Recently Ive had a few requests to work on the abdominals/core. There are a few important things that will help to get a flat or more toned, defined stomach.... 1) A healthy diet - you can have the strongest abdominals in the world but with a big layer of fat above them, they will never stand out and be defined. The key is to get the bodyfat percentage into a low but healthy range to enable the work you do on your abdominals to make them stand out. You can do hundreds of crunches every day but until that bodyfat percentage drops, there is no point. A healthy diet will help you decrease your bodyfat and enable you to show those abs. 2) Plenty of cardiovascular exercise - this is linked to the point above. To get the best results, alongside a healthy should be plenty of cardio exercise to burn the bodyfat and bring the percentage down. Get the two hand in hand and the abs will be waiting to pop out!!! 3) Good quality core exercises - sitting down on the floor and doing 100 quick crunches might make you feel good about yourself but its not necessarily going to make your abdominals more defined. Make sure you work on a mixture of exercises working the whole of your core including the lower back and obliques as well as the deep and superficial abdominals. Getting caught up doing crunches without the rest will only end up causing imbalances and problems into your lower back, hip flexors and other areas close by. Functional exercises are great for working the whole of your core, exercises like squats, deadlifts, burpees etc. If you do plan on laying on the floor to work your core, keep the exercise controlled to create a better workout. Slower repetitions keep the contraction on the core far more than faster reps and 15-20 good quality reps will be more beneficial than 50, 60, 70 fast and ineffective reps. With that in mind, Ive come up with a very different and effective circuit for tonight, mixing up cardio stations and core exercises. If you want to feel the burn through your core, get yourself booked in and Ill see you at Hanwell village hall at 6.30 or 7.45pm :-) P.s. Great work by everyone who conquered the TRX LBT last night. I hope those legs still work today ;-)
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 14:18:53 +0000