Abdominal Exercises and a Beginner’s Guide to Getting Fit: Part 1
By Garrett Braunreiter, GHF's
Success Coach
Part 2
3
Abdominal exercises are critical for achieving your fitness
goals and this article includes ideas for improving your abdominal muscles
and getting in the best shape of your life. In addition to this helpful
abdominal exercises article, be sure to take our FREE
Fitness
Analysis
! Once you've completed the brief questionnaire, you'll receive specific
recommendations based on your responses, including a sample strength
training workout with exercise instructions! As a special thank you,
you'll also receive the new e-book, Big Fat Lies, absolutely FREE of
charge. Click
here to get started !
Also, to get a detailed explanation of the abdominal muscles,
as well as a list of very effective abdominal exercises, click
here.
You’ll receive free sample video demonstrations that you can view on
your computer and instructions on how to perform the abdominal exercise
correctly !
The very thought of going from zero fitness and marshmallow
softness to improving your stamina, firmness and energy with abdominal
exercises can seem overwhelming - enough to make you want to lie down.
But even against the odds and the tide of excuses and a history of couch-potatoness,
you can start. And you can continue.…into a regular routine of very
effective abdominal exercises. If you're at this point in your life,
you're the right candidate for transformation. This abdominal exercises
plan just may be your best bet.
Change is an all-or-nothing proposition. You either do
it, or you don't. You can't just abdominal exercises for 3 times one
week, once the next week, take a couple of weeks off, go twice a week,
and so on and expect to reap all the benefits. Only a handful of people
can get into a regular abdominal exercises routine by suddenly beginning
to exercise. Something just clicks inside and they workout with energy,
and they enjoy it. But for the other 95%, getting into a regular routine
with abdominal exercises is not so easy.
For these people, beginning an abdominal exercises program
comes in stages, step by step, many of which happen before you even
slip on your workout shoes or enter the gym. The very fact that you're
reading this article means that you're already in one of the important
first stages. And continuing to exercise regularly is also a process
of change, a cycle of smooth sailing and bumpy seas.
Fortunately, there are techniques that you can use to help
you move to the next level. Just be aware that the stage you are in
changes all the time. Of course, once you know where you are, it's easy
to see what's next. Here's how to get there….
Step 1 : I don't want to do abdominal exercises
If you are at this stage, you may be wondering what could possibly be
done to get you to budge beyond it. Other people might be pressuring
you, but IT'S UP TO YOU--you're the one who has to tie your shoes and
actually do the abdominal exercises. And you don't even want to make
the effort to think about it. Two things can offer a push: Acquiring
knowledge and whining.
Acquiring knowledge involves being open to facts and opinions
concerning your state of fitness (or lack of it) and both the benefits
of abdominal exercises and the health risks of not exercising. The source
of the information can be external--others observing that you don't
exercise, loved ones confronting you about it, family members giving
you newspaper or magazine articles about exercise. Or it can be internal--watching
TV or movies about sports, reading about exercise, learning about the
psychology of why people don't do abdominal exercises.
In some cases, simply soaking up the incoming information
can at least make you more likely to start thinking seriously about
abdominal exercises, even if you have no intention of doing anything
about it. It could be, however, that despite the good efforts of your
friends and relatives, the fact still remains that you don't want to
do abdominal exercises. And right now you simply may not be interested
in gathering information.
So maybe you need to try venting and whining. This involves
giving vent to the problem. You may complain about what happened the
last time you tried to do abdominal exercises ("Oh, that cramp
I got! I was sore for days!") or all the things that kept you from
working out ("I wanted to, but Janey had a dentist's appointment").
All this talking and complaining about the problem helps.
It at least gets you thinking about exercising. It gets the wheels turning
so that getting fit becomes a problem to be solved. That is, if you
CHOOSE to look at it that way.
Here's my rule for complainers: You have exactly TWO MINUTES to vent
and complain. Ready? Go... (Tick, tock, tick, tock...) Okay, done. NOW
GO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
It may seem that nothing is happening in the I Don't Want
to do abdominal exercisess stage, but the more you acquire knowledge
and vent and whine, the more their effects can accumulate.
Step 2 : Thinking about doing abdominal exercises
When you've reached this point, not only are you more aware that a problem
exists, you're also seriously considering doing something about it.
This is great progress, even if you haven't actually made a commitment
to start doing abdominal exercises.
In this stage, you're considering the pros and cons of
starting with your abdominal exercises, even if you haven't quite gotten
yourself to plug in the treadmill. You're at the point where you might
increase your physical activity or you might decide you're not quite
ready for prime-time--or any other time--abdominal exercises workouts
and give it up for now.
In this stage, you know where you want to go and you may
even know how to get there. But you can't quite cajole yourself into
following through with any abdominal exercises action. Acquiring knowledge
and venting/whining can be helpful here, as well as two other techniques:
role modeling and reinventing yourself.
Role modeling goes beyond acquiring knowledge. Here you
closely observe someone you know, someone in the public eye or even
some fictional character who might inspire you to fitness. You might
chat with a friend who does abdominal exercises regularly, or watch
sporting events like the Olympics. Who would be role models you respect
and like? Pick some activity you might enjoy and watch a master of it.
Once you open yourself up to the possibilities, you may be inspired
to begin with your abdominal exercise program.
Reinventing yourself involves looking at yourself in a
different way. This is the time to return to the power of fantasy. Try
imagining yourself as an athlete or a dancer, or just someone who is
really in shape. This is NOT silly; every champion from every walk of
life had FIRST in his mind a dream of what s/he wanted to become.
Imagery could involve mentally picturing yourself as more
flexible or thinner or whatever else abdominal exercises could help
you with. Take three minutes, sit down, lean back, close your eyes and
fantasize about anything physical that you want to try, like doing abdominal
exercises, skiing, roller-blading, etc. Just do it.
When it's over, how does it feel? If you imagined skiing,
could you feel the wind? The crouch? Did you see the hill, sun, snow,
trees, other skiers? Could you feel the thrill in the pit of your stomach
and your head when the run was through? Make it happen in your mind.
The brain is extraordinarily powerful. You can if you think you can,
just like the Little Engine that Could.
Also, you can use imagery to conjure up a picture of yourself
benefiting from exercise. Think of the thing abdominal exercises could
help you with that is most important to you. Could your joints be more
flexible? Would you be happier 10 pounds lighter? Close your eyes. Imagine
yourself moving as you would like to move. Watch this in the theater
of your mind for however long it interests you. When you grow bored,
stop, whether five seconds have passed or 10 minutes. Repeat this two
or three times a day.
It's even possible that performing certain movements in
your mind rehearses the motor pathways so that when you do try the actual
abdominal exercises movement, it'll be easier.
Good luck: I hope you enjoy all the wonderful benefits
of an effective abdominal exercise program. And don’t forget, click
here to take our FREE
Fitness
Analysis
for a free sample strength training program (with abdominal exercises)
and for the book, Big Fat lies!
And click
here
for free sample abdominal exercise instructions and video demonstrations!
This article was provided by Garrett
J. Braunreiter, CSCS, GHF's
Success Coach. Please visit his site at http://www.worldpeakperformance.com
