Women’s number one complaint about their body is always their mid section. Menstrual cycles, bloating and the fact that women genetically carry more body fat then men all make it hard to keep mid sections looking cut and slim. By eating “clean,” adding weights and resistance to ab workouts, and boosting your weight loss with high intensity intervals training (HIIT), you’ll develop a mid section that’s ready to be shown off any time of year.
Diet is the key to slimming down and toning up. You can work out all you want, but if your diet consists of McDonalds french fries, Pokey Sticks, Dunkin Donuts and bacon, your abs will never peek through. Pick healthy, “clean” food choices for meals—low carb and high protein diets allow for the best results to look lean and slim. Some of these foods include oatmeal, fat free/low fat greek yogurt, egg whites, steamed veggies (without the cheese and creamy butter sauce), brown rice, chicken breast, red meat and tilapia or salmon.
Your mid section won’t be looking its finest if you experience bloating. Specific foods are more likely than others to cause this uncomfortable feeling. Eating salty foods makes you retain water—never ingest more than 2,300mg a day. Fatty foods slow down digestion, allowing more time for food to ferment according to Mayo Clinic. Gum and hard candy cause more air to move into your mouth from sucking or chewing, resulting in swallowing air and bloating your stomach. And finally, a carbonated beverage, that means soda, beer and mixed drinks, release carbon dioxide that transforms to bloat.
However, it is actually beneficial to allow yourself a moderate “cheat meal” once per week. When you keep this high protein, low carb diet, it is likely that you will lose some energy during your training. Muscles use stored glycogen to give you energy during anaerobic activities. When you diet, your intake of sugar is significantly lower than normal, resulting in lower glycogen stores in your muscles that cause fatigue. Dieting can also result in lower metabolism speed since you are eating below maintenance level. Therefore, having a cheat meal will provide extra calories and carbohydrates needed to replenish glycogen stores and get your metabolism working efficiently. These cheat meals also help you psychologically relax from strict, constant dieting, and enjoy what you love to eat.
Fitness model, Vanessa Tib, says the biggest mistakes she sees women making when working their abs is not performing weighted ab exercises. Women steer clear from weighted abs because they do not want a wide midsection—this is only true for oblique training. However, using heavy weights for upper and lower abs will add resistance, making them stronger and defined. Another common mistake Tib said she saw was doing a simple crunch incorrect. “Don’t pull on your neck to lift your shoulders off the ground. Your abs should be doing all the work.”
SimplyShredded.com asked Tib to reveal her ab routine. However, you should only train abs like this 1-3 days a week.
- 4 sets of heavy weighted machine crunches, until failure
- 4 sets of reverse crunches on the floor with a 12 lb. medicine ball between knees, until failure
- 3 sets of hanging leg raises, until failure
- 3 sets of standing cable oblique twists, 15 reps each side
- 2 sets of standing barbell oblique twists, 15 reps each side
Finally, give your abs a boost with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). HIIT is all about speed and intensity. Workouts only last up to 20 minutes long, but can burn 9x more fat than a standard cardio workout. A typical HIIT workout is a 2:1 ratio for work to recovery—alternate 30-40 seconds of hard sprinting with 15-20 seconds of jogging or walking.