Sunday, April 18, 2010

Alcohol and Your Abs

So I know either you are dying to hear about this, or you are really dreading it. A lot of people don't want to hear that alcohol may not be the best thing for you when you are trying to say fit. Alcohol, especially beer, generally contains empty calories with limited or no nutritional value. If you are drinking 2 to 3 beers a day, that is 300 to 600 extra empty calories. Putting your fitness in perspective, binge drinking is definitely counter-productive because when you binge drink, you mostly consume more calories than you have eaten throughout the day. And also, when you are drunk, there is the tendency to over-eat bad food. So the summary is: Cut down your alcohol consumption to special occasions, and if possible, stick to wine.

So what else can we do to get great six-pack abs? Here are three tips to consider:
Do your cardio: Because you can't really target a spot when it comes to exercise, you have to also lose weight all over. If you're in the corner doing some crunches and not doing some cardio, you may be wasting your time because your efforts may not show.
Don't just do crunches: There are several muscles in your stomach region, and doing traditional crunches may only target a certain area. The usual up-down crunches are only one type of stomach exercise, and since your body gets used to the exercises that you do, you need to switch it up. Vary the types of crunches you do, and try to do other stomach exercises that may not be so traditional. Some examples are the "bicycle", leg raises, or push-ups. Varying your stomach exercises helps to target all muscles in that region.
Suck it in: If you stand in an upright position, and hold your stomach muscles tight as you breathe in and out, you are actually working out your muscles! So take a brisk walk and control those muscles. This helps build a good posture as well so it's definitely worth trying.

Here are a few websites showing other stomach exercises apart from the traditional crunches. Check them out and apply them to your workout:

Feel free to send me any questions you may have. Have a lovely week!
Motto for the week: Stay away from quick-fixes.

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