Best Ab Workouts For Men And Women
I’m going to tell you how to get toned abs using the best ab workouts for men and women, but I must warn you; it will take a little bit of work on your part! The reality is, you can’t spot-reduce fat on your abs. You abdominal area is comprised of muscles, and muscles need to be worked out. The secret to the best ab workouts is to devote specific exercised to your upper and lower abs, modify your diet and drink plenty of water. If you stick to these basic tenants than you’ll start to show the results in as little as 3 weeks and before you know it you’ll have toned abs that will garner you attention at the beach, in the gym or where ever you happen to be caught with a shirt!
Best Ab Workouts
The Upper and Lower Abdominals
The first rule of thumb regarding how to get toned abs is to treat your abdominals as a stack of upper and lower muscles. The abs on top need to be worked out a little differently than the abs on the bottom. In fact, you can even add the category of abdominals on the right and left side of your stomach if you want to tone up your abs a little bit more. I’ll show you the exercises that work and you decide how and when you want to implement them, some of them require no equipment, some you may need to use an exercise ball for the workouts.
Crunches (for upper abs)
The basic abdominal crunch is an easy ab workout: lie down on the floor, flex your knees with your feet flat on the ground and lift your upper body towards your knees. There’s no need to lock your fingers behind your neck as this adds unwanted stress on your neck and upper spinal column. The movement of raising and lowering your upper body to your knees and back constitutes one repetition. The trick on how to get toned abs is maintaining good form and also doing enough repetitions. You want to start with a minimum of 25 reps and do 4 sets with 1 minute of rest in between sets. Your goal is 50 reps x 4 sets! If you maintain good form, your abs will start burning before you reach your first 25 repetitions. For the sake of variety I would toss in another 4 sets x 25 reps with your legs raised and set against a wall. This will tone your abs even more. Again, work towards 4 sets x 50 reps.
Standing Knee Raises (lower abs)
Now let’s attack the lower abs. Stand up straight with your legs apart at shoulder width. Hands and arms raised in a boxer stance. You want to raise your leg/knee up towards your chest. The goal is 25 repetitions x 4 sets for each leg with 1 minute of rest in between sets. And you want to alternate your legs. One set on your right and then one set on your left. If you do the exercise correctly your legs will start to get heavy and your abs will start to hurt. Don’t worry, that’s what is supposed to happen!
Side Stretch
The final exercise on how to tone your abs is the side stretch, which is a great love handle workout. Again, stand up straight with legs apart at shoulder width. Now lean to your left. Go slow and try to lean as far as you can, then return to a standing position. Now lean to your right. Alternate sides. The goal here is 50 repetitions for 4 sets.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that you did a complete work-out on the upper, lower and sides of your abdominal muscles. If you stay focused with no distractions you can knock out this complete abdominal workout in about 30 minutes.
Earlier I mentioned diet and water. If you want to know how to tone your abs, then realize that all the exercises in the world mean nothing if you continue to eat like every meal is your last one. You need to eliminate sweets and don’t overdo the carbs. And drink at least 6 glasses of water per day. Water flushes your body of impurities and helps you burn fat.
Stick to this game plan and you’ll start to see results in as little as 3 weeks. Using the best ab workouts and seeing results takes work, but its work that is worth the effort!
