The way to look ABS-olutely Great!

A six pack is not an easy goal to reach. Contrary to what is often thought, it takes more than abdominal exercises to get a six pack. Ultimately, your fat percentage should also be low enough to see your abdominal muscles. Food plays an important role in this.  Please read through my blog page that talks about a diet focused on muscle-building, so that you can very easily calculate your own customized diet and plan exactly what to eat when in the form of a diet chart.

Even though you are relatively slim, if you can not see your muscles in your stomach, then it means that there is still too much fat to reveal a six pack.

However, if your diet is already in order and you are already actively reducing your fat percentage, then training your abs is definitely the next step. And to help you with that, I've made a list of the best abdominal exercises.

It's a common myth that 'bulging belly' is due to weak abdominal muscles. The real cause is likely to be tight Psoas muscles, which cause the lower back to curve pushing out the stomach. When the Psoas works properly it pulls the abdomen back tucking the tummy in, giving you a strong, flat stomach. Read the Full Report Here.

Exercises for the lower abdominal muscles

You do not necessarily need a gym to train your Abdominal muscles. All you need is a yoga mat or other soft surface and then it can also be easily at home. With different exercises you can train the different parts of your belly. In this article we mainly focus on the lower abdominal muscles, because that is where most of the fat accumulation takes place.

In the beginning it may be difficult to carry out the exercises regularly, but once you are in a fixed rhythm, it becomes easier. Training the lower abdominal muscles can also be quite heavy, but the advantage is that you can easily do it at home.

# 1 'The crunch'

The crunch is the simplest and also one of the most familiar abdominal exercises. It is ideal for training the lower abdominal muscles. It is important at the crunch that you are not directly on the ground, but on a mat or something in that direction. This is to prevent you from hurting your spine.

Take the correct position; Lie on your back and keep your knees bent. You put your hands behind your head. Move your shoulders to your knees and try to keep your elbows open. Your belly needs to be tightened intensively. Then you move back again. Keep repeating this. In the beginning you can do this ten or fifteen times. Later you can build it up to twenty or thirty times.

# 2 'The sit-up'

The sit-up is heavier, but more effective than the crunch. Still, it is advisable for beginners to start with the crunch and later on to the sit-up. With the sit-up the same applies as with the crunch: make sure you have a soft surface before you start.
Lie on your back with your knees bent. Your hands may be held on the thighs. When you move to your knees with the shoulders you also take your hands to your knees. When you return to the starting position, you let your hands slide from the knees to the thighs again. In the beginning, the exercise will be quite heavy. Therefore start with five to ten times. You can build this up to fifteen times later.

# 3 'The crossed exercise'

The crossed exercise is also associated with a bicycle movement, because you raise your legs in turn. This exercise is heavy, but in the long run you can learn to keep it going for a long time, and it is important that you keep your breathing under control. This exercise is very effective.


Lie on your back and bring knees to your chest until halfway. Stretch one leg and keep your other leg bent. Keep your hands with open elbows behind your head. Now change the position of your two legs continuously. Be careful not to overload the neck. Twenty repetitions are more than enough in the beginning. In a later stage you can also achieve thirty times, or even fifty times.

#4 'The lateral crunch'

The lateral crunch is a kind of combination of the crunch and the crossed exercise. But with this you do not have to lift your legs. This ensures that you have to go further up and that is why this exercise is a bit heavier.

Lie on your back with your hands behind your head. The knees may be bent. Move your right shoulder to your left knee. Go back to the basic position and move your left shoulder to your right knee. The lateral crunch is thus almost the same as the normal crunch, but it is performed at an angle.

Repeat the lateral crunch and switch the exercise from left to right. It is important to carry out the exercise calmly and managed for the right result. If you are just starting twenty times is sufficient. After a while you can build it up to thirty or forty times.

# 5 'The pulse up'

I have kept the heaviest exercise last, but certainly the most effective. It may not be very comfortable to do, and just like with the other exercises, it is important that it is executed correctly, but with this you have the fastest result.

Lie on your back with your hands under your buttocks. Move your feet to the ceiling and stretch your legs as far as you can. It is important not to force and perform the exercise correctly: your legs must be moved upwards, causing your buttocks to come off the ground. This is a very heavy exercise, so start with eight times. Later you can expand this to sixteen times.

# 6 'Double leg lifts'

Start lying on your back while placing your hands under your buttocks. Take a few deep breaths. Then stretch your lower abdominal muscles and slowly raise your legs until they make a 90 degree angle with your body. Slowly bring your legs down again until your leg is a few centimeters above the floor.

Keep lifting your legs up, about 5 to 8 times to start. Later, if your abdominal muscles become stronger, you can do the exercises 15 to 20 times or more. As things get better, you can also lift your head and shoulders off the ground as you perform the exercise.

# 7 'Alternating leg walks'

Start lying down with your back on the floor and place your hands under your buttocks again. Lift your right leg slowly upwards, so that it again makes an angle of 90 degrees with your body. Bring the right leg down again, and repeat the procedure with your left leg. Repeat the exercise in the beginning about 8-10 times, and later 15-20 times or more. Raise your head and shoulders to make the exercise heavier.

# 8 'Double leg reverse crunches'

Lie on your back with your hands under your buttocks. Lift both legs up in vertical position. Now bend your knees so that they are parallel to the floor. Now lower your legs down until your feet soar a few inches above the  ground. Continue to tighten your abs in this position. Tighten your abs now even harder to bring your knees up again.

This is a challenging exercise. Start with 3 to 5 repetitions. Perform the repetitions until you can repeat the exercises 15-20 times in a row.

# 9 Scissors

Lie on your back, with your hands under your buttocks. Then lift your legs off the floor without bending your legs. Now spread your legs. Cross your legs now, with left over right. Spread your legs again. Now cross right over left. So always change the sides.Start with 8-10 repetitions, Continue until you get the 18-20 repetitions.

Extra: To make the exercise heavier, do not rest your legs between the exercises, but let them hover above the ground for 10 seconds. Then continue with the exercise.

# 10 'Double leg circles'

Lie back on your back again. Lift your legs a bit above the ground. Start rotating your legs in a circular shape. Make 5 circles clockwise. Let your legs rest on the floor for 10 seconds, then do 5 circles to the left. You can vary the number of circles of your choice, for example 15 or more.

Exercises for the Upper abdominal muscles

# 1 'LEG LIFT' - Especially trains the lower abdominal muscles

Lie flat on your back on the floor with your legs straight in front of you. Place your hands on the floor next to your body for support.

Bend your lower abdominal muscles and raise your legs until they point straight upwards. Keep the tension on the abdominal muscles and lower your legs to the starting position.

(Note: Maintain complete control over the entire movement and resist the temptation to drop your legs during the downward movement).

Prefer a visual example? Follow the video below.

# 2 'LEG LIFT + CRUNCH'- Especially trains the first and second abdominal muscles

Lie flat on your back on the floor with your legs straight in front of you. Place your hands on the floor next to your body for support.

Bend your lower abdominal muscles and raise your legs until they point straight upwards. At this point you lift your shoulders and torso as far as possible from the ground in a curly motion without lifting your back from the floor.

Keep the tension on the abdominal muscles, lower your legs to the starting position and bring your torso back to the starting position.

(Note: Maintain full control over the entire movement, avoid the temptation to swing back and forth).

Do you want to participate in the exercise? Click below for the video.

# 3 'KNEE LIFT' - Especially trains the lower abdominal muscles

Sit on the floor (or on the edge of a chair or bench) with your legs straight in front of you and hold with your hands on the sides for support.

Hold your knees together and then pull your knees up to your chest until you cannot go any further.

Keep the tension on the lower abdominal muscles and bring your legs back to the starting position and repeat the movement until you have completed your set.

Just confused about how the exercise should be done? Check out the instructional video below.

# 4 'TEEN LIFT' - Especially trains the first and second abdominal muscles

Sit on the floor (or on the edge of a chair or bench) with your legs straight in front of you and hold with your hands on the sides for support. Now bring both legs up as far as possible, while at the same time you move your upper body towards your legs.

Return to the starting position and repeat the movement until you have completed your set.

Watch the instructional video here.

# 5 'REVERSE CRUNCH' - Especially trains the first and second abdominal muscles

Lie flat on your back on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Place your hands on the floor next to your body for support.

Slowly bend your legs at the knees and bring them to your chest. Once the knees have reached your chest, lift your shoulders and torso as far as possible from the ground in a curly motion, without lifting your back off the floor.

Then bring your legs back to the starting position and bring your upper body back to the floor.

See here the video and go straight to start the exercise.

Sets, repetitions and rest between sets

Each exercise should consist of 3 sets with as many repetitions as possible. There are many different ways to do the above routine. What you can do for example is a set of exercises 1 and 2, then you rest for 30 seconds, then you continue with sets of 3 and 4, rest for 30 seconds, then do the sets 5 and 6, rest again for 30 seconds and do finally exercise 7. After the last exercise you can rest for 1 minute and then repeat the above twice for a total of 3 sets.

But of course that is only a way to do it. You can also choose the more traditional approach by doing 3 sets of exercise 1 (with no more than 60 seconds of rest between sets) and following those three sets to the next exercise, etc. It is important that you do what you feel comfortable. As a beginner, however, it is often easier to follow the previously described routine, because you often do not have the endurance to do all three sets behind each other.

Remember that this is an advanced routine. It is better to start this if you already have some experience with abdominal exercises. Absolute beginners can also choose to repeat the routine with 1 set for each exercise and then with 1 minute of rest between sets. Then start building up your stamina and adding sets until you can perform them all three consecutively.

What is the best time for abdominal exercises?

When you really want to be fit, strength training alone is not enough. Although it is important to strengthen your muscles and speed up your metabolism through strength training, cardio exercises are also important to reach your ideal weight. In addition to these abdominal exercises, chances are that you also do cardio exercises one day. In that case it is advisable to first do cardio in the morning to wake up your metabolism and then do strength training and abdominal exercises later in the afternoon.

Frequency

For the best results, it is best to perform this routine at least 3 days a week, but not more than once a day. However, keep in mind that you can not see your abdominal muscles as long as you do not consume fewer calories than your body burns. This does not mean, of course, that you have to hunger, but that layer of fat on your stomach, no matter how small, has to be removed to make the stomach muscles appear.

When you do a lot of sport it is better to eat 5-6 small meals a day (for men) and 4-5 small meals (for women), consisting of about 40% carbohydrates , 40% protein and 20% fat (you have more carbohydrates necessary if you are very active and want to build muscle). You also need to do cardio at least 3 times a week.

Adjust the exercises

If you cannot do an exercise because of an injury or because you have problems with your lower back (although strong abdominal muscles are of great importance!) You can of course replace that particular exercise with another exercise that you can do.

Make sure you choose an exercise that trains the same muscle groups. Is there nothing wrong with your back and you can just do everything, you can follow the routine 3 times a week.

Even faster results?

Assuming that you are already an advanced practitioner and you do not have any trouble to perform 3 sets of these exercises behind each other, it is possible to do the routine every day and also 30 minutes of cardio per day. This allows you to achieve the fastest results, as long as you keep an eye on your diet. You should take a rest day every week so that your muscles can recover. If you do not do this, it will be harder for your body to repair the muscles and build up muscle mass.

Important tips

It is important that the exercises are performed slowly. If you perform them too quickly, the momentum begins to play, and the abdominal exercises become ineffective.

It is important that you place your hands under your buttocks to ensure that there is no pressure on your lower back. This can cause back problems in the lower back, so pay attention!

Why training is important

Many people believe that losing weight is mainly about the calories. They think that if they burn more calories than they get in, they will eventually get the body they want. Of course, this seems like a logical reasoning, but it is only partially true, because the muscles that are under the fat burn the calories.

So if you start eating more, but at the same time training your muscles, you will hardly reach your goal. The body adapts itself to the changes it undergoes. So if you suddenly start eating much less, you have a chance that your body will end up in a conservative state. Because you eat less, you will hold more fat as a reserve.

In addition to feeling hungry, your body also receives the signal that it has to store extra energy. Your body will use the nutrients that it does get more efficient. You will therefore develop more body fats and burn less. This can lead to listlessness, which makes you less inclined to move and feel more comfortable. So you end up in a vicious circle with which you reach the opposite of what you really want.

It is therefore important that you continue to eat enough. And preferably not in large quantities. It is better to eat small bits every day, so that your digestion keeps going and your stomach does not get used to large quantities of food at the same time. The best strategy to lose weight is to combine a healthy diet with enough exercise. That way you get a normal number of calories, and burn your muscles in a healthy way. So you ensure that you keep as little fat as possible.

What is the right food?

You do not have to follow a strict diet to live a healthy life, or even to lose weight. Diets are often not recommended because many people fall back into their old pattern after a diet. This leads them to weight fluctuations. It is better to develop a healthy diet and drink plenty of water.

Breakfast is not called the most important meal of the day for nothing. This meal will bring you digestion. Do you have trouble eating a sandwich right away when you just get out of bed, or just get out of bed very early because of your work; then take something light.

Just a sandwich or sandwich is great for lunch, just like salads or soup. You really do not have to live on a cucumber all afternoon to be healthy. You can always take that cucumber as a snack afterwards. And if you eat a chocolate bar instead, you should be able to do that too. As long as it does not become a habit.

Most people nowadays eat hot in the evening. Even now it does not matter if that one time is unhealthy, but try to keep it healthy and regularly alternate. Make sure you eat enough vegetables and do not try to brag three times straight away. Your stomach is usually full after 1 full plate, even though it is still so tasty.

It is very unhealthy to take a snack after eight o'clock in the evening, because usually you do not burn this anymore. So try to prevent this as much as possible. Also wanting to go to bed on time helps a lot, because a good night's sleep is also very good for your body.

Boosting your Performance to the next Level 

The 'Psoas' is the only muscle in the human body connecting the upper body to the lower body.

The muscle attaches to the vertebrae of the lower spine, moves through the pelvis and connects to a tendon at the top of the femur. It also attaches to the diaphragm, so it’s connected to your breathing, and upon it sits all the major organs.

A functioning psoas muscle creates a neutral pelvic alignment, stabilizes the hips, supports the lower spine and abdomen, supports the organs in the pelvic and abdominal cavity and gives you greater mobility and core strength.

When it functions well, it has the power to…

… help you achieve peak performance day after day after day.
… rapidly drop ugly body fat that stubbornly clings to your body.

… train harder, heavier and gain strength faster than you thought possible.

This article explains how you how to fully utilize this muscle to unlock your true potential. Click here to learn more.