Over the last ten years there has been a monumental shift in the way we train our abs or core (or whatever people are calling the area that contains your belly button).

The motivations remain the same: we want a flat and smooth stomach or six small packs of bulging muscle minus the fat that usually lays over them. But as with most things fitness, the industry has come to understand the global impact of exercise and how working out one muscle affects another.

Thus, you can’t properly train your rectus abdominis (Six Pack) without training your transverse abdominis (Stomach Girdle), obliques (Love Handles), lower back, and pelvis attachments (Glutes and Hip Flexors). For future reference when we talk about the core on this site we will be referring to all of these muscles. So if you want those great looking abs without throwing your body out of balance you are going to have to train your entire core.

Why Train the Entire Core:

- Improved muscle tone

- Improved balance, stability, and posture

- Reduced risk of injury

- Increase of functional strength

- Increased activation of stabilizing muscles

Dangers of Only Training Abs:

- Tight hip flexors

- Back pain

- Lack of results

Here is a great beginner core workout that will challenge you if you are just starting out:

Beginner’s Guide to Toned, Sculpted and Stacked

Can too much cardio take away from your strength training?

Hey, hardgainers, you CAN build muscle!

Without further ado… let’s start gaining, muscle that is!

Pull Yourself Together

First things first: if you want to be in top form, you need to know how to lift with composure. “Just because you manage to somehow lift the weight doesn’t mean you’re doing it right,” says Mark over at The Man FAQ in regards to gaining muscle.

To prevent injury (and actually accomplish something), start with a muscle building program that tells you exactly what exercise, number of sets, and reps to build shredded muscle. And it always helps to have a friend to spot you. Some basic guidelines: use your core and glutes for strength, use controlled movements (for heaven’s sake, don’t swing!) and balance your weight.

The Fast Track to Ripped

Wimpy cardio won’t bulk you up. That’s why Taylor Lautner—the Twilight star who Men’s Health affectionately calls a “rippled fitness animal”—lifts heavy. Fewer reps, more weight. Think you can gain 30 pounds of muscle in a year? Give Lautner’s training program a try.

You don’t need to ditch cardio completely, but if you’re burning through all your muscle with catabolic exercise, pack a few extra muscle-maximizers into your strength training program.

Don’t let cardio deplete your energy before you even start lifting. Do cardio after weights or on your “rest” days.

Stuck with Robert Pattinson’s skinny guy syndrome? Bah. Hard-gainers can still get buff

3 Ways to Take Control of Your Training

• To keep gaining muscle, switch up your training: try these metabolic circuit pointers to accelerate your routine.
• Don’t train blindly. You’ll reach your goals in record time if you measure results often and keep fine-tuning your program.
• Vince Delmonte the creator of No Nonsense Muscle Building says, “That 97% of muscle building advice is dead wrong.” Follow a program that has been proven to create results for makes the most sense. For Vince’s program Click Here!“

Kettlebells, Barbells or Dumbbells?

When it comes to building muscle, “nothing takes the place of progressive weight training with barbells,” says trainer Mike Mahler, who also dishes thorough instructions for sandbag training, bodyweight training and more. Nonetheless, he’s a big fan of using kettlebells. Wonder why?

What’s the trick to timing your protein shake?

Solid to the Core

Our day-to-day activities can wreak havoc on our alignment—which, in turn, can devastate our training. Strengthening your core muscles (and using them to lift) will improve your body’s balance, prevent injury and strain, and give you unexpected strength. Take the Core Quiz at IdealShape and learn how to exercise this powerhouse in your daily activities.

If a chiseled stomach is your goal, it doesn’t take much to get there: you can get washboard abs fast and without equipment!

Be Good to Your Muscles

Dehydration will nosedive your strength and increase your chance of injury. So make sure you’re hydrated well in advance of your workout, and drink more water on training days.

Prevent middle-of-the-night muscle cramping

Muscle massage is more than a luxury—it’s critical to release that tension in order to prevent injury, protect muscle quality and get the most out of your workouts. The good news is you can do myofascial release yourself. Most gyms have foam rollers, and you can buy one inexpensively for your home gym, too.

Got a question about strength training or program design? Ask us!

If you are ready to get started building pure muscle and putting on the weight you so desperately want starting today, we recommend No Nonsense Muscle Building. Learn more about it now Click Here!

Q:

A: There are many ways to calculate your body fat percentage. This test from Health Central is a good place to start: enter your stats and a few measurements and it will calculate your body fat percentage with a very narrow margin of error.

Health Central says 18% body fat is in the healthy normal range for Asian men, 15% for Caucasian men, and 12% for African-American men. And for the ladies: 25% is healthy for Asian women, 22% for Caucasian women, and 19% for African-American women. According to this site, Asians tend to have a slightly higher percent body fat than African-Americans and Caucasians, because their bones are less dense. So, Jon, if this test gives you 15%, you’re definitely in the healthy range.

If you’re worried about the rolls, keep in mind that a little bit of extra flesh is normal when you bend forward or sit down. There’s gotta be a little give!

Furthermore, if your abdomen is flat when standing, then the folds and lingering lines could have more to do with the elasticity of your skin than with fat. When your skin loses elasticity, it doesn’t contract as much when you sit or bend, and it doesn’t bounce right back when you stand back up—the fold lines stick around for a while. This happens with age, certain skin types, and dehydration. Drinking plenty of water and using moisturizer can improve skin elasticity.

And, of course, keep working on that taut stomach with nutrition and exercise. A few recommendations:

AB-FRIENDLY FOODS

For starters, go easy on starchy carbs, carbonated beverages, and sodium. Instead, drink lots of water and look into the fat-blasting benefits of green tea, which you can easily get in supplement form.

To lose a few extra pounds, Core Performance’s Joe Kita swears by incorporating fiber into your diet. “Fiber’s bulk naturally fills you up, so you eat less,” he explains. Another great way to scale back the munchies—while shedding excess fat and increasing abdominal muscle—is a weight loss protein shake. IdealShape has a great one; be sure to read up on its nutritious ingredients.

You can also check out MSN Health’s flat ab food fixes. And finally, remember that your eating habits are just as important as what you eat. This post will tell you when and how much to eat to keep your stomach slim.

EXERCISE FOR A TONED TUMMY

If you’re trying to lose excess fat, you should absolutely be doing interval cardio and metabolic circuit training. Find out why they’re better than steady state cardio for whittling down stubborn fat.

Next, check out these solid tips for driving away that last bit of belly fat, and putting a six pack in its place.

And finally, don’t forget to track your results!

Easy Ways to Score a Six-Pack

Is Sugar the Enemy of Your Slim Figure?

The Real Reason Your Belly Fat Won’t Budge

My details:

Gender: M

Age: 23

Height: 5’11″

Weight: 200 lbs.

I started working out a few days back, burning 500 calories every day. My daily intake is around 1,500 calories. I’m doing weights also. – Raj

A: Unfortunately, the midsection is where most guys tend to put on the pounds. But there are lots of ways to send that fat packing!

Here are some of our favorite middle-fat-blasters:

Skip the Steady State Cardio – When it comes to trimming your midsection, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a better use of your gym time. So bypass the stationary machines and triple your fat burn with routines like metabolic circuits.

Add Green Tea to Your Diet – The evidence supporting green tea’s fat-blasting properties is irrefutable. The only question is, should you sip a cup or take green tea extract?

Work That Core – Find out how to blast stomach fat and put a six-pack in its place!

Eat More Protein – Protein shakes are an efficient, easy way to get your protein, which boosts fat loss by helping you build lean muscle mass. Be sure to have a protein shake within 60 minutes of your resistance training workout for maximum muscle recovery.

Suppress Your Sweet Tooth – We all know sugar makes us gain weight, but the reasons may surprise you!

Double Up with Compound Exercises – We’re glad to hear you’re doing strength training on top of your cardio. Lifting weights is a good way to tone your chest, abs and back—not just your arms and shoulders. But in order to make the most of your lifting, you need to focus on getting full-body results.

A Note About Your Diet

Are you eating enough of the right foods? Nutrition is key to losing weight and staying healthy, and it’s about more than caloric intake. To begin with, try to cover all your bases: the government offers helpful dietary guidelines, and they’ll also tell you how much of each food group to eat based on your age, sex, height and activity level.

Next, calculate your caloric need. Remember, you only need to consume 300-500 less than your caloric need in order to lose excess fat. As a tall, young male, you probably need more than 1,500 calories a day, especially if you’re burning 500 of them! Eat too few calories and you’re just as likely to gain/keep weight because you’ll send your body into starvation mode. Your metabolism will slow down and your body will hoard fat.

What you want to do is keep your metabolism high. To do that, meet your caloric need, stay active throughout the day on top of exercise, and eat 5-6 small, healthy meals. One of those meals can be a nutritious protein shake. And whatever you do, don’t skip breakfast!

Sticking to Your New Fitness Routine

Since it sounds like you’ve just kicked your exercise regimen up a notch, we thought we’d give mindset a mention. Frame of mind is often overlooked in fitness, and yet it’s the most important aspect: staying on track is the only way to achieve and keep your results. Once you’ve geared your mind for weight loss, you’re ready to apply these tips from other experts about starting a new regimen and staying on track.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress! We want to hear what works for you and what doesn’t.

Abs Are Out, Core Is In! Find Out Why

Unspoken Rules at the Gym

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Q: Hi, I need answers on how to get a six pack without any equipment or protein shakes or stuff like that, I’m already in great shape, I’m slim, and exercise daily, like running and push ups, I’ve tried simple sit ups daily but I never see results, if you could help me out that be great. Thanks. – Austin P.

A: Good for you for staying in such great shape, Austin! It sounds like in order to get that chiseled stomach you want, you’re ready to kick it up a notch.

What’s at the Core of Your Core Workout?

Your daily exercise—cardio and strength training—are a great combination for staying slim and strong. But while they may give you a flat stomach, they probably won’t deliver washboard abs (which you’ve probably noticed). You need to incorporate some exercises that target your entire abdominal region. Luckily, you can do this without all the bells and whistles—or equipment and protein shakes—which is exactly what you’re looking for.

COMPOUND EXERCISES. Sit-ups and crunches can be very effective ways to tone your ab muscles; but remember, these are isolated movements. Compound movements, on the other hand, will work the entire ab area. After all, you want a six pack, not a two pack! Your ab region includes these muscle groups: internal obliques, external obliques, rectus abdominals and transverse abdominals. Try to do exercises that work as many of them as possible.

If you’re already doing push-ups, you should be getting a decent ab workout from that, as long as you’re keeping your core engaged (see below). A similar, compound exercise is planks. You can also trade your sit-ups for bicycle maneuver, which works your upper and lower abdominals. Click here for descriptions of both.

PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD. In addition to working several muscle groups at once, your workouts should vary and progress. The body adapts (and “plateaus”) if you don’t change things up and continue pushing yourself to new limits. The only way to build muscle is to build intensity, demanding a little more from your body each time you work out. Add resistance or repetitions to your ab workout—as much as you can add, while still maintaining strength and proper form.

WATCH YOUR POSTURE. Speaking of form, remember to stay conscious of your posture whenever you’re doing ab work. Always keep your abs contracted, or “engaged,” and keep your back straight. This will enhance your workouts and prevent injury and soreness. In fact, you should be keeping your abs tight 24/7! Running? Lifting dumbbells? Making a sandwich? Engage your core, and you’ll see results.

What to Do When You’re Not Working Out

Now that you’ve added more core work to your fitness routine, let’s look at a few other things that will help you define those ab muscles.

Hungry? Well, that’s good! Because you need to feed your abdominal muscles if you want them to grow. Protein is a great way to fuel muscle recovery and growth after a workout. It sounds like you aren’t interested in protein shakes, so you can pig out on other great sources of protein: meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, legumes and soy milk are just a few.

For those who like piling on the protein in shake form, protein powders—whey protein, soy protein, or a shake that combines both—are excellent for building muscle. Whip up a protein shake with skim or soy milk for even more protein.

Of course, you need to eat more than protein for muscle mass: a well-rounded diet with lots of variety and whole foods is the ticket to optimal health.

Thirsty? Even better! Make sure you’re drinking tons of water throughout the day, and stay hydrated during and after your workouts. Dehydration can cause fatigue, dizziness and muscle cramps. Find out why NoMoreBacon’s Ryan Sullivan says H20 is all the rage!

Tired? Puff up your pillows and make sure you get plenty of sleep. Not only is it critical in your teenage years, but everyone trying to build muscle needs to get ample rest. After all, it’s post workout, and primarily when you’re catching ZZZs, that your body builds muscle.

Finally, a few words of wisdom (or consolation): Not everyone can get a six pack, no matter how hard they work their abs. Some people just aren’t built that way. Younger people can struggle to build muscle until they hit puberty, and women have a harder time bulking up than men. Our genes and hormones have a lot to do with it. So if you’ve tried everything and still don’t have chiseled abs, don’t push your body past what it can handle, and don’t resort to steroids. You’re still building muscle, even if you don’t get a body builder’s ab definition.

Core strength should be the real goal. Keep at it, and make your workout routine unshakable with this great pointer from IdealShape.

Blast belly fat—you may just find a six pack under there!

Muscle Gaining for the Cardio Happy

Carbs: a critical, or criminal, part of your diet?

A: The answer to this question is yes and no. There are obviously some variables that we have to take into account to answer this question. What kind of exercise are you going to be doing three times a week? If you are going to be walking around the neighborhood for thirty minutes, then I would say no. If you are going to be doing metabolic circuits and interval cardio training, then I would say yes.

The second question I would ask you is, are you going to be changing your diet? When creating a workout program to get into shape you have to consider what you are going to be eating. If you need to lose a lot of weight you are going to have to lower your caloric intake and consume food that will promote maintenance of lean muscle mass. If you want to maintain your weight, but want to have more energy and lean muscle mass, your diet would be structured differently.

The last question I would ask you is what is your ideal shape? Getting into shape can mean a million different things. Are you trying to get toned abs? Are you trying to get back into your favorite jeans? Or are you just trying to feel better and have more energy? Generally three workouts a week is going to make a big difference in how you feel and look—it just might not take you to an elite level of fitness.