All about Abs

Scott Schwab:

Abs, could very well be the most important muscle group in your body. The reason is that your core is responsible for almost every movement that you make. Additionally, weak abs equals weak back. In America today about 65 million people suffer from back pain.

To reverse the trend, the first step is to get our portions in control and have a balanced attack at reducing our belly fat, while strengthening our back. Many times these problems relate and for us to really focus on our abdomen area, we need to look at how much our stomachs protrude and take the action to reduce the fat.

It should be known that fat is not a good thing for our bodies to pack around. Especially when the fat is most prevalent around our organs. Carrying our weight around our stomach is not only hard on our organs, which are already crammed in the walls of our stomach, but it is hard on our back, because naturally it pushes our stomach out and pressure on our back.


Beginners:
Starting out, we need to take the steps at eating consistently the right foods. The closer we can get to purity of the food and the further we can get from processed is where we will see the greatest results. We should also look at what we drink and replace it with water. Our bodies are 70% liquid and we should replenish it frequently. Replenish does not mean with other forms of liquid. WATER!

Avoiding sugars is recommended as this is something that our bodies do not know what to do with. Our bodies have difficulty digesting things that are man made and sugar is man made. Even diet and other forms of sugars are still man made. Now I am not saying we should give up all forms of anything and live on nuts and berries. With this knowledge though we can adjust what things are worth it and what things are not worth it.

Begin by walking, jogging, and then running. It may be uncomfortable and even be painful. If the pain is not to much, push through. Let pain be your guide, but do something. Swimming is a great exercise and is high resistance and easier on joints. Ridding bikes is also a great form for starting.

Intermediate:
You are doing something so how can you do more. Begin with forms of sit ups and crunches. These are good, but also can put pressure on the back. However, since putting a man on the moon, products have been created that have low pressure on the back and high efficiency on the abs.

Look for something that gives back support and will help put the pressure on the abs. A great exercise is to lay on your back looking at the ceiling, lift your feet together at a 30 degree angle. To increase difficulty move legs up and down or side to side. Scissor kicks and other forms of moving your legs will strengthen and tone your abs in a very effective way.

Advanced:
Likely you have the eating aspect under control and work your abs each week. Why not everyday? Some people think it is a muscle that should only be worked once or twice per week. Not true. You use it everyday, so build up the strength so you can avoid injury and have the toned stomach you would like.

Planks are great and should be done a couple of times per week. Time yourself and see how you can improve your time. Side-planks should also be included in the menu as they are great for your oblique muscles. Introducing weights and balance is another form of exercise that will help define your abs and take you to the next level.

Use an exercise ball and stretch over the ball backwards. If you have tested your strength get dumbbells to have with you. By flexing your abs as you work, you will not only define your ab muscles, but will work your psoas muscles like nothing else.

Another great exercise is to hold weights between your feet and do knee raises or leg lifts with a 10 pound weight make sit-ups challenging and will increase definition. I love to hang from a pull up bar and place a 10 pound weight clinched between my feet. Doing knee ups and side to side lifts of my feet up to my chest are some of the greatest ab exercises I have done.

Get creative and don't be scared to look silly. It may not look like everyone else who is doing the common exercise, but our goal is to find the way that works for us and personally, looking like yourself is the best thing that you can do. Be your best self and let everyone else look like the typical person. Be unique because you can and you will have more fun anyway.