As a personal trainer I routinely field questions about flat stomachs and six pack abs. Men and women want the secret formula to a rock solid mid-section. There are 5 tips that can help anyone increase their chances of a slimmer, fat-free waistline.
Flat Stomach Tip 1) Eat plenty of fibrous foods. This helps aid digestion and elimination. All too often the protruding lower abdominals are caused by enlarged intestines. Aiding the body's digestion and elimination processes will help give a flatter appearance to the lower stomach area.
Flat Stomach Tip 2) Create a strength training routine that addresses all of the major muscle groups. A nice trick I learned along the way is to increase the musce in your shoulders. This gives the appearance of a smaller waist. Working your whole body is more advantageous for many reasons. A few reasons are:
- Working the entire body creates balance. Working just the abs will result in an imbalance and may lead to over-use, under-use or injury of certain muscles.
- Working the entire body will add more lean muscle. Women need to add lean, toned muscle to their body. They should not be afraid of bulking up or looking like men. The more muscle we have, the more calories we burn. Each pound of muscle burns 35-50 calories per day.
- Just working the abs usually results in over training. With a full body routine each muscle receives attention and proper rest.
Flat Stomach Tip 3) Drink plenty of fluids. Water and unsweetened teas are best. Keeping the body properly hydrated will aid in digestion and elimination.
Flat Stomach Tip 4) Participate in a cardio activity most days of the week. I recommend doing a mix of session lengths and intensity levels. The total workout time should typically be kept under an hour (including strength training). A few days should be medium intensity and medium length cardio sessions. A few days should be reserved for long sessions with low intensity. One day each for a higher intensity, shorter program and a rest day.
Flat Stomach Tip 5) Incorporate the Plank Pose into your ab routine. The Plank Pose works the transverse abdominis muscle. This muscle is responsible for holding the stomach in and supporting posture. This is one of the best ab workouts in my opinion. It really works the muscle responsible for a flat stomach. More info can be found on the Plank Pose at http://strength-training-woman.com/ab-exercise.html.
Combine these 5 tips for a flat stomach and get ready for results. Genetics play a role in the over all appearance of your stomach, but just about everyone can benefit from a reduction in body fat. The simplest way to a tight mid-section is to make a lifestyle change. Dieting is a quick fix that usually results in frustration and weight gain. Learn to achieve optimal health by applying positive habits.
Tips For A Flat Stomach
I understand how you feel, people wants results fast and it is nothing wrong with that. As long as it is sustainable and it is healthy. There are many ways to burn body fat faster, unfortunately most of the ways are unhealthy and they do not last long. I know I have promised you some tips that you could implement so that you can double your fat loss but before that, why not I highlight some quick weight loss methods that you should avoid.
First of all, avoid crash diets. Crash diets can make you lose weight really fast. That it is called crash diets. You crash and burn. The burn part is the part where you pile the weight back on and even more sometimes! When you go through a quick weight loss diet, you are going through a fake and deprived lifestyle. It is not sustainable. You need to lose weight steadily and be able to sustain it for years to come.
Now, lets get into the question on how to double your weight loss results so that you can get a flat stomach. For starters, I would like to begin with hammering into your head that you need weight training to build muscle in order to lose belly fat. This does not mean you need to do hundreds of crunches or hundreds of weighted crunches. That wont help either. The idea of weight training is to pack on solid muscle into your frame so that your can increase your metabolism. One pound of muscle burns an extra 50 calories for just being there. This is because muscle are living tissues and it need calories to survive. You will burn even more calories when you exercise because more calories are needed to move the additional muscles.
Focus on adding about 4 pounds of muscle throughout your body. This will help you burn an additional 200 calories per day and even more calories when you workout.
Focus on adding more muscle on the legs. The legs is the best part to pack on muscle. This is because the legs is a large muscle group and have the ability to pack on more muscle compared to the other muscle groups. The other reason is that most people, avoid training legs. It is a high chance that you can add in loads of muscle on your legs right now.
Not only that. The benefits add ons. With stronger legs, you can run further and faster which will results in more calorie burn, most probably around 100 more calories. The additional muscles also protects your joints from injuries and ware and tear.
To further increase your calorie, do high intensity interval training for your cardio vascular training. this method which is also called as HITT, can really power up your stamina, skyrocket your speed and post workout after burn. Unlike traditional cardiovascular training where the calorie burn stops as soon as you stop doing it, HITT enables you to experience post workout calorie burn! This means your body will continue on burning calories even after the exercise session. If you have done a HITT correctly, you will find that you will be sweating still even after the workout itself.
HITT works this way. It is a 20 minute super high intensity workout. In that 20 minutes, you have 10 intervals with 2 minutes in each interval. 1 minute will be your resting phase and 1 minute will be your working phase. On the working phase, you will run as fast as you can, around the level of anaerobic and the after one minute, you will slow down and walk for a minute to recover. Then, you would repeat the interval for 10 times. Remember though, if you want this to really burn fat, you need to run at the intensity of around 90 % of your max heart rate and sometimes 95 %.
Wait, there is more!
To further increase the body fat burn, do this HITT training first thing in the morning as this will tap into your body fat stores fast.
So, now you are armed with 4 tips to assist you to double up your calorie burn and 1 crucial tip to help you avoid weight loss pit fall. Take action today and start using these strategies. I believe if you really desire a flat stomach, you will get it! If you snooze, you lose!
Both Lynn Vandyke & Tony Leong are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Lynn Vandyke has sinced written about articles on various topics from Personal Desktop, Fitness and Health. Lynn VanDyke is the head trainer at . Her wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat, comes complete with over 100 exercises, 1. Lynn Vandyke's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.
Tony Leong has sinced written about articles on various topics from Flat Stomach, Gym and Wellness. Tony Leong is giving away his Tony Leong Weight Loss System when you join his info packed Fast Fat Loss E-Mag for a limited time only. Download it at
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