My inquiry is about cardio training. I’ve been trying to get rid of a slight stomach paunch. It really annoys me since it kind of wiggles when I walk. My paunch is very small but it still really bothers me and I would like to have a totally flat stomach. For the last one month I’ve been following the following exercise routine regularly. I do 5 sets of half crunches, 3 sets of full crunches, 3 sets of leg raises along with 3 sets of side crunches for my love handles. I do my ab training in the morning along with my weight training. I train abs everyday, 7 days a week. I also make sure that I climb 15 floors twice a day. The results are showing since my paunch has reduced a little but I’m worried I’m doing too much AB training. Is there anything specific I need to do in order to tackle the wiggle in my stomach and reduce my paunch?
As far as your abdominal workouts are concerned you are on the right track. The exercises you are doing are fantastic for building strength and tone to the stomach muscles. If you are looking for some variety to add along with your current AB workout routine, here is a link that provides many more exercises to target all areas of the abdominals:
Along with these exercises for the stomach it is important that you look to build strength in other parts of the body as well. Strengthening the entire body serves many purposes. First, lean muscle tissue is one of the most metabolically active tissues in the body and it burns calories so if you can add some muscle through strength training, your body is apt to burn more calories throughout the day. Secondly, the body works in a synergistic manner, meaning that working a particular muscle group calls upon many secondary groups of muscles to assist in the movement. So the more varied the exercises in your routine, the more you are facilitating total body fitness. A simple way to do this is to concentrate on exercises for the upper body one day and then the lower body on another day. In the exercise guides area of ShapeFit you will find numerous exercises to pick and choose from for the entire body. In the beginning, you can just choose 1 or 2 that you feel comfortable with and as you get stronger you can add more into your overall routine.
Strengthening the muscles of the body is great in and of itself but to make this increased muscle definition more visible we need to remove the fat that is hiding it. Climbing 15 flights of stairs twice a day is certainly great exercise. The results speak for themselves as you have stated. If your concern is perhaps that you are overdoing it, my advice would be to listen to your body. Exercise should fill you with energy and leave you feeling fantastic. If you are feeling lethargic and less energized this is your body telling you something and you should listen to that. If this is the case, the two most common places to look for a remedy is your sleeping patterns and your nutrition. It can’t be overstated that the need for adequate and consistent sleep is paramount. Also look to make sure you are eating small nutrient dense meals consisting primarily of protein, fruits and vegetables. One final note is to make sure you are well hydrated. Drinking 2-3 liters of water a day is a good guideline but again listen to your body. Stay with it, you are doing great!
