It isn’t easy to get firm abs. To get them you need to put in a consistent, daily effort and always have your mind on your goal. Now that I’ve scared away everyone that was reading this, lets move on to the mechanics of how to get firm abs.
Muscle is hard and fat is soft, an obvious statement, but some don’t understand that implies an attack on two opposing fronts. You must decide if you want to just eliminate the fat covering the muscle or if you actually need to build more muscle. To check which approach is best for you, squeeze a section of skin on your lower abs. If you’ve grabbed more than an inch of fat with it, you should aim for fat loss first.
Sadly, often when folks try to lose weight they end up dropping more muscle mass than fat. Muscle loss will reduce your metabolic rate, making it even harder to lose weight. In order to stop this from happening you should avoid crash diets and keep weight lifting as part of your training regimen. Lean protein sources in your diet are best for preserving lean muscle while still letting you lose fat.
To get rid of fat, you’re going to need to sweat, which means some type of cardiovascular activity. It doesn’t need to be hours of steady-state cardio, in fact you should probably avoid that as there is an alternative which only requires twenty minutes of work every other day. That alternative is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Using this approach, you will burn far more calories per minute and for the following 48 hours.
Even if you have the best workout in the world, it will do you no good if your diet isn’t reasonable. You can consume far more calories with just a few poor choices than you can burn in an entire workout. Most people spend more time eating than exercising anyway. Use good judgement when you’re at the grocery store, or you’ll be stuck exactly where you are physiologically speaking.
Try to stick to natural foods, lean protein sources, and plenty of fibrous vegetables (certain types will burn more calories in digestion than the item is calorically worth). It may not be easy to change your diet so radically, but if you make small changes day by day your results will snowball.
Don’t forget that extended periods of limited calorie intake will cause a drop in leptin levels. This will reduce your metabolism. You can avoid this by having a high calorie day every week.
Wish to know more techniques about how to get firm abs? Click for a complete guide, as well as a free report on 27 metabolism-boosting tips and tricks which will give you firm abs in no time.
