Sunday, January 4, 2009

Ab Exercises - The Truth

By Jose Loni

Ab exercises, the truth about ab exercises are that they will not give you the ripped abs that you want. The advertising that we see in the media, gives us the illusion that specific ab exercises will give us abdominal definition. To achieve ripped abs, we need to increase our exercise activity and make dietary adjustments, which will increase our overall metabolism.

Increasing our energy expenditure so that it is greater than our caloric intake allows our bodies to utilize our fat as an energy source. When that occurs, it will burn the fat that is stored in our belly.

When we do exercises that focus on large muscle groups and incorporate resistance exercises, we affect our metabolism. The increased lean body mass that results from resistance training increases the metabolic activity of the muscles, which then utilizes fat from the body as an energy source.

Interval training has been effective in increasing the body's metabolism. The anaerobic component of the training forces the body to adapt to the increased demands of the activity, which results in increased muscle mass. The increased muscle mass has an increased metabolic activity and continues to burn fat for several hours after the exercise activity.

Our diet is also something we need to consider. Eating quality foods made up of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fats, will enhance our energy levels and help our body to burn those foods for energy.

By decreasing our serving size and eating with greater frequency throughout the day, it will allow us to maintain our energy levels and help stabilize our blood sugar levels.

Increasing our energy expenditure and at the same time monitoring and decreasing our food intake, we can help our body to use the excess fat that we have as a fuel source.

Ab exercises are not the answer. Understanding that we need to increase our exercise activity and monitoring our diet, we can achieve ripped abs. Making adjustments and committing to changing our lifestyle is the key to achieving ripped abs. - 16004

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