Thursday, August 1, 2013

Get Six Pack Abs Without Lower Back Pain


Lots of fitness enthusiasts swear by ab exercises such as crunches, ab machines, and sit ups. Little do they know how much damage these types of exercises do to your lower spine. Even ab exercises that you think are effective may not be as effective as you thought.

For example I thought that doing crunches on an exercise ball would prevent lower back pain since your body has more range of motion than doing them on the floor. But even crunches on an exercise ball will stretch your back out of shape over time.

Then there are lower ab exercises such as reverse crunches that seem like a good idea since you are moving your lower body rather than your upper body. These are no good for your lower spine either. Just about any ab exercise that involves contracting your spine is not good for your back.

Think about it. The more you bend your back and stretch it the more pain you will develop over time. This is why everyone always says to have good posture like a soldier even if you have a desk job.

Exercises that isolate the abs will make matters worse. The truth about six pack abs is that you don't need to do a single ab exercise although they can certainly help. But before I get into the few effective ab exercises I recommend I want to explain something.

You can get six pack abs with just diet, compound exercises, and cardio. There is no need for so-called effective ab exercises. The most important aspect here is diet. You cannot expect to eat a lot of junk food and have ripped abs. You have to eat clean almost all of the time. Abs are built in the kitchen.

The key to six pack abs is lowering your body fat while preserving the muscle mass. This is done by eating healthy natural foods like lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and beans. You can allow yourself some cheat meals each week but it should only be done in moderation.

You want to get plenty of protein, healthy fats, and carbs in your diet to fuel your body for your workouts. Sure you may have to sacrifice taste to look good in a bathing suit but it will be well worth it once you start to see the results in the mirror. Nothing tastes as good as looking sexy.

Now that you understand diet is the most important part of building a six pack let's talk about proper exercise. The main exercises you should be performing are compound exercises such as squats, dead lifts, lunges, chin ups rows, chest presses, and shoulder presses. Performing such exercises is known as resistance training.

Resistance training is important because you want to keep your hard earned muscle while losing the belly fat. Cardio is what will really help you burn the fat. So with these two types of exercise in mind I will now explain the two strategies in which to perform your workouts.

You can either perform resistance training and cardio separately. Or you can combine the two into what is known as circuit training which I highly recommend for people who have little time to work out.

1 comment:

  1. I'll bet you can't guess which muscle in your body is the muscle that gets rid of joint and back pains, anxiety and excessive fat.

    This "hidden primal muscle" in your body will boost your energy, immune system, sexual performance, strength and athletic skill when unlocked.

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