Health Beauty & FitnessHealth, Beauty, Fitness Tips

Yes, it’s true. These two standard ab exercises, crunches and situps, can actually be murder on your low back.

Why? Because they involve spinal flexion (rounding your lower back to allow you to bend forward at the waist). But according to research, that’s the exact mechanism that causes a herniated disc in your lower back. After all, most people “throw their back out” bending over to pick something off the ground.

So it makes sense to limit the amount of traditional sit-ups and crunches in your program. Plus, you can’t spot reduce the fat from one area, so you are better off spending that exercise time on a better total body exercise or intervals. If you want to flatten your abs, you need to lose body fat.

So to improve your abs, use the following techniques:

1) Take half the time you were spending on abs, and do intervals with that time instead.

2) Spend the rest of your ab training time doing endurance ab exercises, such as planks, side planks, mountain climbers, and variations of these exercises.

3) Keep your abs braced in all exercises so that you work your abs in every movement that you do.

For advanced bodybuilding, there will come a time that you will need to do traditional crunching motions. But it is best, for results (i.e. growing your abs) to do these with resistance. Cable crunches are good, and you can get results with a relatively small amount of spinal flexion.

But really, when it comes to having great abs, losing body fat is the most important aspect for most people. And if you are a desk jockey, its more important for you to have abdominal endurance than to risk your back with classic ab exercises.

The 6 Food Groups

Usually, nutritional bibles will show a pyramid with grains/cereals, proteins, dairy and fruits and vegetables as the 4 food groups. For bodybuilders, it’s a bit different and probably looks more like this:
Meats/ ProteinsCereals/ GrainsVegetablesFruitDairy ProductsOils/ NutsA bodybuilder’s food intake for peak performance and peak condition should include something from each of these groups, but the ratios are greatly skewed from what is typically espoused by nutrition bibles.

Ratios are approximately:

Off Season:
40% Meats/ Proteins10% Grains/ Cereals20% Vegetables (Starchy and unstarchy) 10% Fruit10% Dairy10% Oils/ NutsPre-Contest:
40% Meats/ Proteins5% Grains/ Cereals30% Vegetables (10% starchy and 20% unstarchy, leafy green vegetables)30% Oils/ NutsFruits typically are cut out in the last 5 or 6 weeks. As long as vitamin supplementation occurs, it’s not an appreciable deficit.

Typically, we are told that 60% of our diets should come from carbs, 20% from protein and 20% from fat. But let’s face it… eating like this is a sure-fire recipe for bodybuilding failure! Following the above plan is much more likely to create the kind of physique you want, and provide the energy you need to succeed in the gym and up on the stage.

Calories – Do they Count?

In this age of low carb diets (and bodybuilders have been cycling carbs for much longer than it’s been in fashion) it’s easy to think that calories don’t count! But, in fact, they do. Don’t ignore calories – it’s one of the biggest mistakes that a bodybuilder can make! That means, don’t ignore the fact that what you take in, carb-free/ carb-light or not, still counts. Sure, it counts much more when you include complex carbs back into the picture during an off season phase, but calories count anytime. Fail to count them and you set yourself up for bad habits that spill over into the off season.

Get in the habit of counting calories during a pre-contest phase, and you’ll probably be fine. Once you add starchy vegetables, such as potatoes and additional grains, such as rice, you won’t go astray.

For a 200 pound bodybuilder, here’s how calories should look:

Off season (growth): 3000

Off season (maint.): 2500

Pre-contest (fat loss): 1800

Eating Quality and Quantity in the Off Season

Off season and mass building aren’t synonymous with Burger King or McDonald’s. Occasionally, this kind of food is okay, but in general, they are not their own food group and are not the best quality food to feed your body.

It merits mentioning that eating a large quantity of calories during an off season phase is crucial to success. But it should also be mentioned that the quantity must also include quality. Simply shoveling 3000 calories of any kind of food into your mouth isn’t the way to address mass building.

Think of feeding your body in the same way you would a new home project. Do you want linoleum in your kitchen, or ceramic tile? Would you build your home with recycled lumber and expect it to last for 30 years, or would you be better off using brand new lumber? Would you want to use sandpaper on your roof, or wood shake or ceramic tile? These are all important decisions in what your final product looks like, and how enduring it will be.

Think of food and feeding your body during a mass phase in the same way. Eat steak, chicken, and other quality protein, good carbs like potatoes, yams, oatmeal, and fats such as olive oil and nuts. Just eat more of it than you would during a pre-contest phase.

Many people have taken up the challenge and decided that they want to maximize their bodies’ potential. So, first up is ascertaining exactly what exactly is the next level?

It is none other than bodybuilding!

People who body build are not only keeping their bodies healthy and fit but have added aesthetics to the mix. Bodybuilders do their best to improve the look of their bodies and, for the competitive contests are held in many parts of the world to encourage the practice.

The Importance of Bodybuilding

Individuals who body build are not engaging in frivolousness and are not being arrogant when they expose the fruits of their labor. In fact, bodybuilders are a great example and inspiration to others, for the drive to have a healthy and fit body could and should be in everyone.

In a world where obesity and a lack of fitness is growing daily, really looking after your body is a great way of improving the overall health of the community and the success evident in the bodies of bodybuilders should inspire others to work harder in improving themselves.

To make the most of this then, means working harder at maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and staying away from unhealthy habits and vices.

And doing them all consistently, without boring ourselves to death. That’s just where body training as an exercise regime can help!

Best Bodybuilding Tactics

Upon hearing the word bodybuilding, most people associate it with guys having big muscles and showing them off. That’s because what is often in the media are those dodgy looking competitions, with muscle-bound guys flexing their muscles for all to see. To some this can be quite unattractive and put them off.

Remember, building and toning your body is not just for men but also for women as well. In fact, women are finding the sport more and more popular as testified by the numerous competitions for female bodybuilders cropping up more and more often.

Anything that happens to improve the quality of our bodies, wherever and whenever in the world it happens, cannot be a bad thing, with the health problems there are. Male or female.

Sculpt Your Body To Success – What To Watch Out For

However, when you body build, it is not only just about getting focused and consistently planned exercise. First class nutrition is also involved. Those who bodybuild should have the discipline and the drive to carefully maintain a healthy diet.

There should be adequate and good quality rest too. This means then that as much as you need with the exercise you are undertaking.

If you do exercise your body, it’s necessary to avoid those little temptations that can set you back, so stay away from excessive alcohol, any cigarettes, too many fatty foods and other harmful substances you can think of.

Keep Your Food Nutritious

A bodybuilder may also find the need to take relevant, valuable supplements. If you do, make sure you consulted with a professional and follow the directions given you when you take any such supplements. It is your body you are dealing with so be extra careful to do nothing to excess.

As for those who are still in the beginners bodybuilding level, do not lose your drive. You may be skinny and flabby in some (or all!) areas right now, but with hard work and dedication, you will get there eventually.

You may find the use of specialized exercise equipment helpful. Also, if you feel the need to avail the services of a specialist trainer, then go ahead and do so. And, yes, join in with the competitions if you want to.

The point is you are improving your body – and that’s what will make the difference!