It is getting to that time of the year, just before spring hits, when thoughts of a bikini in the summer start coming to mind. There is one thing everyone wants: killer abs. Now is the time to start training if you want them by summer and we are here to help you achieve your goals for losing tummy fat. First there is some science to understand to understand your abdominal muscles.
Rectus Abdominus
This is the lavish name for what we all know as abs. They are the muscles that run down the front of your body from the center of the rib cage to the pubic bone. Abs consists of one long sheet of muscle that looks like it is made up of several small muscles called tendinous inscriptions. These inscriptions give a 6-pack its appearance. When you workout your abs, you work out the whole muscle but some exercises impact certain areas more specifically.
Recipe for killer abs
Your abs are apart of your core which also includes your obliques, transverse abdominis, your lower back and your hips. You should try to workout all of these areas when you work on your abs. Additionally to working out, you need to follow these rules: Have realistic goals, avoid crash diets, burn fat, treat your abs like other trained muscles and add variety.
- Realistic goals
Here comes the bad news. Women are genetically predisposed to carry more fat around their waist and for many women to get defined abs, they have to drop below the women’s healthy range of body fat. Dropping below this ‘healthy’ level can have implications on women’s menstrual health. You have to decide how far you are willing to go for washboard abs.
- Avoid crash diets
By maintaining a healthy diet is the best way to drop the access weight from your abs and achieve a defined tummy for summer. Omitting certain food groups, such as dairy or carbs will not affect your abs and eating nothing will only come back to bite you later – no pun intended. It has been proven that those who deprive their body of food wind up binging later. A balanced diet of the key.
- Burn fat
Most people have well-defined abs, they are just cover with a layer of fat. You need to strike a balance of moderate to intensive cardio exercise with a healthy diet to help burn the fat on top of the muscle. All the crunches in the world will not achieve anything if you don’t get rid of the fat.
- Treat your abs like other muscle groups
Abs need to be trained similarly to your other muscle groups and this does not mean crunching thousands of times a day. 8-15 reps in 3 sets of ab workout for 6 pack abs is more than sufficient. Focus on perfecting your form. Pull your naval towards your spine will intensify each crunch. Remember to rest your abs too. Aim to work them out 3-4 times a week.
- Variety
Your body will become immune to your exercise routine if you do the same thing every workout. You need to continue to challenge your body to see a return on your hard work. Put together a variety of 3 or 4 different routines and mix up your gym exercise habits. This will stop your body getting used to the exercise.
