Tone Your Tummy For Summer Fun

One of the most common fitness questions this time of year is “How can I tone my stomach for swimsuit season”? ( check out a perfect boot camp for bikini season prep.) Typically, people believe that the guaranteed quick route to obtaining a rock-solid six-pack is a path packed with hundreds of sit-ups or abdominal crunches. Wrong!

The reality is that even if you do crunches every day you aren’t guaranteed to get the stomach you desire. Getting those highly sought after, toned abs requires more work than just abdominal exercises. Plus, as far as stomach exercises go, sit-ups or crunches alone are not the solution.

We won’t go into detail about the muscles that make up the abdominal wall, but it’s good to know the basic information. At a high-level the abdominal/trunk area consists of 5 major muscles. It’s necessary that all of these muscles be exercised. It’s also important to utilize different types of training techniques like concentric, eccentric and isometric.

In addition to training those muscles, it is imperative that you also reduce the fat in your stomach area. If you don’t decrease the fat in this area, then you’ll never see well-defined abdominal muscles not matter how long and hard you train them.

The key to reducing body fat is a comprehensive workout program that consists of cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility exercises. Plus, don’t forget a healthy diet. Good examples of cardio exercises are: walking, swimming, aerobics, and jogging. Strength training can be done with dumbbells, resistance bands and even just your own body weight. Flexibility can be as simple as a few stretches held in place for about 20 seconds.

Now, back to the specifics of abdominal training. Traditional crunches can be a part of your abdominal training, but should be limited and certainly shouldn’t be the only part. To most effectively work your stomach area, it’s necessary to include about 80% rotational work. Rotational exercises are those that include twisting-type methods. Simple crunches do not fall into the rotational category because you simply lift your body straight up and down.

To most effectively train your abs, incorporate a lot of variety, including different positions and equipment. This will allow your muscles to continually be challenged, which is what will help make them stronger and more defined. Remember that you don’t have to lie on your back in the supine position to work your stomach area. There are hundreds of different ways to work them, including exercises in a standing position, on your side, raised on a ball, hanging from a bar, etc.

Don’t forget the importance of form. If you don’t use correct form when performing abdominal exercises, you’ll severely limit the effectiveness not to mention possibly cause an injury. Tips for correct form include:

• Don’t ever pull on your neck or head
• Don’t allow your legs to move, they should remain still — let your abs do all the work
• Try to keep your belly button pulled in toward the floor throughout the entire move.

This article is courtesy of www.phoenixonlinept.com