Many fitness newbies who sign-up for expensive health club memberships soon learn that getting six pack abs takes more than just plunking down cash and doing mindless reps on pricy state-of-the-art ab machines. Actually, the process of getting six-pack abs has less to do with gadgetry than physiology.
The human body is designed to store surplus energy from food in the form of fat cells. These are stored mainly around our lower body- our bellies, butts and thighs. This is the main reason eliminating beer bellies and love-handles have been a source of consternation for fitness aficionados since the early days of bodybuilding.
Truth is, the muscles that form the six-pack look aren't any harder to build-up and strengthen than our biceps, traps or pectorals. There's just more frustration in getting six-pack abs because of the stubborn layer of fat covering the contours and striations of the muscle tissue underneath.
Knowing the proper exercises to do, eating the right foods at the right time of the day, and leading a healthy lifestyle can be effective weapons in the fight against The Flab and can drastically reduce the time it takes to attain six-pack abs.
Hitting the abdominal machine at home or in your gym and doing a gazillion reps won't do you much good if you don't incorporate total body cardio exercises in your workouts. Not even if you combine this with limiting your calorie intake which can actually result in muscle-loss.
Experts have discovered that total body workouts that keep the heart rate at a steady rate just below the anaerobic threshold (when you can no longer carry a conversation) are the most effective in burning body fat in the least amount of time. Cardiovascular exercise done over an extended period uses up the most energy from stored fat rather than glycogen which is necessary for muscle development.
Avoiding food with excess calories and saturated fat as well as eating the proper foods at the right times can also shorten the path to six pack abs significantly. Eating energy-rich foods early in the day can fuel our workouts and give us the energy boost we need to exercise properly.
Contrary to what a lot of people think, cutting-back on food intake to lose weight is not the right way to get abs. Sure, you can lose weight by skipping breakfast or lunch, but this invariably leads to loss of muscle instead of fat. Our body's metabolism slows down when we start to feel hunger pangs. This may come from our caveman days when food was scarce. A slower metabolism means less calories burned from body fat and thus it's better to avoid going hungry by munching on something healthy whenever we have the munchies. - 15438
The human body is designed to store surplus energy from food in the form of fat cells. These are stored mainly around our lower body- our bellies, butts and thighs. This is the main reason eliminating beer bellies and love-handles have been a source of consternation for fitness aficionados since the early days of bodybuilding.
Truth is, the muscles that form the six-pack look aren't any harder to build-up and strengthen than our biceps, traps or pectorals. There's just more frustration in getting six-pack abs because of the stubborn layer of fat covering the contours and striations of the muscle tissue underneath.
Knowing the proper exercises to do, eating the right foods at the right time of the day, and leading a healthy lifestyle can be effective weapons in the fight against The Flab and can drastically reduce the time it takes to attain six-pack abs.
Hitting the abdominal machine at home or in your gym and doing a gazillion reps won't do you much good if you don't incorporate total body cardio exercises in your workouts. Not even if you combine this with limiting your calorie intake which can actually result in muscle-loss.
Experts have discovered that total body workouts that keep the heart rate at a steady rate just below the anaerobic threshold (when you can no longer carry a conversation) are the most effective in burning body fat in the least amount of time. Cardiovascular exercise done over an extended period uses up the most energy from stored fat rather than glycogen which is necessary for muscle development.
Avoiding food with excess calories and saturated fat as well as eating the proper foods at the right times can also shorten the path to six pack abs significantly. Eating energy-rich foods early in the day can fuel our workouts and give us the energy boost we need to exercise properly.
Contrary to what a lot of people think, cutting-back on food intake to lose weight is not the right way to get abs. Sure, you can lose weight by skipping breakfast or lunch, but this invariably leads to loss of muscle instead of fat. Our body's metabolism slows down when we start to feel hunger pangs. This may come from our caveman days when food was scarce. A slower metabolism means less calories burned from body fat and thus it's better to avoid going hungry by munching on something healthy whenever we have the munchies. - 15438
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