The BOSU ball is a very useful piece of kit when used in the right way. But is it really worth you getting one? A picture of one is below;

It really depends what sort of training you have done in the past and what level of fitness/skill you currently have to determine whether or not a BOSU ball would be right for you.

Anything you may normally do during your workouts, e.g. squats, lunges, press ups, planks will become far more difficult on the BOSU. So only if you can do all of the above exercises comfortably on their own should you consider it. The curved surface of the BOSU creates a lot of instability which makes it far harder for you to balance and perform the exercise as your muscles will contract a lot more and your body will shake.

So if you consider yourself a reasonably experienced exerciser and are looking for something new to jazz up your workouts a bit, then give the BOSU a go. But if you are not too experienced you are far better off sticking to bodyweight, dumbbell and stability ball exercises, otherwise not only will you struggle to perform the exercises correctly, but you may injure yourself as well.

The other thing to consider is the price of a BOSU. They start at around £100, which is far more than other things. You could pick up a stability ball, some decent weights and a medicine ball together for far less than that, so if you are on a budget then it’s probably not right for you either.

Today’s takeaway – If you work-out a lot already and want something new to try the… Read more->

Everyone wants to work their stomach. The stomach is a very common area to carry a little excess weight so burning fat and toning up around the stomach is high on everyone’s hit list. But all your hard work and effort can be in vain if you don’t follow this one simple rule;

If you want a flat stomach you must be able to engage your stomach muscles during your entire workout. So whether you are doing cardio on the bike or rower, or doing squats or press-ups you are still working your core. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE DOING A STOMACH EXERCISE TO WORK THE STOMACH MUSCLES!

I know the statement above may seem a little odd, but its true. You should be using your core muscles during your entire workout. In fact I would recommend only spending a small proportion of your workout doing ‘stomach specific’ exercises such as sit-ups.

So how do you do this? Imagine someone went to tap you on the stomach. What would you do? Hopefully you would brace your stomach muscles slightly. This is what you need to be doing throughout your workout. Don’t over strain and over-tense, just hold enough tension so all your core muscles are engaged. And make sure you keep your back flat and straight at all times no matter what your are doing.

Learn and perfect this and your stomach muscles will be working and burning fat during your entire workout. And what’s more, this will be happening whilst you are burning fat from others areas all at the same time.

Today’s Takeaway – So you don’t actually need to do many ‘stomach exercises’ to get a flat stomach. Engage your core throughout your workouts for flat stomach results.

So many people fight endlessly to get flat abs without the success they want or the success the effort and time they put in deserves. So here are some great ‘flat abs tricks’ to transform your results without putting in any extra time or effort.

What you want to acheive is the maximum possible fat burn from your abs without spending hours doing sit-ups or other abs exercises (that will not get you the flat abs you are looking for).

Trick 1 – When you are doing an exercise you must ‘brace’ your abs. By this I basically mean hold tension in them. Don’t over-tense, but imagine what you would do if someone went to push you in the stomach. You would tense your abs to prepare for it. This is how your abs should be during every exercise. That way they are constantly engaged and burning fat during your workout, rather than staying relaxed and doing nothing as most peoples abs do.

Trick 2 – Do deep abs work not surface abs work. So do front planks and side planks (see other blog articles for descriptions and videos of these) rather than sit-ups. You work x10/20 more muscles by doing deep abs exercise than surface ones. This means you will burn x10/20 times the fat.

Trick 3 - Get a stability (gym) ball and sit on it instead of a chair. You could do this at home in front of the TV or at work (or preferably both!) When most people sit normally they totally relax their abs and have pretty bad posture. Sitting on a stability ball means your abs have to constantly be engaged and be working. This… Read more->

Today I have a great workout for you – specifically  targeted at getting a flat stomach! You will see 5 exercises below all with exercise descriptions. You do the first exercise for 20 seconds, then move on to the next one with a 10 second rest period in between. You repeat this format, i.e. 20 seconds on each exercise and 10 seconds rest between each one until you have done each exercise twice. It will only take you 5 minutes!

Squeeze Crunch

Position: 

Lay face up with knees bent. 

Technique: 

Raise knees and squeeze towards chest, briefly hold and squeeze, then release. 

Points To Remember: 

Squeeze as high as possible. 

Keep knees together.  

Cobra – Legs Down 

Position: 

Lay face down with arms bent at the elbow. 

Technique: 

Arch back up as high as possible and hold position still. 

With arms bent squeeze them as high as possible and squeeze them together. 

Points To Remember: 

Ensure head is in line with your body. 

Leg Cycle 

Position: Lay face up with knees bent and raised. 

Technique: 

Kick legs forward and backwards in a cycling motion. 

Points To Remember: 

Keep lower back flat to the floor by bracing your stomach muscles. 

Keep a slight bend in your knee as you extent the leg forward. 

The lower and straighter the legs go the more difficult the exercise becomes. 

Half Side Plank- 1 

Position: 

Lay on your side with knees bent and your elbow directly beneath your shoulder. 

Technique: 

Push hip off the floor, resting on your knee and elbow. 

Squeeze the hip as high as possible and hold position still. 

Points… Read more->