“Oh-em-gee! Lisa, look at that guy over there! He’s so hot!”
“Marlene you’re so right! God I love a guy with abs!”
Just about everyone you meet nowadays has some fascination with a strong core and defined abdomen muscles. The beach bod look is what everyone wants during the summer time. But how does one go about getting that perfect physique?
Contrary to the popular beliefs held by faux gym-rats, who only focus on upper body strength (i.e. arms), getting your abdomen muscles to show is not all about using a variety of machines and exercises. While the routine is important when you break it down to get abs it is three parts dieting and one part exercise.
When it comes to managing your diet there are three things you want to keep an eye on carbs, fats, and proteins.
Keep an extremely watchful eye on your intake of carbs. You want to avoid items like soda, pizza, fast food, potato based products, chips, ice cream, majority of dairy products, condiments and alcohol. Understandable it is a college campus and consumption of alcohol will take place but alcohol makes it exceptionally hard to gain muscle and easier to put on fat.
The thing about carbs is that they are short-term burst energy and you can obtain your daily need from vegetables. The best time to consume carbs is in the morning or at lunch and before a work out it is smart to carbo-load approximately two hours ahead of time.
Many people believe that fats are bad for you, but this is only halfway true. Yes it is bad to consume unhealthy fats like lard and butter however your body needs certain amounts of fats to function properly. The point of fats is that they help keep you full and allow your cells to complete certain functions. The best time to consume fats are in the morning, items like peanut butter, bacon, sausage and other similar foods will do you much good. They will help to keep you from binging through out the day and will help you become healthier.
Lastly on your adventure of dieting you must take control of your protein intake. Basically meat, dry nuts (e.g. almonds, walnuts and pecans) and black beans. The best time to ingest any heavy protein foods is either around lunch or dinner and right after you work out. Again peanut butter is extremely beneficial in this diet because it is both high in protein and fats. Your body of course will need a few carbs after your workout so a small salad will do you good.
So with this diet comes a list of foods that are highly suggested to help the process, we call them super foods.
- Green Tea
- Apple Cider and Vinegar (doesn’t taste too great but helps)
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Spinach
- Avocado
- Carrots
- Chives
- Zucchini/Squash
- Black Beans
- Peanut Butter
- Olive Oil and/or Balsamic Vinegar
Finally the last part is exercise. Cardio based exercises are essential to burning off fat around your midsection. Cardio can include activities like rowing, elliptical, and running. After cardio it is important to do exercises that help strengthen the core this includes Russian Twists, regular/side planks, crunches, sit-ups, ab-roller, etc.
If you follow these guidelines you will not obtain perfect abdomen muscles immediately but it will definitely help to speed up the process.
