Abs Training Guide

Abs Training – The Book I Recommend

I have read seven books on abs training and muscle improvement in the last 2 years. Most of these books were reciting the same old training tips and workout strategies, a few of them also mentioned some kind of diet as well. They were good books, worth reading each and every one of them. As I might have mentioned earlier, I’m the kind of customer who doesn’t buy anything that costs more than $10 without doing some research and reading reviews on the item. And I’m extremely picky when it comes to books, since reading and understanding a several hundred pages book takes a lot of time, and I hate wasting my time on useless stuff. So I always choose carefully.

Last friday I’ve bought another book on abs training. It’s called The Complete Book of Abs: Revised and Expanded Edition
. Man, this book totally blew my mind! It’s just what the title says: a 100% complete book, that covers all areas and aspects of abdominal training. Let me tell you some details.

About two weeks ago I was chatting on MSN with an online friend of mine, who’s also into fitness and body improvement (I’ll post a link to her blog in the Blogroll once she has it all set up) . We were discussing the material available on the market that we have learned from. Both of us agreed that 90% of the DVD’s and (e)books were… well, let’s say mediocre at best. She mentioned that she had learned most of the abs exercises she teaches today from Kurt Brungardt’s ‘The Complete Book of Abs’ which was released in 1993. I quickly googled for the book – and guess what? There’s a second, revised and expanded edition of this book. As I was desparately looking for a good book that could actually boost my knowledge, I checked out some reviews and customer comments on the book. As all of them were very positive, I decided to order it on Amazon. It arrived on friday, and yesterday I finally had the time to start reading. 288 pages of awesomeness! There are about a hundred abs training exercises with photos, a full description with difficulty rating. It also tells you the risk of lower back stress for each exercise! But there’s more: anatomy and diets are also discussed, and there’s a whole chapter dedicated to The Mind. It tells you about why, and more importantly how you should keep on working out for months, how to fight laziness and finally succeed. Man, I wish I had this book 10 years ago… Actually, it came out it 1998. And before you think that’s a disatvantage, it isn’t. The human body didn’t change much since then, and fortunately this book lacks the popular (but useless) inventions of 21st century fitness gurus.

So if you don’t have the patience to wait for my blog posts, want to get the information from the purest source or just simply like having excellent books on your shelves, get your hands on The Complete Book of Abs! I’ll post a link to the Amazon review page right here:
The Complete Book of Abs: Revised and Expanded Edition

Tags: abs, basics, book, muscle improvement, six-pack, the best

31.Aug.09 basics, facts, reviews Comments (0)

Abs Training Basics

There is a huge confusion and misunderstanding around abs training. Some trainers and trainees place emphasis on exercising hard every day, without even understanding how abs and generally how muscles work.
First of all, you have to have a clear goal. Ask yourself this question now: “Why do I want to train my abs?”

Possible answers are:

1. To lose fat from the abdominal area.
2. To develop a nice, visible six-pack.
3. To improve core strength.

Your training methods will depend on your chosen goal. However, the goals I mentioned above are not independent from each other. Keeping that in mind, I’ll tell you now what to do to achieve the one you’ve chosen.

1. How to lose fat from the abdominal area?
Probably the most difficult and most important question in abs training. Let’s face it, most of us have excess belly fat. And most of us want to get rid of it. Well, here’s the trick. Cardio and weight training is not enough. Diet is not enough. You have to do all three of these! Okay, I can hear you know saying “Damn, I give up, I’m too lazy to spend several hours a week in the gym and eat crappy food.” You don’t have to! Here’s what you’ll have to do:

a) Do 10-20 minutes of muscle training 2-3 times a week.

b) Do some cardio ‘training’ once or twice a week. Cardio training can be anything that raises your heart rate by 50%    for at least 10 minutes, including going to work by bike, or playing football with your friends. Making love also counts.

c) Follow a high protein, low carbs, low fat diet.

That’s it. It isn’t hard at all.

2. How to develop a nice, visible six-pack?
This is the most common question related to abs training. If you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for a way to get visible, toned, delicious six-pack abs. Actually, this question is highly related to the first one. It has been said many times, that everybody has a six-pack, but most people have it well-hidden under a layer of fat. That’s true. To make them visible, you only have to lose fat. The fastest way to achieve that, is to follow the points a), b) and c) I’ve written for the previous goal. Sure, you can do it without any muscle training. You can do it even without cardio-training. But to get fast results, you have to do them all. Without muscle training, you’ll get a ‘flat’ six-pack. Without cardio-training, it will take a lot of time to lose fat. Without the proper diet, your muscle development will be slower and/or you won’t lose any fat.

3. How to improve core strength?
This is an important question for people who do some kind of martial arts, or other sports that require strong kicks, jumps and body twists. The answer is: you have to follow the proper abs training program. There are exercises specifically developed to improve core strength. Without getting deep into anatomy, let’s just say that you’ll have to train the lateral muscles of your abdomen as well. The upside is that if this is your goal, you won’t have to lose fat at all. No cardio-training is required. For the downside, you’ll have to do some more muscle training. Following the diet helps, but isn’t necessary.

So hopefully you’ve decided which achievement are you aiming for. Stay tuned, in my next few posts I’ll show you the abs training methods that will help you achieve each or all of the possible abs training goals.

Tags: abs, achievements, basics, core strength, facts, goals, lose fat, six-pack, visible six-pack

07.Jul.09 anatomy, basics, facts Comments (0)

Abs Training Myths and Facts

First of all, let’s start with debunking the most common myths and misconceptions about abs trainig.
I’ve collected the three myths that are the most frequently mentioned and are the most harmful, most timewasting advices I have ever heard.

Warning!
Reading below might make you run around screaming “Oh my god, why the hell did I beleive so much crap for all those years?”
Yeah… I’m sorry folks, you’ve probably wasted countless hours and perhaps thousands of dollars on the wrong training methods. Yet you’re still here, wondering where are those six-pack abs you’ve been promised to get. Well, I’ll tell you that, just keep reading.

Myth #1:
“Special equipment, weights or other apparell is required to get six-pack abs fast.”

Man, no way! Don’t ever beleive this! All you need is your own body. Your body is the greatest device ever created. Actually, one of its main features is that it can (and WILL) improve by itself if it gets the proper stimulus and fuel. There are exercises for every single abdominal muscle fiber that can be done without any fancy equipment. Actually, some of those devices that are used by millions of people every day are not helping but LIMITING your progress.  In fact many of them are messing with your body’s natural mechanics, causing you harm. The only reason they are so popular is that they are sold by professional marketers. There’s lots of money in the training equipment business, and we all know how people can be hypnotized by ads. Especially when it’s about their health and looks.
So to summarize it in once sentence: You don’t need any equipment for abs training!

Myth #2:
“You have to train really hard and endure lots of pain to get six-pack abs.”

This is the most common pitfall. I think it originates from those Sylvester Stallone movies with the guy training every day, pushing his limits, showing incredible pain on his face in the process. Those are just movies. Entertaining but unrealistic. If the main character achieved his goal by training 15 minutes a day, would it be exciting? Would it be epic? I don’t think so. Realism is boring.
So how much time and pain does it take then? 2-3 times a week, 10-20 minutes at a time. That’s 20-60 minutes a week. Really. I’m not kidding.
You just have to know how to spend that time to get most of the result. Have you ever heard about the Pareto principle? It says: 20 percent of the effort generates 80 percent of the results. This can be applied to abs training as well.
Another question you might ask: “If I train every day, do I get six-pack faster?”

No you don’t. There are two reasons for this. First, your muscles need approximately 24 hours to regenerate and even more time to grow bigger. If you train hard every day, you keep tearing the muscle fibers faster then your body rebuilds them. I’ll talk about the second reason when I discuss the third and final myth:

Myth #3:
“Abs training will give me a six-pack.”
What the hell? How is this wrong? What’s this blog about then, anyways?
Calm down. It’s not completely wrong. It’s just half of the truth. One can follow the best abs training program for years, yet still have a terrible, disgusting soft belly. The trick is, you have to follow a good training AND lose fat in order to make those well developed six-packs visible. Yes, you have to lose fat. Sounds terrible, right? No. It’s actually pretty easy and doesn’t require eating less. I will post some diet ideas later on this blog.
Just keep in mind until then, that to get great, defined, toned abs, you’ll have to do both of these things:

• Follow a good abs training program.

• Change your eating habits so that you lose body fat.

Men need a body fat percentage of about 10, while women need about 14% to get well defined, visible six-packs.

So these were the well-known myths of six-pack training. But that’s what they are: myths. You should treat them as such. Many qualified and unqualified trainers will tell you these in the future. Depending on your personality, either let them know how wrong they are (don’t forget to tell them the truth), or just nod your head and pretend you agree. Abs training myths – busted!

Tags: abs, anatomy, debunk, facts, hard work, misconception, myths, pain, pitfalls, six-pack, warning

07.Jul.09 anatomy, basics, facts, myths Comments (0)