Ab Exercises Progression
Because of tradition, abdominal exercises are often executed in long sets of 50, 100, or even 200 repetitions. Friends even turn it into a contest: - "I did 4 sets of 200!" - "Really? I did 6 of 300."
Who would get the best results from their abdominal exercises in this scenario? No one. Here's why.
Long sets of abdominal exercises are not optimal if you want six pack abs. It's basic physiology: muscles grow better on heavy, medium-repetition (about 8-12) sets. Would you train your chest using 4 sets of 200 repetitions? I thought so. Abdominal muscles are no different, and they need to grow if you want them to show.
But let's say you can do 12 crunches. Do you stop there (since sets of 8-12 work best)? Of course not. You need to make the crunches harder by increasing the weight you lift every repetition. But how? By positioning your arms differently. Following are 3 arm positions you can use with all abdominal exercises to make them harder and more effective at building six pack abs.
1. Arms along your sides. Can't get any easier.
2. Arms crossed across your chest. Intermediate difficulty.
3. Hands behind your head.
4. Arms overhead. Can't get any harder without adding external weights.
5. Arms crossed across your chest, with some external resistance (a plate or a heavy book, for example).
So, keeping with the crunch example, once you hit 12 repetitions with your arms along your sides, start your next set with your arms crossed across your chest.
Again, once you can do 12 repetitions with your arms crossed across your chest, start your next abdominal exercise set with your arms overhead.
Once your can do 12 repetitions with your arms overhead, you'll want to use some form of external weight (dumbbell, plate, dictionary, etc.). You can hold it across your chest (some people feel more comfortable that way) or at arm's length, overhead. The same principle also applies to all abdominal exercises: when you hit 12 repetitions, increase the difficulty by changing your arm's position.
Next time you're about to start a set of 200 crunches, try crossing your arms across your chest. See how many repetitions you can perform this way, and how the burn in your abdominals feel. Then drop me a line at my website below.
To get six pack abs is the complete solution for those looking to get six packs of abs. Check us out to discover how to get six pack abs.
|
|
 |
 |
Health, Exercise and Buying An All In One Exercise System
These days, more and more people are turning away from memberships to gyms and instead choosing to invest money in a home gym. You can put a home gym in a spare corner of your home, or even in the basement if you wish. Along with helping you save money by combining several different types of equipment into one machine, these types of equipment can easily fit in small spaces and type up a lot less weight than their individual counterparts.
Over 48,000 Members Sign Up to Improve their Long-term Health and Fitness Goals with The Times Health Club Powered by traineo.com
Just six weeks after its launch in early January 2008, The Times Health Club boasts over 48,000 members who have recorded more than 27.8 million calories burned during 68,384 hours of exercise using the interactive online health and fitness tools licensed from the Internet's leading health and fitness community, traineo.
Exercise Recovery Nutrition Plan: Who Needs It?
How should you refuel your body after exercise? We seem to be surrounded by commercial recovery foods and fluids. These recovery foods and fluids offer a combination of carbs and protein, but are they the best for exercise recovery nutrition?
Tired of Fatigue? Try 6 Dahn Yoga Exercises for Vibrant Energy
Fatigue, the persistent lack of physical or mental energy and motivation, is common in our stress-filled world. Ilchi Lee (http://www.ilchi.com) believes that overcoming fatigue requires good nutrition, sound sleep, and energy-related practices - regular exercise, deep relaxation and stress-managing strategies. Based on oriental health principles, yoga can stimulate the body's energy system. Too much stress and tension block energy flows, depriving the brain and body of their natural vitality. He describes five Dahn Yoga exercises to generate vibrant energy.
demandFITNESS.com Launches World's Most Comprehensive Fitness Video Download Service: Industry-First Virtual Gym Offers Ever-Growing Library of Ove
demandFITNESS (www.demandfitness.com) announces the launch of its video download service, which delivers fitness classes over the Internet for playback on Windows-based PCs, laptops, and other portable media devices, as well as on TV sets. The new download service represents just one more way in which the virtual fitness leader delivers professionally-developed health and fitness classes directly to consumers via the Internet -- available anytime, anywhere.
An Effective Golf Swing Exercise
There are many types of effective golf swing exercises. Golf swing exercise is very important because the golf swing is at the very heart of the golf game.
Fitness Together Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary in Gwinnett County, GA
Just a little over a year ago, Russ Yeager left his corporate job as a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) to pursue his life long dream of opening a personal training studio.
In December 2006, Yeager's Fitness Together introduced something that Gwinnett County had never seen before: one-one-one personal training performed in private, fully equipped training suites.
Exercises For Low Back Pain Sufferer
Having low back pain is becoming more and more of a problem now days especially for people who tend to slouch. This type of back pain is more frequent for people who work forty hours a week at desk because most of these people tend to be sitting in a slouched position. This is one of the main reasons why more and more people are diagnosed with low back pain problems.
|
 |
|
