Tips for Flat Abs

(In a crunch, you do not perform more than 30 degrees of spinal flexion (which refers to how high you lift your torso off the floor). This range of motion isolates the proper muscle, the rectus abdominis, best known as the coveted 'six pack'.)

Tips for Flat Abs (by Joan Pagano)

If you're like most people, you rank the belly as a top trouble spot. And it isn't just the 20-something college crowd that wants a trimmer tummy. In my professional experience, people of all ages - from 15-to 95-year-olds - want to know the most effective exercises for sculpting that elusive, flat belly.

The abdomen is the most challenging area of the body to keep in shape. We all know that clothing doesn't fit right if the belly is too big and that belly fat can create a health risk. If you're doing abdominal exercises faithfully and not seeing results, you may be a victim of simple mistakes in technique.

To begin with, do you know the difference between a sit-up and a crunch? Most of us are familiar with the classic sit-up, in which you come to a full sitting position. However, for many years now, the fitness industry has favoured crunches over sit-ups.

In a crunch, you do not perform more than 30 degrees of spinal flexion (which refers to how high you lift your torso off the floor), even if you can lift higher. This range of motion isolates the proper muscle, the rectus abdominis, best known as the coveted "six pack" muscle (which describes the sections that develop with toning). If you lift higher, as in a full sit-up, you recruit the hip flexors in addition to the rectus, and risk stress to the lower back.

Here are three exercise tips to flatten the belly:-

1. Learn to "scoop" when you do a crunch. Having worked with hundreds of clients, I've found that only a few get this right from the start. As you lift up your head and shoulders, you need to draw the belly button towards the spine without changing the natural curve in the low back.

When you button a tight p;air of jeans, this is the muscle right under the zipper that you automatically contract. "Scooping" describes this action.


2. Keep tension in the abdominals as you crunch. After you prepare your scoop, imagine you have a wide belt around your middle connecting your ribs to your hips.

Set your abs before you move by tightening this belt and keep tension in the abdominals as you lift and lower your shoulders, never letting your shoulders relax to the floor.


3. Take your time and breathe. Perform each repetition with concentration, exhaling as you crunch up, inhaling as you release. You can learn to breathe normally while holding the scoop.

Slower is harder when doing crunches and if you make each one count, you can do fewer with better results. You don't need to do hundreds of crunches, you just need to do them right. Three sets of 15-20 crunches is sufficient for toning.

Do your abdominal routine every other day to allow the muscles to rest, recover and rebuild.

For even better results, supplement your abs workout with regular cardio activity. Cardio exercise will enhance your body's sculpting effect by reducing the layer of fat that covers your muscles to reveal a more defined shape underneath. Do at least 30 minutes of cardio - like walking, jogging, stair climbing, cycling or swimming - five days a week. - HealthNewsDigest.com

The Right Workout (Exercise)

The Right Workout (understanding the correct way to sweat it out is important if you want to benefit from exercising)

GOING out for a walk is not quite exercise. Well, yes, it's exercise if you walk briskly at a pace of roughly 6kph for at least 40 minutes.

The first 10 minutes do not count, as that constitutes your warm-up. Well, yes it does if you are about 55. At that age, walking would be a moderate if not vigorous activity. And again, the activity should be maintained for at least 40 minutes.

In order for an activity to be considered exercise, there are three components that need to be fulfilled - type, time and intensity.

Type

It refers to the type of activity you are involved in. Going for a walk; walking the dog; running; gardening; washing the car; and exercising in the gym are all different types of physical activities.

In order for an activity to be considered exercise, it must meet the criteria of the two other components mentioned below.

Time

It's also referred to as duration. For the elderly and physically impaired, the duration can be as short as 20 minutes. For the general population, the duration of exercise should be no less than 30 minutes.

The duration can also be accumulated all day - meaning, you can break down your activity into three short durations of 10 minutes each and still call it exercise.

However, if you do this, the type of activity you do must meet the following component.

Intensity

For the activity to be an effective form of exercise, the intensity of the activity must be moderate to vigorous. There are a few ways to measure intensity.

One is through heart rate. Without being too specific and jargonistic, in general, moderate intensity would be between 110 beats per minute (bpm) to 135 bpm. In fitness language, that would be 55 to 75% of your target heart rate.

Another way to measure intensity is through the feel factor. Heavy breathing with light perspiration would be moderate intensity. Hard breathing would, of course, be vigorous.

With these three components, the last additional piece of the cog to the exercise wheel is frequency. Three times a week would be the bare minimum, frequency for exercises, together with the above three components in place, to be effective.

Simply put, for exercise to be effective in the long run for results or plain health maintenance, one should be working out to various types of activities with a frequency of at least three times a week, at least 30 minutes each time in duration for each session at a moderate to vigorous intensity.

With that, you would have fulfilled the FITT principle for exercise.

Having read this, do be realistic on what you can call exercise.

Is golf an exercise? If you actually do walk 18 holes and play without a caddy, yes.

Line dancing? Quite subjective here. If line dancing is fast enough to hit a moderate intensity, yes.

Yoga? Again subjective, but I say, not quite. There are some forms of vigorous yoga that do raise your heart rate. Most do not. Sorry, yoga aficionados.

Lastly, I would like to point out a fast fact on intensity that I mentioned. Perspiration is not a clear indication that your activity is intense.

My neighbour line dances in the open padang and says she perspires profusely. In Malaysian weather, you will sweat anywhere.

My brother-in-law perspires beads of sweat just eating curry fish head! And that's not exercise, bro! Get real.

by: Jonathan Tan (he has been in the fitness industry for the past 10 years as a personal trainer, fitness consultant and currently Club Manager of the Sports Toto Fitness Centre at Berjaya Times Square. He can be contacted at jtan@sportstototfitness.com)