Three Optimal Abdominal Workouts

A man's six pack abs are his pride and joy. Those that have them are quick to show them off, even in public, and those that don't either suck in their gut whenever they are forced to take their shirts off or wear oversized apparel in order to hide the fact that they are embarrassed of their flabby stomach. Even men that do not generally care about their appearance are concerned when they're abs fail to meet their own quality standards (even if they pretend they are not).




Obviously those that have abs that they are less than proud of need to start performing ab workouts designed to help increase the size, shape and strength of their abdominal muscles. But the most well known exercise - the crunch - is simply an uncomfortable exercise that often leaves the exerciser with uncomfortable back pain and shoulder aching. The crunch is an uncomfortable workout, and research shows that it is not even the most effective workout that you can do for your abdomen.




Effective Ab Workouts




There are three workouts that are considered effective ways of working out your abdominal muscles. And the best part of these workouts is that the most effective one can be completed without any exercise equipment at all.




The "Bicycle Crunch" is the most effective type of ab workout. It needs no equipment, and generally has less back pain because you do not need to lift your shoulders as high. Also, because it is such an efficient workout (able to put a great deal of work on your abdomen and obliques), all of the extra time that you spend doing the bicycle crunch is not going to waste.




To perform a bicycle crunch is relatively easy as well. Find a comfortable location and lay down on your back with your knees up in the air and feet planted firmly on the ground.




Once you are ready, lift your legs in the air and start pedaling like a bicycle - one leg should be out straight while the other knee bends towards you. As you pedal (slowly for the best benefit), try to touch the knee that is closest to you using your opposite elbow (you do not actually need to touch it, you simply need to move as close to it as you can). Slowly switch back and forth from leg to leg and elbow to elbow.




The bicycle crunch is the most effective ab workout in terms of how much it works your main abdominal muscles. However, if you do not want to perform the ab crunch, you can also perform the standard crunch on an exercise ball - a significantly more comfortable way to do the crunch that also has the ability to provide extra pressure.




Or, if you do not want to use the exercise ball, consider doing the captains chair. Hanging in the air with your forearms against a level surface, simply lift your knees to your chest and very slowly move them back down again.




All three of these workouts are the most effective way to improve your abs - able to provide you with visible results in a relatively short time. Everyone wants better abs, and if you perform these three exercises, you will easily be able to get them.

Richard Black helps people learn about ab lounger exercise
at his website on the ab lounger series of exercise devices.

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A Guide On How To Gain Muscle Naturally And Fast

Gaining muscle can be a very difficult indeed if not approached right because there are so many factors that you have to get right to pack on muscle. One of the first subjects I shall talk about is steroids. Steroids help the body to recover much quicker giving the trainee the ability to train more often and the result of this is increased strength and muscle mass. When you see pictures of the really huge guys in the bodybuilding magazines, the vast majority of these use steroids to create such massive muscle gain.




You may be thinking that this is the route that you want to take, but be warned it is not all good news, far from it. The reason for this is that steroids will ruin your health and shrink parts of the male anatomy that men don't want to shrink if you know what I mean. Also they affect your moods and can make you very aggressive, you may have heard of steroid rage. This is when steroid takers go into fits of rage sometimes ending in tragedy. Another huge draw back to using steroids is that when you stop taking them you will lose most of the muscle gains that you have put on. The reason for this is because you are pumping into your body large amounts of testosterone, so what happens is your body stops making as much testosterone. The result of this is that when you stop taking steroids your body does not have a supply of its own. That's why the muscle gains that you have got just melt away because testosterone is vital to muscle gain. So in my opinion steroids should be avoided at all cost, because with lots of hard work and good nutrition you can achieve amazing natural lasting muscle mass gains without them.




Now steroids have been covered lets talk about what you need to do to gain muscle naturally. The first part of natural muscle gain is your nutrition, which is just as important as the hard work you do in the gym to gain muscle mass. Protein intake is crucial but the amount of protein you need per pound of solid muscle is not an exact number. Personally I can make good muscle gains eating one gram of protein for every pound of solid muscle mass I have got. Other people can need up to two grams of protein per pound of solid muscle mass. It's trial and error really to see how much protein you need in a day. You could aim for one to one and a half grams a day. You should be ok with that amount. Also another crucial part is how much you take in at a time. The reason for this if you ingest more than fifty grams at one meal, the odds are your kidneys will just flush the excess away and you will have wasted the protein. So stick to no more than fifty grams at one sitting. The best way to eat your meals is another important matter in gaining muscle. You should aim for eating every three hours and in these meals you need to have protein, complex carbohydrates and vegetables.




If you can cram six meals in every day week in week out and train hard you should start to see your body gain muscle very quickly. The protein you eat should come from lean meats like steaks, chicken, turkey, tuna and oily fish. The complex carbohydrates should be brown pasta, rice, potatoes and wholemeal bread. The vegetables can be anything you want that is fresh also fresh fruit should be eaten often through the day. This covers the basics on nutrition follow my guide lines and you will not go far wrong in your quest to gain muscle.




Now the type of training you need to do to gain muscle is very varied indeed. It depends on your level of experience. For this article let us assume that you have been training for a year at least, I will be writing article for beginners in the coming weeks. You need to split your training up so you are training your whole body over a seven day period. The best way to do this is train for two days have a day off then train again for two days then have two days off. You may be thinking why all the rest I want to be training every day. Well this is a common mistake that trainers make thinking more is better. The truth is you will over train and your body will go into a state where you get weaker and weaker and your muscle mass will decrease. This is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. I have kept to this way of training for years and made steady muscle gains year after year.




Now let's talk about what body parts to train and when. In my view, I think the abs should be trained every other day because they are one of the rare muscles that respond best to this amount of training. The rest of the body should be split as follows: Shoulders and triceps on day one, back and traps on day two, rest day on day three, legs and calves on day four and chest and biceps on day five. Day six and seven are rest days.




Each body part should be trained with six to twelve sets and aim for twelve reps on the first set in each exercise then descend to six reps on the last set in each exercise. For instance when training the back I would do three sets of dead lifts and three sets of bent over rows then three sets of wide grip pull downs and finally three sets of seated rows. This will give your back an excellent all round workout. On the second week swap the order round of the exercises so your body does not get used to the order you do them in. This is important to keep making steady muscle gains. Try to experiment with different exercises on all your body parts to help to keep your body confused so that you will carry on putting muscle mass on month in month out. These techniques have helped me over the years to put on nearly forty pound of muscle all of which is drug free muscle gain. Hope my advice has helped you to understand what it takes to get the physique you have dreamed about.

I have used several training methods over the years but none gave me results like I have experienced in the last 12 months. This is because of a method I came across on a website last year. Check this site out and you will see what I mean. You can receive ten FREE videos as well just for leaving your email address. Bargain.This is the website click here to gain muscle.

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