Abs are more than just having strong ab muscles, one of the issues that you may have is fat covering up a fantastic six pack. Of course if you are carrying any fat on your stomach then you will not be able to see that six pack of abs.

If fat is not the problem and you are just looking to tone your abdominal muscles then you can try this little trick.

Do a few situps and feel the way that the situps are forcing you to pull your abdominal muscles. Now after you finished these situps go to a mirror with your shirt off and try to replicate the tensing of your abs. You can very quickly figure out how you can feel this tightening of your abs.

Now no matter where you are you can do these ab exercises. You do not just have to do crunches, situps or leg pullovers, instead you can just do a series of tightening your ab muscles anywhere. You can do this watching TV, while driving, sitting on the bas or any other time that the idea strikes.

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Now that fall is in full swing and the baseball playoffs are winding down most of our exercise is going to need to take place indoors instead of the outdoors that it is so easy to do in the summertime. There are of course two kinds of exercise, weights and cardio.

First I want to apologize in advance to any hardcore weightlifters here. Most of this stuff is a bit of a review for you.

Sometimes I think that everyone of course lifts weights on at least a weekly basis. Of course this is not fair as most people, although well meaning, have never lifted weights in their life and are not about to join a gym to start lifting weights this week.

The simple fact is that the more muscle that you have the more calories that you body will need to burn in order to maintain your weight. This fact alone should make any person looking to lose weight to start looking at the gyms that they drive by.

The simple fact is that if you have never lifted weights just think of this time between now and the beginning of the New Year as the best time to start warming up to the idea of lifting weights. If you start lifting some kinds of weights at home then you can get stronger, build muscle mass and when the new year comes with all of the gyms giving great deals to join you will have a better idea if you want to join a real gym or not.

First of all I think that it is easy enough to get some light weights that you can start lifting with at home. Either look in the classifieds in your local paper or go to the local pawn shop or used sporting goods place and get some 5, 10, and 15 pounds dumbbells, women can probably get away with 2.5, 3, and 5 pound weights to start with.

So what if you have no weights at home? First of all are all of the regular calisthenics that we all know. You can do things like push-ups for your chest, shoulders and triceps, lunges for your legs, and sit-ups for your abs.

If you would like to start doing weights proper then you have many options. Look around the kitchen and you probably have some heavy bottles or cans that you can do bicep curls with, you have kitchen chairs that you can do front laterals with. There are many options and if you look around I am sure that you can improvise with what you already have.

I will write another article this week about what kind of workouts to do exactly but this week why not just try to find a few kinds of exercises that you can do around the house if you have no weights and if you can beg, borrow, or steal some weights it will make things a lot easier

Losing weight while watching TV seems like one of those nirvana type situations that would be great but very tough to figure out. For all of the couch potatoes that watch lots of TV everyday there has to be a way to watch TV every night and still lose weight. I laughed out loud, really out loud when I thought of this idea but it was a challenge to think of so here I am coming up with a training plan to lose weight while watching TV. So here are my ideas for how you could successfully lose weight while watching TV

1. Eat right – This is the toughest part of losing weight for many people. Night time is the time to snack and it is hard to measure how much you are eating when you are not lookin at your food but are instead just grabbing food and putting it in your pie hole.

Make sure that what you are eating is low cal by picking fruit like grapes which you can eat one at a time or  fruit salad with all of the different tastes that make you notice that you are eating. Also make sure that you are drinking lots of water as it will fill you up more than anything when you are always distracted by the show you are watching.

2. Exercise during commercials – First of all there are a few ways that you can exercise during the shows you watch but you will never do that anyway so be realistic and wait until the commercials. Have a pair of 5 pound weights dumbells that you can have sitting next to the couch. During commercial breaks you have about a two minute break and during this break you can  do a couple sets of weights. The weights that you will do are called supersets. First do 8-12 reps of shoulder presses and then 8-12 reps of alternating curls per arm. This is it for this commercial break but during the next commercial break you can do another couple of exercises maybe tricep kickbacks and one armed rows.

The reasons that you are doing weights is not because the weights will directly make you lose weight but the additional muscle that you will have will help you lose weight over time.

3. The missing cardio requirement - The real need that you have to lose weight as well as eating and weights is the need for cardio. Cardio exercise is critical and you cannot do it to help you lose weight while watching TV so my best recommendation is to decide that right before dinner or a half hour after dinner you should go for a bike, run or even a brisk walk so that you have a bit of time before sitting on the couch to have a shower and at the same time be confident that you did everything that you needed to to get yourself in just a little bit better shape then you were in the day before.

Walking Exercise is one of the most popular and effective ways to start a fitness program so I have a few tips as well as a plan to get you started. I found this program on my wanderings around the internet tucked away where no one was able to use it so I hope it will do good fore anyone wanting to get started exercising but not sure where to start.

Is It Okay for Me To Walk?

Answer the following questions before you begin a walking program:
Has your doctor ever told you that you have heart trouble?
When you exercise, do you have pains in your chest or on your left side (neck, shoulder or arm)?

• Do you often feel faint or have dizzy spells?
• Do you feel extremely breathless after mild activity?
• Has your doctor told you that you have high blood pressure?
• Has your doctor told you that you have bone or joint problems, like arthritis, that could get worse if you exercise?
• Are you over 50 years old and not use to a lot of exercise?
• Do you have a condition or physical reason not mentioned here that might interfere with an exercise program?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, please check with your doctor before starting a walking program or other form of exercise.
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This is the start of a series of articles celebrating wroking out at home. I have over the years worked out at home as well as at a gym and have usually had much better workouts at a gym. This series will try to change that. As we all know it is cheaper and way more convenient in the long run to work out at home but there is always costs that we will have to deal with at some point.

Home exercise programs are a great way to keep fit and lose weight. Along with proper diet and nutrition, an exercise program can help speed your metabolism and burn calories faster. There are a number of home exercise videos that will give you the direction and motivation you need to burn fat and lose weight quickly. But, why are exercise videos a great option in your home exercise program?

The Convenience Factor:
Exercise at your convenience. By performing regular exercises you will place a greater demand on your body’s stores of fat and you will cause your metabolism to increase dramatically. Your body will burn fat as a source of energy at an accelerated rate and the end result will be a slimmer, more toned you. Your level of fitness will improve with each workout routine you perform. Exercise videos are a great way to learn the best exercises to burn fat and build lean muscle and you will be able to exercise in your very own home at your convenience.
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