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Starting a Weight Training Program: Where to Begin?

Preparing For Your Weight-Training Program

If you’re planning to begin a weight-training program, the two most important questions in your mind would probably be “What would I need to do?” and “What should I eat?”.

You’ll no doubt be excited when you’re ready to start out on a weight-training program. You will have noticed some amazing, toned and shapely bodies at the beach or in celebrity magazines and wondered about the possibility of looking like that yourself. Sure, many of us aspire to having a physique like Taylor Lautner or Scarlett Johansson, and we want a solution that will get us there in the shortest time possible.

A successful Weight-Training Program requires patience!

You must walk before you can run.

Weight training programThere are many reasons why you should approach a new weight-training program with baby steps. You have to give your body a chance to get used to the new activity and stresses that the exercises are placing upon it. There will thus be less chance of you injuring yourself – and consequently hindering your progress.

It will allow you to learn how to train correctly, and discover how your body reacts under pressure.

It will lessen the chance of an early “burn-out”. Too often people just starting out hit the gym every day for a couple of weeks and then back out because the pressure has become too much for them.

My recommendation is that you visit the gym 3 days per week, doing full-body workouts, to give you a good grounding and get yourself used to the different exercises in your weight-training routine. No fancy split-routines or special movements; just concentrate on doing a few exercises well, until you know what you’re doing.

Your body will respond and improve quickly, then you’ll hit a plateau.

Initially, the body gains strength and will build muscle quickly in response to the new training. This rapid response is natural, and will happen only once. You may find that in the first few months of your training, you’ll be noticing improvements every second week. But suddenly, out of nowhere, your gains hit a wall and you can’t progress further.

This happens to everybody and is a signal that you should think of changing your training routine.

Proper diet for your Weight-Training Program

This area is commonly overlooked when someone first gets into training. He’ll most likely leave his regular diet unchanged, throw in some weights or cardio and soon discover that progress is pathetic and he’s not getting a six-pack. Never underestimate the importance of good nutrition, especially when you’re involved in a weight training program. Do this correctly and you’ll be doing yourself a great service.

Exercises to Lose Lower Belly Fat

Crunches will not burn lower belly fat

A disturbing thing is that a lot of people are still doing traditional crunches to burn lower belly fat. Unfortunately, they are not going to get rid of lower belly fat this way. To make sure you don’t fall into this trap yourself, here are the prime seven reasons why you should never do crunches:

1. Crunches will not help you lose any fat. How many crunches do you think it would take to lose a pound of belly fat? According to a study done by Men’s Fitness, you’d have to do approximately TWENTY THOUSAND crunches to lose one single pound of belly fat.

Why so many? The reason is there’s no such thing as “spot reduction” – losing fat in one specific area. You can only lose fat evenly over your entire body. And because crunches do not utilize the large muscle groups of your body, they will only burn a tiny number of calories and a miniscule amount of fat.

2. If you’re already overweight, doing crunches will make you look more fat. All that abdominal exercises can do – crunches included – is to build up the abdominal muscles. They’re not even very good at this especially when you’re already in shape, but they can build some muscle if you’re just starting and are overweight.

If you have a fat-covered belly, any muscle you build up underneath will be COMPLETELY INVISIBLE, hidden under the layer of fat. Also, it will yet cause the fat to bulge out, creating the impression that you’re actually more fat.

3. Crunches could be dangerous when they’re effective. If you’re overweight and the muscles of your core are weak, it’s going to be difficult for you to maintain correct form when you’re doing crunches. And if your form is bad, it’s just a matter of time before you start experiencing lower back pain and neck pain from doing your crunches.

4. Crunches are not effective in building abdominal muscle. Once you are  lean and in good shape, it becomes safer to do crunches. Unfortunately, they are totally useless for building ab muscle. You might be able to do a set of 100-200 crunches before you’re exhausted but exercising with so little resistance is not going to build up your abdominals at all.

Imagine this: would you build up your biceps using just your empty fists, with no weight? Of course not! Likewise, doing hundreds of crunches will do nothing to put muscle onto your abs.

5. Crunches don’t build functional strength.

fighter losing lower belly fat

Georges St.Pierre

The crunching movement is very unnatural and is rarely used in any real situation. If you want to become more athletic or gain more strength in your everyday life, crunches won’t help you get there. MMA fighter, Georges St.Pierre, NEVER does crunches, and is in superb physical shape.

Another professional MMA fighter, John Howard, is one of the strongest guys in the game, and also never does crunches. He does explosive cardio and resistance training very similar to what is recommended in Six Pack Shortcuts.

6. Timewise, crunches are inefficient. To make the most of your available training time, you’ll want to figure out a way to get the maximum amount of muscle stimulation in the minimum amount of time. Crunches do not make good use of your time.

It can take you more than 3 minutes to do 200 crunches, and another 3 to recover. Conversely, by doing an exercise like isometric leg raises, you’ll get a superior workout in half a minute or less.

7. If they didn’t work for you in the past, they won’t work for you now either. If you’ve done crunches in the past, ask yourself how they’ve worked for you. Did you get your six pack abs? If you didn’t, remember that you can’t do the same thing repeatedly and expect a different result each time. If crunches didn’t work for you in the past, they’re NEVER going to work.

It’s time to abandon what’s failed you in the past, and to move on to more effective ways of abdominal training.

What you should be doing in place of crunches to lose belly fat

1. You need to be following a workout program that trains your TOTAL BODY. This is the only way to lose weight, so that your abs will become visible in the first place.

2. You also need to have a NUTRITION plan in place that’s realistic and easy to follow. Without this, NO training regimen will do you any good – especially crunches.

3. You need to get to know the abdominal exercises that are infinitely more effective than crunches in losing lower belly fat or excess body fat in general. . Exercises such as the dynamic plank workout included in Six Pack Shortcuts, which build the muscle on your abs through increasing their stabilizing strength.

You also need to learn “explosive”-style ab exercises, such as the barbell twist, the medicine ball slam and mountain climbers. These exercises are MUCH more effective than crunches, and much safer, too.

If you’re ready to cut the nonsense and learn the exercises that will REALLY lose you belly fat and get your six-pack abs visible, get your Six-Pack Abs course now.

exercises to lose belly fatThey’ve put together a course that shows you the exact exercises that dozens of people have followed to get six-pack abs. They also give you a simple and easy-to-follow nutrition plan that will help you get your six-pack. It’s simple, quick-acting and proven to work. It’s exactly what you need to FINALLY get your abs showing, and to get the ripped six pack abs that you really want.