Posts Tagged ‘crunches’

You may be getting discouraged, and it’s not surprising, because you have worked on those six pack abs regularly, and they are still not defined. How many more crunches do i have to do to get them developed enough to show as a perfect set of six pack abs?

First of all, you are not the only one that this has happened to, there are many more people in this position, so take heart, and with a few changes, your abdominals and six pack will be showing very soon. Even with the best of intentions, which can be seen by the number of crunches we perform daily, some people just cannot get their perfect abs to show. You feel that your abs are much stronger, nevertheless they still don’t show, so what exactly is going on? Well, what you need to do first is to make absolutely certain that it is your abdominal muscles that you are targeting in your crunches, an also make sure that you are not rushing them. For many exercisers, it is how many they can do in a fixed time that is what matters, but that lowers the level of the exercise. To benefit more, each muscle contraction should be held for a few seconds, and if you are rushing to beat the latest record of number of the crunches in two minutes, then you cannot do this, and the crunches will not be as beneficial for you. So slow down, and improve the quality of your crunches, and any other workouts you do that target the abs muscles.

Next on your agenda is to discover what your body fat ratio is – you will be able to do this on the weighing machines at the gym if your bathroom scales don’t tell you. This number should be around 12, but if yours is much higher than this, then that confirms why your six pack abdominals are not defined. The body fat ratio is an indicator to inform you how much body fat you have, and the bigger the number, the more layers of fat your body has. The more fat you have, the more layers of fat are covering your abdominal muscles, so if you have been doing your exercises the right way, your abs will be well defined but just hidden by too much fat.

Okay, if too much is the cause of your abs to not show as great six pack abdominals what are your options? You can see that you need to lose some of those layers of fat, and abdominal exercises alone will not achieve this for you. You must do some cardio workouts, to lose some fat. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to work even longer in the gym each day. You can probably reduce the time you spend on your abs exercises, and more time doing cardio. If you can eat a little less, you will be able to to losing some fat. Make sure your diet is healthy for you, and not over doing the alcohol. Occasional drinks are fine, but drinking alcohol on a regular basis is just giving your body with too many unneccessary calories.

So, to conclude, do your exercises appropriately, lower your body fat ratio and your 6 pack abdominals will be defined and showing like those on others you’ve been jealously watching.

First, this article assumes that you own a piece of equipment, like an Ab Lounge in your home to assist you in making proper crunches. It is important to execute a correct crunch for a more effective workout and least chance of injury.  Also, a proper warm up and stretch before your workout is highly recommended.

1. Goal Setting
The key to flat abs is setting a proper goal.  A proper goal is challenging. It’s something you have to really work hard to accomplish, something just outside of your normal comfort zone.  It should be something that really makes you sweat!  It should also get you very excited at the thought of accomplishing it.

But also, its very important that your goal is realistic.  If you pick something unrealistic, for example, to have a six pack tomorrow morning, this is unrealistic and will DE-motivate you more than anything else.  You need to pick something that you can manage and you can always make it bigger further down the road.

2. Chunk Your Goals Down Into Sub-goals
Once you’ve decided on your major goals, start to break them down into smaller chunks.  On your pathway to flat abs, what would the half-way point look like?  And if you broke that sub-goal in half, what would that look like?

Try to keep these sub-goals centered more around actions that you can physically take rather than the results of those actions.  A good sub-goal would be something you have 100% control over, like “Do 5 Minutes on my Ab Lounge A Day” for example.

3. Track and Chart Your Progress
Checking a box or crossing something off a list can be the most motivational thing you can imagine.  Set up a spreadsheet and mark an X for every day that you accomplish your daily goal.  At the end of the week, take a look at those X’s and CELEBRATE. You can give yourself a cupcake, an extra hour of TV, or just give yourself an extra break.  Celebrate small things and celebrate often.

4. Make it Fun
Place your Ab Lounge in front of the TV or crank up some inspirational tunes. Do whatever it takes to make your work out as pleasurable as possible. You will train your subconscious to associate working out with fun and soon you be looking forward to your next workout.  Learn to love it!

5. Keeping Moving Forward, Even If You Slip Up
Setbacks are normal.  It’s normal for life to throw you every curveball it can to get in the way of your work outs. If you miss a day’s workout or even a week’s, it won’t have as much effect on your results as you’d think, just keep moving forward. Don’t focus on the mistakes, just get past it and move on.  If you start out accepting that they’re going to happen and you’re not going to let them get you down, you won’t take them to heart as much.

Just follow these tips on your pathway to perfect abs.  Workout with a solid piece of gear, like an Ab Louge XL , set your goals, break them down into bite-sized chunks, chart them and celebrate each accomplishment, have fun working out, and just keep on keeping on.  You’ll have firm abs in no time flat.