Are you “waisting” your time with exercise?

How many times have you heard the words “you can’t spot reduce a body part” yet time after people spend hours, days and even weeks doing countless sets of sit ups or crunches in the vain hope that their “abs will show” or at least tighten up!

Unless this is undertaken along with a nutritious and healthy eating plan and also coupled with a “fat burning” exercise which will raise your heart and pulse rate to above its normal threshold for 20 x minutes  it will never happen..PERIOD!

The abs are a multi functional and multi faceted group of muscles that comprise your entire “core” which also include the lower back, lower tummy and waist muscles to borrow “layman’s terms” and all need to be worked equally.

Another common misconception is the fact you have to work your abs with high repetitions which is also untrue, as the abs like any other muscle group respond the best to applied resistance, either through added weight (not recommended until you’ve trained for at least 6 months) or by the intensity you apply to the exercise.

In other words, slow and controlled and contracting on the way up, never relaxing the muscle group and keeping them under tension on the way down.

To get you started let’s get going on my own version of the floor crunch which will “target and tone” your frontal abs as long as you also add at 20 x minutes of workout time twice a week and making sure you get out of breath, and keep an eye on what you are eating, particularly if you are overweight.

OK, here we go!

On your back, knees bent, hands at your sides and keep them on the floor, then try to slide them forward along the floor and reach as far as you can by gently lifting your head and shoulders off the ground, at no point  should your hands ever leave the ground.

Squeeze hard at the top for a two count and then slowly back down again, continue for 3 x sets of 15 repetitions have one minute rest in between each set.

That’s it for this week, give these babies a try and if your abs aren’t screaming for “uncle Garth” I want to know the reason why?

NB. Always undertake a Doctors advice if you haven’t trained for a while and been unwell.

Garth Delikan

PS Want a Mind and Body MOT? Gimme a Call