Abdominal Training Mistakes to Avoid at All Cost!

You’ve been working out for weeks to achieve washboard abs and still, you’re not making any progress at all, what could you be doing wrong? It’s one thing to work out and it’s another to work out properly. If you’ve been approaching your fitness plan the wrong way, you won’t get the desired results. In today’s post, we are listing down the most common abdominal training no-no’s you have to avoid at all cost:

You Don’t Mix Things Up

Here’s a shocker: the body can get used to the same routine so what’s effective now may not be effective six months later. Why? The body will adapt to any exercise quickly. And if your idea of abdominal training is limited to crunches and sit-ups, you won’t develop washboard abs.

So mix things up every 4 to 6 weeks. Trying out different exercises will help shock the muscles into growing. You will get definition by adding a variety of movements that target all major muscles in the midsection!

You Don’t Rest

Never underestimate the power of resting. Working out the midsection nonstop won’t take you closer to your goal; it could very well do the exact opposite. Like any muscle, the abs need time to recover from a strenuous workout. The body should be given enough time to recover and repair itself from a workout. Worse, nonstop abs training is bad on the back! Ideally, you want to limit exercising to 2 to 3 days per week.

You Avoid Cardio

Don’t avoid cardio workout or you’ll never lose your belly fat. Cardio exercises help burn off stored fat. And we all know that the band of fat around the midsection is the hardest to get rid of.

These exercises also keep the heart strong and promote better circulation. All these can burn serious amounts of calories! You want to incorporate at least 30 minutes of cardio workout to tone the legs and reduce belly fat. You can reduce belly fat even faster by adding high-intensity intervals to your routine.

You Don’t Watch What You Eat

Working out doesn’t give you an excuse to wolf down more food. And if you think you can sweat it out in the gym to compensate for the triple cheeseburger and fries you just had for lunch, you are in for a rude awakening. An average triple cheeseburger contains 1,000 calories, which is only 200 calories shy of your recommended caloric intake for the day.  If you want to lose that belly fat, you need to watch what you are eating regardless if you are working out regularly.

It helps if you plan your meals right so you don’t feel deprived. The point is, if you want to lose a pound of fat per week, you have to burn around 500 calories each day. One pound of fat contains about 3,500 calories.

You didn’t Add Compound Exercises to Your Routine

You can accelerate your progress by mixing isolation abdominal exercises with compound movements such as deadlifts, overhead presses, and squats. These moves will build core strength while adding definition to the midsection. Compound movements will also tone the whole body!