The main purpose of any abs workout is to get that all elusive ‘six pack’ stomach, attractive in both men and women because it is an indicator of good genes. It should be stressed here is that it would not be wise to think that doing hundreds of crunches at a time is going to help you get your six-pack. This will only make your abs workouts seem boring and unnecessarily prolonged. Learn more about the best weight loss shakes and thereafter figure out what you want from the full of variety in exercise type and method, i.e. cardiovascular and resistance training.
Abs Workout using Cardiovascular and Resistance training
Always start your abs workout with 15-20 minutes of cardiovascular training. This will help you to warm up and burn fat. The most effective type of cardio training is the interval cardiovascular method. You do your cardio training at 60% maximum heart rate for 4 minutes, then increase the intensity to 80% maximum heart rate for one minute and repeat the cycle. This will teach your body to conserve its muscle sugar stores and burn its body fat stores at a higher level. The interval method can be applied to any form of cardiovascular training, whether it is cycling, running, elliptical, or any other cardio exercise.
The next stage is your resistance training and the secret here is to do something different in each workout. There are a plethora of exercises that can be chosen in one’s abs workout from stomach crunches to leg raises to side crunches or whatever your imagination can dream up. What you need to do is keep the repetitions at around 15-20 and do around 10-12 sets with a choice of 2-4 different exercises.
As soon as any particular exercise seems too easy to perform, it is time to increase the resistance. This can be done in a variety of ways from adding extra weight or using gravity by, for example doing one’s sit-ups at a 45-degree angle using a specially designed bench. Your goal here is to increase the muscle density of your midsection and this will in turn burn, fatter when you do your next cardio session.
As you increase muscle strength, you increase the density, and so on. A good way to increase resistance is with the super-set method. With this method you do a harder ab exercise such as an incline sit-up, immediately followed by an easier exercise such as a leg raise. You then repeat the cycle 5 or 6 times as quickly as you can. Make sure you end your abs workout with 5-15 minutes of stretching to prevent any injuries and increase flexibility. Try not to go past 90 minutes for each workout, 3 to 4 days a week to avoid over-training.
So in conclusion you want a combination of cardiovascular and resistance training in your abs workout, always consisting of different individual exercises. Do them as intensely as possible as quickly as possible because this will not only be more effective but give you time to work on other muscle groups as well. Exercising other muscle groups can be very complimentary for the midsection. For example, one of the best abs workout exercises one can do for the stomach is, believe it or not, the barbell squat.
