you. So, in an effort to expand my circle of beloveds, I have finally (been assimilated by the borg) and joined Twitter. Wanna follow me? (Did that feel any less pathetic reading it than when I wrote it?) Or just curious to see if I can limit myself to a measly 140 characters? Click on the "follow me" birdie at the top of the page! (I will be moving it to a less obnoxious place on the sidebar in a week or two.)

How have your friends influenced your healthy lifestyle? Do you know any centenarians?? And if you tweet, what's your username so I can follow you too? (Again, with the creepy!)

How to Build Flat Abs with Your Own Formula

There are two maxims of old that you will need from the outset if you want to know how to get flatten stomach fast  and then keep them for good. The first goes something like, 'Rome was not built in a day'. Flat abs must accrue from a process of self-improvement not an instantaneous pill. Having a sagging belly is a symptom of a condition and not a disease to be cured by medication. The second one is more common around gyms. It states that, 'no pain, no gain'. Getting flat abs is not as easy as you may want it to be. It involves work, consistency and self-determination. That is why flat-tummied guys are rare to come by.

Once these two maxims are accepted as facts then you are ready to know how to get flatten stomach fast. You must integrate dieting strategies and workout routines in your lifestyle as the only way of getting flat abs. With a little patience, consistence, perseverance and discipline, it gets easy as you go along and soon enough you will get in the flow. Abdominal exercises must be viewed as just but a part of the jigsaw towards flat abs. Flat abs only accrue from comprehensive abdominal rehabilitation efforts that integrate highly disciplined dieting and exercising regimes.

Doing countless crunches and sit-ups will hold you back instead of help you towards flat abs. Your abdominals easily adapt to the crunches and sit-ups and slip into a plateau where nothing much happens. Integrate cardiovascular exercises like running, swimming, rope jumping, running, frog jumps, biking, etc with weight exercises for a diverse program the abs can't get used to.

Your abs will never attain a flat posture until you have burnt all the body fat in your belly. Your body fat percentage must dip as low as 9% or lower if you want flat abs. That is why sit-ups and crunches will not be enough to flatten out your tummy. Burn the fats using cardio exercises and ensure that the calories you ingest in the daily diet are much less than what you burn during exercise. One other directive on how to get six pack abs fast is to ingest high volumes of plain water every day.

One way of ensuring the belly fat is reduced and then maintained at the minimal most level is avoiding food that are rich in concentrated fats. Saturated fats go straight to deposit sites. Red meat and other foods with high levels of fats must be reduced. Run away from junk food and embrace natural wholemeal foods. Vegetables and fruits must be incorporated in the diet. Ensure that the diet has a lot

of nutrients but low on calories. Alcohol for instance, should be avoided since it ingests many calories and has no nutritional value. Besides that, alcohol increases your appetite for oily and fatty foods.

If you have been wondering how to get flat abs, there you have it. A bit of hard work and determination will get it done. Many people are not willing to sacrifice as much and no wonder they have phenomenal belly fat proportions to confront in the mirror every morning as they shave. Escape that route and exert yourself for a while. The result will give a little bounce to your walk and a little confidence in your outlook to life.Good luck with getting  six pack abs fast.

Enjoying the Process of finding your Abs

So you want a fit body and get six pack abs fast? Time to hit the floor for a crunches, right? Please. Crunching alone isn't necessarily the best--and certainly not the most enjoyable--way to flatten your belly. We talked to dozens of people, who've toned their abs, we discovered their secrets include fun activities such as gardening, tennis, and dancing. Leading weight loss and fitness experts say, some simple lifestyle changes will provide you with a complete belly-flattening program.

Let me ask you a question, how many lives to you get? Just one and life itself can be hard enough. The truth is if you don't find fun or pleasure in what your doing it probley wont last.

10 Suggestions to help in the process of a leaner body  and to get flatten stomach fast.
1. Calm down. Too much stress can contribute to a potbelly. Stress increases levels of cortisol, a hormone that seems to direct fat to our middle. To keep levels low, try this 5- to 10-minute stress reducer: Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit. Next, take several slow, deep breaths to help clear your mind. Continue breathing deeply and repeat the word "one" to yourself as you exhale. (If you get distracted, just bring back your focus to the word "one.") Practice this for 5 to 10 minutes a few times a day. Another words, Chill Out!

2. Make sure to eat more fiber. Not only is fiber great for overall fat loss (it fills you up so you don't eat so offten). To get regular, aim for 25 to 35 g of fiber a day by eating more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

3. Easy with the alcohol. That glass of wine with dinner may be part of the reason your struggling to lose weight. Alcohol also tends to raise cortisol levels, turning it into fat in your belly.

If you don't smoke skip to step 5

4. Stop smoking now. For many reasons but for this lesson we will stick to the fat loss issue "It keeps me thin," proclaim many smokers. The truth is that smokers tend to have more abdominal fat than nonsmokers. The stress hormone cortisol seems to be the cause here. When people stop smoking, the amount of abdominal fat actually decreases. However at first you may over eat, so make sure to get control of the over eating and stop blaming it on smoking.


5. Make sure to drink plenty of fluids through out the day. You may fill bloated at first but that will soon pass through the system.

6. All the ab exercises in the world won't do a thing unless you lose the fat covering your abdominal muscles. Aerobic exercises for 45 to 60 minutes, four to five times a week.

7. Tuck your tummy exercises are easy and you can do them anywhere. Practice the tuck until it becomes comfortable, and soon it will come natural, like breathing. "Do it every chance you can.

8. When your ready hit the weights. Aim for two or three weight workouts a week.

9. Do bonus ab workouts. Stand when doing weight-lifting exercises. That way your abs work as well. " Concentrate on keeping your abs tight and maintaining good posture.

10. If you're age 50 or over, be sure to get six pack abs fast..

Experiment Update and a Confession

Well, that's going to leave a mark!

The Gym Buddies, 30 (ish) of you readers and I are halfway done with January's Great Fitness Experiment. And what do I have to show for it? Sore muscles every single day, a ton of sweaty gym laundry and a bruise the size of a softball on my thigh. (Okay so technically the last one isn't Lindsey's fault - I tripped over that weight plate and banged into the weight stand and bit my lip so hard trying not to cry on the weight floor that I had blood-flavored lunch, all by myself. Technically.) All in all, all the makings of a great workout!

Lindsey Mathews of Lean Bodies coaching has the Gym Buddies and I doing a 5-day workout with two days of high-intensity interval cardio (that make me want to barf), one day of interval circuits (that make me want to barf), one day of Tabata intervals (that made me barf a little in my mouth) and one day of weight lifting (in which there was no barfing at all but as I explained, much bruising). And of course we kept TurboKick! I'm not sure what she has the rest of you doing but judging from some of the e-mails I've gotten it's been as puke-tastic as our workout.

True story: Gym Buddy Megan has taken to reliving her days as a cheerleader by chanting across the weight floor, "You can do it if you try! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!" To which I yelled back, "What are you spelling?!?" I was so fatigued from sprinting on the treadmill and then going straight to V pushups that I had lost all ability to spell. You know it's a tough workout when you can no longer decipher your native language.

I'm not complaining though - I asked for her butt-kickingest workout. I haven't had a really good, really intense workout since the early part of my pregnancy. And, oh wait - remember that thing I did two months ago? That's right, I HAD A BABY. See, I need to keep reminding myself of that fact because while I like to think that I'm back in black, the last two weeks have shown me how weak I really am. It's a little depressing to realize how much strength I actually lost. But thankfully it does seem to be coming back, courtesy of the 10,000 lunges we've been doing.

Which leads me to the progress portion of tonight's program: I've definitely gained some muscle. It's hard to quantify without a body fat test but my pants are a little looser. In addition, I've lost two pounds. Ish. My weight goes up and down so much that yo-yos are jealous (today I learned that breast feeding makes me lose a half pound instantly! Apparently the Jelly Bean drinks about 8 ounces.) so it's hard to say for sure. I also re-remembered that I can exercise until the cows come home but I won't lose weight until I get my eating under control. Which is why I've gone back to logging my calories on FitDay.

I'll wait for the collective gasp from the audience.

I know, I don't food journal. I HATE food journalling. My food-nazi-journal-spreadsheet-obsessive-nonsense was a big part of my eating disorder and I felt so liberated once I finally gave it up. Yet, here I am. My plan is to only journal until I lose the last of the baby weight and then I'll chuck the sucker once I get to maintenance mode again. Highway to hell? I fully expect some of you to admonish me in the comments. I probably deserve it. The good news is that this time I'm limiting myself to the incredibly UNuser-friendly FitDay site rather than my own overly involved Excel spreadsheets. So the sheer frustration of that site should help keep me in check.

Lay it on me: How have your workouts been going this month? What workouts make you want to barf? Do I have no business being a nursing mother and counting calories?

Trend Watch: Soft Porn Fitness

"If you've got it, flaunt it!" so the saying goes and fitness people certainly subscribe to this mantra. Seen a health or fitness mag lately? Unless it is Experience Life, I'd bet you a trailer of tuna steaks with whole wheat couscous and arugula ('cause everyone has those on hand right?) that the cover model is in some state of undress. The bikini-clad-standing-thigh-deep-in-generic-water pose is so popular that I don't think Shape has done a cover in the last 5 years without it!

Fitness TV shows, DVDs and podcasts are no better with female trainers sporting tiny booty shorts and sports bras. All the better to show off your hard-won physique right? Why else do we work out if not to get a body worth publicly baring? Ahem. Heck, even CrossFit's been porni-fied. And if you've ever tried CrossFit you will understand how very weird that is.

But is the trend going past flat abs and cut biceps towards something more... porno?

Reader Katie recently wrote me about a fitness site she feels very conflicted about:

The website is www.bodyrock.tv . [...] This website has really started to transform the way I approach workouts. They are short, intense workouts--from as little as 9 minutes to 45 minutes-tops. It's all bodyweight based and just requires a floor mat and the ability to do pull-ups someplace. The woman on the site is very fit and is not shy about sharing that these workouts are ALL she does and that a lot of her battle is also in the kitchen.

It all sounds great. Until you look at the site. I'm embarrassed to look at the site around other people because of the way her videos are shot, and the photos taken to show the individual movements. I feel like I'm looking at a soft-porn fitness site! When I've showed people where I've been getting several of my workouts from, they react with this same mixture of raised eyebrows, but then respect for her solid routines (and body). On the one hand, she sends such a positive message about being physically fit, nourishing your body with healthy food, and to a degree to not be ashamed to show off your hard work. On the other hand, she totally exploits her body and this razzes my feminist sensibilities. Therefore, the message gets a little muddled between the obvious display of silicone and play toward sex appeal and lack of modesty. This site combines so many of my vices---fitness, sex appeal, my love/hate relationship with this site's goals, and finding the real reason I work out--how much is for my own fitness and how much for outward appearance?

Here's a screen shot of one of the videos Katie is referring to: (to see the whole video, click the picture to go to her site. Her videos aren't enabled for external embedding - sorry!)

And here's a shot of Zuzana from her home page demonstrating a lunge:
I have to admit that while I am very used to seeing how sexified most fitness women are, this site seemed a little extreme. It wasn't the clothing per se but more the poses, expressions and mannerisms - ones our society normally associates with porn rather than fitness. Hawt TV trainers may dress like the sexy gym teacher or co-ed cheerleader every man dreams about but - here's the difference - they don't usually act like it. Zuzana calls our bluff and refuses to allow us to pretend that we're not looking at her boobs.

Celebrities on magazine covers and mad-hot Czech women on the Internet are one thing but what about real life? I remember the last time a girl showed up at my gym with night-club makeup, teased hair and sporting cleavage on both ends. People, both men and women, made negative comments about her look and the attitude they assumed she had. Jealousy rearing its ugly head? Or indignation about the breach of the implied moral code? Both?

On one hand, sex sells. Duh. Who wouldn't want to look like Zuzana? I do! And I tried a couple of her workouts - they're solid. (I also wrote down that apple cake recipe because even though I was rolling my eyes at her Daisy Duke getup the cake still sounded really really good.) But on the other hand, is it necessary to go all Jenna Jameson to pimp your fitness routine? Fitness is often a weird place where, like acting and modeling, your body is your product. Is there a line between showing off what you worked so hard to create and being sexy? Is there a point where overt sexiness in fitness ads actually turns you off the product?

And be honest - how much of your motivation to workout is for your health and how much is based on how you want to look?

PS> Anyone else really irritated by the banner on her homepage advertising her auction for her workout pants because her size 4s are now too big and she needs money to buy smaller ones? We get it: you are tiny and adorable.

Great Abs Exercise to Give You the Abs You Have Dreamed Of

Many of us wonder how almost every star in Hollywood get flatten stomach fast. In some cases a lot of us believe that they are born with it; but of course this is not the case. It takes a lot of hard work and training to get the chiselled and sculpted look that we see in most movies and on magazine covers every day.

In a recent survey, when you are going to the beach or swimming pool, the body part that most people look at is your abdomen. There are plenty of different workouts that you can do to help yourselves get a six pack that you so greatly desire. What you have to understand is that everybody has abs. The difference is that some people's abs are covered by more fat than other people's abs.

Abs Exercise Is By the Plenty

In terms of exercising your abs there is a machine at the gym aptly named the ab machine. This machine makes you do a crunching motion while you are sitting in the proper position for maximum effect. You are able to decrease or increase the resistance if you wish to do so. When you are looking to do an abs exercise, do not try and break any speed records as you should take your time and flex them while you are doing any exercises. If you add more resistance to the machine it will help define your abdomen once you have reached that point and get flatten stomach fast.
You can use everyday items such as books or even a dumbbell or whatever you like. You should then place the weighted object into one of these positions. Placing the object above your head and holding it in place with your hands. When performing these types of workouts you should use exercise techniques that you would use if you are not using any weight to train with.

Another good abs exercise to perform is hanging leg lifts; but to do this you will need a pull up bar. All you do is simply allow your legs to hang; making sure that your body is relaxed enough so that as you pull yourself up, there is no bend in your knees. Also make sure that your toes are pointed.

Another good way of exercising your abdomen is quite simple and easy to do. By simply laying flat on your back and bending your knees with your feet placed firmly on the floor position and your hands behind your ears making sure that they do not actually touch any part of your head. By simply raising your body up and down, you are performing a crunch to your abdomen and across your body. Try to also touch your left elbow with your right knee and vice versa as this also helps define your abdomen. Always try and flex your stomach while performing these exercises and then gently ease yourself back into the starting position and perform the exercise once again and you will get six pack abs fast.