How To Build Your Lower Abs: The Problem Area

For most- both men and especially women,  the lower abdominal region is their trouble spot. Even for those in relatively good shape the question always seems to arise on how do you build your lower abs and make that region right under your belly button flat and tight. Firstly, I should explain the structure of the abdominal muscles. The upper region of your rectus abdominus is relatively heavily muscled and can be easily developed which is what gives you that unmistakable six pack when the area is low in subcutaneous fat. Most people that diet properly and are able to reduce their overall body fat will start seeing their upper abdominals even if they are marginally developed but not their lower abs.

You can clearly see that your lower abs are not thickly muscled like your upper abs

The problem is that your lower abdominals are more of a thin sheath of muscle as opposed to the thickly muscled blocks of your upper abdominals. Thus you can do all the exercises in the world, but to have prominently visible abs, you must have low body-fat levels in your stomach region. Since there is so little to the lower region, in terms of protruding muscle, you really have to get your overall body fat levels down to the lowest levels in order to see them. In fact when I work with bodybuilders and fitness models preparing them for contests that way that you would determine whether or not they are competition ready and at their best is when you can see the ridges of their lower abs and some vascularity in that area as well.

How To Build Your Lower Abs: Exercises That Target The Region

From an exercise standpoint the lower abs serve to rotate the pelvis inwards towards the ribcage so any movement such as reverse crunches or leg raise type exercise will focus on that area- but it more a matter of strengthening the region that building it up as there really isn’t that much to build. At the end of the day it comes down to how much you can reduce your body fat levels and the same holds true for your upper abdominals as well. You can do sit ups until you are blue in the face, train your abs everyday and still not see much of anything as such movements only work the muscle but do little to get rid of the layer of fat obscuring your abs.

How to Build Your Lower Abs: Too Many Abdominal Exercises May Cause A Protruding Stomach

That being said, train your abdominal muscles the same way that you train any other body part and don’t overdo it. Your goal should be to ensure that your midsection is strong and balanced and by training them everyday with a slew of exercises you are only over-training the area and may in some instances even over develop your abdominals. Once problem that I have seen happen with people that go too far is that they develop very blocky type abs- which may look impressive when their shirt is off but the blocks protrude outwards and give the appearance of a big gut when they are wearing clothes- which is certainly not what most people are looking for and is almost impossible to completely reverse. You see it as well with individuals that use anabolic steroids as their abdominals become far bigger than they ordinarily would be and thus they have to suck their stomach in to not look like they have a beer gut- which isn’t really a pretty sight.

Having Great Lower Abs Comes Down To Your Diet & Your Bodyfat Levels

The author

For the record- I don’t train my abdominals directly on a regular basis and haven’t done so seriously for over ten years now and they still look exactly the same- lower abs included. It might surprise you as well that the majority of natural athletes with great abs don’t really do much to keep them that way besides watch what they eat. If you follow a properly executed high intensity weight training routine your abdominals get a real workout in the process stabilizing your midsection during heavy movements and again you don’t want to over develop them by doing too much. So less is more if you have been training for several years doing more abdominal work isn’t going to do very much to make them come out more.

Diet is the key and keep in mind that for your lower abs to be really tight, (especially for women) you really have to work hard to reduce and maintain your body fat to the point where they are visible. Training wise you’ll have a better chance at seeing your lower abs come out from high intensity resistance training rather than conventional aerobic type workouts but the onus still is on your diet. That being said having great lower abs shouldn’t be the be-all-and-end-all of any fitness program. Remember that having a low bodyfat percentage doesn’t always mean that you are healthy and you can have a six pack and still suffer from health related problems. Instead keep your eye on eating well at all times, always have a good and wholesome breakfast and be on guard to avoid processed and refined foods in your diet and of course always eat in moderation. If you train hard and stick to that philosophy in time you just might start seeing your lower abs coming out!

Related Articles:

Six Pack Abs- It’s All About What You Eat

Get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here! Kevin Richardson is one of New York City’s most sought after personal trainers and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts. Visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net. 

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How Much Water Do I Need & Can You Drink Too Much Water?

According to estimates, the average male adult needs approximately 12 cups of water per day, the average female just about nine cups. These numbers don’t apply to plain old water as our bodies are able to get water from juices, and even many solid food items, however for those serious about peak performance and optimal health you really can’t go wrong using water as your primary fluid source. For those engaged in intensive regular exercise, especially high intensity training more water is needed on a daily basis- an increase that has been validated by several dietetic associations over the years.

Reasons for increased water intake are:

• exercise

• high temperature

• low humidity

• high altitude

• high-fiber diet

• increased fluid losses as a result of diarrhea or vomiting

• caffeine or alcohol consumption (Alcohol and caffeine are diuretics which means they cause water loss and could increase the risk of dehydration)

Water Requirements Are Higher For Those Engaged In High Intensity Training Or Other Activities

Since exercise and a high fiber diet is part of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™ I recommend sometimes up to a gallon of water for some based in their bodyweight and activity levels especially since increased protein intake is also an additional requirement for more fluids. Bloating, and water retention is often a sign of inadequate water intake, as such the more you drink, the less water your body will retain. As a rule the more water you drink the less water your body will retain and I have seen some clients over the years lose as much as 10-15 lbs of water weight in the course of a week simply by regulating their sodium intake and ensuring adequate hydration levels.

When Should I Drink Water? Some Useful Tips From The Field!

Thirst tells us we need water, but the thirst mechanism cannot be relied upon to meet our water needs, since by the time you are thirsty, you are can already be slightly dehydrated. Mild dehydration occurs with as little as 1 percent loss of body weight. My suggestion is to to drink water during the day, and taper off the amount as the day goes on so that you can stop drinking at least an hour or two before bedtime. This is a good practice that prevents you having to wake up too often during the night and having your sleep patterns affected by your fluid intake

On days that you exercise, your water intake is most important. You will see a significant drop off in your performance if you do not drink an adequate amount, and it is my recommendation that you not engage in high intensity training if you have not drunk enough water during the day. My clients are often amazed at how well I can tell when they haven’t had enough water before their high intensity workouts. There is inevitably a marked reduction in their strength, endurance and they may experience muscle cramps – especially on warmer days.

Are There Any Potential Dangers To Drinking Water?

People with kidney problems or cardiovascular disease or other conditions where fluid intake needs to be limited should follow their doctor’s recommendations with correct sodium intake. Always seek advice from your doctor before beginning any new diet or changing eating and drinking habits. Can You Drink Too Much Water? In a word, yes, you can indeed drink too much water but it is a very rare occurrence among adults. Too much water ingested at one time can bring about dilution of sodium levels in the body, which creates a state called hyponatremia.

Electrolyte imbalance of this nature can cause arrythmia, confusion, nausea, seizures and it can lead to comatose states and death. The effects mimic alcohol consumption and as such it is often referred to as water intoxification. The key to remember is that this usually only occurs in infants, athletes involved in long term strenuous activities or in individuals that are somehow mentally impaired. Babies can suffer from hyponatremia by having too much water or from drinking formula that has been diluted too much, as their low weight makes it easy for them to over consume water.

Athletes that are dehydrated during marathon type events can also succumb to hyponatremia, as they drink too much water at one time in an attempt to rehydrate themselves. If they drink plain water without any electrolytes, they can very easily suffer from water intoxification. Finally, the third group at risk are those with some degree of mental impairment, be it organic or as a result of drug and alcohol use. The key to remember about hyponatremia is that it is not caused by drinking too much water, but rather from drinking an enormous amount of water all at one time, and it is very unlikely that anyone would do so under ordinary circumstances.

The media does tend to make a big story out of any deaths attributed to water intoxification, but as sensationalist as they can be, it does not take away the fact that most victims are infants, endurance athletes or people under the influence. The kidneys of a healthy human being can process 15 liters a day, (that is almost 4 gallons) without any ill effects. Keeping in mind that muscle is 72% water, and given their high protein intake, and bodyweights, it is not uncommon for bodybuilders and high performance athletes to ingest between 1 to 2 gallons of water a day. But that amount is consumed over the course of twenty four hours and not all at once, and that number can increase based on weather conditions. So as long as you are not trying to win a water drinking contest, or running a marathon, hyponatremia is not something that you should really be worried about.

Sources:

The American Dietetic Association. Water: The Beverage for Life.

Convertino V.A., Amstrong L.E., Coyle E.F.,Mack G.W., Swaka M.N., Senay L.C. Jr., Sherman W.M. 1996.

American College of Sports Medicine position. “Exercise and fluid replacement.” Medical Science Sports Exercise.

Kleiner S.M. 1999. “Water: An essential but overlooked nutrient.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

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Kevin Richardson- celebrity Personal Trainer New York City is the creator of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training, a lifetime natural bodybuilder, head of Naturally Intense™ Personal Trainers NYC and one of the most sought after personal trainer in NYC.

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High Intensity Training Workouts For Women Increases Bone Density In Post Menopausal Women

Osteoporosis is the loss of bone density over time and the most common type of bone disease. It is estimated that 1 out of 5 American women over 50 have osteoporosis. About half of all women over the age of 50 will have a fracture of the hip, wrist, or spine over the course of their lives and the leading causes of osteoporosis are a drop in estrogen in women at the time of menopause and a drop in testosterone in men. Most women shy away from the idea of weight training and high intensity training in general in favor of more aerobic type exercises and classes however more and more research is affirming that not only weight bearing exercise, but also high intensity training workouts can decrease bone loss- especially among postmenopausal women.

According to a study published in the Journal of American Medical Association, high intensity training using strength exercises have been shown to be an effective way to preserve bone density while also improving overall muscle mass, increasing strength and balance in postmenopausal women. The research was done at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts and the subjects ranged in age from 50 to 70 years old. Following a high intensity low volume protocol the 39 women involved exercised twice a week performing five different strength training exercises per session over the course of a year.

High Intensity Training Workouts For Women Increases Bone Density

The findings were quite significant- in the women doing high intensity training femoral neck bone mineral density and lumbar spine bone mineral density increased by approximately 1 to 4.5% while the inactive control group saw a similar DECREASE in bone density of the same regions.  Total body bone mineral content was preserved in the strength-trained women while it tended to decrease in the sedentary women who were used as a control. Also of note, muscle mass, muscle strength, and dynamic balance increased in the strength-trained women and decreased in the inactive women.

High Intensity Training: A Proven Method For Preserving Bone Density & Improving Strength & Muscle Mass

The study’s conclusion:  ’High-intensity training exercises for strength are an effective and feasible means to preserve bone density while improving muscle mass, strength, and balance in postmenopausal women.’

References:

1. High-intensity resistance training and postmenopausal bone loss: a meta-analysis.Martyn-St James M, Carroll S. Osteoporos Int. 2006

Get a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson- celebrity Personal Trainer New York City is the creator of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training, a lifetime natural bodybuilder, head of Naturally Intense™ Personal Trainers NYC and one of the most sought after personal trainer in NYC.

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Want To Try Out Our High Intensity 10 Minute Workouts? Here Is Your Chance!

As a way to help more and more people have a chance to experience the ten minute workouts that have been the cornerstone of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™
for the past 19 years, we have set up a Meetup Group where as a group you can come in and see for yourself how effective our ten minute workouts can be at no cost!  Here is our 10 Minute Workout Meetup Information:

Get Better Results In Less Time With Effective 10 Minute Workouts!

Kevin Richardson is one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City a champion lifetime drug free bodybuilder and founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet and Exercise. He has used his system of 10 minute workouts and holistic dietary approach to help hundreds get into the best shape of their lives over the past 19 years of his career as a personal trainer and is a living testimony himself to its effectiveness! Here is why you owe it to yourself to attend the Meetup:

Why You Should Try Our Naturally Intense™ 10 Minute Workouts:

• Experience An Exercise Program That Fits Into Everyone’s Schedule!
• Lose Weight With A Simple and Time Tested Program That Helps You Keep The Weight Off!
• Increase Your Endurance In A Fraction of the Time From Our High Intensity Workouts!
• Increase Your Strength & Muscle Mass!
• Long Term Weight Loss & Decreased Body Fat From Building Healthy and Natural Muscle!
• Safe For Everyone At Any Age Or Fitness Level!
• Have A Chance To Meet With Kevin & Get Hands On Help With Your Diet From One Of The Experts In The Field

You’ll have a chance to try out our Naturally Intense™ 10 Minute Workouts and see for yourself why people regularly commute from as far away as North Carolina on a weekly basis to train with Kevin and his team! The System works!

Note that there is no fee for this Meetup- we take care of all associated gym and training fees for the day!

Please come ready to workout, lockers and showers are available.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Kevin Richardson, NYC Personal Trainer
Founder, Naturally Intense System of Diet And Exercise™
Call for more information at 1-800-798-8420

See the full event details, including location, at http://www.meetup.com/10-minute-workouts-naturally-intense/calendar/12382309/.

Get a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson- celebrity Personal Trainer New York City is the creator of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training, a lifetime natural bodybuilder, head of Naturally Intense™ Personal Trainers NYC and one of the most sought after personal trainer in NYC.

Most are frustrated by their lack of results on the treadmill- now we know why!

Aerobic Exercise Will Not Help You Lose Weight- High Intensity Workouts Will!

The party line for years has been that aerobic exercise will help you burn fat and increase your overall endurance, while brief high intensity workouts only work the muscles and have no bearing on fat loss or increasing cardiovascular capacity. Since the 1980′s this has been the gospel handed down from so many accedited organizations while real world results have done little to support it. More and more people are doing aerobic type exercise and yet few see truly significant results in the gym, while for almost two decades programs like the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise ™with its 10 minute workouts have helped literally hundreds of people from fitness models, bodybuilders, actors and performers to housewives and business people lose weight and get into cover model shape all while improving their endurance from only high intensity workouts with weights. Research has come a long way in validating what has been my life practice- namely the use of high intensity workouts to help build muscle, reduce fat and improve endurance and it has been a long and hard road over the years, but the success of all those that I have trained over the years in addition to my own success as a lifetime drug free bodybuilder and martial artist has always served as the incontovertible proof that 10 minute workouts do indeed work better than traditional programs. Now we have the science to prove it as well and it is my hope that it helps the general population begin to get real results from their fitness programs as so many fall short and are frustrated by their lack of success following traditional training protocols.- Kevin Richardson, NYC Personal Trainer and founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™.

It’s a common cause of frustration, you go to the gym, sign up for an aerobics class or maybe hit the treadmill for an hour or so, and you feel really great about starting your weight loss program. However after a month of all that hard work and sweat, the results are less than spectacular. You love the way you feel during your workouts but the needle on the scale hasn’t really moved much. Maybe you aren’t doing enough, so you logically increase your efforts. Instead of going to the gym three times a week, now you are now going five days a week, maybe even six- but still to no avail. You are not looking anything like the models in the gym commercials and you can’t figure out for the life of you why it’s not working. Burnt out, over trained and fatigued from all that exercise (and more than a little frustrated), you give up after a few months and the gym membership that you had every intention of using goes to waste. Perhaps your body type is somehow resistant to losing weight, maybe it is just your genes, or maybe there is something wrong with your metabolism? Fortunately, none of these factors are to blame; the reality is simply that aerobic exercise isn’t exactly great for weight loss.

Studies Contradict The Fat Burning Effect Of Aerobics

A study published recently in The British Journal of Sports Medicine was the latest of a series of reputable research to come back with less than stellar results for the effectiveness of aerobic exercise as a weight loss tool. In this study 58 obese individuals went through 12 weeks of supervised steady state aerobic exercise without any change in their diets.  In spite of the exercise regime, the group average weight loss was only around seven pounds or so, with many losing three pounds or less. The author’s conclusion was “From a public health perspective, exercise should be encouraged and the emphasis on weight loss reduced.”1 Not a glowing endorsement for weight loss at all. True there is a calorie burning effect to any form of exercise, aerobics included, but an overwhelming body of research shows, achieve significant weight loss with exercise alone, without a major change in their eating habits- which right there casts doubts on whether aerobics are really needed in the first place. The going theory for many years has been that by doing aerobic exercise, there is an so called after burner effect- namely that your metabolism speeds up as a result for hours afterwards thus helping the body burn more calories. Sounds fantastic, and it helped sell a lot of equipment over the years, but it doesn’t hold water when held up to scientific scrutiny. In a study done at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, several groups were brought together to measure the fat burning effects of aerobic exercise, ranging from lean endurance athletes to sedentary and obese individuals. For the duration of the study, the subjects would spend 24 hours in a special laboratory configured as a calorimeter, designed to measure exactly how many calories they would burn during the period. Researchers could also tell from using several mathematical formulas whether calories burned were in the form of fat or carbohydrates. Each subject spent 24 hours in the calorimeter without doing anything whatsoever as a base reading and then another 24 hours period that included one hour of riding a stationary bicycle at an easy pace that supposedly makes the body burn fat rather than carbohydrates stored in the muscles. To the astonishment of the researchers, they found that none of the members of the groups, well trainer athletes included, experienced an increase in fat burning on the day that they performed the aerobic exercise. In fact, they found that most had actually burned slightly less fat during the period that they exercised as compared to the 24 hour period that they did nothing. Some other studies point the idea that the after burner effect of increased fat burning after exercise comes from short, high intensity resistance training and not from aerobic exercise.

High Intensity Workouts Compared To Aerobics For Fat Loss

A study of two groups of women conducted at the University of New South Wales in Australia is one of many to come to this conclusion. For this study women were split into two groups, one to perform brief high intensity exercise and one aerobic exercise to determine which type of exercise stimulated the most fat burning effect. After 15 weeks of performing high intensity resistance based workouts three times a week the women in the high intensity group lost an average of 5 ½ pounds of body fat-, which represented an impressive 11.2 percent decrease in their overall body fat percentage, whereas the women in the group that did three aerobic workouts per week for the same 15 week period, actually saw an increase in their overall body fat levels! All that time spent by most gym goers on the treadmill instead of hitting the weights hard and fast is a major factor in why few see significant weight loss today. (While the cry might be that you need aerobics for endurance purposes- the research contradicts this as well- see ‘The Science Behind 10 Minute Workouts)

The Inefficient  Practice Of Aerobics For Weight Loss Might Be The Reason Such Low Calorie Diets Are Used

 This just can’t be, you say to yourself, as there are individuals that slave away doing aerobics and get into great shape all the time- but they all reduce their calories to really low and unhealthy levels to do so. More importantly, they all exhibit a significant lack of energy during the period and are only able to maintain a lower body fat level for a very short period of time before they break down and regain the weight that they originally lost. While this may be common practice, it isn’t healthy, and we know from studies that the yo-yo effect of weight loss and weight gain increases your long term risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Besides, the research points out that the use of aerobics may be the reason why it is so hard for them to lose weight in the first place and why their calorie levels have to go down so low just to lose a few pounds. Aerobics simply are not the best route for weight loss, and while aerobics instructors and StairMaster manufacturers don’t want you to know this, it has been common knowledge for a number of us in the field of drug free bodybuilding.

The Key To Sustainable Low Body Fat Levels Comes From Low Volume High Intensity Workouts From Resistance Training & Proper Diet- Not Aerobics

The author- aerobics free since 1974!

From the very beginning of my career as a natural bodybuilder in Trinidad, all of my coaches strictly forbade me from doing aerobics of any kind. I found it rather odd at the time as all the magazines, books and even the personal trainer manuals advocated the importance of aerobic exercise as a fat burning tool. Yet here I was being told to avoid it like the plague if I really wanted to reduce my body fat levels to 5% or less. Given the number of successful athletes under their tutelage over the years, I heeded their advice, and sure enough I did end up with a body fat percentage under 5% for my first contest, and I have not doubted the soundness of that advice ever since. Over the years, I learned that with the use of brief and high intensity workouts (no more than 10 to 20 minutes of high intensity training three times a week) in addition to a natural based diet, (I call it the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™) I could maintain a healthy body fat level of 5% and help others do the same. I have never done any form of steady state aerobics as part of my routine, and in eighteen years as personal trainer, I haven’t had any of my clients do it either. Having helped literally hundreds lose tremendous amounts of weight, (read this case study on a member of our 100 lb weight loss club) there must be something to not doing aerobics. Factor in as well the dozens of fitness models and bodybuilders that I am able to get into magazine cover shape using three 10 minute workouts a week and you might give the aerobics machines in your gym a pass.

Related Articles:

Aerobics A Bad Choice For Weight Loss

High Intensity Workouts- Better Results In Less Time From 10 Minute Workouts!

High Intensity Workouts & Endurance

High Intensity Workouts For Weight Loss & Muscle Building

NYC Personal Trainer Kevin Richardson is the most sought after personal trainers in New York City, a lifetime drug free bodybuilding champion and the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™. His high intensity 10 minute workouts have been helping people get better results in less time for the past 19 years! Get a copy of his free weight loss e-book here!