Now, there is a lot of talk about whether you can make your 6 pack become an 8 pack and if that’s true whether or not you’re better off having 8 pack abs. Those might be legitimate questions but my only question is this- Why the heck does it matter? 6 packs look just as great as 8 packs. The bottom line is most people just want a flat, toned stomach. We all have abdominal muscles that can be built to show through if we do what it takes. There are a lot of gismos out there that will promise flat abs, but in reality you don’t need any of them. There are some simple things you can do at home to get 8 pack abs, or 6 pack abs, whatever floats your boat. Here are 8 tips to help:

1. If you have some extra belly fat you’re going to have to lose it to get 8 pack abs to show throw. But don’t just focus on stomach exercises. There is no such thing as spot reduction when talking about weight loss. Don’t get caught thinking that if you do crunches, twists, and sit-ups all day that the fat around your abs is going to disappear. It won’t unless you implement a comprehensive exercise routine. Work your whole body and DO SOME CARDIO! So many studies have proved that doing cardio between 30 minutes and an hour will burn a lot of fat.
2. Realize it will take some time to get results. Unfortunately for men, the abdominals are one of the first places for fat to accumulate and one the last places to lose it. If it took five or ten years to lose your nice abs, it might take six months to a year to get them back. There are no quick fixes when it comes to 6 or 8 pack abs, despite what those Saturday morning infomercials tell us.
3. Focus on quality over quantity. It’s better to do 10-15 really good crunches than to do 50 really crappy ones. There are a ton of different movements, lifts, and twists that target your abs, but if you just know how to do a good crunch all of these different exercises will come much more naturally and be much more effective. For a good crunch lay on your back with your knees bent and heels about 1 to 2 feet from your butt. Cross your arms and place your hands on your shoulders. Now, you’ll notice a small space between your lower back and the floor. Close this space by flexing your stomach, and once it is closed lift your upper body toward the ceiling, NOT toward your knees. Go up about 30 degrees and SLOWLY lower your upper body back down, keeping that space between your spine and floor closed. There you have it.
4. Want a great 8 pack abs workout? Check out Cathy Fredrick’s Core Max exercise video. It will kick your butt. Then, if that’s not enough for you, try P90X Ab Ripper X. These are the best two abs workouts that I have come across.
5. Your abdominal muscles respond best to high resistance, low repetition exercises. If you’re doing more than 40-50 crunches at a time, increase your resistance and decrease your reps. You can do this by holding a dumbbell or free weight above or against your chest, or by extending your arms straight above your head while crunching.
6. Buy a Swiss ball and convert your abs 8 pack routine to a Swiss ball routine. The Swiss ball will add range of motion that will enable full flexion and extension, increasing the resistance to your workouts. A very good source of information and demos for this is ridgelinefitness.com.
7. Evaluate and change your diet. More simply put, eat less and eat better. This is one of the more important things on how to get 8 pack abs. Change the carbs you eat to low glycemic index carbs and make your proteins more lean. A great principle my wife loves and uses a lot for our meals is make half of your plate fruits and/or vegetables. Simple changes to your diet can make a big difference in the long run. But don’t think that just by exercising your stomach you’ll make it flat. You’ll actually make the muscles bigger, stronger, and more defined with the stomach exercises. But with a healthy diet and frequent aerobic exercise those great abs will show through.
8. Straighten up. Literally. Work on your posture. So many of us slouch while we sit and walk around. Just straightening your posture could make you look like you’ve lost a couple of pounds and tightened up your mid-section. This may sound stupid, but nevertheless, it’s true.

First, there is no such thing about spot reduction weight loss. A lot of people aren’t happy with a certain area of their body and start a diet or exercise program or buy an exercise machine to target that area for weight loss. How often have you heard that by working certain muscles the fat surrounding those muscles will be the first to disappear? This is completely false. Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise, says this about spot reduction: “This is a myth, pure and simple. No matter how much exercise you do for a specific region of the body, it’s physiologically impossible to lose body fat in a targeted area. Fat is lost or gained throughout the entire the body. But the last area where people tend to lose it from is the areas where they gain it first. So for most men, the abdominal region is the most difficult area to trim, while in women, the hips, buttocks, and thighs are the trouble spots.” So if you’ve got some extra flab on your stomach, don’t go thinking that doing 100 sit-ups a day is going to make that fat go away.

Second, stay away from the weight loss pills. There’s a difference between losing weight and being healthy. Two things can happen if you take these pills- nothing and/or diarrhea. A lot of weight loss pills make it so your small intestine doesn’t absorb fat as well as normal. So, if you take the pills and remain on a high fat diet, that extra fat is going to make your stool very, very soft and thin, making you feel very bloated and have diarrhea. Remember, having a low amount of fat on your body is only a part of being fit. These pills don’t build muscle, cardiovascular endurance, or flexibility, which are the three keys of fitness.

Third, healthy fat loss for those who aren’t extremely obese is one pound per week. REMEMBER that!!! 1 LB. PER WEEK!!! Don’t freak out if you don’t lose 10-15 pounds the first month. That’s normal and healthy. A classic marketing point of an extreme weight loss diet is “lose 15-20 pounds the first two weeks!” This is a myth. If you lose too much fat too soon your body will think it is getting starved and start breaking down lean body tissue and storing as much energy as possible when it is given nutrients. As the great Tony Horton, creator of P90X says, “Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was your body.” If it took you ten years to be 50 pounds overweight, then it might take a couple years to get it off. But, if you’re diligent with a good diet and exercise program for just a year, one year, you’ll lose over 50 pounds. That’s awesome, and really a year is not that much time. Don’t get caught up in the quick fix with extreme fast weight loss.

So once you’ve lost the pounds, what are you going to do to keep them off? Answer: just keep doing what you did to get the pounds off. It’s a lifestyle change, yes, but you feel better, are stronger, can run faster, jump higher, eat more, sleep better, and the list goes on. Why stop doing what you’ve been doing? Just keep going at it! Ultimately weight loss takes time, dedication, and mental toughness.

To sum things up here are my extreme weight loss tips:

1. There’s no such things as spot reduction
2. Stay away from the weight loss pills.
3. Healthy fat loss for those who aren’t extremely obese is 1 lb. per week
4. Finally, weight loss and maintaining weight isn’t just about dieting- you’ve gotta have exercise as an adjunct.

Greater muscle strength: For me this didn’t happen. Other reviews of NO Xplode have reported the same thing. During my trial I focused on pushing myself a little more than normal, but still didn’t feel like I was able to lift more than normal. It’s possible that I didn’t use the supplement for long enough, but for the week that I used it diligently, I didn’t notice any increase the muscle capacity.

Less muscle soreness: This didn’t happen either. The muscle soreness I experienced after chest, back, arms, and legs workouts was normal. However, during the workout I did notice that my muscles were less fatigued. This was nice and something I wasn’t expecting from taking NO Xplode.

Give an extra pump to your muscles: This happened and even more than I was expecting. Out of all others, this effect was the most noticeable for me, and from other BSN NO Xplode reviews I’ve read, has been the most noticeable for others as well. This was pretty cool and added confidence during the workout, which was nice. It does wear off rather fast after the workout has ended, but again, it helped me to be even more positive during the workout.

Add to your mental focus and increase energy level: I did feel an increase in mental focus as well as an increase in energy. Actually, about 30 minutes after I took the NO Xplode in the morning on an empty stomach (which is the recommendation) I felt like I was on caffeine high. It was kind of weird and I didn’t enjoy it very much. Nevertheless it did get me more pumped up mentally for the workout.

What I didn’t like about the product for me was the taste. It was too effervescent and chemical tasting for me; very much like the vitamin supplement Airborne. But the fruit punch flavor was my favorite over grape and blue raspberry. Also, I did feel a slight increase in my need to use the bathroom about 20 minutes after drinking it. Many other BSN NO Xplode review sites mention the same side effect. This doesn’t happen to everyone, and for me it wasn’t the biggest deal, but just be aware that it might happen to you if you start the supplement. But it did give me an extra muscle pump and seemed to add some excitement to my morning workouts. Overall the supplement has a decent effect and I would recommend trying it for a while to see whether or not it works for your body.

Now, when I talk about muscle strength I’m not implying that you have to be ripped and look like Arnold or someone like that. Aside from looking more muscular there are so many more important benefits that come along with strength training – a decreased risk of osteoporosis, an increased metabolic rate, an increase in lean body tissue and a decrease in fatty tissue, an increase in spinal, hip, and shoulder support, and an increase in self-esteem. Weight resistant exercises like weight lifting put stress on your joints and bones. But that’s a good thing, because your bones will respond to that stress by reforming, remodeling, and becoming stronger and denser. This is especially important for women because of their increased risk of osteoporosis. Stronger core muscles like your abdominals, obliques, and lower back muscles will help stabilize your spine, decreasing your chance of throwing out your back or having disc herniations. And if you already have back pain, strengthening those muscles will help relieve some of that pain. With regards to self esteem, I believe people are happier, more optimistic, and more excited when they are doing strength training. There is something empowering about putting your body through the stress of lifting and watching your body transform and become stronger.

Having a healthy and strong heart is the next component of fitness, cardiovascular endurance. Our heart is an incredible muscle, and like all other muscles, it gets stronger by working it out. And exercise can be considered cardiovascular if it gets the heart rate up for a prolonged period of time. Ideally, I recommend 30-45 of sustained exercise at an elevated heart rate of 75% your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is easy to calculate. Take 220 and subtract your age. That’s it. If you can exercise four or five days a week for 30-45 minutes at 75% your maximum heart rate, than you’re in good shape to have a very strong and healthy heart. This aspect of fitness is in my opinion the most important because of how much it can prevent and manage disease. Heart disease is the cause of 40% of all deaths in the U.S. each year, and cardiovascular exercise (running, biking, swimming, aerobics, Pilates, yoga, etc.) plays a major role in its prevention and management. Also, diabetic patients can greatly benefit from working out, which is one of the first things a diabetic’s doctor is going to recommend. Conditioning your heart is not only the most important aspect of fitness, but one of the best things you can do for your overall health.

The last component of the essentials of fitness and the one most overlooked in diet and exercise programs is flexibility. In contrast to muscular strength, most men overlook this and avoid it, and most women seek after and do exercises that promote flexibility. It is one of the best things you can do to prevent injury. The more flexible you are, the wider range of motion your joints and body can function within, and that will prevent injury. Exercises like yoga, Pilates, and stretching can enhance your flexibility. A myth about this is that once you’ve reached a certain age you can’t improve your flexibility. I think that just an excuse for those who don’t want to try to improve. I assure you it can be improved if you work at it.

Remember, fitness is more than just an image. I have met people that would probably never be on the cover of a magazine, but that could kick any one of those magazine models butts. They were strong, flexible, and could exercise for what seemed an eternity. They were truly fit. When looking to start a diet or an exercise program, make sure your program includes the essentials of fitness training- muscle strength and endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. This will help you sift through all that diet and exercise garbage out there; if they leave one of these things out, then move on – there are better things out there.

What is it? Pure and simple it’s an increase in the pressure in your arteries. Unfortunately the cause is unknown.

What’s the big deal? High blood pressure can cause -1. Atherosclerosis, or hardening of your artery walls. This can lead to stroke, heart attack, and a lot of problems with your aorta; 2. An enlarged heart. The higher your blood pressure the harder your heart has to work to push blood through the body. Your heart is a muscle, and if worked harder, it will get bigger, particularly the left ventricle. This is a problem because the bigger the muscle the more blood it needs. Some larger cells in the heart will actually rob blood from smaller cells of the heart, which kills the smaller cells, which are then replaced by fibrous tissue. So, your heart gets worked over; 3. Hypertensive Encephalopathy- i.e. it can cause strokes; 4. Retinopathy- can actually cause impaired vision and even blindness because the blood vessels in your eyes can be particularly sensitive to high blood pressure.

How to do I control it? High blood pressure treatment includes: Losing weight, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, reducing salt in your diet, limiting alcohol consumption, avoiding tobacco, limiting caffeine, taking medication, reducing your stress, and regularly seeing your doc. We’ll write in more detail about each of these later. The cool thing about the DASH diet is that it’s a healthy diet that will help you lose weight, limits alcohol, incorporates reducing your salt intake, and encourages you to exercise regularly. It knocks 5 birds with one stone.

So let’s take the DASH! This diet was researched, written, and published by the National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They did extensive research that was incredibly promising. Many of the people that have gone on this diet have completely eliminated the need to take medication for their high blood pressure. Check out the studies below.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20101007?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20305128

Here’s a quick breakdown of what you eat while on this diet followed by the diet’s nutrient goals.

Those are the basics of it. The DASH diet plan is a great way to improve your lifestyle, avoid high blood pressure foods, and eliminate the need for medication for high blood pressure. The thing I like best about this high blood pressure diet is that it is a diet you can live with permanently. It’s not a one month or three month deal, it can be a lifetime diet. Here’s a link to download the entire brochure, which I would totally recommend studying if you’re interested in making the DASH. I’ve also posted some links to the mayo clinic website that has meal ideas and goes into more details about daily servings. These are a great resources.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dash-diet/HI00047

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dash-diet-recipes/RE00089

I’ll cut to the chase- the cheap dumbbell we recommend for the home gym is an adjustable dumbbell. Why? Price and space. Most rooms you set apart for a “home gym” won’t fit an entire rack of hex dumbbells comfortably. But replace that entire 4-5 foot long rack with one set of dumbbells and you free up a lot of room for you to exercise in. An adjustable dumbbell set is small enough to fit nicely in the corner of room without getting in the way at all. You don’t get that with 9 pairs of hex dumbbells on a rack. That takes up almost an entire wall.

Why are adjustable dumbbells cheap? You’re paying for less material and less shipping. With a hex set of 5-50 lb. you get 540 pounds of weight in the box. With an adjustable set from 5-50 pounds you get 100 pounds of weight in the box. Even though you get a fifth of the net weight, you don’t pay a fifth of the price. That would be sweet. But adjustable dumbbells have built in mechanics that allow you to switch between weights, which of course you pay for. Some sets are more expensive, some are less, but overall, you’ll pay around $0.60 per pound. Even the cheap dumbbell sets that are hex-style don’t come close to that price.

Here are three cheap dumbbells that are adjustable and great for a home gym.

Powerblock Adjustable Dumbbells: These are the best out there. They are the most durable, smallest, and have the best warranty of all adjustable dumbbells. Many exercises, like tricep, bicep, and shoulder exercises, can be cumbersome because of the size of some adjustable dumbbells, but are easy to do with the Powerblocks. And you won’t waste any time during your workout adjusting between different weights because of how easy their switch mechanism is. Also, you pay about 55 cents per pounds with the 5-50 lb. set.

Weider Powerswitch Adjustable Dumbbells: These are awesome too, and a little cheaper than the Powerblock. The switch mechanism takes a little getting used to, but after some workouts you’ll get the hang of it quickly. I own these and love them. They come with a stand and cost $299. You can’t beat that price.

Lifecore Adjustable Dumbbells: These are very comparable to the Weider Dumbbells. Though they aren’t as inexpensive, they do come with a stand, and go up to 55 lbs. instead of just 50. That added weight is really nice, especially for back and leg workouts.

So before spending $700-$900 on some “cheap dumbbells” take a look at what adjustable dumbbell sets have to offer you and your home gym. You’ll save money, save some space, and get an equally great work out.

Some people interested in a treadmill for home use just want to be able to walk on a softer surface than concrete, and don’t plan on running at all. Their knees might not be able to with stand the high impact of running and their doctor may even recommend not running for cardiovascular exercise. These people don’t necessarily need to go drop a couple thousand dollars on the “best” treadmill out there. My parents were in this situation exactly. They ended up with a $600 treadmill and they love it. Other athletes will want a treadmill to run at almost full speed and for an extremely long period of time. These people will most likely be better off by avoiding cheap electric treadmills and spending more on a top-end machine. The treadmill companies out there have made it fairly easy and reasonable to get into a treadmill, which is great for people like my parents, but if you are a seasoned athlete don’t unnecessarily buy the lowest priced treadmill out there.

How much do you want to spend on your electrical treadmill? Again, decide this before you go looking. You’ll see machines from $300 to $3000 and at every price in between, and not deciding how much to spend before hand could just lead to an overwhelming shopping experience. Also, figuring out first how you’re going to use the treadmill will help you decide how much is necessary to spend. From everything I’ve seen, read, and experienced, you pretty much get what you pay for with a treadmill. Don’t think that you’re going to get a three thousand dollar machine for $1000- it doesn’t work like that. And realize that the fitness equipment resellers like to play games a little bit with the pricing. They will usually have the MSRP at twice their price, suggesting that you’re saving 50%. Really, that’s just the price they normally sell the machine. If you do your research and don’t rush into something, you won’t be fooled.

The other two questions are answered pretty easily. Do you need to save space and do you have a friend with an electric treadmill you could talk to? A folding electric treadmill is awesome for someone with a smaller home or apartment and can’t have the treadmill laying out the entire day, everyday. Many treadmills fold and roll extremely easily so you can store it in the corner of a room. If you don’t need the space and don’t want to bother with folding and unfolding, then there are non-folding treadmills out there as well. A distinct advantage to non folding electric treadmills is they are more stable. Our final word of advice is to talk to a friend who has a treadmill and ask them questions. They’ll be straight with you, which you can’t necessarily expect from a salesman, and they may have questions for you to ask that you haven’t thought of yet.

So, though we’ll be writing more about specifics of treadmills, which brands are the best, and where to buy them, etc., we think asking these few questions before everything else will help you make a more informed and confident decision when you actually buy the electric treadmill. They are great machines for cardio, there are a lot out there that will accommodate many different types of people and workouts, and the more research you do and questions you ask the better off you’ll be.

An abs chair doesn’t offer the resistance that traditional ab exercises do, despite their claims. Most of these chairs have a bar on each side of the chair, which kind of looks like an arm rest, that the person exercising can pull against to left themselves up. How hard is that? And it certainly doesn’t target your abs. Other chairs have spring loaded back rests that boost you up during the most critical part of a crunch- when you’re at the bottom! And some, like the ab circle pro and ab chair 2, completely lack resistance.

The myth that an ab chair workout is based on is that you can work your abs and trim your waste line. Show me one scientific study that supports that – you won’t find one, because anaerobic exercise of your abdominal muscles won’t target the fat that surrounds those muscles, especially if you’re only working out 3 minutes a day. What burns fat is consistent exercise accompanied by a healthy diet. When you burn calories your body will use both carbs and fat for energy, so the more calories you burn the more carbs and fat your burn. But your body doesn’t say, “Oh, my abs are working, so I’m only going to use the fat that is around those muscles for energy.” It doesn’t work that way. Sorry. But most people don’t know that.

Another classic claim is that with an ab chair you get more range of motion. In reality, to work you abs, you only need 30 degrees of motion. During the first 30 degrees of a sit-up you work your abdominals, but after that it is impossible to contract your abdominals more. You actually start to work your hip flexors, like your psoas major muscle. You might think this is good, but it’s not. Do this little test for me and you’ll see what I’m talking about:

Get on the ground and do as many sit-ups, full range to where you hit you chest to your knees, in one minute as you can. Repeat that three times. Then wait one or two days. Where are you sore? Yes, your stomach will be most likely, but you’ll also feel this really weird deep pain inside your hips. That’s your psoas major muscle, and it attaches to your lumbar spine. So really, one of the best ways to irritate your lumbar spine is by doing full range sit-ups or full range ab chair exercises.

So, to say the least, we do not recommend using an ab chair. They’re expensive, lack resistance, and you don’t need it. There are much better and cheaper ways to work your abs. For example, if you want the best abs machine, go with a Swiss Abs Ball – it’s cheap, fit’s almost anywhere, and you can work your abs muscles very effectively on it.

You wonder why good gyms don’t have abdominal machines like the ab king pro, and ab circles pro, for their customers? It’s because they don’t work. But you will see a ton of peopld doing Swiss ball ab exercises at the gym. The next time you see one at the gym or a friend’s house, do a normal crunch on it, then do a crunch on the ground, and you’ll see the difference immediately. First, you’ll notice how much more comfortable it is to lay down on an exercise ball than on the floor. Second, you’ll notice how the crunch on the Swiss Ball requires you to activate a lot more muscles to stabilize yourself and stay on the ball. You don’t get that with a floor-crunch. And third, you’ll notice you’re not limited to just one movement or motion to work your abdominals- there are dozens of different moves you can do to work your abs. The other ab crunch machines out there offer one exercise motion only.

Here are a few examples of moves you can do on an exercise ball to work your abdominals:

• Ab Roll
• Ball Rotation
• Ball Twist
• Exercise Ball Crunch
• Swiss Ball Side Crunch
• Ball Ab Stretch
• Swiss Ball Reverse Crunch
• Swiss Ball Torso Twist
• Prone Torso Twist

You can purchase Swiss balls pretty much anywhere now (buying the swiss ball online is probably the cheapest) – amazon.com, eBay, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. But you might want to look into the type of ball you’re getting. Not all of the are created equal. The best balls I’ve found are from Thera-Band and SPRI. Most gyms buy these which means they’re made to withstand a lot of use. There also not much more expensive than your Wal-Mart type. Specifically the Thera-band exercise balls support up 300 lbs. and have a 3 year warranty. Other than the brand, take a look at the recommended size of the ball. Here’s a quick table to help you out:

Height Ball Height Ball Size
Up to 4’10” 45 cm Small
4’10” to 5’5” 55 cm Medium
5’6” to 6’0” 65 cm Large
6’0” to 6’5” 75 cm Extra Large
Over 6’5” 85 cm Extra, Extra Large

(When you sit on the ball, it should be inflated enough so that your thighs are parallel to the floor or slightly above parallel.)

So please don’t go and buy one of those As Seen on T.V. ab crunch machines. You don’t need it! Just get the one best simple ab machine there is- the Swiss ball. You won’t regret making this addition to your home gym.

The package they offer costs around $100 and includes the Ab King Pro machine, an instructional video, a conditioning video and a slim down plan. But the Abs King Pro is just another bench with an arc support bar attached to it. It’s nothing special, and certainly nothing compared to what we consider the best ab machine out there- the Swiss Ball. Also, its construction is certainly not worth the $100. The cushion is terrible and the machine doesn’t adjust to fit smaller or larger people, making it pretty awkward for them.

Here is what they claim of Ab King Pro exercise: “The Ab King Pro is designed to give you flat, sexy, rock-hard abs faster and easier than any other product on the market.

Other machines only give you a 90-degree range of motion, but the Ab King Pro’s secret is its astonishing 200-degree range of motion that targets your upper, lower, middle abs and obliques all at once, on the way up and down.

In just 3 minutes a day (combined with regular exercise and a sensible diet) you’ll tighten your stomach and reduce those love handles in DAYS, not months!”

Seriously? Just run away from this machine. Spend your time and money on something of value (like a good exercise ball so you can do swiss ball ab exercises). Rock hard abs don’t come easy, you don’t need 200 degrees of motion (you only need 30 degrees), and 3 minutes a day is not enough. Sorry. The Ab King Pro doesn’t measure up to its price and nothing, this machine especially, will ever measure up to those claims.