"Today's Motivational quote for Womens Workouts"
About Workouts for Women – Part 2
In Ab Workouts for Women – Part 1 I gave you some great tips and rules to follow when it comes to working your ab muscles.
So now that you have a good idea about HOW to properly do your ab workouts lets focus on 3 of my favorite ab exercises.
Bicycle – Starting Position
Ab exercise #1
Bicycles – Often considered a one of the best ab exercises developed the “bicycle” is easy to do but is a tough exercise for those of you just starting out.
Starting Position: Lay flat on your back with you feet off the floor and your kness bent. Place your hands on the side of your head an make sure to keep your elbows pointed out (as wide as possible).
Next: Extend your left leg out straight. Now bring your left elbow to your right knee. You dont need to touch them together but you need to come close.
Bicycle – Finish
Then, in one fluid motion, extend your right leg out straight while brining your right elbow and left knee together.
Once you have it down try to do a set on 10 reps where 1 rep is complete when you do both sides.
Power Crunch – Start
Ab exercise #2
Power Crunches – The “Power Crunch” is a little more advanced than a basic crunch. Remember to exhale as you contract your abs to get to full effect of this ab exercise.
Starting Position: Laying flat on your back bend your knees and let your feet hover 6 inches off the floor. Place your hands on your forehead and point your elbows in.
Power Crunch – Finish
Next: As you exhale lift your knees toward the center of your body and at the same time bring your elbows down to meet your knees just over your stomach by doing a downward “crunch” type motion.
Again you don’t need to actually touch your elbows and knees together but try to come as close as possible.
Then return to the starting position and repeat. Start with a set of 10 PERFECT reps. If you do these correctly you should definitely feel it!
Toe Touchers – Start
Ab exercise #3
Toe Touchers – The third ab exercise is called the “Toe Toucher”. This is another easy but very effective ab exercise for women if done correctly.
Starting Position: Lay flat on your back with your feet straight up in the air. With your back flat and chin slightly tucked into your chest extend your arms and point your fingers at your toes.
Next: Begin this ab exercise by exhaling as your lift your upper body off the floor in an attempt to touch your toes. You should contract your abs as you lift. Keep your legs as straight as possible during the entire range of motion.
The key to this exercise is to let your abs lift your body. If will take some work to master but once you get it you will know it!
Toe Touchers – Finish
Once you touch your toes (or come close) lower your upper body back down to the floor but keep your fingers pointed at your toes. If you let your arms sway back over your head before you do the next rep you will be using too much momentum. Don’t do it!
Focus on doing 10 PERFECT reps of these as well.
To get great abs your Diet is always first but when it comes to Ab Workouts for Women these 3 ab exercises are my tried and tested favorite exercises for getting great results!
Weight Loss for Women – A Personal Trainers Perspective
Eating healthy is NOT the same as eating to GET LEANER!
Weight Loss programs for women usually are very misleading. They often times imply that eating healthy foods are a good way to lose weight. They also suggest that this is the way to BUNS OF STEEL and a lean muscular physique.
I know from over 10 years of training myself and hundreds of clients that in most cases this is simply NOT ENOUGH!
Now let me be clear here. I am not saying that eating healthier is bad thing. What I am saying though is to adjust your expectations when using this kind of diet.
Can you lose some weight? Probably.
Can you can some muscle? Maybe.
Can you lose a ton of body fat and change your physique into what you envision? Probably NOT!
For the women clients I train I recommend keeping it very simple. I usually start them on 4-5 meals a day. These meals consist of high quality protein and 2 meals include complex carbs. The FAT in their diet is usually higher then they expect.
I dont include “empty” calories in their plan just because they are “healthy” foods.
I only include foods that serve a purpose.
We want foods in your plan that will help you lose body fat (not just weight on the scale) and also help you gain or maintain your muscle.
Your nutrition accounts for 75-80% of the results you achieve on any fitness program.
With that being said do yourself a favor and don’t just eat HEALTHY foods. Eat the right HEALTHY foods that will also help you get the lean body you are striving for!
– Amber
P.s. If you would like to know more about the nutrition plan I design for my clients please feel free to CONTACT ME HERE.
I am often asked “What are the best ab workouts for women?”
My answer is always the same.
It really depends on the type of workout you are doing. By that I mean are you doing a traditional weight training workout? Are you using the TRX Suspension trainer? Do you use kettlebells?
Once they tell me what kind of workout routine they are using I try to guide them along using the same type of routine.
Regardless of the workout that you are using we first need to know how to work actually get our abs to work!
So before we jump into specific ab exercises let’s start with the basics.
Here is the problem…
Most people simply do not know the correct way to do any type of ab exercise. They are mostly going through the motions without fully engaging their ab muscles. Doing a crunch or any other ab exercise will not be effective if you do the exercise incorrectly.
That being said we first need to understand how to do a basic ab movement before we get into all kind of fancy pants ab exercises.
Rule #1- Use your abs to do the movement! This sounds simple enough but after years of training people I can tell you that most people still use everything but their abs when they are doing an ab exercise.
In order to use your abs you need to focus on your ab muscles and let them pull your head and shoulders through the movement.
Try this: The next time you do a basic crunch try to exhale all the air from your lungs just prior to doing the crunch. As you go to lift your head and neck to do the crunch try to contract your abs as you are doing it. Try to feel the ab muscles engaging a pulling your body through the movement.
Rule #2- Avoid momentum! Faster is not better so slow down and do the exercise correctly! Doing 1000 crunches as fast as you can is not only ineffective is probably means you are doing them wrong!
Squeeze and contract on every single rep that you do! Focus on quality not quantity!
Rule #3– Don’t use your arms to pull! If you place your heads on or behind your head when you do ab exercises make sure that you aren’t pulling you neck and shoulders through the movement.
You can rest your head in or on your hands but do this only for support. If your abs are doing the work then you should feel them working and you can’t do that if your arms are pulling you up on every rep!
Learning HOW to use your abs in extremely important if you want to get the most out of your ab workout.
This will not come easy for some of you but with a little practice you will get it!
-Amber
Coming next in the Ab workouts for Women series we will get into some specific ab movements that you can do to help you get that nice tight stomach you are striving for!
If your New Years resolution is to get into great shape then I have some great news for you.
I am here to HELP YOU!
I have decided that in 2012 I will HELP as many women as I can get into better shape!
I have several big things planned but for now just know that you can follow along (here on my blog or Youtube) and I guarantee that the information you get here will help you.
I will be posting great diet tips and workout advice.
I will show you what to do and more importantly what you can avoid so you don’t spin your wheels.
And don’t forget that if you need help all you have to is ask me…I will be glad to answer any questions you have.
Until tomorrow…
– Amber