Practice What You Preach

My biggest pet peeve of all time is seeing my doctor smoking out side the hospital that he works at. Like, honestly, how can someone tell me that I shouldn't smoke because it will kill me, yet, he will blow smoke in my face as I leave the hospital. Or, better yet, and for the purpose of this post, how can a personal trainer or "fitness expert" tell YOU how to get into great shape, when he or she is in the exact opposite shape? PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH, because if you don't then why should anyone believe you? I by no means claim to be perfect, or claim to know everything. In fact, I am far from where I want to be with my fitness goals and can always learn more. However, everything I state in my blog is backed by two things: (1) I am an Athletic Trainer certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and (2) My experience that, personally, has gotten me in the best shape of my life.

My body fat percentage in this picture is around 10% and I am looking to get down to 5-6% body fat. With a solid nutrition plan, intense cardio, and effective ab exercise routines, you will be amazed at the abs you can obtain.

Having said that, there are specific core exercises that will develop your abdominal muscles for a more toned, chiseled look. After all, you probably are thinking "I know a ton of "skinny" people who don't have nice abs".

There are two reasons to why this is:

(1) although someone might be considered "skinny" that doesn't mean that that person doesn't have a thin layer of fat covering their abs. In fact, men tend to carry the majority of their fat in their abdominal region. Thus, even if you see a guy walking down the street and he appears to be "skinny" it is very possible that his body fat percentage is extremely low in the majority of his body, but, the part you can't see (his abs) are covered by the majority of fat that his body has.

(2) their abdominal muscles aren't developed due to lack of proper exercise.

This is why it is extremely important to have a sound nutrition plan, cardio plan, and core workout routine. When it comes to developing those deep grooves for ripped abs, it is extremely important to add variance and resistance too your ab work outs.

For example, as well as the best way to put it, would you ever perform bicep curls with out any weights? would you ever perform the bench press with out any weight? would you only do dumbbell bicep curls for your biceps? would you only do barbell bench press for chest? No, No, No and No! You see, just like we lift weights to develop the rest of our body, as well as change up what it is that we do with those weights, (for a more developed physique) it is the same reason why we want to use weights for developing our abs.

It is also extremely important to vary up your ab exercises - not because one ab exercise works some of your abs, while other ab exercises work the other abs - but because like anything else, the more your body has to adjust to different stresses, the more your body will need to adapt! How? By developing stronger, sexier abs.

Last thing to know when doing your abs - do your abs in a circuit with the least amount of rest as possible. For example, here is an ab circuit you can perform:

- Leg raises
- Kneeling cable crunches
- Heels to heaven
- Weighted crunches
- Ankle Huggers
- Planks

Perform the aforementioned exercises for 30 seconds each. If you are a beginner take a 10 second rest period in between each exercise and perform the circuit 1-2 times. If you are intermediate take 5-7 seconds in between each exercise and perform the circuit 2-3 times. If you are advanced take 0 rest in between each exercise and perform the circuit 3-5 times.

I recommend you perform these exercises no less than 3 times a week and as you progress, the more you can do. Don't forget to change up your routine. What I like to do is stick with an ab circuit for one week and then change up my ab exercises each week. By doing this, my body will never know what's coming and it will my force my body to protect its self with rock hard abs.

If you are looking for really unique and effective ab exercises, write me a comment and I will send you the BEST core exercises to develop those abs you always wanted.

-Afd

Note: Please contact me if you have any questions on how to perform any of the aforementioned core exercises mentioned in this post