Having an impressive abdominal area is certainly a worthy goal. Achieving the much-desired six-pack is the pinnacle of that goal. In addition to specific abdominal muscle training, overall weight training, cardio training and a healthy diet, certain lifestyle adjustments should be included into your ab program to ensure that you meet your abdominal conditioning goals. If you want to optimize your abdominal development, then consider these three Lifestyle Strategies:
Make Sure You're Getting Adequate Sleep - It's vital that you get 7-9 hours of high quality sleep. Numerous studies link the lack of sleep (or sleep deprivation) with increasing body fat accumulation. A study, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine involving 924 participants, found that people who weigh the most had less sleep. A National Health and Examination Survey of 18,000 adults revealed that people who regularly slept 4 hours or less were 73% more likely to suffer obesity than people who had 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.
Many medical experts agree that lack of sleep can affect your hormone balances and this could be one contributing factor to gaining bodyfat. For instance, data from 1,024 volunteers in the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study suggest that people sleeping less than 5 hours a night showed lower levels of the hormone leptin and higher levels of the hormone ghrelin as compared to people who slept an average of 8 hours a night. Leptin is produced by the fat cells. Low leptin levels trigger hunger and increase your appetite. Ghrelin is produced by the stomach. High levels of this hormone will act as an appetite stimulant.
Besides the hormone balance/weight gain issue, adequate sleep is necessary to support proper rest and recovery of your muscles from your weight training and cardio exercise sessions.
Your sleeping quarters should be quiet, dark and cool. In addition, refrain from exercising 2 or 3 hours prior to going to bed. Furthermore, limit caffeine or alcohol consumption within 3-4 hours of going to sleep. Your activities prior to retiring should be restful and calming activities, such as reading, listening to music (but not Hard Rock), and meditation.
Manage Your Stress - Stress will hinder your efforts to gain muscle and lose body fat. High stress situations cause your body to secrete a hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that shuts down the anabolic process of building muscle. It also shuts down your fat burning capacity.
Unless you're unusually blessed or lucky, you're going to experience periods of stress. When this happens, you need to employ "de-stressing strategies". The following "de-stressing strategies" are suggested to help you with managing your stress:
1. Listen to calming music
2. Engage in a relaxing hobby
3. Participate in yoga or meditation
4. Reading
Seek a Supportive Environment - Hopefully, you're around people who support your bodybuilding and fitness goals. It's important to surround yourself with positive, motivated and supportive friends, relatives and co-workers.
Strive to associate with other bodybuilders or fitness buffs who have become successful in their fitness goals. Success breeds success. If you're new to fitness or bodybuilding, then find someone who can mentor you or give you advice on how to get started on the right track to meet your goals.
Building muscle and losing fat doesn't happen only in the gym. To be successful in achieving more impressive abs, you must adjust your lifestyle to assist the muscle building/fat burning process by insuring proper rest and recovery.
For information on how to get ripped, six-pack abs?and a FREE REPORT about Ab Training, visit optimummuscledev.com/Free_Ab_Training_Info.html this site.
Jeffry Robinson is a NSCA Certified Personal Trainer specializing in muscle building, fat loss and fitness consulting. With over 40 years of bodybuilding experience and his in-depth knowledge of physiology, anatomy and muscle building principles, he has developed new and revolutionary information products for bodybuilders. Bodybuilding articles and free bodybuilding reports can be found at his website at:
optimummuscledev.com optimummuscledev.com.
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