Achieving a stunning six-pack will not happen overnight.
Building abdominal muscles is possible for nearly every woman, though it does take dedication and perseverance. A commitment must be made in several areas of your life before you can achieve optimal results. Be prepared to cut out most of your favorite fatty foods and unhealthy habits, such as consuming alcohol. These products cause weight gain and provide little or zero nutritional value. If you have issues with motivation, you may want to consult a trainer or set similar goals with a friend to enhance motivation.
Instructions
1. Begin a simple, healthy diet. Crash diets may sound appealing and sometimes offer quick weight-loss results, but they can cause more harm than good to your body. As soon as you halt a crash diet, most often, all the lost weight returns -- and sometimes, extra weight is added. It's best to eat simply. By eating five to six small meals per day, you will keep your metabolism running, which will help to increase your metabolic rate and, in turn, burn more calories. Focus on consuming a diet high in lean protein, leafy greens and fruits, with minimal whole grains and very minimal complex carbohydrates and healthy fats, which are found in substances like peanut butter. Remember that the less amount of ingredients that are included in an item, the more natural and, therefore, healthy it is for you.
2. Start an effective cardiovascular workout. You may already have defined abdominal muscles under a layer of fat, so you just might need to shed the fat first. Begin a cardiovascular routine that is of medium intensity, such as jogging, biking or power walking. Do this for 30 to 40 minutes per day. If you don't have time for a medium-intensity, 30- to 40-minute-per-day routine, create one that is short though intense. In this case, you may want to run intervals, which means that you sprint for several minutes, walk for two minutes, and so on.
3. Weight train without overdoing it. Start with anywhere from 10 to 15 repetitions in sets of no more than three to four per area of your body. Lift weights every other day. If you overdo weight training, you might injure yourself and set back the progress you've already made.
4. Start a series of strictly abdominal exercises. These can be performed on the designated abdominal machines in your local gym or in the comfort of your home. Perform 15 repetitions with three sets of each exercise. Some examples of abdominal exercises are the standard crunch and a crunch performed in the bicycle position. The bicycle crunch is a standard crunch with pedaling leg movements, while bringing an elbow the meet the opposite knee.
Tags: abdominal exercises, abdominal muscles, standard crunch, your body