How To Get A Muscular And Lean Body

Everyone wants to have a great body, complete with a six-pack and toned muscle all round. If your abs look good then generally your whole body looks good. However, the question of how one achieves a lean and muscular body is one that millions of people across the world struggle with. This article will reveal some effective strategies for getting rid of that stubborn stomach fat that stops you having those flat six-pack abs that everyone wants.

Diet

The first and most important thing to do in order to lose your belly fat and get flat abs is to clean up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat and revealing those abs.

Now, unfortunately there is so much conflicting information in the media these days about what really constitutes a healthy diet that promotes fat loss. We are continually bombarded with messages about different diets - low carb this and low fat that, high protein, Atkins, South Beach, liquid diets, and many more - that the average consumer does not even know where to start their diet to get lean.

However, the bottom line is that to get a lean and ripped body, you have to lower your body fat content. This means cutting out the highly processed and fat laden foods that are responsible for many of the health and obesity cases we see in society today. To start a healthy diet, one should avoid junk food and foods high in sugar. One should try to replace these with healthier options that are low in fat and cholesterol, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Food laden with transfats like fries and crackers should be avoided. One can replace these "bad" fats with "good" ones by consuming foods that are rich in unsaturated fats, examples of which include salmon, avocados, soybeans and walnuts. In addition, foods with vitamin C like kiwi and oranges can help to reduce belly flab. Vitamin C helps to balance hormones that are usually released when one is stressed out. Being stressed can cause people to put on weight and an intake of Vitamin C helps the body to turn fat into fuel

Whole Body Exercise

The second thing that works well is workouts that focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat. In order to really get lean, the workouts should of high intensity, with short rest intervals, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

Specific Training for Abs

Thirdly comes training specifically designed to focus on the Abs. When it comes to training the abs, one should not rely so much on crunches and sit ups as a lot of people do. These are fine for someone who is in poor physical condition and is perhaps starting out on the road to fitness, but people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and anyone that knows anything about muscle development knows that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.

There are several great abs exercises available, but one of the highest resistance exercises for abs is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually giving the abs a good workout is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. In fact the majority of people cannot do this at first but with practice they soon get the hang of it and achieve great results.