subject: The Best Abdominal And Oblique Workouts To Burn Fat And Build Muscle [print this page] Are you looking for the best abdominal and oblique workouts? Are you tired of the same old ab routine? Was anything you were doing even effective? Let us take a look at the situation so we can get the most out of our ab and oblique work out.
First things first, there are two types of people who are reading this article. This first are people with a low enough body fat percentage to actually see their abs and obliques. The second type are those who want to be the first type. The reason I make this distinction is because the first type is interested in building muscle and the second type is interested in losing fat.
I am going to show you both how to accomplish both goals at the same time. But, I need you to understand something first. Doing things like sit ups and stomach crunches, bicycles, leg lifts and knee raises do not burn enough calories to burn any significant amount of fat, they just build muscle. This is important to know because a lot of people with some fat around their midsection do countless sit ups and wonder why nothing is happening.
To burn a pound of fat takes 3,500 calories. The average person only burns 2000 calories in a day so you can see it is quite a task to burn just a single pound of fat. The best way to do this and the work your abs and obliques is to do compound weight lifting exercises that do not necessarily target those muscles.
These are exercises such as the clean and jerk, the one arm dumb bell snatch, the bench press, renegade rows and others. These are referred to as compound or multi joint exercises because they work more that one muscle group at the same time. The benefit of this is that you exert so much effort that it throws your body into a metabolic shock for days afterward so that you are burning calories at a significantly higher rate. These exercises also work your abs because your abs actually act as stabilizers during the workout. You do not believe me? Try doing some renegade rows, you will feel it in your abs first!
Typically the exercises above are done with barbells or dumbbells, but I would like to introduce you to a device called a kettlebell (KB). The KB is a Russian device that looks like a cannonball with a handle on it. Because of its design it is ideal for using in high intensity interval training which is moving from one exercise to another with only a brief period of rest in between. Using the KB in this way enables you to burn up to 20 calories a minute.
While some of the following exercises really target your core muscles and abs, all of the exercises will work your core to one extent or another and exercises like the cross over clean and press and the cross over lateral raise are designed to target you obliques. To do these exercises simply start with the KB to the left or right side of you so that you have to cross over your body to reach it and perform the exercise, thus working your obliques.
Workout A:
One handed cross over clean and press, two handed clean and press, one handed snatch, squat, cross over lateral raise, dead lift to a high pull.
Workout B:
Pull ups, one or two handed KB swing, bent over row, KB swing, bent over row, KB swing, dips.
Do these on a regular basis and you will see results and come to think for yourself that these are the best abdominal and oblique workouts to burn fat and build muscle that you can find.
