Building Better Abs

It's a common mistake in most people who want visible abs to do abdominal exercise only. Sure, you develop abdominal muscle but it's only hidden under a layer of fat. In fact, you may find your ab getting bigger as a result of the increased muscle mass.

Here are ideas for losing belly fat effectively and permanently.

1. Nutrition

Eat 5-6 small meals a day to keep your energy levels stable. Choose wholesome, natural foods, preferably organic, and avoid processed foods. Avoid refined and simple carbs that contain white flour and white sugar. Your main sources of carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and to speed up fat loss.

2. Interval training

If you don't have long hours to spare in the gym, interval workouts enable you to achieve the most fat loss in the least amount of time. Some examples of interval workouts are wind sprints, hill sprints, swimming sprints and speed rope jumping. You can also do intervals on a treadmill, stationary bicycle, stairclimber, rower and elliptical machines.

3. Resistance training

Resistance training not only sculpts your body but is important for building muscles. Like interval training, it raises your post workout metabolism so your body continues to burn calories even when you are doing nothing.

Aim for low rep resistance training, i.e. 8 reps per exercise, as it has been shown to boost metabolism after the workout.

4. Reduce stress

Stress has been associated with belly fat. In stressful situations, your body releases a stress hormone called cortisol. Excess cortisol production leads to build up of belly fat. A fat belly is more than ugly looking. Accumulated fat in the abdomen increases your risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

The good news is that you can attain a set of lean or six pack abs through a healthy diet plan and effective training program that promote fat loss.

A lot of programs out there are just scams so take care you don't fall for one of them. You can take a look at this link if you want to know about sean nalewanyj scam or vince delmonte scam.

Exercises That Make Chest Growth Better - I

WeekFor most bodybuilders, the chest raesponds faster and more favorably than any other bodypart. That's due mostly to the fact that the pectorals are made up of type II (white) muscle fibers. These muscles are characterized by their fast speed of contraction and their high capacity for anaerobic glycolysis. In other words, they're easy to "pump." 1) Dumbell flyes This is most definitely an isolation move, geared more as a warm up and to pre-exhaust the muscle group. It also works well as a nice stretch. While lying on a flat bench, hold two dumbells overhead, palms facing inward. Lower the weights out to the sides with slightly bent arms. Raise and repeat for 10-12 reps. There's no need to go heavy on this movement. Dumbell flyes are not mass builders. This is merely preparing the muscles for the oncoming onslaught. Do only 2 sets and move onto... When working any fast twitch muscle group for size and strength, it's best to use compound movements. These can be defined as basic exercises that allow for the use of heavy weights. Compound movements not only place greater stress on the targeted muscle but they implement many of the stabilizing muscles as well. In contrast to the compound movement is the isolation exercise. These are movements that are designed to hit specific parts of a muscle and bring out detail. A perfect example of a compound exercise is the bench press. Keep in mind that the chest is the "showpiece" of your body. You can be muscular beyond belief but if your abs are soft, to most people you're just a big fat guy. But someone with an average physique and killin' abs can look spectacular! Without that granite-like muscularity, coupled with diamond sharp abs, Frank would look like any of thousands of guys who work out. Instead, he was Mr. Olympia three times in a row and deservedly so. If you don't think so, I'd like to take a look at your abs!

Organic Food Is More Nutritious

Medical News Today - Oct 29, 2007
Early results of a 12 million pound, 4-year EU study on the benefits of organic food suggest that some of them, such as fruit, vegetables and milk, are more nutritious than non-organically produced food and may contain higher concentrations of cancer ...

The results were released to the press but there is no mention of a of a journal publication as yet. The research team said its findings will be published in full within the next 12 months.

The findings were announced by Professor Carlo Leifert of the Tesco Centre for Organic Agriculture based at Newcastle University, UK, who with his team are working on the EU funded project called the Quality Low Input Food (QLIF) project, the biggest ever to research the pros and cons of organic farming and food.

 

Source:

BBC News

Should You Grunt During Bodybuilding Workouts?

Jane Ross, a 42-year-old Boston area gym buff, is honest about it: When exercising, she sometimes grunts. "I think it's part of going to a gym -- I grunt during a workout, and I think that most people do," said the mom and former personal trainer. "When you are exerting yourself, it's a release." But not everyone is so accepting of those loud fitness club exhalations. A real good story.... Complete Story Here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20071024/hl_hsn/expertssoundoffonworkoutgrunting;_ylt=Ah1fGA2CoqA0DeIVjIuh__fVJRIF

Three Powerful Hormones That Make Your Muscle Building Program A Success Or Failure

Hormones are gatekeepers of body functions & regulate most of the body processes. Excess or deficiency of any hormone can have a lot of impact on your body. Any imbalance in hormones results in a side effect. e.g. acne is widely attributed to hormonal imbalances.

Muscle building is no exception. Here too hormones act as gatekeepers. Your muscle building success depends a lot on how you manage these hormones. Below is a list three of the critical hormones and the role they play in muscle building. There are hormones that simulate muscle growth while some other simulate breakage of muscle tissues.

1) Cortisol

This hormone has following two important functions

1) Increasing abdominal fat storage

2) Stimulates the breakdown of muscle tissue.

This hormone is released if you are workout time is extended beyond the one hour mark or if you are not taking proper rest. This hormone results in breaking up of muscle tissues. So, don't extend your workouts beyond the one hour mark. It will not bring any benefit.

2) Testosterone

This is the hormone found in most steroids under different variants. Increased quantity of this hormone results in more muscle growth. If you are following a bodybuilding program than make sure that all the while you have higher testosterone. Higher levels of testesterone will result in more muscle development. Again, improper rest or incomplete sleep decreases the testosterone levels in your body.

3) Growth Hormones

The name itself indicates the functions of growth hormones. They regenerate the body and play a vital role in muscle development. The body increases the production of growth hormones during rest and sleep.

One important conclusion from the above is the need of proper rest. All the above hormones are controlled or produced by your body while you sleep. So while depriving yourself of sleep may result in more production of cortisol that will increase the muscle breakage, taking proper sleep will result in more production of testosterone and growth hormones that bring in the necessary muscle gain.

These ideas are the basics of any bodybuilding program and are critical to your success or failure. The two most recommended muscle building programs are muscle gain truth and the musclehead. If you want more information on muscle building programs you can read this review of muscle building programs.

How to Get Hard Abs in a Month

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dean_Tressador]Dean Tressador

Everyone wants to know how to get hard abs! In this hectic world, exercising in our lives is often a low priority. Often people assume that for exercise to benefit it must be done for hours a day and to see results will take years. This is far from the truth. Exercise is beneficial as soon as you do it and results can be had in just one month. To learn how to get hard abs in under a month keep reading! Let's examine the role of the abdominals.

The stomach muscles help us maintain good back health, but when not exercised, they begin to atrophy and we begin to rely on other more awkward muscles to perform movements, like the lower back. Eventually the lower back is left to maintain our posture. The lower back was never meant to support the body in this way, hence the aches and pains that follow. You also begin to communicate weak and awkward body language which has social ramifications, when your abdominals are atrophied. The stomach muscles are huge and strong if healthy and can keep the rest of the body strong. Exercise can transform the stomach muscles in just days and become easily hard in less than a month. So let's look at how to get hard abs in a month. First, remember that you must want to be healthy and want to strengthen your form with exercise.

This is the key to success with any exercise routine or technique. Often people self sabotage themselves with negative thoughts, so getting your mind right about training your abs is crucial. Lets go over a typical leg raise. Lie down on the floor on your back and bend your legs slightly at the knees with your feet pointing outwards. You may put a pillow under your feet, not for support but to give you a stopping place for your leg raises. When we exercise we tend to forget about our form. The pillow will be a reminder to keep the legs in motion and not letting them rest to the floor after each rep. Then lift your legs smoothly, steadily and slowly, until you feel a pull. Breathe in and out and then release. Repeat this exercise 12 times, then rest. Do 3 sets. As you do this exercise the stomach muscles will begin to respond to the pedestrian strain you are applying to them.

 

Always pull the stomach in toward the back as you do these exercises. Do these exercises every day for a month and watch how amazingly hard your abs will be. Also drink plenty of water during the day and with exercise. Once you have reached the desired effect usually less than a month, maintain this exercise 3 times a week. If you would like to get a six pack in 23 days or less, buy The "Abs In 23 Days" training program. You can learn more about this award winning, abdominal pumping, fat stripping product by clicking

[http://www.absin23days.com]HERE. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dean_Tressador http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Get-Hard-Abs-in-a-Month&id=786325

Instantly Increase Your Strength On Every Back Exercise- Sean Nalewanyj

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Sean_Nalewanyj]Sean Nalewanyj Do you want a quick, simple and instant way to increase the amount of weight you can lift on virtually every back exercise you perform? Sound too good to be true? I speak the truth, my friend, and the reality is that if you aren’t utilizing this basic piece of gym equipment you’re missing out on some serious muscle size and strength gains. What tool am I talking about?

A pair of lifting straps!

This is such a basic and highly effective piece of equipment yet so many people neglect to use them. For those of you who are unaware, these are basically a set of thick straps made of extremely strong material that are placed around your wrists and then wrapped around the barbell, dumbbell or cable attachment. The purpose of lifting straps is to “eliminate” your grip from the equation by forming a secure connection between your wrist and the weight. If you use these straps properly you can basically hold onto the bar and perform your exercises while expending almost no energy from your forearms. Why is this so valuable? Picture this scenario…You’re performing a set of deadlifts (arguably the most powerful muscle-building exercise known to man) with the goal of performing 8 reps. You psych yourself up, grip the weight and clear the bar from the ground. The set is going well, but by the time you reach rep number 5, the strain on your grip is so great that you can no longer hold onto the bar. You’re forced to stop the set because your forearms reached muscular failure. What exactly happened here? Well, you gave yourself an amazing forearm workout! Congratulations! Unfortunately you severely limited the amount of muscle stimulation you could achieve on your back, shoulders, legs, and just about every other muscle in your body that the deadlift targets in the process. This is not a good thing! Lifting straps completely eliminate this problem by making sure that you reach muscular failure in the major muscle groups that you are intending to target rather than on your forearms and grip. They can be used effectively for almost every back exercise or any other lift where the grip is of concern. The main argument against lifting straps is the idea that they are a “crutch” and will negatively affect the development of grip strength and forearm size. Let’s get real here. What would you prefer, greater muscle mass and strength in your lats and upper back (and just about every other muscle group on your body) or greater ability to crack open a jar of pickles? Take your pick. The positive effect that lifting straps will have on your overall muscle mass and strength gains will far outweigh any negative effect that they have on your forearms and grip. Besides, you can easily incorporate specific forearm movements into your routine to develop your grip strength and forearm size. If you aren’t using lifting straps already, get on it! You can find them at almost any store that sells sports or fitness equipment or you can order them online. They sell for about 10 or 15 bucks and are well worth the price! Sean Nalewanyj is a bodybuilding expert, fitness author and writer of top-selling Internet Bodybuilding E-Book: The Truth About Building Muscle. You can learn more by visiting his website: http://www.MuscleGainTruth.com/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Nalewanyj http://EzineArticles.com/?Instantly-Increase-Your-Strength-On-Every-Back-Exercise&id=209446