Saturday, January 17, 2009

Ab Machines Are Not The Answer

By Jose Loni

So you want to have six pack abs? Well, ab machines are not the answer. Abdominal machines are able to strengthen the abdominals but they are not the answer. Training with resistance, watching your diet and lowering stress in your life are key to help you get six pack abs.

Doing resistance-training increases the bodys metabolism resulting in increased muscle mass. Excess body fat is consequently used to fuel the resulting increase in muscle activity.

Some ab machines place our body in positions that may cause injury while doing the exercise. Some machines target the hip flexor muscle group rather than the abs.

To get ripped abs, we have to watch what we eat. We should keep a balanced diet and avoid fast food, fatty food, sodas and processed foods. In watching what we eat, we can better control our caloric intake.

Consuming lean protein and complex carbohydrates allows our body to utilize those calories with greater efficiency and increase fat burning. Also by cutting out sugar snacks, fatty foods, fast foods and carbonated beverages we are better able to control the calories that we eat and keep our body from converting the extra calories that we consume into fat.

Stress makes our body store excess body fat in the belly area. When we are in a stressful situation, our body stores fat in our belly because of the hormone Cortisol, which is released during stress.

The body's increased muscle mass, which is the result of the resistance and interval training helps to increase the body's efficiency in burning fat and getting rid of excess body fat.

Ab machines are not the answer to getting ripped abs. Achieving ripped abs means increasing overall metabolism through exercise, watching our diet and decreasing stress in our lives. - 15995

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