How to prevent diabetes – Abdominal Exercises

Abdominal Exercises

Nothing gives your body a more symmetrical appearance than having broad shoulders and a chiseled midsection. Let’s discuss abdominal muscles and the best exercises to bring out your six packs. We will discuss shoulders another time. Summertime is almost here which means now is a great time to get started on those sixes.

I like to exercise my abdominals (abs) two to three times per week. Anything more than that would be too much for me.

I will let you in on a bodybuilder’s secret: To get really defined abs you must remember to engage these muscles as often as possible. They are part of what’s called your core muscle group and are necessary for strength and stability. Whenever you do any resistance exercises its important to remember to engage your cores. For example, when doing leg lunges, contract your stomach muscles. Even when walking from room to room or down the street, remember to hold your abs tight. This is what I mean by engaging your abdominals.

Types of abdominal muscles and exercises for them

Rectus abdominis

Let’s talk about the types of abdominal muscles and the exercises I use to develop them. The first and more prominent ones are the rectus abdominis. This muscle group makes up a major part of the core muscles I mentioned earlier. They are the muscles that cover your midsection . . . from your sternum to just above the pelvis area. Whenever you see someone with a developed six-pack these are the muscles you are seeing.

To exercises these muscles I do two exercises. The first is the crunch/reverse crunch. Do these by lying flat on your back on the floor with your arms crossed over your chest. Technique is very important here. Raise your lower legs so they are perpendicular to the floor. Now lift your upper torso to a 45 ° angle. Be sure to use slow and focused movement when doing these. The first time I started doing them I could only complete about five.

The next exercise I do for the rectus abdominis is sit-ups. The same ones you did in high school. Lay on the floor as you did for crunches, with your feet extended straight-out in front of you so you don’t engage your hip flexors. Lift your upper torso off the floor as described earlier. Focus on the abs when doing these. That’s it for these muscles.

Obliques

The next core muscle groups I work on are the internal and external obliques or just “obliques”. These run along your side and help with side to side movements – rotating and bending.

I do inverted side raises or variations thereof when exercising these muscles. Lie on your back, and then turn slightly to your side. Raise your lower legs while lifting your upper torso 30° to 40° off the floor. It will feel uncomfortable at first. If you can only do five the first time don’t worry. Just keep at it and you will be amazed at how you look and feel after a couple of weeks. Remember: focused technique.

Transversus adominis

The last sets of abdominal muscles I exercise are the transversus adominis. These lie beneath the rectus adominis, and help with your breathing and lifting your legs off the floor. For these I do front planks. Lie on your belly. Then after supporting your upper torso on your elbows, lift your butt up so that your entire body is supported by your toes and elbows. Hold that position for 20 seconds.

That’s it. This is all you need to do when exercising your abdominal muscles. It should take no more than ten to fifteen minutes to complete. Remember, you will feel some muscles soreness the next day. It will soon pass.

It is important to remember that there is no such thing as spot reducing. This means that you can’t do abdominal exercises and expect to reduce your waist size. It has to be a total body transformation. This means that if you are overweight you will have to find ways to reduce. This is where your cardiovascular exercises come into play.

You can also speed-up the process by paying special attention to the things you put into you body. For a proven step by step method to get a flat belly get our free e-book here.

To a healthier you,

Owen Lecky

For more information check us out at:  exercises for diabetics today