Stomach & Ab Exercises

Postural Guidelines for Abdominal Exercises

Exercising in proper postural alignment will increase your workout's effectiveness and substantially decrease your likelihood of injury. Therefore, correct posture should be maintained at all times during your abdominal exercises. Follow the simple guidelines below to improve your posture.

Postural Guidelines Abdominal

1. Make sure your head is horizontal to the ground and centered over your shoulders.
2. Bring your chest up.
3. As you bring your chest up, your shoulders must relax and not go up. Therefore, relax your shoulders down and back.
4. Tighten your abs by pulling your belly button to your spine.
5. Align your knees with your second and third toes.
6. Make sure your knees are not locked. There must always be a slight bend in them.
7. Lay with your feet spaced comfortably apart (usually hip width).

The Two Greatest Myths About Abdominal Exercises

If you have ever read a fitness magazine...

If you have ever watched TV ads about latest machines that will magically reveal your abs...

If you have ever gone to a gym and saw tens of people lying on the floor doing crunches....

then beware because chances are you are a victim of the two biggest abdominal training hoaxes!

Myth No: 1

Just doing some midsection exercises can reduce your "love handles".

Fact

You cannot reduce fat from a certain targeted area of your body just by using exercise alone.

And the abdominal area is no exception.

So if you want to get a flat stomach and to reveal your abs, losing the fat covering them is the way to go.

And the only way to do this is to lose fat proportionately from your entire body by burning more calories than you consume.

How? By doing these two things:

1) Have a healthy and balanced permanent diet: dark green vegetables, fresh fruits, whole wheat and whole grain products, non-fat dairy products, fish, poultry breast, lean red meat, egg white.

Yes, you should cut out all sugar, soda, non-whole grain products and saturated fats: these aliments should only be a reward for achieving a goal, not a habit!

2) Start exercising

Aerobic and weight training will raise your metabolic rate. In result, your body will burn more calories.

* aerobic exercising

3 times per week, practice an exercise that keeps your heart rate elevated for at least 30-45 minutes (ex: walking, running, cycling, swimming, aerobics, etc)

* weight training

Alternate days of aerobics with weight training. You will build muscles that will burn more calories, even when at rest!

Myth No: 2

You have to do tons of crunches.

Fact

Overuse of crunches will only shorten your abs, pull your head forward and gives you a bad posture. Do you really want to looks like Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame?

Any standing exercise that will contract your abs will do but you should specifically target your lower back to strengthen the muscles that support your spine.

The easiest exercise is sucking the gut in, also known as the "stomach vacuum" :

1. Exhale. Suck your gut in.

2. Maintain the contraction for 10 to 20 seconds.

3. Repeat 10 to 15 times, as often as you like throughout the day (for example while in the shower, sitting at your desk, while driving or in the bus).

Time now for YOU to take action!

The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to medically diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any health care program.

Emily Clark is editor at Lifestyle Health News and Medical Health News where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information on many medical, health and lifestyle topics.holistic medicine at the local and national levels AAAI./ISMA and is authoring a book on health and fitness.