You Can Aquacise Your Way To A
Flatter Stomach!
By Donovan Baldwin
When
the weather is warm, or if you have access to indoor swimming
facilities, there is nothing quite like going for a refreshing swim at
the local pool. To add to the normal benefits of swimming, you can use
this as an opportunity to work on those stomach muscles. The water
provides a natural form of resistance, making the pool a great place to
do stomach exercises to flatten out that tummy. In addition to the fact
that water provides more resistance than air,
aquacise , or water
exercise, is low-impact, which means less strain on joints.
Try out these exercises next time you take a trip down to your pool.
Remember, consult your doctor before beginning a new workout routine,
and always warm up properly to prevent injury.
A basic set of exercises to try in the water is called the jump and dig. There
are
two moves in this set, one for the upper body and one for the lower
body. The former is great for your obliques,
and the latter works on
your abdominals.
To start, stand in water that is between your belly
button and chest.
To work the lower body (including your abdominals), put your feet a
wide distance apart, then jump so your knees come up to the surface of
the water and back down. Picture a frog as you do it; this will help
you get the form right. Next, to work the upper body, begin by making a
scoop with both hands at the surface of the water. Bring your hand
scoop below the surface, then scoop up and to one side. Alternate sides
to work the obliques on both sides.
Start by doing the two moves separately for three minutes each. Once
you have mastered the form, do them at the same time to exercise both
sets of stomach muscles at once.
As you build up your strength and endurance, you can add water gloves
to
increase resistance. You can also do the exercises faster, packing more
reps into each three minute period. Form is key, though. Do not
sacrifice form for the sake of speed. It is better to do it properly
than quickly.
Always remember to set fitness goals and work toward them at a gradual
pace. Do not push yourself too hard, too fast. You may want to see
results fast, but an injury will seriously delay your workout goals.
Start small, know your limits, and build gradually.
As long as you are working on your midsection, here are a few
additional tips.
First, proper diet is essential to any fitness routine. A great, hard
workout can be completely made useless by improper eating habits. In
fact,
healthy eating habits are one of the keys to overall health and fitness.
Second, stay hydrated both while working out and in everyday life. A
good rule of thumb is to take your body weight in pounds, divide it by
2, and drink that number of ounces of water each day. This helps to
keep the body functioning at it's highest level.
Third, rest up. This means not only getting plenty of sleep, but also
getting the right kind of sleep. Spend all night sleeping on your
stomach, and you will wake up with a sore back, making it difficult to
do your stomach exercises. Also be sure to schedule off days into your
routine to give your muscles a chance to rest up and rebuild. Now you
already have a great start on a toned, flat stomach!
Using these techniques together with healthy eating habits coupled with
other exercises on this site will help you get a flat stomach fast.
Find more exercises
for the stomach muscles at How to Lose Stubborn Belly Fat.
About the
Author:
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Donovan Baldwin is a freelance
writer residing in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area, and a University
of West
Florida alumnus. He is a member of Mensa and is retired from
the U. S. Army after 21 years of service. In his career, he
has held many managerial and supervisory positions. However,
his main pleasures have long been writing, nature, health, and
fitness. In the last few years, he has been able to combine
these pleasures by writing poetry and articles on subjects such as
health, fitness, weight lifting, yoga,
weight loss, the environment,
global warming, happiness, self improvement, and life. His
blog on Senior
Health and Fitness can be found at Fitness-After-40.blogspot.com.
---------------------------------------------
While I do not normally recommend diets themselves, healthy eating is
important to any health, fitness, or weight loss program. Click Here
to learn more about Diet To Go
meals.
P. S. If you want to learn more about why Diets Don't Work,
please click here.
If you want to learn how to burn fat, a great book to read is Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom
Venuto
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