How to Tone Your Abs

ABDOMINALS - The Truth
on How to Achieve a Toned Tummy and Slim Waistline

It often seems like the hardest thing in the world to do: "Reducing your waistline and toning your abdominal region". People all over the world spend thousands of dollars per day attempting to accomplish the "SIX PACK". I have regular requests asking for advice and quick fixes to remedy the storing of body fat around the waistline and how to create a firm toned midsection.

The Truth about achieving a toned tummy and being able to actually see that "muscle tone" is to get rid of the layer of body fat covering your abdominals. That's right! It doesn't matter how many crunches you do, or what new machine you use from the continuous advertisements that hound us day in and day out. If you don't reduce your body fat you will never see those strong toned abdominals.

Spot Reduction - A Fallacy!

You cannot spot reduce. Although you can change areas of your body with resistance exercise eg. weight training techniques like toning, body shaping and body building etc. You cannot just train or exercise one body part alone, such as your abs, and expect to see a whole new look. Achieving a six pack or muscle tone in your abdominal area is a lot more involved and I intend to show you how to go about reaching your new slim and toned waistline by following a few simple steps and hints..

A familiar tune.......

As I mentioned above I frequently receive emails of desperation with requests such as "I am happy with the rest of my body, but my wide and fatty waistline ruins my body shape. Can you give me just one exercise that will fix this". Or "I have an occasion coming up and I want to reduce my waistline, can you recommend a supplement and some special crunches that will make me lose 10 kilos around my waist within the next 6 weeks?" And "I perform 200 crunches per day and I still don't see any difference in my waistline, what am I doing wrong?"

One More Thing Before We get Started - Don't Rely On Gimmicks !

One thing I am very concerned about is the fact that most of us want to believe that some miraculous piece of equipment, or pills, will give us that toned tummy that the sexy girls and guys have in the ads for these types of products. Believe me, before I started in the fitness industry years ago I also thought if I spent hundreds of dollars it would work for me too. I was so upset when I found out that I actually had to work really hard at it and there was no such miracle cure or quick fix solution.

The Difference Between Firming Up Your Abs and Reducing Your Body Fat Around Your Waistline

Now that you know that the only way to trim down your waistline is to reduce the amount of body fat around that particular area you are probably thinking "where do I go from here?". First you need to realize that a slim waist doesn't necessarily mean that you have a toned midsection. As you know, to firm up your abdominal area you need to perform crunches or some kind of resistance program. Many men and women do have slimmer waists or flat stomachs, but they can still lack tone and firmness. This where the "resistance training" comes in.

"Why does my Waistline Grow Instead of Shrink when I Perform Crunches?"

One of the most common reasons that I have found for this occurring is a diet full of fat, calories: from sugar foods and junk food and too many starchy carbs towards the end of the day. Most people think that if they perform a few crunches every day their waistline will magically turn into a six pack! WRONG! How could you possibly expect to achieve a six pack when you are consuming foods that are increasing the actual layer of body fat that prevents the ab muscles from being seen in the first place?

I know this sounds harsh but if you want to have a waistline or abs that look like you've put the effort in to produce them then that's exactly what YOU are going to have to do. If you are eating all of the wrong foods while increasing the muscle growth in your ab region you are actually "bulking up" this area. Why? Because you will have an increase in both muscle and body fat - which will therefore increase your measurements.

"So how can I Firm Up my Abs and Reduce My Waistline too?"

If you read through the steps below you will grasp a better understanding of how to attain the above goals. In no time you can get started on improving your training program to help you achieve the waistline you've always dreamed of having.

Steps / Hints to Help Set You on the Right Track to Getting Started on Your New Ab Program

When you read through the following steps and hints you will most probably find that there are quite a few of them that you aren't currently following or didn't know about. For each step I have included a list of things you need to remember when training your abdominals. I have tried to keep it brief but informative. You may like to use the following steps / hints like a checklist so you can remember each point when starting your NEW ABS program.

1. Resistance Training Program

• Train your lower abdominals first
• Breath out as you crunch up.
• If you have your hands behind your neck, make sure you keep your elbows back, and crunch up using your shoulders. (This will help prevent neck soreness)
• Keep your lower back pushed into the floor or bench.
  I know that some people don't agree with this but unless you are advanced, and have sufficient abdominal and lower back strength, or have a personal trainer or exercise therapist that is spotting you and can ensure that you're performing the exercise safely, you shouldn't be performing exercises that encourage you to excessively arch your back. Exercises like this are not for "newbies" that are just starting out training their abdominals.
  If you're on your own and find in general that your back arches considerably when performing just basic ab exercises then keep your knees bent and closer to your body so that your lower back is pushing into the floor or bench.
• Don't overtrain your abs. Three quality training sessions per week is ample. Remember muscle needs recovery time to grow. It's muscle growth that increases your muscle in your midsection. Overtraining will actually deplete the muscle instead of increasing it. So that you can focus on your ab exercises perform them on your cardio days or on non-weight training days.
• Don't go overboard with performing loads of repetitions. Rather than trying to achieve 5 x 100 crunches per exercise, hold for a count of 2-5, each rep you perform using 4-5 x 12 burning reps. This will get you better results. Your goal is to damage the muscle to promote muscle growth for increased muscle tone - that is when you reduce your body fat you've actually got nice strong abs to show off!
• Don' t just train your abs. You need to be performing a full-body program rather than only concentrating on your abdominal region. Direct your attention to training each body part so that you can a achieve a "toned and firm look" all over.

2. Low-Fat Eating Program

• Reduce your fat content in your meals.
• Do not cook with oil, use a low fat cooking spray instead.
• Reduce, and I mean really cut back, on your fried foods
• Reduce your margarine and butter usage to only a small amount or none at all
• Increase lean protein (to help feed your muscles and support repair and growth)
• Eat fresh salads and veggies
• Towards the end of the day reduce your intake of carbs like potato, rice, pasta, cereals and bread. Still include them in your meals towards the beginning of the day but don't pig out on them - and consume the brown ones rather than the white ones. Try to fill up on green veggies and protein instead.
• Don't use fatty gravies on your meals or meat, use very low oil or no oil gravies instead
• Don't use oily salad dressings, go for low oil or no oil with them as well.
• Check the fat content on the labels of tins and cans
• Cut all the fat off your meat and grill it.
• Eat six meals smaller regular meals per day rather than having one or two large meals per day.
• Always have breakfast!
• Use egg whites rather than eggs with yolks. You can actually purchase egg whites in cartons, they can normally be found in the freezer section of your supermarket. Two egg whites = 1 whole egg, if you want to use egg whites in your recipes.
• Have one day off your eating program per week. That doesn't mean you've got the green pass to go to "all you can eat" breakfasts, lunch and dinners all day either. It just means go and treat yourself to a meal or brunch etc.
• If you have trouble keeping up with your protein intake use low-fat, low carbohydrate, high protein drinks. There are some great flavors ranging from vanilla, chocolate, banana, strawberry etc. Purchase a shake that is easy to mix and has quality protein content. You can use these as a morning or afternoon snack.

Persons who are of good health, suspect of their health or are aware of any conditions, physical deficiencies or diseases should always consult a physician before undertaking any eating or exercise program. Mandy Gibbons, Virtual Fitness Trainer, www.virtualfitnesstrainer.com.au and www.virtualfitnesstrainer.com disclaims any liability or loss in connection with the above program or advice given in this article.