Health and fitness issues can be complicated, but common sense and a basic understanding of how your body works can get you pretty far.

That said, some concepts are counter intuitive and others are so strange you would probably never come up with them on your own. This article discusses a little known health and fitness technique that may seem bizarre, but can significantly improves neck health and function.

What if I said that you can make your neck stronger and feel better every day just by doing something with your tongue? If you are like most people, you might find this hard to believe initially. I have received my fair share of strange looks when I tell people about this technique, but most people really benefit from it and are often amazed at the difference it makes.

This technique essentially involves putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth, but it is not quite that simple and it is only beneficial in certain situations.

I should point out that this is not a gimmick and there is a real physiological reason why it works. Essentially, you can use your tongue to engage deep neck muscles in order to stabilize your cervical spine, which is the portion of your spine around your neck.

Perhaps the best way to explain this technique is to look at one of the primary exercises where it is useful, the crunch. In a crunch, you raise and lower your head, neck, shoulders, and part of the upper back off the ground using your abdominal muscles. When you raise your body, your head is unsupported (unless you use your hands) and your neck muscles have to support the weight of your head.

People often complain that their neck hurts during crunches and you may have experienced this yourself at some point. As a result, people are often told to hold their head during crunches, use a machine that supports your head, or just skip crunches and do other exercises instead.

Contrary to popular belief, this is all bad advice, but it may not seem like bad advice, unless you know what is causing the neck pain. In most cases, people’s neck muscles hurt during crunches because the neck muscles are not strong enough to support the head. The neck muscles still try as hard as possible, causing them to be strained or overworked, which results in discomfort.

Now, just think about this for the moment. The neck muscles are too weak to perform the exercise correctly, so the recommendation is to take the neck muscles out of the exercise. While this does allow the abs to be worked, it makes the neck muscles even weaker due to a lack of use and creates a further imbalance between the strength of the neck and other muscles.

In other works, it makes the neck muscles even less functional. In almost any other situation where muscles are identified as weak, the recommendation is to strengthen the weak muscles, but with the neck, common advice is basically not to use them. From both physiological and common sense standpoints, this simply does not make any sense.

Neck muscles are very important and they need to be trained just like every other muscle group. There is no situation where continuing to let them get weaker will be beneficial in the long run. However, if you have an injury or other underlying neck problem, then those issues may have to be corrected before neck strengthening can begin.

Even if you do not have a clinical neck problem, it can still be difficult to strengthen your neck muscles if they are weak, because too much stress will make them hurt and be counter productive. Neck muscles are very sensitive and you should only work a certain amount before they get tired. Then further exercise only results in pain and an increase in recovery time.

Going back to the crunch example, when lifting your body off the ground, your neck muscles will tense in order to stabilize your cervical spine and support your head. When the forces on the neck are too much, the muscles become overwhelmed and you will feel tension in the back of your neck. Tension in the back of the neck is a bad form of tension and should be avoided whenever possible.

On the other hand, if you feel tension in the muscles in front of your neck, that is usually a good thing, because those are the muscles that should be doing the work. A lack of stress in the muscles in back of the neck means the front muscles are correctly supporting the head. This is very similar to the way your abs work to protect your low back muscles when they work correctly.

The weaker the front neck muscles are, the more tension you will feel when they are supporting your head. If you do not feel any strain in your neck muscles, then they are likely properly engaged and strong enough to support your head and stabilize your cervical spine without being significantly challenged.

The real challenge is getting rid of the strain in the muscles in the back of your neck. Fortunately, that is where the tongue on the roof of your mouth technique comes in. By placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth (just behind your front teeth) and applying a little pressure with your tongue, your can engage some of the deeper neck muscles to provide increased muscular support.

When done correctly, this usually makes the strain in the back of the neck disappear or at least decreases the intensity of the strain by a noticeable amount. It can also increase the tension in the front neck muscles, which is a good thing, because it is a way to make them stronger. This technique is demonstrated in more depth during the accompanying video.

Pushing your tongue against the roof of your mouth should be used any time your neck has to support your head against gravity or any other external force. Common scenarios involve your body being in a horizontal position when your head is not supported. The crunch is probably the most common exercise example, but it should be used any time you lay down (bench, ball, floor, etc.) and your head is not supported.

Even when this technique is used correctly, your neck muscles will eventually get tired and if you feel tension in the back of your neck, then you should stop what you are doing. After your neck muscles have a chance to rest and recover, then you may be able to use those muscles some more. If not, then give them a rest until they have enough time to recover.

With crunch exercises, people often complain that their neck gives out before their abs so their abdominal muscles do not get enough work. While this may be somewhat frustrating, it is only temporary. By utilizing your neck muscles correctly during crunches and other exercises, your neck will become stronger and quickly build endurance.

Before you know it, your neck will no longer be the limiting factor in the exercises and you can focus more on your abs or other muscles. However, if you skip this step and avoid training your neck muscles, they will always be a weak link and you will have an increased chance of experiencing future neck pain or injury.

Avoiding the use of weak muscles or areas is never a solution and improving your weaknesses is one of the biggest keys to having a healthy and well functioning body throughout your lifetime.

By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com

Getting your abs back after a c-section and post pregnancy can be a challenge, but there are some things you can do to make the process easier. Exercise is one of the main tools, but the key is finding the right exercises and the right difficulty for your current level of physical ability. Exercises that are too easy do not stimulate improvement, while exercises that are too hard will overstress muscles and slow your progress.

Of course, right after a pregnancy is not a good time to jump back into to your old routine and you definitely need to start off slow. On the other hand, if you avoid exercising your muscles altogether, they will not regain their previous levels of strength and endurance, so it is important to find the right balance.

This is especially true if you’ve had a c-section, in which case it typically takes 4 to 6 weeks for the incision to heal after the procedure. During this time, doing too much can slow recovery or create complications, such as tearing your stitches. However, even after a c-section, you don’t want to completely avoid using your abdominal muscles.

Initially, the most important thing is getting back your basic abdominal muscle function, which is done by improving the neurological connection between your brain and your muscles. In other words, making sure your muscles are able to contract correctly when your brain asks them too. It may seem like this should happen automatically, but a c-section or traditional childbirth can impair this connection.

There are even a significant number of people who have poor connections between their brain and their muscles simply from a lack of muscle use. This is actually fairly common with the muscles in the lower abdominal area, which are very important for getting your pre-pregnancy stomach back.

The place to start is by performing isometric contractions, which means your muscles are tense, but are not moving (shortening or lengthening) while contracting. One example of an isometric contraction is when you clench your fist tightly and hold it.

In terms of the lower abdominals, a good starting exercise is relaxing your body and pulling your belly button in towards your spine, then holding that position. This activates your transverse abdominis (TVA), which is an important muscle for spine stability, tightening your core, and progressing to more advanced exercises as you get stronger.

Another effective way to start retraining your muscles is to work on maintaining good posture. Sitting or standing straight with your head up, shoulders back (not slumping), and maintaining a neutral curve in your spine is not only good for your body, but it makes your core muscles work at a low intensity. This helps build endurance and it can initially help improve strength as well.

If you are able to maintain good posture and perform isometric contractions without any straining or discomfort, there are some other exercises you can include as well. Most notably, when sitting in a chair (with a back support) you can practice tightening your abs and flattening your low back against the back of the chair. If that feels fine, then you can perform the same ab tightening and back flattening movement standing against a wall.

With any of these exercises it is a good idea to hold your abdomen to provide extra support while contracting your muscles. This is especially true if you’ve had a c-section, in which case you should provide support to the area around your incision. This reduces unnecessary strain that could delay recovery.

After the initial 4 to 6 week recovery period you can start increasing the difficulty of your exercises, if allowed by your doctor. However, you should not drastically increase the difficulty since your muscles will probably be a long way from where they were before your pregnancy. For some examples of exercises to use at this point, take a look at the video on Abdominal Training to Prevent and Decrease Back Pain.

As you progress your abdominal training, be sure to avoid the common problem of spending too much time doing crunches and other exercises to train your rectus abdominis (the 6-pack muscle that runs vertically down your midsection). People typically train this muscle most, because it is the most visible ab muscle, but of the 4 abdominal muscles, it does not have a huge impact on getting your stomach back after a pregnancy.

You should definitely include some exercises to work the rectus abdominis, but the other abdominal muscles (TVA, internal and external obliques) are at least as important and probably more so. These other muscles not only help tighten your midsection, but they are important for protecting your spine and preventing low back pain as well.

It is also important to keep in mind that exercise is only one part of the equation and nutrition is just as important. These exercises will improve the strength and endurance of your abdominal muscles and help tighten and tone your midsection, but a good nutritional program is necessary to lose the extra weight gained during a pregnancy.

By eating healthy foods, maintaining a reasonable caloric intake, and consistently exercising your abdominals along with the rest of your muscles, you will be well on your way to getting your pre-pregnancy body back.

By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com

Probably the most common area of the body that people want to improve is their midsection. Whether it is a beer belly, spare tyre / love handles, or the little extra bulge or pooch around the lower abdominals, there are a number of ab related issues that cause a lot of frustration.

Regardless of what area(s) of your body you want to improve, the most important thing is your overall exercise and nutrition program. People often want to just focus on their problem areas, but without healthy eating habits (watching caloric intake, getting enough nutrients, etc.) and consistent challenging workouts, progress will be hard to come by, no matter how much you focus on one area. See Part 1 of our ab series: The Bona Fide Facts On Abdominal Exercises and Fat Loss

This is especially true when you have fat that has accumulated around your midsection, such as with a beer belly or spare tyre. These are really issues of overall body fat percentage and improving your eating and exercising habits has by far the most profound effect on improving these issues.

When it comes to losing fat specifically from your problem areas, whether it is your abs or anywhere else, one of the biggest keys is being consistent with your health and fitness routine. Problem areas tend to be the areas of your body where you gain weight/fat first and lose it last. Therefore, if you want to lose fat from stubborn areas of your body, you have to avoid going through periods of losing and gaining weight.

For most people, any time they go off their diet or stop exercising, they gain some fat in their problem areas. Naturally this makes it seem like it is impossible to lose fat from those areas, but this is just an illusion. If you follow a well-designed exercise and nutrition program and stick to it consistently, you will eventually lose fat from every one of those stubborn areas.

If you are doing the important things well (eating right and exercising consistently) and have a relatively low percentage of body fat, but still have issues with a lower abdominal pooch, there are some other things that can help with that specific problem.

The first place to start is with your abdominal training program. If you are like most people, chances are you may either do little abdominal work or your ab routine focuses mainly on your rectus abdominis (the 6-pack muscle). This muscle usually gets the most attention, because it is the muscle that is most visible, but working this muscle does little to improve a lower abdominal pooch.

In order to tighten your muscles around a lower abdominal area, you need to include exercises for your obliques (side abdominal muscles) and especially the transverse abdominis (TVA). The TVA is a deep abdominal muscle that runs horizontally across your lower abdominals around the area of your belly button. This muscle is an important stabilizer and training it will tighten your lower abs and help minimize the lower ab pooch.

Another issue that can cause a lower abdominal pooch is having an increased curve in your lower spine (lordosis). Lordosis can be caused by a number of things, such as poor posture, tight muscles, sitting for long periods every day, and not stretching. When excessive lumbar spine curvature occurs, it results in weak abdominal muscles and causes your lower abdominals to stick out from your body, creating a pooch effect.

Fortunately, many of the same exercises that work your transverse abdominis also help correct excessive lumbar curve, if they are done the right way. See Part 5 of our Ab series: Use These Tips To Maximize Your Abs And Minimize Lower Back Pain.

If you have too much or too little curve in any part of your spine, it is recommended to seek out a qualified professional (physical therapist, personal trainer with speciality training, etc.) to help deal with these issues.

If you don’t have any back problems, there are a number of good exercises to help strengthen, tighten, and tone your muscles to reduce a lower abdominal pooch. Some effective exercises are 2 leg bent-knee holds, leg lowers, and leg circles. These exercises are all demonstrated in the accompanying video.

In addition to the abdominal muscle and spinal curve issues, a lower abdominal pooch can also be due to nutrition related issues. In particular, if you have any food allergies or food sensitivities, eating those foods can cause bloating around your lower abdomen, creating a pooch effect.

Food sensitivities can be difficult to figure out, because the symptoms are usually subtle and can include things like sluggishness, headaches, and mental fogginess. Since these are generic symptoms that are also related to other issues (lack of sleep, stress, etc.), they are rarely attributed to food choices. They are also difficult to pinpoint, because it requires careful manipulation of your daily eating along with accurate note taking to figure out what foods are the real culprits.

A full explanation of this process (an elimination diet) is beyond the scope of this article, but it basically involves removing anything that could potentially cause a negative reaction and then adding back one ingredient at a time to see how it affects your system. This is a complicated and demanding process that is not realistic for most people, but if you have serious food sensitivity problems it can be helpful.

As an easier alternative, you can avoid the ingredients that negatively impact the most people. The common culprits are dairy, fructose, yeast, gluten, wheat, and any highly processed foods or food additives. If you can completely avoid eating one of these ingredients for 2 to 3 weeks and find that you feel better, without changing anything else in your program, then chances are you have an allergy or sensitivity to that ingredient.

This is not a perfect system, but it is much easier than an elimination diet and it can be useful for finding foods that do not agree with your body. If you can minimize or ideally avoid eating these foods, you will certainly feel better and simultaneously reduce intestinal bloating, which also reduces a lower abdominal pooch.

Since there are many factors that can cause an abdominal pooch (overall body fat percentage, exercises performed, lumbar spine curve, and nutrition), it means you have to do well in each of those areas to really minimize the size of a pooch.

However, even if you only improve one or two of these issues, you can still achieve some pooch reduction. More importantly, improving your exercise and nutrition habits will also improve your overall health and fitness, so it is definitely worth the effort. Just remember that physical improvements do not happen overnight and it takes consistent effort to make real long-term progress.

By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com

Numerous health and fitness organizations, such as the NIH (National Institutes of Health), estimate that at least 80% of people will experience low back pain during their lives. There are many factors that contribute to back pain, such as weak or tight muscles, sedentary lifestyle (lack of exercise), poor posture, and improper lifting or core stabilization mechanics, just to name a few.

This is part 5 of VFT’s Abdominal series. If you’ve missed the previous 4 you can access them here:

Part 1: The Bona Fide Facts On Abdominal Exercises and Fat Loss

Part 2: Avoid These Frustrating Abdominal Training Mistakes By Using These Simple Effective Techniques!

Part 3: How To Integrate Ab Exercises Into Your Training Program

Part 4: Understanding Core Exercises – Get the Real Rundown!

Low back pain is almost always caused by a combination of factors and the underlying problems usually develop slowly over a number of years and are not caused by a single incident. Even when someone suffers an acute back injury, such as when improperly lifting a heavy object, previously existing low back and/or abdominal muscle issues almost certainly contribute to the injury. In other words, if you have a healthy core, you have a much lower chance of experiencing back injuries or pain.

It may be tempting to think that the best approach to prevent or correct back pain is to strengthen your low back muscles, but that is not always a good idea. More often than not, low back pain is not the result of weak back muscles, but rather overworked back muscles combined with weak or poor functioning abdominal muscles.

Low back and abdominal muscles have to work together in order to protect and support your spine and low back. If some muscles are too weak or not functioning correctly, the other muscles are forced to pick up the slack. In most cases, the abdominal muscles are the real problem and not the back muscles. If your abs are too weak or do not contract appropriately, the low back muscles are forced to do the work of both your abs and your back.

The back muscles may be able to do the extra work for a while, but eventually they will become overused, which is one of the main causes of low back pain. When low back muscles are overworked, further training will not strengthen them, but rather just make them more worn out, which can further increase pain and discomfort. The back muscles should eventually be strengthened, but not until the low back starts feeling better and the muscles have some time to rest and heal.

Instead, it is better to work on improve your abdominal muscles, but only certain types of exercises are effective for this particular task. The goal is not only to improve the physical ability of your abs (strength, endurance, etc.), but also to train them contract and stabilize the low back correctly. Most importantly, this training has to be done without putting additional stress on any already worn out or painful low back muscles.

Fortunately, there are a number of exercises that are technically simple and very effective, although it may take some time to learn the correct technique and get the maximum benefit from doing them.

Important note: If you have back problems, you should consult a medical professional before using these or other exercises. These exercises rarely cause problems and they almost always help reduce pain and improve back health, but only if you use good technique and the right exercise difficulty for your current ability level. Otherwise, they could cause further strain to your back muscles.

The exercises that have the most initial benefit for your low back are ones that maximize your ability to contract your abs as stabilizers while minimizing the contribution from your back muscles. The back muscles will probably still work a little, but it should be nowhere near as much as your abs. If you feel you back muscles as much or more than your abs, definitely stop the exercise.

The best starting exercises all include the same type of muscular contraction, although there are different movement patterns and difficulty levels depending on the exercise. They are also all performed laying on your back and they do not require any equipment, so they can easily be done almost anywhere.

Since it is not possible to adequately describe the technique of all the exercises in this article, I will focus on explaining the abdominal contraction that is necessary in all of the exercises. The accompanying video will show more of the actual exercise technique and cover a number of the different exercises of varying levels of difficulty.

The key to performing any of these exercises well is to maintain a sustained abdominal contraction throughout the exercise. The basic contraction, which is an exercise by itself, involves simply contracting your abs (your lower abs around your belly button) while lying on the floor with your knees bent. The thing that really makes this exercise effective is keeping your low back flat and pushing into the ground the entire time.

It is the combination of consciously contracting your abs and pushing your low back into the ground that teaches the abs to work as stabilizers. This also helps the low back muscles relax and prevents them from straining. All of the other exercises involve maintaining this contraction and the more difficult the exercise, the more difficult it is to keep your low back pushing into the floor.

With this initial contraction/exercise, there should be virtually no strain on your low back, so you can really focus on the contraction. It is also important to relax the rest of your body as much as possible. At first, some people end up tensing muscles in other areas, such as their shoulders, neck, and legs. This is usually a sign of either weak abs or a lack of abdominal muscle control, but it will improve with practice.

Even though it may not seem like this simple exercise would do much, practising this contraction has helped many people reduce their back pain, improve the function of their abs, and safely prepare their core for more challenging exercises. Once you become comfortable maintaining this contraction, you can them move on to more challenging exercises, such as those shown in the video.

By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com

People talk about the core a lot these days, but there is a fair amount of confusion about what it actually is. There are so many different opinions about what core muscles and core exercises are, that it is obvious there is no clear answer. The core generally refers to the middle of the body and the abs and low back are always considered part of your core, but many other muscles should be included as well.

Some people think about the core as primarily being their abs, while others consider almost everything other than the arms and legs as being part of their core. This can lead to confusion when it comes to discussing the core, but fortunately, defining the core is not really necessary, if you understand how your core works and what it is does for your body.

Note: If you haven’t read the rest of our Abdominal series you can access them here:

Part 1: The Bona Fide Facts On Abdominal Exercises and Fat Loss

Part 2: Avoid These Frustrating Abdominal Training Mistakes By Using These Simple Effective Techniques!

Part 3: How To Integrate Ab Exercises Into Your Training Program

You use core muscles in various ways during practically every activity from playing sports to walking and even sitting, but they essentially have two main functions. Most importantly, core muscles are responsible for stabilizing your body and protecting your spine, both while stationary and during movement. They also transfer energy/force between different areas of your body, which is important for sports and other full-body activities.

In order for your core to function correctly, your core muscles have to work in a coordinated way with each other, as well as with muscles throughout the rest of your body. Technically, a core exercise can be any exercise that works a core muscle, but from a functional standpoint, core exercises should ideally train your muscles to work together to improve overall stability.

For instance, the abdominal and low back muscles have to work together in order to provide stability to your lumbar spine (low back). In many cases, people do not activate their abs correctly and the low back muscles end up having to do too much work, which ultimately results in back pain or injury. When this happens, simply training the abs more does not necessarily correct the problem.

To give you a better idea of how this works, think about what happens when lifting objects from the ground. If your core muscles do not activate correctly, bending over to pick something up usually results in a rounded low back and relaxed abs. When the object is lifted the back muscles have to work extra hard to properly support the spine, because the abs are not helping enough and the rounded back increases low back stress.

When the core works properly, the abs and low back muscles simultaneously contract to provide a greater level of support with less back stress. The combined muscle contractions essentially form a horizontal belt of muscle around the lumbar spine, which some people refer to as your natural weight belt. These muscle contractions also help keep your spine in a neutral position, which is much more stable and supportive than a rounded back.

Proper core function does require a certain level of muscle endurance and strength, so exercises that isolate or target specific muscles are useful for improving the physical abilities of those muscles. However, when it comes to really improving core function, the key is training your muscles to work together and contract the right amount at the right time.

This is accomplished by performing exercises that work your core as a whole, instead of targeting one or two individual muscles. By challenging stability over a larger area of your body and contracting more muscles simultaneously, your core function will improve at a faster rate. Some exercises that do this include prone or side plank raises or isometric holds, oblique cable twists or isometric holds, and prone ball roll outs.

It is also worth noting that core muscles do not even have to be the primary muscles used in an exercise for your core to get a good workout. Many exercises that focus on specific muscle groups also require significant core involvement. Some examples of these exercises are standing cable straight-arm pulldowns, standing cable presses, bent rows, and ball pullovers.

Many core exercises do not involve a lot of core movement, but rather your core works to prevent unwanted movement. In this way, core exercises are different from most other exercises, because they are not really about moving a weight from one point to another. By preventing unwanted movement, your core muscles allow the rest of your body to be more efficient and effective in whatever it does.

The true goal of core exercises is to maintain the structural integrity of your body while performing activities that challenge your ability to stabilize yourself. Therefore, performing exercises with correct form is incredibly important and you should focus on maintaining the best possible posture during every exercise.

When core muscles fatigue, you form will start to deteriorate and that is your key to stop the exercise. It does not matter if your other muscles can keep doing more work, because once your stabilizing muscles become tired, there is no possible way you can continue performing quality reps and you will have to cheat using incorrect muscles.

When performing core exercises involving movement, a good number to aim for is about 12 to 15 reps, meaning core stabilization becomes a real challenge somewhere in that range. When performing exercises where you stay in one position (isometric), core fatigue should occur somewhere around 20 to 30 seconds. These numbers can be higher or lower depending on the situation, but these are good general recommendations.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind with core exercises is that the goal is to fatigue your core muscles by challenging your stability. The goal is not always to lift more weight or do more reps, but to gradually increase the overall stabilization challenge. This results in you being able to properly stabilize your body in many different real world situations, which is one of the big keys to maintaining a healthy and pain free body throughout your life.

By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com

When it comes to abdominal training, choosing the right ab exercises and performing them correctly is unquestionably important, but your results are also affected by how you incorporate those exercises into your overall training program. Since there are different reasons for performing ab exercises, the first step is to think about your goals and decide what you want your exercises to accomplish.

Note: If you haven’t read the rest of our Abdominal series you can access them here:

Part 1: The Bona Fide Facts On Abdominal Exercises and Fat Loss

Part 2: Avoid These Frustrating Abdominal Training Mistakes By Using These Simple Effective Techniques!

Your goals not only affect what exercises you use, but how and when they should be performed during your workouts. For instance, athletes training improve performance in a specific sport will use different ab exercises and training strategies than someone training for general fitness or injury prevention/rehabilitation.

Most people should focus on increasing the functional ability of their abs by performing slow and controlled or even stationary movements that really isolate their abdominal muscles. These exercises are good for general health and fitness, including the prevention of low back pain.

Exercises that target your abs can be performed at a variety of times, but the best time is usually at the end of a workout. If you don’t have time at the end, you can perform the ab exercises by themselves at a later time. The one thing to avoid is performing exercises that isolate your abs early in a workout that includes other exercises or movements that depend on your abs.

Many exercises (squats, bent rows, etc) require your abs to work as stabilizers during the exercise, even though the abs are not the primary muscles used during the exercise. If you perform ab exercises before these types of exercises, your abs may be too tired to correctly stabilize your body. This can cause your core muscles to become overworked or provide too little support, potentially leading to pain or injury.

When performing ab exercises at the end of a workout, your abs may be a little tired from some of the earlier exercises, but this is not really a problem. If anything, it just means your abs may tire a little faster. However, you will still achieve the same training benefits and once your abs are sufficiently fatigued, there is no reason to keep pushing them. Excessive ab work leads to poor form and the use of the wrong muscles.

There are many variables in ab routines, so it is impossible to suggest an exact number of sets and reps to perform, but there are some general recommendations you can follow. Challenging ab isolation exercises only need to be done 2 to 3 times per week, and I typically recommend performing 2 sets each of 3 different exercises. In addition, each exercise should work a different area of your abs.

There are 4 different abdominal muscles, but functionally, your abs can be broken down into 3 areas/movements. One area is upper abs, one is lower abs, and the third is your obliques (twisting and side bending muscles). Some exercises include more than one area or movement, but a simple and effective strategy is to perform one exercise for your lower abs, followed by an oblique exercise, and end with the upper ab exercise.

As for specific exercises, there are dozens of options, but some good lower ab exercises include knee-ins, leg scissors, and flutter kicks. Oblique exercises include any rotational movement (holding a weight or cable works great) and side raises or holds (side plank) on the ground. Upper ab exercises often involve crunch type exercises, with some good options being ball crunches and cable crunches.

These exercises are great for learning how to use each of your abdominal muscles and they can develop strength, endurance, and stabilization function all at the same time. However, if you already have well-developed abs and are looking for more advanced training, such as improving performance in a particular sport, then you should use a different type of training.

When training for a specific sport, your abdominal exercises should relate to movements in the sport. For example, a tennis player should include exercises to work the torso in a twisting motion similar to the motion used when swinging their racket. These exercises also need to be performed at a fast speed to more closely recreate the same muscular demands encountered in the sport.

Training for sport or performance enhancement uses all the abilities your body learns from isolation ab exercises and takes them to another level. These exercises are more advanced, because you need the same quality of contraction used in the basic exercises, but then you have to integrate them into movements using many different muscles at the same time.

A prime example of how your abs need to work in a performance situation is throwing a pitch in baseball. A baseball pitch is not an ab exercise, but the abs are crucial for a powerful throw. A pitch starts with the leg drive, which generates force that ultimately needs to get to the pitching hand and the ball, but this only happens if the ab muscles contract in the right way at the right time. Otherwise, overall body stability is compromised and much of the force is lost before it gets to the ball.

Specific performance enhancing exercises are beyond the scope of this article, because they are all dependent on the specific movements you want to improve, but there are a couple general recommendations. Unlike exercises that target your abs, performance enhancing exercises using your abs should be done at the beginning of your workout.

These exercises require precise movements and contractions of many different muscle groups, so they are most effective when none of your muscles are fatigued. Another difference is the reps should be kept lower than with basic ab exercises and you should stop while your form is still good. Every rep should be as high-quality as possible, because only quality reps improve the specific movement you are training.

Since there are so many different ab exercises and reasons for training your abs, each person’s routine will be a little different. However, regardless of your goals or your overall training program, you should always make it a priority to ensure that your abs do exactly what they are supposed to during each exercise.

If you have trouble feeling or using your abs correctly, the exercise could be too physically demanding or technically complicated and you may need to spend more time improving your technique on the basic exercises. In any case, if you take the time to learn the basic movements and progress appropriately, you will be well on your way to having an effective abdominal training program.

By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com

Learning to use and perform abdominal exercises correctly is more challenging than many people think. Most people who exercise regularly perform some abdominal exercises, but ab exercises are often performed incorrectly or inefficiently. Fortunately, there are some basic things you can do to improve abdominal exercise technique and make your abdominal training more effective.

On a side note, many people perform ab exercises in an attempt to decrease the fat around their midsection, but this strategy does not work. The goal to reducing abdominal fat is to decrease your overall body fat percentage through good nutrition and consistently working out. You can find out more about that here… Part 1 of our Abdominals series The Bona Fide Facts On Abdominal Exercises and Fat Loss

When it comes to abdominal training in general, the most useful exercises are the ones that work your muscles similar to how they function in everyday life. The important and often overlooked first step in training your abs to work correctly is being able to isolate them and make them work with minimal help from other muscles.

As this ability improves, you will be able to perform more complicated movements and incorporate other muscle groups into your ab exercises. Unfortunately, many people try to perform exercises that are too advanced, when they should spend more time improving the basic movements and learning the proper way to contract their ab muscles.

Perhaps the most important tip when performing ab exercises is to focus on your abs and concentrate on what they are doing and what you are feeling throughout each movement. For example, when performing a crunch to work your upper abs, you should feel the contraction increase throughout the movement. If this does not happen, then other muscles are helping too much and/or the exercise is too challenging.

If you don’t focus on the contraction, any number of muscles could be performing a significant amount of work instead of your abs. Probably the most common “cheat” when doing a crunch is using back and shoulder muscles to help lift the torso, instead of making the abs do the work. Once other muscles start working, the abs start relaxing, which basically defeats the purpose of the exercise.

Another important aspect of basic abdominal training is to make each rep as slow and controlled as possible. Overall, the most common type of cheating occurs when ab exercises are done too quickly. Faster movements create momentum, which means the abs won’t have to contract throughout the movement. In addition, the momentum is almost always generated by muscles other than the abs, which reinforces the development of poor technique.

Another key to getting the most out of ab exercises is breathing correctly. Breathing is important in all forms of exercise, but it is especially important during ab training. During any exercise with motion, you should breath out when the muscle(s) contract (e.g., coming up during a crunch) and breathe in when returning to the starting position.

Other abdominal exercises, such as the plank/bridge, are performed in a stationary position. During these exercises there is no movement, but you still need to breathe throughout the exercise. It may be tempting to hold your breath, because it can generate a stronger contraction or make the exercise feel easier to do, but it is not recommended.

Holding your breath increases pressure in your body and may result in dizziness, lightheadedness, or headaches. It also causes you to tense other muscles, often without even realizing you are doing it. This all takes away from being able to use your abs correctly during the exercises. On the other hand, deep breathing reinforces a slow and controlled movement while exercising.

Breathing correctly, using controlled movements, and focusing on your ab contractions all make abdominal training more effective. Always remember the point of ab exercises, especially when performing exercises that isolate your abdominal muscles, is to maximize the use of your abs. Each rep should be performed as well as possible and quality is definitely more important quantity.

I have come across so many people who had abdominal routines where they performed hundreds of reps of ab exercises every day. This may have sounded impressive, but in virtually every case it actually meant the person performed ab exercises very poorly and inefficiently.

One client I worked with told me that she did 200 crunches every day, so I asked her to show me her form. She did the reps really quickly and used her hips, back, and arms more than her abs, so she was getting very little out of her crunches. I stopped her after about five reps and showed her how to incorporate the above tips into her crunch. Then she tried again and her abs became fatigued after about 12 of these reps.

Going from 200 reps down to 12 is certainly a big difference and it shows how inefficient and ineffective the other crunches were for her abs. This may seem like an extreme case, but in my experience, these large discrepancies are fairly common, because abdominal exercises performed incorrectly do a very poor job of improving your abs.

It is common for people to focus on continually increasing their number of sets and reps, but the better approach is to constantly work on making each rep more productive. Initially you may not feel a strong ab contraction during some exercises, but with practice and the above tips, you will soon be on your way to developing great abdominal exercise technique, which will allow you to get the most out of your abdominal training.

By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com

Everyone wants great looking abs, but developing the abs of your dreams takes more than just doing a few ab exercises. Abdominal exercises are very important for your body, but there is a lot of misleading information about their effects on body fat reduction. Workout videos and exercise equipment commercials suggest that performing specific ab exercises will make you look like the models promoting their products, but this is not the case.

What Abdominal Exercises Can do…

Abdominal exercises can tone, tighten, increase the size, and/or improve the function of your abs, but they do not necessarily give you the well-defined look you probably want. Exercising your abs has more to do with improving physical qualities (strength, endurance, etc.) and function (stabilization, spine protection, etc.), and has little to do with getting rid of the fat around your midsection.

Performing a lot of abdominal exercises can make your abs bigger, which may help them stand out more, but this only happens if you already have a low percentage of body fat. However, almost everyone has a significant amount of fat on top their abdominal muscles and until most of that fat is lost, you will not be able to see your abs beneath them, even if they are in incredible shape.

What Abdominal Exercises CAN’T DO!

Unfortunately, losing abdominal fat can be a real challenge. There is a common assumption that working your abs makes you lose the fat covering your abs, but this is just not true. You can change the size, shape, and ability of muscles using specific exercises, but you cannot make your body lose fat from specific areas.

Your body loses fat from wherever it wants, regardless of the muscles you work or the specific exercises you use. Regardless of what commercials want you to think, there are no magic exercises or machines that make you lose abdominal fat. Therefore, it is best to focus on improving overall fat loss and not worry so much about losing fat specifically from your midsection.

The Simple Truth is…

Like all fat loss, reducing body fat around your midsection is heavily influenced by nutrition and you need to burn more calories than you consume (without starving yourself) if you want to lose fat. The simple truth is if you have poor nutritional habits, no amount of exercise will give you great looking abs, so improving your nutrition is the place to start.

Exercise also plays an important role, but abdominal exercises are not the key to abdominal fat loss. Since the goal is to decrease your overall body fat enough to reveal your abs beneath the fat, your focus should be on performing exercises with a high metabolic cost. In other words, focus on exercises that are challenging and cause your body to burn a higher number of calories both during and after your workouts.

The Best Exercises For Fat Loss…

The best exercises for fat loss are ones that require the greatest amount of muscle, because more muscle used means more calories burned. Exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and lunges are great, because they use the majority of your lower body muscles and focus on the largest muscle groups in the body. Some good upper body exercises are bench presses, push-ups, bent rows, and pull-ups.

One quality set of this type of exercise has a more significant impact on fat loss than multiple sets of typical abdominal exercises, such as crunches. Of course, performing a few sets of squats will not instantly make you lose fat, but over time, performing exercises that focus on your larger muscle groups will result in more significant calorie burning and fat loss.

However, I don’t want to give the impression that you should only exercise your large muscles because it is very important to have a complete training program that works your whole body. Focusing too much on any muscle group(s) causes imbalances between your muscles, which can lead to, pain, injury, or a number of other physical problems.

As far as your abs are concerned… there are very important uses for them…. it’s not just about having a six pack…

As far as your abs are concerned, they have many important uses, such as maintaining good posture, protecting your spine, stabilizing your body, and preventing back pain. They are also important for athletic performance as they transfer energy between upper and lower body muscles. For example, pitchers initially generate energy in their legs and transfer that energy to their throwing arm using their abdominal muscles.

Abdominal exercises are important for many things and they should definitely be included in your overall exercise routine, but do not expect them to target the fat in your midsection.

The Genetic Component…

Finally, there is also a genetic component to fat loss and many people lose fat from their arms and legs first and their midsection last. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to change your genetic effect on fat loss, so it’s best to not worry about where you are losing fat.

Instead, focus on the things you can control, such as your workouts and nutrition and know that fat loss from any area in your body is a positive step towards developing great looking abs. Even if you lose fat from you midsection last, after you lose enough fat from other areas, your body will start burning that stubborn abdominal fat.

By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com

Want YOUR Six Pack Ab Question Answered by a Fitness Guru Who’s Considered  “Celebrity Royalty” within the Fitness Industry?

I’ve been working my tail off, and I have to say it’s been tough getting a hold of these sought after trainers, hailed as fitness celebrities – and getting them to agree to take the time out to do an interview with me.

This isn’t going to be just your basic “run of the mill” interview, in fact, it’s going to be an actual webinar interrogation of sorts – well nearly ! With my aim to get your hard-hitting ab questions answered.

Tapping into white hot techniques and triggers to help you reach your “ab” goals while also cutting through the mumbo jumbo hype…

First cab off the rank is “abdominals”.

We’re keeping the name of the Fitness Guru for this interview top secret until closer to the webinar date, as I don’t want folk swamping us trying to crack the code on this interview. I’ll be keeping the inside info for VFT subscribers only!

If your attempts to achieve a toned midsection has you troubled, frustrated and even – at times – darned angry…

Then don’t waste another minute!

Submit your questions in the comments box below so you can get your six pack ab questions answered in our up and coming supercharged abs webinar.

Help me, help you kick some butt with your training.

… And let’s make this webinar rock!

Kind regards
Mandy Gibbons
Virtual Fitness Trainer

I’ve been telling you forever that there are NO shortcuts.

Now, I can’t say for certain, but there’s a good, good chance you’ve been down the “magic pill and potion” road before when it comes to your efforts for a flatter belly.

Hey, don’t feel bad, most people have.

And with all the deceptive marketing and lies those companies tell you, well, it can be easy to believe them.

Look, you know as well as I do that exercise and proper nutrition are the way to go.

But as my partners over at Prograde Nutrition show you in this article, there are ways to supplement that can really make a difference with your results.

Bottom line: If you’re serious about that dream body you need to devour this article ASAP:

http://virtualfitnesstrainer.getprograde.com/bcaas-and-dieting.html

Yours in health,
Mandy

PS – Again, there are NO shortcuts, but there is SCIENCE behind the worthwhile supplements. Be sure to read this article to see for yourself:
http://virtualfitnesstrainer.getprograde.com/bcaas-and-dieting.html