Please check out my review of Steel Fit Nutrition’s Buns Of Steel and Abs Of Steel, two awesome topical products designed to tighten up the skin, reduce fat and excess water, and improve the appearance of cellulite and stretch marks.
Tag abdominal definition
Hit Peak Fitness Fab Abs
Please check out Heidi Jo Medina’s article on fab abs in the August 12, 2016 edition of the Pensacola News Journal which includes me as one of the featured experts in her engaging article. I absolutely love Heidi Jo’s fantastic tips for getting amazing abs!
For convenience, I have copied and pasted the article here, but please also click on the link below to read the article from the source.
Many thanks to Heidi Jo Medina and the Pensacola News Journal for this feature!
http://www.pnj.com/story/life/2016/08/11/medina-hit-peak-fitness-fab-abs/88493918/
Medina: Hit the peak of fitness with fab abs
Heidi Jo Medina, News Journal correspondent 4:51 p.m. CDT August 12, 2016
Getting that six pack is the highest mountain to climb on most people’s fitness journey. To help you make it to the peak, several bikini pros tell us how they maintain their hard bellies.
Christina Heine, a graduate student in health promotion and assistant for the exercise science and health department at the University of West Florida, loves to work her abdominal muscles with planks, hanging leg lifts and reverse crunches. Her cardio routine incorporates high intensity interval training on the stair stepper or stadiums. The 31-year-old National Physique Committee (NPC) competitor switches between two minutes of high intensity and one minute of low intensity until she has reached 30 minutes.
She recommends incorporating white fish, egg whites, plain non-fat Greek yogurt into your diet. (This is ab-friendly for some people because it has natural probiotics which supports healthy digestion, but for some dairy-sensitive people it can cause bloating.)
Jessica Vetter, 36, of South Dakota, works her abdominals with ball crunches, decline crunches and double crunches. Her resume includes International Federation of Body Building (IFBB) figure pro and American Muscle & Fitness personal trainer.
“Being consistent is very important in getting and maintaining abs. Hold yourself accountable to what is put into your mouth,” she says.
For cardio, Vetter uses the stair stepper or elliptical. She says stair steppers are her favorite, as they use every muscle in the lower body, and are perfect for building lean muscle while burning fat. It is a low-impact exercise that can burn more calories than high impact, as you have to lift your entire body weight with every step you take.
Vetter only trains abs twice a week.
“If you are eager to have abs, your best strategy is to pay closer attention to your diet,” she says. “There are multiple factors that can contribute to storing fat around your belly. Focusing on eating healthy will make it easier for your body to reveal abs.”
Vetter’s diet incorporates ab-friendly foods such as fish, chicken, almonds, extra virgin olive oil, greens, coconut oil and egg whites.
“Watching labels is key,” she cautions. “Look at the grams of sugar, saturated and trans fat, and carbohydrates. The list of ingredients is also very important, and understanding what you are reading.”
Stacey Naito, 50, of California, has eliminated processed foods and refined sugar from her diet in order to sustain a lean midsection.
The IFBB pro, board-certified physician and nutrition coach suggests you stick to whole foods like lean meats, eggs (including the yolk), vegetables, almonds, and grains like quinoa and brown rice.
Naito only trains abs once a week for five to 10 minutes. She likes to incorporate planks, flutter kicks on a bench, and decline bench crunches.
When asked what kind of cardio she integrates into her workout regimen, her reply was, “Cardio? What’s that?”
Naito says she hasn’t done cardio in months and her body is actually leaner as a result.
“The body can become very efficient with cardio, meaning that it becomes resistant to the supposed fat-burning effects of cardiovascular activity,” Naito says. “The solution? Dial it down! Too much cardio can destroy a body.”
She suggests that you don’t over do it and just keep it simple. In fact, Naito says the best way to get chiseled abs is to drink plenty of water, take nutritional supplements like magnesium if you think you may be deficient, and eat clean at least 90 percent of the time.
Genetics will always play a role in your body shape and fitness achievements, but if you are only eating healthy 60 percent of the time, just like in math, that is a failing grade. Abs are made in the kitchen. The best ab exercise out there is to stop eating so much junk.
Amazing ab tips
1.Utilize a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. Along with eating four to six small meals a day, try to consume your carbs first thing in the morning to give you sufficient energy through the day.
2.A consistent combination of cardio and weight training will enable you to burn fat and stay lean. Weight training burns calories after the workout and throughout the day while cardio burns calories during the workout.
3.Staying properly hydrated will help you burn the most amount of fat and will speed up your metabolism. Try to drink six to eight glasses a day.
4.Adjust your ab routine often. This will help to maximize results as diversity and confusion to the muscle show more development than a stagnant routine.
5.Breakfast kicks off your metabolism so don’t skip it. Include lean protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates in your first meal. Steer clear of unhealthy fats and foods high in unhealthy carbohydrates.
6.Don’t skip cardio. Losing fat will make your abs more prominent. Cardiovascular exercise is much more effective in the morning as well since the body is refreshed.
7.Getting eight to nine hours of sleep will help boost metabolism. Lack of sleep will cause the body to release the stress hormone cortisol which promotes fat storage and will derail your ab efforts.
8.Cardio in the morning is much more effective since the body is refreshed.
9.Engage your abdominals during compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, and rows which demand a lot of core stability. These big moves will rev your metabolism and burn calories.
10.Don’t forget to breathe. Muscles need oxygenated blood to work properly and holding your breathe will hinder you from generating strength. Inhale deeply before performing a movement and exhale as you perform the crunch or lifting movement. Exhaling will force your abs to contract and engage your inner oblique muscles.
11.Cheat! Once or twice a week throw in a cheat meal to keep you sane and to throw your body a curve ball. This will keep your body from adjusting to healthy eating and slowing down your metabolism.
Eating Clean Makes All The Difference
This abdominal definition truly comes from eating clean 98% of the time. There are no tricks to this. I also train abs only one day per week and keep my routine down to about 7 minutes.
Last week a guy at the gym approached me and asked me a question I hear frequently, which was “What exercises would you recommend for me to get six-pack abs?”. My response didn’t have anything to do with specific abdominal exercises, but centered around nutrition. I asked the guy what his diet was like, and he revealed that he was of Italian descent and just HAD to have pasta several times per week. He also admitted that he spent many of his evenings drinking an appreciable amount of alcohol. So I told him that his eating and drinking habits guaranteed that he would never see a washboard across his midsection, no matter how many crunches or planks he did. He was so intent on finding a way to get a toned midsection without changing his eating habits that he repeated his question a second time, which made me shake my head and wish him luck as I walked away.
If you are committed to getting a lean midriff, you MUST change your eating habits! You simply cannot have your cake and eat it too when it comes to coaxing those lovely abdominal lines and cross cuts out of hiding. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that you can somehow get a quick fix by doing a cleanse to repair the damage of a poor diet, or that you can perform a plethora of abdominal moves to somehow melt all the fat that is sitting around your waist. The only effective way to etch those abs is to consume whole foods with minimal to no processing, such as lean meats, grains such as quinoa, rice, and oats, fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, and eggs. If you are worried that these foods lack the flavor you crave from consuming processed foods, check out the various seasonings, flavored mustards, hot sauces, and other condiments which can add a new dimension to your food.
Once you make the switch to a healthy food regimen, you will probably notice a lot of subtle changes in your overall well-being, such as more energy and clearer skin. After a while, you might even notice your abs peeking out!
Abs Are Made In The Kitchen, Not The Gym
People ask me all the time how they can get their abs to look as defined as mine, assuming that I will give them an abdominal exercise regimen which will deliver guaranteed abs of steel. Instead, I tell them that what they eat is the key to whether their midsections look like washboards or more like barrels. While it is true that some abdominal muscle development is necessary for that chiseled look, I will never advocate ridiculous amounts of abdominal crunches, especially for the average person, nor will I overlook the importance of diet.
I admit that I am a bit of a genetic freak in the abdominal department, and have even forgone training my abs for many months at a time in an effort to get those crosscuts to flatten out a bit. It is also a rare thing for me to blast my abs with an extensive routine. But I also know that if I eat a lot of bad foods over the span of several days, my abs will go into hiding and all those deep cross cuts will disappear. So when I say that diet is key, and that abs are made in the kitchen, I know first hand that this is the truth.
What are the foods one must avoid in order to maintain good abdominal definition? Here is a list of some of the worst offenders:
SUGAR and all sugary foods
Saturated fat in general
Cheese
Processed meats
Any foods with a high salt content
Breads and wraps made with white enriched flour
Alcohol
I can guarantee that if you are eating these foods regularly, you will never see chiseled abs pop to the surface, no matter how many abdominal crunches you do. If you stick to clean foods, you will have a much better chance of coaxing that abdominal definition to come out. Stick to lean meats, fresh vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats such as olive oil and avocado, and make sure to drink plenty of water.
dr. stacey naito's blog 