Cardio Queen

Lifting weights forces the abs to work harder and look tighter. Free weight squats, dumbbell rows, lat pulldowns, chest press, etc., will all work your abs because you must stabilize your core muscles to perform each of these movements correctly.

One of the best ways to get a soft and flabby body is to do nothing but cardiovascular exercise. Dieting places a lot of stress on the body and forces the body to lose fat weight and muscle weight. If you do nothing but cardio and never lift weights, you will lose muscle. A lot people never seem to accept this fact. And I can tell your this, as I have gone through a period of one year with only cardiovascular exercises of 5 to 6 times a week with minimum of 50 minutes per day. I don't loose any fat or inches at all. Contrary, I looked chubby and flabby,

Many women think if they even look at a weight, they'll immediately begin to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It will never happen as qomen just don't have enough testosterone to build huge amounts of muscle. Unless you're on steroids, there is nothing to worry about. In fact, the more fat that you lose and the more muscle that you gain -- the leaner you'll look. Trust me, even some men think that cardiovascular exercises are what they need to remain slim. This type of understanding even made me sadder.

The difference in results was quite profound and proves just how effective weight training is for reducing fat and attaining that elusive flat stomach.

Remember, we need to burn calories to get your belly tight and flat, but we must use exercise as a tool not as a "do as much as possible" event. That's called the "cardio queen" mentality. Cardio queens stay on cardio equipment for two hours at a time in the hopes that fat will disappear. Fat will disappear and so will a great deal of muscle. The result is a soft and stringy body that looks unappealing.

Perform two days per week of moderate cardio exercise for approximately 40 minutes. On two other days of the week, you can exercise at higher intensity levels combined with lower intensity to accelerate fat loss (with a reduction in time).

Exercise helps control visceral fat. Visceral fat is located deeper in the body than subcutaneous fat, which lies just underneath the skin. Visceral fat is very dangerous because it accumulates around the organs inside the belly. Increased levels of this type of fat have been linked with cardiovascular disease and other metabolic syndromes. Men are very prone to have this fat around the abdomen areas.

Performing crunches will ne'ver reduce the abdominal area because you're working to strengthen muscle. Just as 200 biceps curls will not make the arm smaller, nor will 200 abdominal crunches make the waist smaller. This does not mean you shouldn't work your abs.

The abdominals represent muscle and muscle needs to be worked with intensity and then receive rest to improve. Focus on a circuit style workout three alternate days per week

 

By Raphael Calzadilla, B.A., CPT, ACE
eDiets Chief Fitness Pro
Updated: January 15, 2008