Abs help

i have body built for around 4 years now, over the past 12 months started taking it more serious, stopped the alcohol/junk food, i have had massive gains on my whole body but i have really neglected my gut, it aint big its only 31inch which insnt bad for someone who is 6foot 5 and with a 44inch chest, but the problem is its still just sort of a pot belly, i have done little to no work on it ever and its really letting me down, because although i only have a pretty slim waist there is no defenition it still looks as though there is alot of fat there due to the lack of muscle, i have started doing the plank but with lifting my elbows off the floor so my upperbody is supported by my fists but im wanting to know some more exercises to help, i dont really want to do sit ups or anything "easyish" if you get what i mean because im not really bothered about developing my cardio fitness just the muscle.

cheers in advance for your help

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Originally Posted by themusic

i have body built for around 4 years now, over the past 12 months started taking it more serious, stopped the alcohol/junk food, i have had massive gains on my whole body but i have really neglected my gut, it aint big its only 31inch which insnt bad for someone who is 6foot 5 and with a 44inch chest, but the problem is its still just sort of a pot belly, i have done little to no work on it ever and its really letting me down, because although i only have a pretty slim waist there is no defenition it still looks as though there is alot of fat there due to the lack of muscle, i have started doing the plank but with lifting my elbows off the floor so my upperbody is supported by my fists but im wanting to know some more exercises to help, i dont really want to do sit ups or anything "easyish" if you get what i mean because im not really bothered about developing my cardio fitness just the muscle.

cheers in advance for your help

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Abs are made in the kitchen not in the gym meaning to get toned abs you need to do cardio and go on a diet everyone has got a sixpack its just its covered up with layer of fat bicycle crunches are best for the obliques its proven to be 250 percent more effective than normal crunches.

Go to this link to see how you do bicycle crunch properly.


http://www.criticalbench.com/exercis...cle-crunch.htm


Also you will need to do your lower abs check this link.


http://www.howtodothings.com/health-...exercises.html

cheers cc. my diet is sorted 300g protien per day around the right amount of carbs and very little saturated fat get enough natural fat tho. my waist has gone from a 38 down to a 31 over the past 12 months with sorting my diet out alone

If you like the feeling of a hard workout there's a few exercises that I'd recommend. You can do leg/knee raises while holding onto a pullup bar to work your lower abs and hip flexors. You can grab a dumbell and do sidebends to work your obliques. You can use a Plank or incline bench and do crunches or situps, you could grab a heavy plate or a light barbell if you want to increase the difficulty. I used a roman chair for a few months before and I thought it was a good exercise for the abs.

An ab-wheel/roller is pretty good too, you don't have to do it on your knees, you can keep your legs straight starting out in an inverted V and rolling forward until your whole body is straightened out. It's a tough exercise because you have to keep your abs very tense the whole time and this would require your hip flexors to be strong enough to do the exercise.

Some exercises can be pretty tough without anything else done. V-ups is a good exercise as well.

I don't think I need to go over a system of sets/reps, just make sure you establish howmuch that you will do in your first session. Good technique is important and goes without saying. You can contract the muscles that you are using in that exercise for a greater affect on your muscles.

Have you ever seen a body builder that's off season? They're stacked but they have a gut that hangs out. This is because of the fat that's in the muscles/organs. You might have visceral fat within your muscles, that might be a case of a pot belly. High intensity interval training seems to be a great way to burn fat, as well as circuit training. A good diet is he way to keep it off.

I'm not an expert on this stuff but this outta help give you an idea of the different exercises that you can add into your workout.

By the way, has your injury healed yet?

yes and no, i can walk pretty much without a limp now but i cant jog/run or "bounce" and i cant even skip because my timing/balence has gone to pot. my weight is getting back up though without me gaining anything on my belly,iv put on about 1.5stone of lean weight since i have had the pot off, which isnt bad to say it was only a few months ago

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Originally Posted by themusic

yes and no, i can walk pretty much without a limp now but i cant jog/run or "bounce" and i cant even skip because my timing/balence has gone to pot. my weight is getting back up though without me gaining anything on my belly,iv put on about 1.5stone of lean weight since i have had the pot off, which isnt bad to say it was only a few months ago

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Get a cross trainer i got one cheap for about 90 pound thats great cardio workout and should cause you no stress with your injury.

That's good to hear mate. At least you're past the stage of hobbling around on one leg. :) What do you do for cardio these days? You could use a stationary bike, a cross trainer, or even a cross country skiing machine if you can find one.

By the way if you're interested I have a great ebook by the guys that came out with the X-rep called 'Xtreme Lean', it has a lot of great stuff in it. I can send you a link if you'd like.

yeah please pm it me, my cardio is very little to be honest, i do about 1 or 2k on the rower at the gym about once a week and thats only if i fancy it. i go to the gym 4 - 5 days per week for 1.5 to 2 hours per time but just do weights. last time i got it x - rayed the doc said its healed to the best its going to get but its always going to be a bone that was severely broken, so i have started concentrating more on my legs than i ever had at the gym particularly squats on the smith machine (i don't feel comfortable enough yet to do it with free weights) It gets annoying because if i do anything even slightly stressful on my bad leg e.g hop i can feel my ankle throbbing onto the plates in my leg for about 5 mins after and it feels very strange, i suppose i just have to get used to the fact there always going to be there.

I can't give you much advice about your leg. Just don't go overboard on your leg work, you'll probably to take it slow and easy until you get it up to speed. On the brightside you can focus on getting lean, and start working on your cardio on the mean time.

I'll just drop the link off here just in case there's other people interested so they don't have to pm me. http://rapidshare.com/files/3318983/XTremeLean.rar You just need winrar to extract it. You can check out their website for more info.

cheers, cc. yeah im going to aim to get to around 16stone and lean by christmas, i reckon ill find the last 6 or 7lbs pretty hard so i might have to do a cycle of d-bol though.

That's a nice goal dude. First you want to get off on the right foot. You know the drill, make sure that your workout is orientated towards your goals. Keep your monitoring your progress and start cutting out those things that are holding you back. If it's your eating habits that's a problem then deal with it, if it's your leg nurture it until it's back where you want it to be. The D-bol can help just like Nitro to a car, it's not going to get you there by itself. Besides that just stick to it and good luck, thinking about everyday helps too.

The best way to get good abs is to do sit ups, lots of them and different types. Twists, full sit ups, half sit ups, legs to the side sit ups etc. Leg raises are also very good at toning the stomach but make sure you do them with your legs dead straight and not bent, I see so many guys at my gym who after about 10 decent leg raises start bending there legs and it means you are not getting the full work out. Also get yourself a medicine ball, I have been using a 7kg ball for about 4 months now and although it can be painfull I can really see the difference and feel the difference when I get hit with a body shot in the ring.
Its probably easier for me because I am about 6ft in height and weigh about 11 stone but the only way to get good abs is through hard work and its took me about 10 years of hard training to get my six pack to what it is today. But believe me its worth all the hard work when people especially Ladies comment on it in the summer!!! ;)

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Originally Posted by Boxerharvey

Also get yourself a medicine ball, I have been using a 7kg ball for about 4 months now and although it can be painfull I can really see the difference and feel the difference when I get hit with a body shot in the ring.

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If one getting hit on the body is something that you'd want to avoid then why do the damage to yourself? What you don't know is that your organs, muscles and nerves get hurt in the process. What's sucks is that your liver and kidneys have to work overtime because it now has to deal with the damage by purifying and regenerating blood, and healing the tissue damage that you caused. Does this exercise condition your muscles to contract from getting hit? A little bit, but at the cost of the damage it's stupid to do it on purpose. Guess what happens if your Kidney's have too much work than it can handle? They shut down, and then you find yourself in the hospital.

There are better ways to achieve the same results minus the damage. As an alternative you can grab yourself a medicine ball or even a good basketball and lay on it with your stomach againt the ball, you can roll on it to contract the rest your abs. As far as I know this can give you the same benefits. There are other better exercises that can achieve this result.

In the end you can't beat muscles onto your stomach. :)