
When clients come to me for their FREE consultation before they start their exercise programme I always ask what is their fitness goals. One of the biggest answers I get is "I want a flat stomach" "I want abs" "I need to lose weight around my tummy" and my answer is always the same. "Killer abs start in the kitchen."
What I mean by this is that you need to be in a calorie deficit if you want to start to lose inches around your tummy. So what make sup our abdominal muscles? Our abdominals muscles are made up of pyramidalis, recuts abdominal, external obliques, internal obliques and trans versus abdominis. In a nutshell for exercise it's easier to know that we work out your upper and lower abdominals and our obliques. What is a calorie deficit? So a calorie deficit means you are burning more calories than you are putting in your body. Now if we just do crunches and sit ups and don't change our diet what you will find is your muscles will grow underneath the excess weight so In turn your tummy will just push outwards. An easy example of this is the old school strongmen. They have to eat in a calorie surplus because of the sheer amount of weight they need to lift. However with this calorie surplus and using the core muscles in turn you will see they have that hard big belly look. This is where the ad muscles have grown stronger underneath the access weight.
My go to nutritional advice is always stick to diet you can maintain as I don't believe in this fad crash diets as they don't work. So if you want to be in a calorie deficit you need to be eating less and moving more. Make sure you eat regularly and try and have protein with each meal. Have Brekafast lunch and Dinner. Portion sizes which coincides with the British Nutrion Foundation for each meal is protein being the size of your palm. Carbohydrates for potatoes should be your fist size, or cooked grains should be a filled mug cooked. Go to town with vegetables on your plate and make sure to have different colours and not just stick to one colour. If you struggle with bingeing I 100% recommend you have 2 small healthy snacks a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Drink plenty of water 6-8 glasses a day. Caffeine is a must as this helps boost your metabolic rate. I will be going more in-depth with Nutritional advice on being in a calorie deifict and calorie surplus in another blog. I would also like to state that getting abs is also down to genetics, some people genetically have it easier to get those chizzled six pack whereas other people may find it more difficult and may only get a four pack. So remember before you take this workout at face value remember to take into account your genetic make up.
Right now lets talk workout options. When people think of killer abs, everyone goes well that is easy, sit ups and crunches are the go to exercises. Well they are good however on their own they wont give you well defined abs. It is scientifically proven that lifting weights will in turn engage your core as your core is like the trunk of the tree. It is the main component on keeping you upright and with a weak core you are more susceptible to toppling over. So having a strong core is the base of having a overall well ground physical physique.
So I am now going to give you my 5 go to core exercises to help get those killer abs, are you ready to burn!
Make sure before you do this exercise you are cleared by a doctor to do core exercises. To engage your abdominal muscles you need to imagine you are pulling your belly button in and upwards.
Complete 3 rounds- each exercise complete 30 seconds of work the at the end of all 5 exercises have a 90 second rest before you go through it again.

Turkish sit ups- hold a weight above your head and lay on your back, have your legs straight but not completely locked out, I like to hook my feet underneath a dumbbell but you can also get someone to hold your feet. When you are ready sit your body up and press the weight above your head. To make this harder you can increase the weight and slow down the movement.
2. Standing dumbbell dips- hold a weight in one hand, have your hand on your ear, feet closer together then when you are ready side bend and bring the weight down the side towards your knee without rotating your hips forward and back. Once complete change sides. To make this exercise harder you can increase the weight and slow down the dips.
3.Leg/knee lifts- be in the hang position on a pull up bar, rig or someone you can be in a dead hang. When ready bring your knees up towards your chest, you want to pull up into your shoulders so your core is engaged and you don't want to be swinging about. When that becomes too easy then do the same but with your legs straight
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4.Russian twists- With a weight hold the weight in both hands and sit in the v position on the floor. The more you sit back the more your core will feel it. Cross you feet and rotate with the weight either side rotating and touching the floor just behind your hips on each side. To make this movement harder you can have your feet lifted off the floor.
5.V ups- Laying straight on your back on the floor. Have hands above your head out straight, legs out straight. When ready fold in the middle bringing up opposite arm to opposite leg, crunch up towards your toes, then reverse and go with the opposite arm and leg. To make this exercise harder you can lift both arms and legs and fold in the middle.

Remember what I said though to get killer abs you need to be in a calorie deifict, it is down to genetics and also i want you to do this workout because you enjoy working out. We are all individuals and all different body types and we are all beautiful human beings. Having killer abs isn't for everyone. I love core workouts but I wont allow myself to diet due to my past and i am learning to love me for me. With every blog I like to leave you with a few questions. Do you believe in calorie deficits and calorie surpluses? What's your go to core workout? Did you do thus workout above? What did you think? But remember guys let's keep it real!
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