That being said, many of you may wonder what exactly defines a “fit” person. Well, that definition may be a little different for each person. For example, a bodybuilder may want to

6 pack abs are usually a trademark of physically fit people because they tend to have lower body fat percentages allowing the muscles to show.

look more muscular and add more bulk than say, a yoga instructor. The thing is, however, that being “fit” is not determined solely by our physical appearance. A perfect example of this is a visibly “thin” person with high cholesterol, or very little endurance. Simply being “thin” does not necessarily mean you are fit. A thin, sedentary person may not be “overweight”, but can very well be “over fat”-or carrying excess body fat.

Now I know this idea may be hard for many to grasp, so I thought I might outline the five key components of physical fitness. Physical fitness is the ability to function effectively throughout your workday, perform your usual other activities and still have enough energy left over to handle any extra stresses or emergencies which may arise.

The first of the five key categories that make up physical fitness is Cardiorespiratory (CR) endurance. Cardiorespiratory endurance is the efficiency with which the body delivers oxygen and nutrients needed for muscular activity and transports waste products from the cells. This describes how well your body cleanses, replenishes, and fuels itself, and is a direct indicator of a person’s fitness level. A “fit” person’s heart, for example does not have to work as hard to deliver blood throughout the body than a person who is out of shape. Their heart, therefore is more efficient-it produces greater results with less effort.

The second category is muscular strength. This is the greatest amount of force a muscle or muscle group can exert in a single effort. This one is pretty self explanatory. The more a person works out and exercises, the more strength they will develop. This is very clearly demonstrated in weight lifting. While you may only be able to lift say, 10 pounds for bicep curls when you first start strength training, if you work the muscle consistently and effectively, a few months down the road those 10 pound dumbbells will be a joke to you. Why? Because you have increased your muscle strength and are more fit than when you started.

The third category is muscular endurance which is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to perform repeated movements with a sub-maximal force for extended periods of times. More simply put, it’s stamina-the ability to keep on going. If you are training for a marathon for example, you may only be able to run a couple miles when you first start training before your leg muscles give out on you. With time and proper training, your leg muscles become accustomed to greater distances and build up endurance to successfully complete the race.

Flexibility is the next one-and it’s a big one because so many people overlook it and treat it as less important than other aspects of fitness. Flexibility is extremely important because it is the ability to move the joints or any group of joints through an entire, normal range of motion. If you are a martial artist for example, but can’t lift your leg above your waist due to a limited range of motion, you can and will really injure yourself by trying to kick a target above that height. If you play tennis but have difficulty raising your arm above your head, your serve-and your game-are really going to suffer the consequences. Even in everyday living flexibility is important. That’s why we hear of so many people “throwing out their back” as they age. A big part of the problem is decreased flexibility.

The last, and probably most widely used measure of physical fitness is body composition. This is the percentage of body fat a person has in comparison to his or her total body mass. I have said time and again that WEIGHT does not give you the total picture. Remember the example I gave a while back? If you have 2 men for example, each 6-feet tall and weighing 200 pounds- Man “A” has 30% body fat while man “B” has 6% body-they are going to look VERY different from one another. Man “B” will appear to be much “fitter” than man “A” and is much more likely to have those coveted 6 pack abs because he has a lower percent body fat.

Improving the first three components of fitness listed above will have a positive impact on body composition and will result in less fat. Excessive body fat detracts from the other fitness components, reduces performance, detracts from appearance, and negatively affects your health. A sensible weight loss and fitness program seeks to improve or maintain all the components of physical fitness through sound, progressive, mission specific physical training.

Now the beauty of it is that we all have the potential to be fit-the same principles of exercise apply to everyone at all levels of physical training. From the Olympic-caliber athlete to the weekend jogger, these basic principles of exercise must be followed. So, make the choice to take care of your health and your body. Make fitness a priority TODAY and start improving your quality of life.

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.

Most of us have given up on the idea because it’s “too hard” or we are “too old” or “to busy” to workout. We

6 pack abs do a whole lot more for your body than just look good. By strengthening your core, you will in a sense help strengthen the rest of your body as well.

have been flooded with miss-information from fad diets, fat burner supplements, to exercise gadgets, promoting six week transformations with dramatic before and after photo’s, etc. The key to that coveted six pack is not one thing, it is a combination of things.

Here are some tips to get to where you want to go on your quest for a healthy (and good-looking) body for life:

1. Follow a precise nutrition plan that has the right amount of protein combined together with the right amount and the right type of carbohydrates spaced strategically through-out the day, and around weight training and cardio sessions.

2.  Devise and follow an intelligent cardiovascular program

3.  Keep an optimistic athletic mid-set

4.  Building up the muscles of the mid-section, as well as all your other muscles through strength training

Now those tips are great for an overall healthy body for life, but let’s focus in on those 6 pack abs-since that’s the one thing most of us dream about. The secret weapon for developing the musculature of the abdominal wall is a little known exercise I like to call “the ab vacuum”. It targets your inner most abdominal muscle, the transverse abdominis (TVA for short). Most people don’t even know they have one, let alone how to activate it. The TVA is like a corset, it is your own internal weight belt, holding your internal organs in place. It is the foundation for the rest of the abdominal muscles, the internal and external obliques, and the rectus abdominis. If you have done crunches and leg-lifts until you are blue in the face and are still unhappy with your mid-section, this information could take your quest for that fit chiseled mid-section to the next level.

There are other benefits to strengthening your TVA:

1.  It is the only exercise that has the ability to actually make your waist-line smaller.

2.  By working and strengthening the TVA you are actually giving your spine more support, so the risk of a vertebrae or a disc slipping out of place is less. Did you notice that the old leather weight belts are not used anymore? That’s because we learned to tighten up our own internal weight belt on exercises verses using an external weight belt that shut off the need to activate the TVA which lead to injuries.

3.  Better sex-and for those women who have had, or plan on having a child-a faster recovery time. When you strengthen your TVA with the ab vacuum exercise you will be using your diaphragm and you will also strengthen your lower pelvic floor muscles (ala a “kegel squeeze”-any expectant mothers out there know exactly what this is). To perform a kegel exercise, squeeze your pelvic floor muscles, as if you’re trying to stop the flow of urine mid-stream. Stronger pelvic floor muscles help women achieve orgasms and help men achieve and maintain erections. It also makes the orgasms more pleasurable. For some reason, as soon as I tell my clients this, most of them end up overtraining TVA!

4.  You can work the other abdominal muscles more effectively. You can’t shoot a cannon out of a canoe. You can’t have strong walls on your building if your foundation is weak. When you strengthen up the foundation of your mid-section you will be able to perform your other abdominal exercises with more focused intensity. You will be able to feel the difference in a matter of weeks.

5.  Athleticism- The TVA is the deepest abdominal muscle group there is. It is truly the core of the core. An athlete can have excellent cardiovascular condition and have strong leg and back muscles, but if his core muscles aren’t in optimal condition, this creates a weak link in the bodies muscle chain that affects all his movements. All movements and reactions start at the core. If core muscles don’t do their job to stabilize and move the torso, then arm and leg muscles will overcompensate, trying to do a job for which they are ill-equipped.

To get in tune with and activate your TVA simply place your hands around the sides of your body at your pelvis. Flatten your stomach by gently pulling in your gut, or pulling your belly away from your waist band. You can feel the TVA at work as it reduces the diameter of your torso in that area. This simple exercise also demonstrates the involvement of the abs in respiration, particularly exhalation.

I have put on an incredibly unique twist to this exercise. The combination of two little known exercises takes the effectiveness of this core exercise to the next level. Basically, I have combined an ab vacuum with a kegele squeeze. As I mentioned before, most women know what a kegel squeeze is. In child birth it gets the lower pelvic floor muscles stronger which aid in the pushing for child birth. For men, when trying to perform a kegel squeeze, think about stopping the flow of urine mid-stream while pulling your belly-button back toward your spine (as you exhale about ½ of your lung capacity). Also try to think about squeezing your sphincter muscles or like you have a quarter between your butt cheeks and you don’t want it too fall out.

You can do the ab vacuum anywhere, and need no equipment. It’s a great way to wake up, or to end your day. It will take lots of practice and each week you will be able to feel the muscles working more and more. Once you get good at the technique you will be able to feel a ½ circle burning sensation in the pubic area. Don’t be alarmed, just feel good about mastering one of the most unique and effective abdominal exercises out there. Now no one said it is an easy exercise-but don’t give up. Once you master it you will be able to reverse gravity in a sense, and start to put back in place what years of inactivity and bad posture has started to let hang over your belt line.

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.

Serious bodybuilding encompasses training sessions, competitions, and strict regimens of diet and supplements. People that seriously weight lift have bulging biceps, titan triceps, 6 pack abs and glutes of steel. Serious bodybuilders take what they do very seriously and every part of their mind, body, and spirit participates in activities that promote elements that solely benefit their ultimate goal.

Ultimate goals can vary within the total realm of bodybuilding. There can be intermediate, moderate, and totally

There's so much more to bodybuilding thaan people realize-It's not just about 6 pack abs or bulging biceps.

serious participation in bodybuilding. There are guidelines for women and guidelines for men, with each guide being helpful in different parts of the bodybuilding scene. Supplements, vitamins, and protein drinks are a large part of the bodybuilding lifestyle–and trust me, it is a lifestyle.

When you are serious about bodybuilding, you create a lifestyle whereby you eat differently than other people, you exercise in a more dedicated fashion than other people, and you also include resting your body and recovering your body from the old ways far more than other people do. What exercises yo do and how much exercise you do is totally up to you as an individual. The level of weight training and the amount of time you spend under the weights is again a personal decision.

But do remember, with serious bodybuilding there are serious consequences to being a slacker. You have to be committed to a daily routine that includes all aspects of bodybuilding success in order to see results. Diet can’t be neglected when bodybuilding is a goal. Choosing foods that fill the natural needs of your body and being disciplined to steer clear of foods that are wasteful or harmful is a key step in any type of bodybuilding regimen. Sometimes that takes a person on a pathway he or she has never forged before. Hopefully, though, there will be a knowledge learned on this path that will carry mind, body, and spirit throughout the rest of life.

Rest and recovery is also key to a embarking into a bodybuilding lifestyle. Getting the proper rest for your mind and body should not have to be explained. Yet, there are people out there who neglect the idea that getting the correct amount of sleep improves the activities of your day. The time you need in order to feel consistently rested may vary from that of your spouse, siblings, or friends. Recovering from pushing your self too far, recovering from old habits that resurface, and recovering from a bodybuilding competition are part of the recovery process that generates happiness in life. People who don’t understand serious bodybuilding may have predisposed ideas about steroids, 6 pack abs and general unhealthful practices in order to gain recognition as an over-bulked, under brained champion, when just the opposite is true. Bodybuilding takes dedication, hard work, a working knowledge about nutrition, the body, and fitness in general.

So, before jumping to any conclusions or judging a book by it’s cover, give bodybuilding a chance-you may be pleasantly suprised by what the sport-and its participants-may have to offer.

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.

6 Pack Abs are not just for show-They protect vital organize and help stabilize the spine.

tummies and generally looking better.  6 pack abs, however, aren’t there just to make you more attractive – there are far more reasons to exercise your abs than that!

Your abs – that is, your abdominal muscles – are some of the most important muscles in your body. They protect your stomach, liver, kidneys, spleen, colon, spinal column, and much, much more. In fact, your abs have a role in almost every movement you make. This means that they are some of the most important muscles you possess in your entire body.

One of the best reasons to do ab exercises is that it will not only help you to prevent abdominal pain, but also will help alleviate existing back pain. Strong abs allow you to sit up straight and easily and prevent back strain. A little effort now can save you a lot of pain (and money) later on down the line. Even if you already experience some back pain from previous injuries, ab exercises can help to relieve some of the pain by taking some of the weight off your back.

Your abs do not just help to support your back – they support your spine, your arms and your legs, too. Although it might seem strange, having strong abs can make it much less tiring to walk long distances, as you are less likely to feel a ‘stitch’ in your side. Strong abs also keeps you more balanced, as they are situated at the body’s center of gravity. As your abs are a protective muscle, having strong abs makes you less likely to injure yourself when you fall.  When it comes to your vital organs, it could actually make the difference between life and death in the case of impact or an accident. This is very important if you are an athlete or play other sports where you might be prone to injury from falls or contact with other athletes. So although it may feel great to be able to flaunt your six-pack at the beach, there are far better reasons to keep doing those crunches!

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.

You should see this little town they built in the middle of the jungle just for the workers of the national coal mining company. My wife’s sister’s husband is an executive for the coal company and is responsible for the human resources of the entire company. A great guy, he was recently given an honorary award for his charitable contributions to the local school for helping underprivileged kids get a better education and get exposed to better training if they show athletic prowess.

They used to pay him a small salary for coming to help educate and teach their students, and he gave all of it back to help out the school. Budgetary constraints forced this school to cut back on paying him a salary, but he pledged to continue giving to the school every month from his own pocket. A great man.

Today I went out on a boat with my friends and their family, and did something I rarely do… I drank alcohol…

Can you drink alcohol and still have 6 pack abs? Read on to find out...

It started out as a nice sunny day, that as soon as we got to the island in the intracoastal waterway, turned extremely ugly very fast. It was the first time my entire life of living in Florida I can honestly say I was scared for my life.

Florida is the lightning storm capital of the United States. For good reason… We have the highest per capita lightning strikes over any other state in the Union. Today was just one of those days. Except we were really vulnerable. 8 adults and 6 kids packed in a 25 foot boat. We huddled under the meager canopy top the boat provided as the rains started and the distant lightning creeped menacingly towards us.

I’ve been in many a storm in my time, but this time was different… This time there was nowhere to go. Imagine torrential rain, a small, flat island with some small palm trees, and a boat  with lots of metal on it. Just think “lightning rod”. As the rain started to pelt us, we tried to construct some makeshift deflectors by opening up a beach umbrella on the side of the boat where the wind was blowing from (and driving the rain into the boat on us). In the process of doing this, there were several lightning strikes with NO pause from the flash to when the sound of the thunder was heard. This meant the lighting was less than 1 mile away. When I heard the crack of static electricity on the tall mast of the sailboat next to us after a  particularly close lightning strike I started to become concerned. Most of the people on board were trying to get as close to the ground on the boat as possible. The wife of my friend was cowering in a corner, a look of extreme fear written all over her face — later she would tell me that the night before she had a nightmare that she would be struck by lightning.

When lightning is raining down all around you, your quest for 6 pack abs goes right out the window

As I was fixing the umbrella we had opened on the side of the boat and another friend was holding, there was another loud “CRACK!” and then I felt it. Electricity coursed from my wrist through my body. I was touching the metal umbrella, trying to fix it, when the lightning stuck nearby and I got shocked from the static electricity in the air. To say I was now scared was an understatement. I’ve never felt this way before… ever. I was certain we were going to get get hit.

The tall mast of the sailboat next to us cackled with static electricity as the lightning bolts rained from the sky all around us. Shrinking ever lower in the boat, the grim look on all the adults was punctuated by the shrieks of the children, by now crying their little hearts out. There was nothing for us to do, nor was there anywhere to go. We had to ride this out. Only God knew what the final outcome would be.

As I’m writing this to you at close to midnight of Sunday night, it’s obvious we survived. After it was all over everyone started to break out the Proseco (sparkling wine) bottles and celebrate our sheer survival. Of course I joined in. I was shaken, and a good drink sure sounded good after what we had just gone through.

Only problem was, 1 glass of Proseco turned into 6, or maybe even 8. Then 2 bottles of beer and 2 glasses of wine. Since I never, ever, drink, and can get buzzed on just 1 single bottle of beer, you can imagine how I was feeling. Pretty loosey goosey. In fact, I’m writing you now in kind of a hazy state, so please forgive me if I sound incomprehensible.

Today was NOT my day to partake in indulgent foods. That was supposed to be tomorrow. Knowing what I know about how the body works, I knew it was ok to cut it short by one day, and start eating and drinking to my heart’s content – knowing it would not damage my overall bodyfat (which currently stands at less than 6%). I knew that 1 day of eating junk food early, would not affect my 6 pack abs, nor my ability to recuperate from this one “off” day.

So it should be with you. Don’t beat yourself up if one day you start eating your junk foods a little early. The problem only arises when you do it regularly. But when you do it seldomly, or hardly ever, if you do one day decide to partake a day or two early, don’t beat yourself up about it, your 6 pack abs quest won’t suffer. Go with the flow, enjoy yourself, and then get back on the bandwagon again with your program.

Happy Father’s Day!

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.

6 Pack Abs: Follow these 2 Tips

Abdominal muscles have to be one of the most misunderstood yet most desired to improve muscles in the human body. Both male and female alike have always had a penchant to improve the one bodypart that, proudly displayed, shows others you have arrived.

No other bodypart reflects your state of fitness and shape like a well-defined set of abdominal muscles. And in the ever elusive quest to get them literally billions of dollars have been spent by well-meaning, but misguided people.

Well, let me tell you that money, gadgets, and magic potions or pills will do little towards your goal of achieving what most consider the pinnacle of physical development — the elusive “washboard” look.

Although women probably don’t want nor need the level of development men are capable of, nevertheless, nothing looks better (or sexier) on a woman than the subtle outlines of their abdominal muscles while wearing a bikini or low cut-off shirt.

6 Pack Abs: Look Great on a Woman

And in order for both men and women to get them you only need to follow and apply 2 simple truths:

1. You have to exercise your abs in a way that will gradually “build” your underlying abdominal musculature (which when developed look like small squares of muscles, 2 columns by 3-4 rows long). This will allow them to “stand out” and make you want to proudly show them off.
2. You have to lose fat from the abdominal region in order to allow the muscles we ALL have there to show through.

I’m only going to concentrate on #1 here. I’ll elaborate on #2 in a future article.

Most people think doing endless repetitions of situps, crunches, leg lifts, etc, are the way to the firm abs they strive for. As if all this activity directed at the abdominal region would somehow “burn” away all the unwanted fat there.

Nothing is further from the truth. More abdominal exercises will not burn more fat there. On the contrary, what it will do is work only the endurance aspect of your abdominal and hip flexor muscles so that you’ll be able to do more work, but the ab muscles themselves will not become more developed.

And this is the trap most people fall into. Thinking they have to “burn” the fat away they do endless repetitions, hoping their ab muscles will eventually “show” through.

To Get 6 Pack Abs More is NOT Better

This kind of exercising can actually backfire on you (more later).

A couple of basics first – Before you can sport a shapely set of abdominal muscles you have to be convinced that you have to “build” them up first. If you don’t understand this subtle but important concept your quest for the holy grail of fitness will always be out of your reach.

Your abs are a group of muscles just like any other set of muscles on your body. They also respond to different types of exercise just like any other muscle on your body would.

If you perform long-duration, low-intensity training (irregardless of the burn you feel – which by the way is a worthless indicator of the value of your abdominal training) your muscles will respond by developing more fatique-resistancecapacity.

However, science has shown that training muscles for endurance does little to build them up or change their shape. The only reliable way to change the underlying shape of a muscle is to subject them to high-intensity, low duration training. This causes the muscles worked to adapt by becoming bigger and stronger. And this increase in muscle size is exactly what you want if a great set of abdominal muscles is what you’re after.

It doesn’t sound intuitively right I know, but not much is when it comes to building a better body. Stay with me here, I’ll explain more in a second.

HIP FLEXOR DEACTIVATION IS KEY

Another problem in building better abs is properly targeting the abdominal muscles themselves. Most people exercising their abs do them wrong. They are mostly targeting their hip flexor muscles which will almost completely take over the function of the ab muscles if you let them.

By the way, your ab muscles function is to contract your trunk between your waist and rib cage NOT, and I repeat, not to cause you to bend at the waist and shorten the distance between your upper and lower body.

I have a little trick to help you eliminate your hip flexor involvement. Simply, just flex your hamstring muscles when doing any type of ab work. Why does this work? Because the hamstring muscles are an opposing muscle group to the hip flexors.

And it’s virtually impossible to contract the hamstring muscles and have the hip flexor muscles be working at the same time too. And that’s what you want, to eliminate the involvement of the hip flexors to allow the work you’re doing to be concentrated on your ab muscles. Contracting your hamstrings will do this perfectly.

Follow These 2 Tips for 6 Pack Abs

Here’s an easy way to do it. And mind you, when you first try this there will be some trial and error in learning how to do it right. Because you will be taking the very strong hip flexor muscles out of the picture all your ab exercises will suddenly seem much harder to do. In fact, the way to know you are doing it correctly is ALL your ab exercises should become harder to do. If they don’t then you’re doing something wrong.

Ok, go to a decline crunch bench, a bench where when you lay on it your head is lower than your feet. It should have some type of foot support to prevent you from sliding down the bench.

Start with the lowest decline setting you can adjust the bench to. You will be performing crunches. Now, before you start with your first crunch and with your feet secured, make note of the pad touching the top part of your ankle. What you don’t want happening while doing the crunch moevement is any “pressure” being felt between this pad and your ankle. And the way to prevent it is to drive your heels back towards you and away from this “top” pad. In effect, contracting your hamstring muscles.

So instead of using the pads as they were designed (by hooking your feet underneath them), you’ll want to use only the part of the bench that’s touching behind your knee. You want to use this part of the bench to support yourself from sliding down instead of the ankle foot pad. And the way to do that is to “contract” your hamstring muscles by, again, driving your heels back towards your body.

”Hooking” yourself in this way will allow your ab muscles to do all the work and effectively eliminate virtually any hip flexor involvement.

It will not feel like a natural movement as you’ll want to use that nice, padded ankle pad to provide pressure against the natural feeling of wanting to “extend” your legs. You must fight this feeling and instead do just the opposite.

The feeling you want to feel is the same as when you are doing a set of leg curls where you lie face down on a bench and “curl” your legs towards you. This feeling of contracting the back of your thighs is the same feeling you want to feel here.

Although this may seem difficult, with just a little practice you’ll quickly get the hang of it and be on the way to a great set of abs.

6 Pack Abs are Within Your Grasp - Just Follow the 2 Rules

Since doing crunches this way will be more difficult, you won’t be able to do endless crunches like you used to. Instead, you’ll perform repetitions in the 8-15 range for around 3-6 sets. Also, you should experience muscular failure towards the end of these repetitions. This will be the key to increasing the “size” of the individual ab muscles and allowing them to “show” sooner at a higher level of body fat than they would have otherwise.

Remember, increasing the size of the abdominal muscles is the key (along with diet of course). Many people have dieted down to low levels of body fat only to be disappointed because their “6-pack” didn’t show. Although their body fat was low, their underlying ab musculature was so underdeveloped (because of their incorrectexercise techniques) that their hoped-for set of washboard abs never materialized.

So, to get that great set of abs perform 8-15 reps for 3-6 sets 2 times per week (only). And watch how you too will soon be joining the 6-pack abs club.

Take Charge!

Harry Johnson Jr.

P.S. Interested in having the rest of your body match a set of sculpted, shredded set of 6 pack abs? Then get my Amazing Fat Burning Formula.

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