In today’s issue of FUN, HOT, NO B.S. Fitness Magazine!…
While reading through VFT’s subscriber’s Q and A’s today…
One of the most mentioned obstacles that folk are struggling with is reducing abdominal fat when you’re limited for time.
And that you feel guilty if you spend hours training per day – worried that it takes time away from spending quality moments with your spouse, family and other important commitments in your life.
In today’s issue we break down 6 essential Six Pack Ab steps for creating short, effective workouts that train your whole body, including your abs.
…And BURN MORE BODY FAT long after you’ve completed your exercise session.
PLUS you’re also privvy to 2 x SAMPLE WORKOUTS that we’ve included below for you!!…
…On what you should be doing to achieve six pack abs!
I hope you enjoy today’s lesson and PLEASE leave your comment BY CLICKING ON THE COMMENTS box below, we love hearing from you!
VirtualFitnessTrainer.com
VFT – NO BS Fitness!
Having excess belly fat is not only unsightly, it’s actually a health hazard. An expanding waistline is a recipe for numerous diseases and health problems.
So while I often talk about getting a flat, sexy stomach, these 6 Tips For 6-Pack Abs will also improve the quality of your life and could even prolong it for a number of years.
So here you go…follow these tips, secrets and strategies and you’ll tighten your tummy, whittle your waistline and reduce the risk of having health problems or early death.
Flat Belly Tip #1 – You don’t need to spend 1-2 hours in the gym to get a flat stomach.
As a fitness professional, I’ve heard all the excuses in the book for skipping a workout: too busy, gym is too crowded or too far, don’t have my workout clothes or sneakers, it’s too hot or cold outside. And the list goes on and on. But by far the #1 excuse I hear over and over again for skipping a workout is, “I don’t have enough time.”
Well let me break it down for you: there are 1,440 minutes in a day. Can you spare 20 minutes or less and dedicate that time to exercising and reducing your belly fat? If you said “no” you should just stop reading this article right now. If you said “yes”, then great! That will still give you 1,420 minutes to get the rest of your stuff done during the day.
When it comes to training, more is not better. What’s more important is the quality and intensity of your workouts. I prefer to workout about 20 minutes, 6 days a week and that’s gotten my abs flatter than ever before.
Flat Belly Tip #2 – You don’t need any equipment to lose belly fat.
Bodyweight workouts are extremely effective at helping you burn belly fat and get an all around hot body. They are the most convenient form of workouts and can be performed anywhere – in your home, in the back yard, in a hotel room, at a gym, etc., so you’re more likely to stick to your routine.
But there are biomechanical reasons why bodyweight movements are so effective. You see in life, we use our body as one full segment, like sitting down, reaching for something on a shelf, turning around, chasing your kids, or any of hundreds of other movements.
Your body should be trained mimicking these movements to best cope with the demands of daily living and sports. Machines at the gym can make you stronger but they isolate individual muscles too much and that’s not how your body is designed to work. Remember, we said that you use your body as one full segment. If you isolate muscles when you train, this can lead to imbalances and overuse injuries.
Doing squats as part of your workout will help you prepare for various sitting and standing movements that are a part of your day, much more so than doing seated leg extensions, for example.
Flat Belly Tip #3 – You don’t need to do any crunches to get a flat stomach.
There are a few problems with crunches. First, crunches isolate one muscle group – the abs. Remember we said that in everyday living, the body works as one unit and it’s better to train it as such.
Second, when you do crunches, you are lying on your back on the ground for part of the time, so your abs are relaxed and not even working during a portion of the crunch.
Third, your abs play a critical role in stabilizing your spine (not flexing it) and should be trained as such. During crunches, your abs are helping to flex the spine, not stabilize it.
Forth, doing crunches, which we said flexes your spine, can easily cause a lower back injury if you’re not careful.
And finally, crunches are not an intense enough exercise to where you’ll be burning fat calories. So for these reasons, crunches should be eliminated from your workout program.
Flat Belly Tip #4 Exercises that work your abs the entire time, such as exercises in a standing, push up or plank position, are going to work best at flattening your belly and getting your entire body defined and lean.
Examples of exercises that fit this description are squats, lunges, push ups, pull ups and forearm planks (there are many more examples).
These type of movements not only train your abs (in a stabilization fashion like we mentioned in Tip #3), but, since they are compound movements, they work more than one muscle group at a time. Many of the movements are strengthening movements, which help to build lean muscle in your body which induces a fat burning effect.
If the exercises are organized in the proper order with little rest between movements, you can stimulate a high intensity cardio effect, training in an anaerobic state. This will allow for increased metabolism for several hours after the workout is complete, allowing your body to burn more fat calories, which will in turn get your stomach flatter. There have been several research studies that support this.
Flat Belly Tip #5 Incorporate weight based interval training into your workouts.
Combining your weight training with cardio workouts – full body weight exercises with heavy weights and sprint based drills inserted continuously into the workout – will help you burn more fat.
A recent study by Davis, et. al., published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning, examined 2 groups of exercisers. Group A did 60 minutes of resistance training followed by 30 minutes aerobic training. Group B alternated resistance training with a high intensity treadmill sprint (the weight based interval training group).
Group B showed an almost 10 fold reduction in body fat, than group A, and over 80% increase in muscle strength!
A sample weight based interval training workout would look like this:
Push Ups x 30 seconds
Squat Jumps x 30 seconds
Close Grip Push Ups x 30 seconds
Squat Thrusts x 30 seconds
Feet Elevated Push Ups x 30 seconds
Mountain Climbers x 30 seconds
Rest for 60 seconds and repeat for 3 rounds total
I do these “bootcamp” style workouts about 3 days a week (as do a lot of my bootcamp members) and we have gotten some awesome fat loss results.
Another powerful type of training are Tabata Intervals. Tabata training is 4 minute intervals where you perform 20 seconds maximum intensity exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. You perform 8 straight rounds for a total of 4 minutes
Dr. Tabata’s original study was performed on a cycle ergometer for 6 weeks where participates exercised 4 minutes a day/3 days per week. The results were a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity and 14% increase in VO2 max in the study participants.
You can try Tabata Intervals with different exercises – keep in mind this may change the focus, e.g. push ups would make it a strength endurance focus
The intense interval work raises the metabolic rate long after the exercise session is completed resulting in more post workout fat loss.
Try the protocol with sprinting, jump rope, or bodyweight movements like push ups, squats and squat thrusts.
A simple, but effective sample Tabata protocol would be as follows:
Push Ups x 20 seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
Squats x 20 seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
4 rounds of each = 4 minutes
Flat Belly Tip #6 – Count ingredients, not calories. Eat single ingredient foods and foods with as few ingredients as possible.
No matter how much you work out, it won’t help much if your diet is out of whack. You should be eating whole, natural foods as often as possible and get rid of the sugars, processed and boxed foods as well as foods high in trans fat. Even foods that you might think are healthy, such as cereals and reduced fat crackers, are just as disguised as health foods. Check out the ingredient list of those items. It’s a paragraph long and contains lots of junk.
Examples of foods that you should be eating include: eggs, spinach, apples, oatmeal, chicken, turkey breast, sweet potatoes, salmon, almonds, strawberries, blueberries, and walnuts.
There you go – 6 Tips for 6-Pack Abs. I hope this helps you lead a more fit, active and healthy lifestyle and a long and productive life.
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My name is Scott Colby. I’m a certified personal trainer, and I specialize in helping frustrated and confused men and women finally achieve the toned, tight, sexy body they’ve always wanted.
I’ve worked with literally hundreds of people both personally as one-on-one clients and in my Women’s Only Bootcamps down in Dallas, Texas. And that doesn’t even include the Thousands of men and women I’ve consulted with and helped in my online businesses, my teleseminars, and my other products.
I’m an internationally known fitness professional, speaker and is author of the internationally popular Abs Uncrunched and creator of the My First Six Pack coaching program. I recently became an international best selling author as a co-author of the book Total Body Breakthroughs.
In addition, I am the owner of AbsUncrunched.com and The AbsExpert.com and I’m the creator of the online teleseminar series My Ultimate Body Makeover and Amazing Abs Formula, and Mommy Abs Makeover which have helped tens of thousands of people in over 100 countries around the world.
I also founded Her Strength fitness bootcamps for women in Dallas, Texas which I owned and operated for over 5 years. I hold a Masters degree from the University of Virginia specializing in Biomechanics and have over 10 years experience in conducting research in human movement. I am also on the Board of Directors for the International Youth Conditioning Association.
My latest venture is my new business, Fitness Adventures USA (http://www.FitnessAdventuresUSA.com) providing healthy vacations and active fitness adventures all over the United States.
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