[Get] Working out at home. [Fit]

Yeah...hadn't thought of that. My pool is just needs a ladder and I'll be fine.

Thanks.

 

Isn't nutrition an important part of doing all of this? There isn't anything really mentioned except having a banana...

 

It is. Without protein intake it is actually worse for one's health.

The body can synthesize nearly everything from glucose but without a source of nitrogen (particularly amino groups) synthesis of proteins is impossible, and without some trace elements (I'm thinking of sulfur right now) some proteins can't be synthesized either. However, it's actually much more useful for the body to be provided with proteins/aminoacids instead of just a random nitrogen or -NH2 source.

 

Except that most people get more than enough protein in their diets and a surfeit of it doesn't help because the body doesn't store it. We get more than eough because everything has some protein in it, not just meats and legumes and fish. Only professional athletes have to worry about their protein intake.

 

I don't know if I get enough, we are short on food so I don't know if it would be dangerous for me to do the usual workout that I do.

 

lalalala ABSGUIDE and NUTRITION

Getting abs

There are three criteria that you need to look at to get better abs: exercise, diet, and supplements.

Exercise
Crunches
This is the basic abdominal exercise. First lie on a rug or exercise mat with your knees up at an approximately 45 degree angle. Put your hands behind your head with your thumbs behind your ears. It should look like this:

Now curl your back up so your shoulder blades are off the ground. Hold this for a second or two and come down slowly.

Don’t:
use your back muscles. If you feel them tensing, relax and start over. You will only hurt yourself if you use your back for this exercise.
use your neck to lift. This will strain the muscles in your neck.
push your head up with your hands. Your hands are just there to guide your head up so you don’t have to use your neck muscles.

Do:
keep your back straight
keep your feet firmly against the floor
keep your knees 1-2 inches apart

If you want to make the crunch more difficult, you can move your feet apart while keeping your knees locked 1-2 inches apart.

Reverse Pull Ups
This is like a pull up except it works the lower abs instead of the upper abs. First, lay on the floor in the basic pull up position. Put your arms straight down your sides with your palms against the floor. Point your toes, and pull your knees up near your chest. Hold it for a second and release back to the tips of your toes. If you want to make it harder, move your feet apart while holding your knees tightly together.

Do:
keep your toes locked. If you descend much farther than the tips of your toes, you start working your hip muscles instead of the abs.

Side Crunches
This works the oblique abs on the sides of your torso. Get into your basic crunch position with your hands behind your head. Perform a normal crunch, except lift one knee almost to meet your opposite elbow. Repeat with the opposite knee and elbow.

Don’t:
strain yourself. It’s much easier to do so than on other ab exercises because you’re working a very small muscle group.

Do keep your elbows and knees free and loose. Use your abs to pull together.

To get visible abs
Probably the most important part of getting visible abs is cardiovascular activity. Most people, even fit people have a layer of fat on their stomach that prevents the abs from being easily defined. If you want to be ripped, it’s essential that you do cardio, maybe even more important than the specific ab exercises themselves. Swim or run, maybe even some sprinting. Biking is also great cardio.

To get flat abs
I know that personally I hate when people’s abs stick out like a 2 year old’s. Luckily this is very fixable. This exercise is very easy and you can do it any time and anywhere. All you need to do is pull in your stomach and flex. If you do it right, you should be able to breathe regularly. If you don’t get how to do this, push out your stomach with your muscles, not your lungs. Then reverse it. What you should feel is a tightness behind your abs pressing up and in. Another test is to poke yourself in the gut when you’re breathing in. The muscles that tense are the ones that you should feel working.


Diet
To keep your abs visible, you need to watch your diet. It’s not as hard as it seems – there are just a few basic rules.

Keep away from fatty meat or don’t eat meat at all. Avoid eating bacon and pork especially. Check out this chart http://www.med.umich.edu/UMIM/clinical/pyramid/meats.htm for a list of the leanest meats and poultry.

Avoid sugary food. Maybe one dessert a day at the very most. Don’t eat sugary snack foods. Have a granola bar or something. After reducing your sugar intake you will feel less tired. Sugar is stored by your body more often than it is used.

Drink water. Lots of it. At least a gallon a day. This helps to keep fat from building up.

Supplements
I know it sounds like a dirty word, but some supplements are actually beneficial for you. Here are some basics!

Warning: NEVER take more than the recommended dose. Some vitamins and minerals in excess are more harmful than when they are lacking, especially iron and other metals.

A standard multivitamin
The first most important supplement. This is just a common sense thing to take.

Chromium
This mineral helps manage your metabolism. Only a small dose is needed, i.e. 500 mcg or less a day.

Glutamine
This is an amino acid that aids tissue repair and helps with digestive function. It decreases healing time and helps the body respond better to stress.

Green Tea
This tea has been proven to help keep the fat off your body. Drink a glass a day or buy some extract pills.

Coenzyme Q10
It helps oxygen get to your blood more efficiently and reduces fatigue, i.e. you can work out harder and longer.

 

Meh, I'm a vegetarian, what do you expect?

I eat lots of nuts and I break the rule for fish. Fish is the god of food. Beans are also amazing.

QFT again.

 

id like to say for those that don't like running or can't find anyone to go running with (like me) dance dance revolution is a good way to exercise, and some wii games.

 

Another question about cardiovascular health. For about 13 years of my life, both of my parents smoked heavily, even around me. January of last year, my mom quit and then July of last year, my dad moved out.

So, I have some trouble breathing when I run, is the smoking related to that? I mean, I don't have asthma, because I go to a doctor and they've never found it.

Should I keep trying to improve my cardiovascular health?

 

It definitely could be an effect of secondhand smoking. All you can do is keep working. Especially because of this. It will get easier.

You might also want to try some antioxidants which will improve your blood quality.

The best foods are tomatoes, soy, red wine, fish, nuts, carrots and broccoli, and other bright colored fruits and vegetables.

You could buy some flax seed oil supplements (it comes in big jars) which are one of the best antioxidants. You can also take Coenzyme Q10 and milk thistle.

 

Water!

It's the most important part of being healthy. Benefits include decreased tiredness/drowsyness, higher metabolism and energy, and a more constant "fresh" feeling

calculate how much you should be drinking with this tool!

 

this is a gooood guide !

good job!

i think my problem is the like layer of fat over my tummy
cause im pretty skinny as it is
and eating bad but i just recently cut out sodas and chips and am mainly drinking water aswell as some various fruit juices (mainly pomegranate (spelling?)

oh and i've found it helpfull to like chew sugar free gum so you arent tempted to snack on junk

 

My 2 cents

You're all gonna hate me for this lol

Green Tea: Yeah okay it has many benefits but close to all of them are neutralized when u add diary to it. Also peppermint tea has many benefits to it.

Dark Chocolate: Useless, yes it is known that cocoa has many health benefits but again the milk solids in the chocolate totally neutralize them.

Water: Totally agree, very important in so many aspects.

Vitamin Supplements: I object to the notion of needing to take vitamin tablets. Nutrition is my major and I am telling you now that if u have a well balanced diet then supplements are absolutely useless and can potentially do more harm than good.

Diary: MAJOR BONUS to people wanting to gain visible abbs, there are a lot of deluded or misguided people out there that believe Milk should be avoided. WRONG. Recent study shows that dairy products have massive benefits to metabolism control, fat storage and digestion of lipids. I have not yet done the research as to how but it is proven to help reduce fat in the abdominal region. Standard milk contains 3.6% saturated fats, if you calculate that down it's about 5.8g per glass which is rather small compared to many foods. Less than half an avocado, less than most snack bars and about 1/7 of a standard serve of pork.

Sugar: To start with you need to stop referring it to as sugar but splitting it into fructose, glucose and sucrose. All have negative effects when consumed in excess just like everything else but fructose and sucrose are very rarely over indulged in and can have many beneficial properties; glucose on the other hand should be avoided when possible. The effects of a sugar high and then the crash afterwards are due to glucose levels in the blood and the insulin needed to process it. Lactose also has many beneficial properties and is very hard to consume in excessive amounts.

When you're going to start doing these kind of exercises it's really worth while getting someone that knows what they're doing to help the first few times, if you're doing any of the moves the wrong way they can a lot of damage.

Never push yourself too hard, they always say that more reps of a lighter weight is better then less of a heavier weight. Some principal applies these home exercises, if you can't do 20 pushups without a lot of trouble then do 45-50 on your knee's for a while.

Dancing is a great source of exercise and a lot more fun than most!

Swimming is probably the best form of cardio and if it's convenient for you; better than running.


Alex's idea here:

To get flat abs
I know that personally I hate when people’s abs stick out like a 2 year old’s. Luckily this is very fixable. This exercise is very easy and you can do it any time and anywhere. All you need to do is pull in your stomach and flex. If you do it right, you should be able to breathe regularly. If you don’t get how to do this, push out your stomach with your muscles, not your lungs. Then reverse it. What you should feel is a tightness behind your abs pressing up and in. Another test is to poke yourself in the gut when you’re breathing in. The muscles that tense are the ones that you should feel working.

This is a VERY effective workout and if you can do so while doing your cardio exercise will have amazing results!

Lymphatic layer: It use to accepted that only females that a lymphatic layer but it's recently discovered that all humans in good health have it. This means that no matter who you are and how much u work out, there will always be a small layer of fat under your skin. But of course u can still have a nice washboard stomach! TO SOME EXTENT the reason i mention this is because ethnicity can have an impact on it! Some backgrounds such as Tuscan, Hispanic and western Asia can have a thicker lymphatic layer and may make this a lot harder, DO NOT attempt to shed this layer because its basically impossible without very bad repercussions.

 

gum is my lifesaver

You need cardio. that's all you can do to work on your fat layer. plus cardio makey people sexy.

 

Oh Lord.