Abs Toning Made Easy
If abs toning is really your goal, there's more you need to do than just make sure that you do a few stomach crunches or sit ups here and there.
It's about more than simply building muscles through an abs workout and losing some excess weight too.
Toning your abdominal muscles also means learning about how a truly successful workout is structured as well as what exercises and workouts aren't worth the time spent doing them.
If you're unfamiliar with the anatomy of this region, there are three different sets of abdominal muscles, each of which require equal attention in any comprehensive abs toning program: the transverse abdominals, the rectus abdominals and the oblique abdominals.
The transverse abdominals is the group of abdominal muscles which lie underneath the rectus abdominals and the obliques, along the lower portion of your ribs and down to the pubic bone.
This muscle forms the deepest layer of your abdominal muscles and helps to stabilize your core muscles as well as providing some additional protection to your viscera.
Abs toning which focuses on this muscle group is more of a challenge than ab workouts for the obliques or the rectus abdominals, but is just as important to developing a toned, well defined abdomen.
Exercises which can help to strengthen and tone the transverse abdominals include vacuum exercises and other breathe and release-style exercises which involve inhaling deeply until your lungs fill entirely, then exhaling while simultaneously pulling your abdominal muscles inward and holding for a few seconds before releasing and repeating in sets of seven to ten.
When made a part of your daily routine, these exercises can go a long way towards toning these deep ab muscles.
Bodybuilders are well aware of the importance of focusing on the obliques in ab workouts, but a lot of people who are more casual about their fitness routines forget them when working on abs toning.
This is a mistake, since the obliques are very important to building a defined abdomen.
Thankfully, there's one easy exercise which is perfect for toning your obliques: bicycle crunches.
To perform this exercise, lie back just as if you were going to do sit ups and pull one knee towards your chest while at the same time using your stomach muscles to lift your shoulders up and off the floor.
Your right elbow should point towards your right knee (or vice versa, depending which side you started on).
Just alternate sides, doing at least five on each side and closer to ten if you're trying to lose weight in addition to abs toning.
There is also the muscle group which most people assume is the most important in building a toned, well defined abdomen: the rectus abdominals.
This is because these are the muscles which produce the characteristic six pack appearance of defined ab muscles.
As it happens, this muscle group is the easiest one of the three groups to tone.
For your rectus abdominals, double vertical leg lifts are the way to go.
Lie back an lift up your legs, bringing them up to form a ninety degree angle before crossing your ankles.
Put your hands behind your head and using your stomach muscles, lift your shoulders off the ground and push your feet upwards toward the ceiling at the same time.
If you're doing this one right, you'll definitely know it - the burn can be felt throughout all of your ab muscles.
Adding just three sets of this exercise into your regular ab workouts will start yielding results quickly, usually in just a couple of weeks.
It's one of the best exercises for abs toning, particularly if you're trying to lose weight while you tone these muscles.
If weight loss is your goal, keep in mind that performing a longer set with less time in between can help to hasten weight loss - and making double vertical leg lifts a daily part of your workout will help you start seeing the difference in even less time, often two weeks.
It's about more than simply building muscles through an abs workout and losing some excess weight too.
Toning your abdominal muscles also means learning about how a truly successful workout is structured as well as what exercises and workouts aren't worth the time spent doing them.
If you're unfamiliar with the anatomy of this region, there are three different sets of abdominal muscles, each of which require equal attention in any comprehensive abs toning program: the transverse abdominals, the rectus abdominals and the oblique abdominals.
The transverse abdominals is the group of abdominal muscles which lie underneath the rectus abdominals and the obliques, along the lower portion of your ribs and down to the pubic bone.
This muscle forms the deepest layer of your abdominal muscles and helps to stabilize your core muscles as well as providing some additional protection to your viscera.
Abs toning which focuses on this muscle group is more of a challenge than ab workouts for the obliques or the rectus abdominals, but is just as important to developing a toned, well defined abdomen.
Exercises which can help to strengthen and tone the transverse abdominals include vacuum exercises and other breathe and release-style exercises which involve inhaling deeply until your lungs fill entirely, then exhaling while simultaneously pulling your abdominal muscles inward and holding for a few seconds before releasing and repeating in sets of seven to ten.
When made a part of your daily routine, these exercises can go a long way towards toning these deep ab muscles.
Bodybuilders are well aware of the importance of focusing on the obliques in ab workouts, but a lot of people who are more casual about their fitness routines forget them when working on abs toning.
This is a mistake, since the obliques are very important to building a defined abdomen.
Thankfully, there's one easy exercise which is perfect for toning your obliques: bicycle crunches.
To perform this exercise, lie back just as if you were going to do sit ups and pull one knee towards your chest while at the same time using your stomach muscles to lift your shoulders up and off the floor.
Your right elbow should point towards your right knee (or vice versa, depending which side you started on).
Just alternate sides, doing at least five on each side and closer to ten if you're trying to lose weight in addition to abs toning.
There is also the muscle group which most people assume is the most important in building a toned, well defined abdomen: the rectus abdominals.
This is because these are the muscles which produce the characteristic six pack appearance of defined ab muscles.
As it happens, this muscle group is the easiest one of the three groups to tone.
For your rectus abdominals, double vertical leg lifts are the way to go.
Lie back an lift up your legs, bringing them up to form a ninety degree angle before crossing your ankles.
Put your hands behind your head and using your stomach muscles, lift your shoulders off the ground and push your feet upwards toward the ceiling at the same time.
If you're doing this one right, you'll definitely know it - the burn can be felt throughout all of your ab muscles.
Adding just three sets of this exercise into your regular ab workouts will start yielding results quickly, usually in just a couple of weeks.
It's one of the best exercises for abs toning, particularly if you're trying to lose weight while you tone these muscles.
If weight loss is your goal, keep in mind that performing a longer set with less time in between can help to hasten weight loss - and making double vertical leg lifts a daily part of your workout will help you start seeing the difference in even less time, often two weeks.
