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New Year’s Gut Buster – Kicking Yourself Into Shape for 2013
As the holidays come and go most people develop a sudden urge to work off the bit of extra weight that always seems to come with the season. To truly slim down you need to focus on two things; burning fat and toning muscles. Most people focus on the abdominals and with good reason. They are at the middle of your body and a tight midsection looks great. Plus a strong core helps with sports and most other activities.
So after you get done with cardio give this abdominal workout a try to torture and tone the muscles of the midsection. This routine will bust your gut like you wouldn’t believe.
Gut Buster Routine
This is a hard-core core routine that involves more than just simple crunches. Perform these exercises as a circuit, doing them for 30 seconds each. Then at the end of the circuit repeat two or three times.
- Swiss Ball Crunches – This is a nice easy way to start this routine off. Lie with your hips and lower back on a Swiss ball and feet planted firmly on the ground. With hands to the side of your heard slowly crunch up by contracting your abdominals. Pause and squeeze, then lower back down.
- Leg Hops – Start in a pushup position with palms flat on the ground. Draw your feet up until your knees are under your waist. Now keeping your feet together, hop to the left about a foot. Then hop back to the middle before hoping to the right. For a harder workout take bigger hops.
- Toe Kicks – Stand with feet shoulder width apart and arms straight out to your side. Kick up your right leg and twist your body while reaching out your left hand to tap your toe. Repeat with the left leg and right hand, alternating each leg.
- Power Blast – Assume a pushup position holding a heavy dumbbell in each hand. Make sure your arms are directly under your shoulders. Bend your knees and push your hips back while keeping your feet planted. Imagine you are pressing your body back before launch. Then blast forward until your abs are over your hands. Slowly reset and repeat.
- Bicycle Crunches – Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and feet off the ground. Crunch up and twist your body to reach your right shoulder towards your left knee. Go back down as you bicycle your legs and then crunch up with your left shoulder towards your right knee.
This is a tough routine but if you are finding it too easy simply increase the time to 60 seconds per exercise. This will place more tension on the abs compared to simply repeating the cycle. Make sure to exhale when contracting the abs for a tighter contraction. Also don’t worry about going fast compared to doing the exercise right for maximum effect.
Do this routine twice a week and you should quickly notice an improvement to the overall tone and shape of your waistline and entire core. Additionally this workout is great for improved athletic performance. By working the core, including the hip flexors, you will help with balance and agility.
Now get to it!
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
Danny Forestein writes on bodybuilding and fitness concerns for Nutribomb. You can find more articles including supplement product reviews of top products like the new power crunch bar by BNRG. You can also stay up to date with the latest bodybuilding news by following our google plus page.
