McMahon debunks some common training tips
When talking about the strength coaches whose methods he follows, Terry McMahon lauded them for their tendencies to not pull punches.
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I want to know if the way im working out is good for me. Am doing triceps biceps and abs exercises daily for 5 days straight and resting for 2 (sat and sun). My question is if ok ? And if you think i will get better results like that instead of working different muscles every day .
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Each year, many people who exercise begin the search for the best ab-exercise routine for developing flat, tight abdominal muscles. Every day, there are dozens of new approaches to abdominal workouts including new exercises, fitness classes, products, machines, gadgets or routines claiming to be able to sculpt and strengthen your abs better than existing methods. While the claims of all these new products range from possible to dubious at best, it is important to know which type are effective in working your abs and ones that may increase your risk of injury.
In order to get the mythical six pack that everyone looks for, you need to follow a specific diet to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, no matter how many ab exercises you do or how many reps, if your diet is not one that reduces overall fat you will never see your abs. Anyone who knows anatomy can attest that underneath the fat, we all have six packs. The goal is to reduce the fat and build up your abdominal muscles so that they show through the layer covering them. The means finding a balance in your diet that is primarily protein follow by carbs and fat. Lean cuts of meat and green vegetables are the preferred staples of the ab diet. Along with a proper diet, an exercise routine must be done that focuses on weight training and cardio. The cardio will help reduce your overall body fat as well as strengthen your heart. In addition to the cardio, a weight training routine must be incorporated. The more muscle you have in your body composition, the more calories your body consumes. Therefore, adding on muscle will help reduce your body fat. Finally, an ab workout must be done at least three times a work. There are numerous programs available that can help you fulfill this requirement, but make sure you are diligent about doing it. If you want the hard body look, you are going to have to work hard for it. Try to find an ab routine that can be done on the fly. There are many ab devices that are effective and can be transported with you to the office or wherever you may need to be.
Everybody wants the ever elusive six pack abs. People spend millions on products and exercises in the hopes of having them. Unfortunately, many will never see the fruits of their labor due to simple genetics. By following a well-organized and disciplined fitness routine, you can attain your dream of having rock hard abs. It is important that you follow the routine and stick to it. However, do not push yourself beyond the point of muscle failure. Pushing yourself beyond what you are capable of can result in injuries that will sideline you from working out. This is not what you are looking for when working out. Know your limits and push yourself to them. Allow yourself a cheat day, but don’t keep yourself off the wagon because of one day. There is no point in cheating yourself out of a perfect body because you strayed from the path. Keep inspirational pictures around that will remind you of what you want to look like. A positive attitude is more important than anything else when it comes to achieving your goals.
To learn more about ab training and various ab training devices including the contour belt, please visit that link.
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It has been quite a common occurrence to encounter people who have invested lots of their precious time in abs training and yet, have not seen any visible improvement in their abs area at all. This phenomenon is due to the fact that they have either choose the wrong ab exercises for their workout or have worked too much on the same workout exercises.
Having an effective abs workout program is essential in helping you get the 6 pack abs.Choosing what ab exercises should you do and deciding how intense your abs exercise shall be is what constitutes of an effective abs workout program.
Therefore,in this article, I will be covering on what abs exercises should you do and how intense should your exercises be.
Exercise Selection.
A common myth of abs training is you should work your “upper abs” and “lower abs” separately. However . the truth is that, you can’t separate working these muscles as they contract simultaneously during any ab exercises.
If you are going for agility , you will need to focus on decreasing your base of support as much as possible. In other words, you will need to focus on ab exercises which requires you to stabilize your ab muscles while doing it. In this way, your muscle fiber tissue will be worked on most effectively, giving you the most workout possible.
Some ab exercises that require stability are as follows :
1) Abdominal work on an exercise ball
2) Twisting work standing on a bosu ball
3) Partner work with medicine balls.
If you are going for strength and are using weight, you will need to execute movements that require you to move through a large range of motion. By doing this, your ab muscles can be strengthened from the greatest angles possible.
Some good ab exercises for strength build up –
1) Decline sit-ups
2) Cable cross-bends
An important point to take note about abs exercises :
Our body has an extremely high adaptation ability towards any exercises. Once your abs muscles have adapted itself to a particular abs exercises, the abs exercises wont be as effective as before anymore. Therefore, we will need to introduce variability in our abs exercises for our abs workout program.Hence, Abs exercises must be changed on a regular basis if you want to see results fast.
Intensity of abs exercises
The intensity of abs exercises varies from individual to individual. Knowing what volume of abs exercises is needed for you brings you a step closer to getting the 6 pack abs.
Bear in mind that the weight lifted during training is indirectly proportional to the total reps you do. In other words, the more weights you use the fewer reps you should be doing.
If your objective is agility, two or 4 sets of weightless abdominal works will be enough ( with each sets limiting yourself to the 10-15 reps range )
On the other hand, If your objective is strength, you should be doing weighted abdominal training. Therefore, you should be going for fewer reps ( 3-6 reps range ) and increasing the number of sets to 6 to 10. This would be enough to have some good muscle size growth.
Check out here for tips on how to get the perfect abs
Contrary to what is widely believed crunches, sit ups and other focused training exercises is the last thing that should be bothered with in your effort to train and reveal your abs.
The critical parameters in your long and arduous trip to your covetable ripped abs – absolute fetish for men and women – are as following:
1) Self discipline and self motivation.
The perfect abs mission demands first of all a powerful brain because you will need commitment, discipline,persistence and other mental virtues.
2) A carefully planned, solid, nutritional plan both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Quantitatively: Take care so as to have a mildly negative caloric balance. This is important for losing weight and especially fat.
The fat layer in front of you abdominals will hide them and keep them dormant and undistinguished even when they are fully trained.
So your first and most important goal should be to make this fat layer disappear. (I take it that you know that spot loss is impossible!!).
This, mathematically, can be achieved only when you spend more calories than those you consume.
Qualitatively: Focus in the consumption of quality protein and complex carbs rich in fibres:mainly vegetables and secondly fruits and wholesome cereals.
Give priority to monounsaturated and omega-3 fats.
Avoid at all costs sugar, corn syrup, white flour, salt and trans fats.
The best way to achieve the above is by eating natural, unprocessed foods (keep away from whatever is contained in packs, boxes and cans).
Try to split your caloric intake into 5-6 meals/day. This will make your metabolism function more efficiently and will keep your blood sugar – and consequently fat storage insulin – under better control.
3) Strengthening exercises (preferentially with free weights)
This will benefit your metabolism by maintaining or increasing your precious muscle mass.
Try to adopt exercises that simultaneously tax big muscle groups and as many joints as possible.
Kings are: squats, deadlifts, chest presses, overhead presses, bent over rows etc.
I would like to make two important observations:
* try to escape from the logic of magic, easy, no sweat solutions. There is no such thing!
* don’t expect to rectify in days or weeks grave errors which accumulated over years or decades!!!
4) Aerobic exercise (preferentially H.I.I.T.)
Although I have met people with excellent abs definition without bothering with aerobics, I consider aerobics as a vital part of the abs equation.
Aerobics is a nice way to spend calories.
But I declare it explicitly:
I feed an instinctive abhorrence for the hamster mentality a.k.a. endless hours on the wheel – name it stationary bike, treadmill etc – doing long, boring to death, uninspiring, demotivating, slow cardio.
I am a preacher of H.I.I.T. simply because I have seen excellent results and mainly because I manage to better integrate it in my hectic programme.
On the other side H.I.I.T. is suitable only for already fit people.
If you seek fat loss you can perfectly use medium intensity cardio 30′-40′ long,3-5 times/week . Try to keep your heart rate in the 70-75% region of your MHR.
And for God’s shake, don’t buy into the antiquated concept of the “fat burning zone”. It’s mere nonsense. Try to keep your heart rate as elevated as you can tolerate without risking injury or exhaustion.
Sprinting is the utmost abs exercise.
The way it taxes abs is unbelievable.
Circuits with push ups and multifunctional, multijoint core training exercises are also perfect for the abs.
Your worst time investment is…crunches and sit-ups.
Recapitulation with tips and secrets for abs:
1) Don’t embark on your ripped abs trip if you are not mentally prepared. Mind dominates body.
2) Diet is king when it comes to abs definition. Eat wholesome, unprocessed, nutritional foods taking care to create a mildly negative caloric intake.
Avoid limiting and fad diets. Just plain logic.
3) Give special emphasis to high quality protein, fibrous vegetables and monounsaturated and omega-3 fats.
4) Try to avoid spikes in your sugar blood and insulin by spreading your calories to 5-6 meals and consuming foods with low glycemic index and load.
5) Do your strength training with an emphasis on free weights and exercises that recruit big muscle groups and more than one joints(compound and functional exercises).
Try minimal breaks between sets.
Give an aerobic tint to your workout.
6) Push ups are ideal for abs training. Try circuits, with bodyweight exercises. Excellent for fat loss, a superb combination of strength training and aerobics.
7) You have to dispose of your midsection fat layer in order to highlight your abs.
If you are very fit, try H.I.I.T. It’s the best investment for your time.
If not, try 30′ cardio sessions at about 75% of your MHR.
Avoid at all costs slow, endless cardio sessions. They are not effective and could send you to the grave (from boredom).
You don’t have to do focused abs training. If, however, you insist, the best exercise is by far hanging leg raises (If you manage to do them right!!!).
9) Forget about supplements a.k.a. miraculous pills, magic potions and mystic powders. Don’t be suckered!
10) The same is valid with abs gadgets. You can buy them as toys for your children but please don’t lose your valuable time with them.
It doesn’t stop to amaze me how people are open to deceitful words and promises. I guess it is the strong ,innate desire for effortless solutions.
11) When you see or hear words or phrases pertaining to abs as the following :
- quick
- 5 minutes
- easy
- simple
- instant
- 4 weeks
- get ready for summer
- summer abs…
you had better discard the article, book, workout etc.
EPILOGUE
We have seen that the main “secret” for ripped abs is a low body fat percentage.
My friendly exhortation: don’t be obsessed with the elusive six-pack abs. You will have to hit one digit body fat percentages – I speak for men – and this is something your face won’t like at all.
Aim at being healthy, fit and functional. Leave six pack definition for models!
To your health!
Chris Strogilis
Civil engineer with postgraduate studies in MBA and Marketing.
christos@macon.gr
http://maconwaterproofing.blogspot.com/
http://totalfitness-christos.blogspot.com
I got abs using a workout program called 8 minute abs does anyone know of any program or exercises to do to get pecks? Lately all I do is just a lot of widespread push ups.
