subject: Beginner Ab Workouts That Are Effective An Provide Results [print this page] Are you just beginning to work on your abs and are looking for a way to burn fat and get good definition? Well, I am glad I caught you before you began wasting your time doing thousands of sit ups and crunches. Wasting my time? Yes, wasting your time. I will tell you the underlying truth behind what you are trying to do and give you some great beginner ab workouts that will allow you to see results fairly quickly.
The truth of the matter is that, while the typical ab workouts do build the ab muscles, they do not do much for burning fat, and that is what most people have that is obscuring their abs from public view. So, you do not believe me? Consider this, a single pound of fat requires you to expend 3,500 calories of energy to burn. In an average day an average person only expends about 2,000 calories. So, you can see how little a few sit ups will do for burning fat.
Now, to effectively burn fat you need to do a couple things. First you need to build muscle, Why? Because muscle weighs more than fat and, consequently, your body has to work harder throughout the day and so it burns more fat. Pretty neat, huh? Secondly, you need to increase your resting rate of metabolism. The best way to do this is, again, lifting weights. However, it all depends on the types of exercises you do. Concentrating on a specific set of muscles like your abs or, for that matter, your bicep, is not going to burn a lot of fat or build a lot of overall muscle.
Hmm? Makes sense, right? So, what do you need to do?
Well, here is the part where you will be glad that I caught you before you started your ab workout. To build muscle and increase your metabolism you need to begin working your entire body with exercises like dead lifts and one arm dumb bell snatches. These are compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. Because they cause exertion of multiple muscle groups they cause your body to go through a metabolic change as it recuperates from the workout over the next couple of days. This is important because you cannot spot reduce fat on your belly. To see all the effort you will put into your abs you must be below 10% body fat for a man and 16% body fat for a woman.
I have given you some great information up until this point. But now I am going to give you a few more gems. Some of the best and most effective ab exercises I have found are done with a device called a kettlebell (KB). This is a Russian piece of equipment that looks like a cannonball with a handle on it and, because of its design, is ideal for swinging between your legs.
Now, swinging a weight between your legs might not sound like it does too much but you are wrong. It will leave you winded in just a few swings. Because of this the KB swing has a cardiovascular element that traditional weight lifting does not have and will allow you to burn up to 20 calories a minute. But, while you are burning all those calories you will also be getting a great workout on the muscles of your core which are your back, your hips and, yes, your abs.
So, each day, swing the KB between your legs, thrusting out with your hips, for as long as you can. With these beginner ab workouts you will quickly see results in terms of fat burned and muscle built.
