trimafter40.com

Ab Exercises…. Great for Losing Fat

Losing fat around your midsection is the key to having visible abdominal muscles. Contrary to popular belief, and misunderstanding, you don’t actually need to build your ab muscles in order to grow them – they are not like your arm or leg muscles.

Instead, doing ab exercises combined with fat burning cardio fitness will result in fat loss – especially that spare tire around the stomach that hides the muscles underneath.

Numerous studies prove that people, especially men (who are prone to storing fat there) who have excess weight around their middle, are more likely to suffer from health problems.

So it goes without saying that trimming down this part of your body will have positive effects for the rest of your figure (and health).

From simple sit ups to more complex routines, regardless of which exercises you choose to do there’s one thing to keep in mind: don’t over do it.

Because you don’t need to build these muscles like you do with biceps and thigh muscles, you only need to undertake minimal targeted exercise per week on this part of the body. The good thing is that all of the other exercises you do will also benefit your abs indirectly.

Which ab exercises will give you the best results? The true answer is that most of them will. The key is to mix them up and rotate several of them throughout your weekly fitness routine.

The bicycle exercise is certainly one of the best options for both beginners and those who are already quite fit.

It requires you to lie on your back on a flat surface, put your hands behind your head and bring your knee up one at a time to meet your chest, in a cycling motion.

Make sure you bring your opposite elbow to the rising knee and don’t pull with your neck, but rather your abdominal muscles.

Leg crunches are another excellent ab exercise to try. Lie on your back again, this time bring your legs straight up vertically so they are 90 degrees to the ground, keeping knees slightly bent and then by contracting your ab muscles, bring your chest up.

This will place great strain on your stomach muscles so take it easy at first! Short sets are ideal in the beginning and you can increase it from there over the coming weeks and months.

Doing good ab exercises with proper form (this is extremely important) will yield the results you need – just make sure you do them in conjunction with your regular fitness workouts such as walking and cycling in order to burn the fat that is covering your abdominal muscles.