personalbestforum.com

When starting or advancing your journey of getting a flat tummy, your first key is mindset and attitude. Don’t concern yourself so much with, how to get a flat tummy fast, that’s just knowledge and it’s easy to get. I’m going to give you a good workout you can adapt to meet your situation with shortly.

The decision ‘I’m going to have a flat stomach’ is paramount though.

What kind of a picture do you have of yourself with your new shape. That picture is your motivation when you’re tired, don’t feel like working out, don’t have time, that chocolate cake is looking really good, or whatever, life happens. Take a few minutes of quiet time or meditation everyday and visualize yourself with your goals already accomplished. Posting a picture somewhere that you will see regularly is an excellent idea.

Besides motivation and goal setting there are two components to getting a flat tummy, diet and exercise.

Neither of which need to be a negative, God, do have to, experience. Contrary to some popular opinions a good diet and proper exercise is not miserable and boring.

Diet

There are lots of good cookbooks out there, that are particular to healthy eating. Unless you are an elite athlete or dedicated bodybuilder you don’t need to concern yourself with supplements, other than typical vitamins and minerals. Instead, concentrate on making sure your calorie intake is 25% protein, 40% complex carbohydrates and the rest fats and fiber. STAY AWAY from all refined and processed foods and beverages. Rule of thumb: if it comes in a box, can or bottle, it ain’t good for you. Buy your fruits and veggies locally, whole and organically grown as much as possible. Buy your meat locally, whole, free range and organic as much as is humanly possible. Buy raw local milk if possible and either make your own juices or buy them raw. NOTE: by raw I mean not pasteurized or homogenized, it destroys much of the vitamins, nutrients and enzymes.

Exercise

Almost all forms of exercise are good for you, from golf to mountain biking to backyard baseball and everybody should have at least one that they do regularly, or at least semi-regularly. Some forms of exercise give you more specific results than others though. From a fat burning point of view there are two kinds of exercise. One is short burst, high intensity, (strength training, interval training), and the other is low to medium intensity, sustained workouts,(jogging, walking, bicycling), For fat burning and a flat tummy, short burst high intensity workouts are much more efficient. To date, science says the best fat burning workout is 30 seconds of intense enough exercise to get your heart rate up to peak,(220 minus your age), then 90 seconds of rest, then repeat, working your way up till you can do that 8 times. I call it a peak 8 workout. I like to run, so I do sprints, but you can use any form of exercise you want. A good weight training routine is almost as good as peak 8 training. My weekly routine looks like this: Monday, Wednesday and Friday strength training, Tuesday and Thursday peak 8 training and over the weekend some kind of cardio type workout, even if it’s very low intensity,(walking the dogs, or whatever).

To get a flat tummy you have to have well developed abs and obliques. I work my abs 5 days a week, but on one day a week I do a muscle building workout. On the light days I do about 5 sets just for maintenance. There are lots of good exercises for your core muscles, here’s a good solid routine that will get you that flat tummy you’re after, along with a good diet and sustained effort.

Crunches – lie supine on the bench or mat with your hands behind your head and curl your torso up, lifting your shoulders and upper back off the mat, just your lower back and rear end should be touching the mat. Lower your head and shoulders and repeat. Work your way up to at least 50 per set. These can and should be done on a flat, incline, and decline bench.

Leg Lifts – lay supine on the bench or mat with your hands at your sides and lift your legs up about 2 feet, hold for 5 seconds and slowly lower. You can do these alternating your legs also. You can also lift your legs straight up, then spread them out about 3 feet, then close them, and slowly lower. Work your way up to at least 20 per set.

Compound crunches – with your hands behind your head, curl your torso up like your doing a regular crunch, and at the same time lift your legs up and bend your knees, (like your riding a bike while lying on your back) then bring your right elbow to your left knee, return, then bring the left elbow to the right knee and keep alternating. Also know as ‘riding the bike’. Work up to 50 reps.

Hanging leg lifts – while hanging from a bar, or your gym may have a station to do these at, lift your legs up as high as you can, hold for a couple of seconds, and slowly lower. You can do these with your knees bent or straight. Work up to 20 reps.

Back extensions – this exercise is best done on a roman chair. With your hands behind your head and facing the floor, lower your head towards the floor until perpendicular, then raise your torso and head until your back is straight or slightly arched, then repeat. Do in sets of 20 reps.

Side bends – standing erect with a dumbbell in each hand, at your side, bend sideways at the waist lowering the dumbbell to the right, straighten, bend to the left, straighten. Do in sets of 50 reps.

Twists – with a lightweight bar on your shoulders, sitting or standing, twist your torso at the waist to the right as far as you can, return to center and without stopping, twist to the left as far as you can. Don’t do this movement too hard and fast, you can hurt your spine. A slow to medium speed is fine. Do in sets of 50 at least.

Summary – Work your way up to between 1 and 3 sets of these exercises, depending on the fitness level you want to achieve. Eat healthy, and do some kind of exercise at least three times a week and you will find yourself looking at a flat and attractive tummy in short order.

P.S. Remember your first key to success is that picture of you in your favorite swimsuit or little black dress, and seeing those heads turn as you walk by. You are worth all the work. Not to mention the increase in lifespan and general good health.