The rectus abdominis along with the inner and outer obliques make up your abdominal musculature. Achieving the definition known as a six-pack takes hard work and dedicated effort to tone these muscles. By applying a few tricks of the trade, you can proudly sport this anatomical feature. Although exercise is part of the game plan, diet plays a pivotal role as well.
Dietary Choices
To see your muscles, you need to have low body fat, especially in your abdomen. Eating high amounts of deep-fried foods, cakes, cookies, burgers and donuts will not allow you to do this. Your best bet is to eat nothing but low energy dense foods, which are low in calories but contain a high volume. They help fill you up and keep your metabolism regulated. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, fish and low-fay dairy products are low energy dense foods.
Meal Timing
If you wait long hours between meals, your metabolism slows down and you hold on to stored fat because your body thinks it needs to prepare for a famine. But if you eat small meals every two to three hours, you keep your metabolism lifted and burn fat at a faster rate. Eat your first meal as soon as you wake up, and remember to keep meals small. A spinach salad with a grilled chicken breast is an example of a healthy small meal.
Beverages
Sugary fruit drinks, soda pop, alcohol, sweetened teas and dessert coffees all contain high amounts of calories. Drinking these beverages regularly makes it tough to lose your belly fat. Your best bet is to drink nothing but water. Not only is it calorie-free, it also hydrates your body and flushes out toxins. If you find yourself getting really hungry before your meals, drink a full glass of water to fill up and prevent yourself from overeating.
Sprint Training
Cardiovascular exercise is important for melting down the fat that covers your abs. Instead of doing cardio for a long duration at a low intensity, opt for sprint training. This is performed at a maximum effort and it not only burns a high amount of calories, it also boosts your resting metabolic rate when you are finished. As an added benefit, you have to forcefully contract your abs to keep your upper body stable and to generate power.
Start your workouts with a light warm-up, then alternate back and forth between sprinting and resting. Follow a 1-2 ratio of work to rest. For example, sprint for 20 seconds and rest for 40 seconds. Because it is so intense, your workouts should be 20 to 30 minutes long -- or shorter if you aren't very fit yet.
Resistance Training
Resistance training also boosts your resting metabolic rate. The secret is to do your workouts on a stability ball and incorporate dumbbells. This will challenge your balance and cause you to work your abs to remain stable. Go for a full-body workout that includes exercises like chest presses, seated shoulder presses, back extensions, lying triceps extensions, seated biceps curls and wall ball squats.
Ab Exercises
The goal with ab exercises is to do high-quality repetitions with good form and added resistance. By adding resistance, such as ankle weights, dumbbells and medicine balls, you tax your muscles more and promote greater definition. Also perform multiple exercises instead of just one.
Include exercises like hanging leg raises, reverse decline crunches, Russian twists, bicycle maneuvers and stability ball crunches. Instead of doing hundreds of reps, aim for 15 to 20. Perform each exercise slowly and steadily, and squeeze your abs forcefully for a second at the midpoint of each movement.
References
- Free-Ab-Workout.com: Your Abdominal Muscle Anatomy
- Centers for Disease Control: Low-Energy-Dense Foods and Weight Management: Cutting Calories While Controlling Hunger
- The Diet Channel; Top 4 Benefits of Drinking Water; Michele Silence, M.A.; October 2006
- ShapeFit: Sprinting, Sprinters and Speed Training
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