Great Abs Are Made by Good Habits - For Those Who Aren't That Young Anymore

For those of us who aren't exactly young anymore, there's the challenge of being able to work out on a daily basis and keeping the activities that lead to a better body in terms of aesthetic appearance and health. A lot of things can get in the way of the body you've always wanted, like work and other responsibilities, but it's not really the other things that you do outside of exercise and eating well that's the problem, it's more your sticking to good habits.


People are creatures of habit. We do things on a regular basis whether we like it or not. In the morning, you wake up and do the same things that you've always done in the morning - you wash, brush your teeth for example. We don't think much about these things, but if you think of it, our lives will be different if we suddenly change our routine. It's not going to be drastic but the result is we feel uncomfortable and adjustments will be needed. It's moving out of this perceived comfort zone that keeps us form doing what we need to do to make our bodies better looking and healthier.

If you have gotten used to being lazy, just lying around and watching television with junk food, or playing video games, you will not get far with your body - you'll get fat. Even if you wanted to go to the gym and work out, you fill find it difficult because your body has grown used to the lazy routine. Now here's the crucial part - you need to break free of this bad habit to achieve your goal of getting a good body. To get out of the rut you're in and exercise and eat well. It's either you do it slowly or in one go.

For most people, changing a habit in a snap is not easy - it's like trying to get up early in the morning but no matter how hard you try, your body won't budge. So you do it slowly, you can try getting up earlier every day until you reach the exact time that you need to wake up. So if you find it hard to exercise, move your body a little bit every day. Stretch a little one day, walk around the next, then jog on the third day. On the fourth, you can do push ups. You get the idea. Soon you body will get used to the activity that it will even crave the workouts, and then you'd realize you'd be exercising and eating the way you should. Pretty soon, you'd have that great body you want!

You can find more techniques on getting the body you've always wanted, in alvinwriter's Quick Guide to Six Pack Abs.

Hard Gainer’s Exercise: Quality before Quantity

Hard gainers need to be consistent with their exercise routines to get to the level of fitness they desire. In working out, hard gainers need to focus on quality before quantity. This means using weights or executing each exercise repetition slowly and with good pacing. The number of repetitions (the number of lifts or actions) and sets (groups of lifts or actions) for each exercise will be determined by the maximum that your body can squeeze out. In weight training, forcing the last rep is how you build big muscles at the start. Of course, the focus of the exercise should be on the body part being sculpted, like the abs.

Unlike easy gainers, hard gainers can concentrate more on abdominal exercises since their objective isn't to lose weight, but to build and define the muscles. When you feel that you already have enough build packed in, you can then focus more on the quantity of reps and the intensity of sets. 

But hard gainers also have to factor in adequate rest time. In some cases, resting is even more important to hard gainers than exercising. This is because muscles will only respond and grow if given enough rest time. Working out hard every day does little to give you bulk where you need it since the over exertion will only burn fat away and also waste some muscle. In training, muscles do get torn and damaged at the microscopic level. During intense workouts, the muscles can get used up as energy, so it makes sense to get adequate rest.

Our muscles will only get repaired between workouts. It's a big plus to have regular time-offs. For hard gainers, rest periods are ideally the three days after working out. If your workout is really intense, you will discover that your body will ache two days after the workout, especially if you haven’t worked out in a long time. If it's immediately right after the intense workout, your body will feel rubbery from all the reps. If you’ve worked out your legs, you'll find it difficult to climb the stairs later on. This state of discomfort will last three days, after which you'll start to feel better.

After a while of working out, you'll discover that you are stronger and able to last longer lifting weights. The discomfort will be less which means your muscles are responding well. But if you really want your muscles to be hard, strong, and solid to the touch, then exercising them with weights every day is recommended. You only have to be careful so you don’t end up with a muscle tear or hernia. Resting is very important in order not to get injured. If you can’t be too intense in your workouts, you should at least be consistent. In either case, observe rest periods.

    Hard gainers need only to remember the following: 

    1. Be less picky in how much and what you eat, 

    2. Exercise slowly for bulk-building;

    3. Focus on the quantity of reps and sets only for definition;

    4. Reps and sets are determined by how much you can muster.

    5. Get adequate rest between exercise sessions.