All I want for Christmas is a 6 Pack, Abs that is not of Beer

To feel "fit as a fiddle," you must tone down your middle.
~Anonymous
He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.
~ Samuel Johnson

5 Ways to Speed Up Your Six-Pack
This is an article from Beachbody By Ben Kallen
No matter what your age, body type, or fitness level, we're pretty sure one of your main workout goals is to improve your abs. And why not? A flat midsection, with or without a visible six-pack, is the ultimate symbol of being fit and lean. (And yes, it looks great at the beach.) But it's not just a matter of vanity-a strong core helps stabilize your entire body. That's why every Beachbody workout program includes a variety of ab-tightening exercises.

Still, whatever you're doing to get fit, there's always room for improvement where the core is concerned. Here are five tips to help you to get those great abs faster than ever:

Work your entire core. Your "core," the trunk muscles of your abdomen, lower back, and pelvis, is a whole system that supports your body as you stand up straight, perform everyday activities, and work out. And it's important to strengthen all these muscles, not just the rectus abdominis (the main "six-pack" muscles targeted by crunches). At the very least, you should strengthen the spinal erectors of the lower back to balance out your abs, which will help your posture and reduce the risk of back pain. Think of total-core training as increasing your functional fitness-meaning you won't just look better, but you'll also be able to do things better too. (P90X's Core Synergistics workout and ChaLEAN Extreme's Extreme Abs workout are great examples of complete core workouts.)
Take it slow. When you're doing crunches or other ab-focused exercises, it's easy to speed up and lose proper form, especially when you start to get tired. Either you let momentum carry you through much of the movement or you pull yourself up with your back and shoulders. But you'll get the most benefit (and the least chance of injury) from your workout if you concentrate on measured, controlled movements. And keep the abdominals contracted the entire time. After all, they're the ones that should be doing the work. (Doing some Pilates-style movements-like ChaLEAN Extreme's Pilates Roll-Up, in which you lift your upper body to a count of 8-is a good way to train yourself to slow it down.) When you can't do any more reps with the proper form, it's time to stop.
Don't overdo it. If you really want great abs, you may be tempted to grind out crunch after crunch to the exclusion of other exercises, or to do more ab-centered workouts than your fitness program recommends. But directly working your abs too often can do more harm than good. Like any muscle, the abdominals need to recover between workouts. If you find you aren't improving the number of reps you can do or the amount of weight you can handle, that's a sign that you're overtraining, and you need to cut back.
Don't neglect the rest of your body. The more you work your entire body, the better it is for your abs. In fact, just about any full-body or compound movement, from push-ups to squats to deadlifts, takes a lot of ab effort. (That's the whole point behind programs like Hip Hop Abs® and RevAbs%u2122, which give you great core results without focusing on crunches.) What's more, working your full body will burn many more calories and raise your metabolism, which is important, because you also need to . . .
Lose the fat to make your abs flat. No matter how much you strengthen your abdominal muscles, the only way to get a flat midsection is to lose body fat. That's going to require a diet that's high in protein and fiber, low in simple carbs, and full of bulky, nutrient-dense foods that keep you full with fewer calories-and of course, plenty of water. If you're on a meal plan associated with a particular workout, make sure you're really following it and not fudging here and there. (Keeping a food diary can help.) When you combine an effective full-body workout with a proper diet, getting the flat abs you've always wanted is just a matter of time.

Have any questions abou the workouts he is talking about in this article? Contact me at www.beachbodycoach.com/myworkoutspay

9 Routines on 7 DVDs
Abcentrics and How to Capoeira
With Abcentrics, you learn how to Fire Your Abs to get maximum results. In How to Capoeira, Brett teaches you his favorite moves from this unique Brazilian martial art. (approx. 35 min.)

Fire Up Your Abs
Intervals of calorie-scorching cardio combined with Brett's Six-Pack moves, his signature ab circuit that works your core from 6 different angles for 6 times the results. (approx. 40 min.)

Power Intervals
High-intensity cardio with intervals of lower-body resistance moves proven to rev up your metabolism. Melts belly fat, sculpts lean legs, firms the glutes, and works your abs-all at the same time. (approx. 30 min.)

Total Strength
If you want to get rid of ab flab, you've got to work all your muscles. They're your best friends in the fight against fat. (approx. 45 min.)

Mercy Abs
The mightiest little ab workout you'll ever experience.
(approx. 15 min.)

Fat-Burning Abs
A fired-up routine of new ab and cardio combinations that lives up to its name. (approx. 40 min)

Power Intervals 2
Lower-body resistance moves and revved-up cardio to kick booty and blowtorch belly fat. (approx. 30 min.)

Strength & Endurance
Rock-hard abs, meet rock-hard body. This total-body workout gives you the definition you've been looking for in your abs and everywhere else. (approx. 40 min.)

Merciless Abs
A 15-minute ab-shredder that makes your abs pop. Now
that's what you want to see in the mirror. (approx. 15 min.)

Rev up your results
RevGuide
Easy to read, this tight little guide spells out the whole program, so you can get the most out of your 90-day ab transformation. Plus, you get Brett's tips to win the battle of the bulge.

Nutrition Guide
Get the fuel you need to Fire Your Abs. This 65-page nutrition guide comes with customizable, delicious, and easy-to-prepare meal plans for men and women. It also includes Brett's 14-day Jump-Start Plan. It's so effective, you're guaranteed to lose 10 pounds and a whole size in the first 2 weeks or your money back.

4 bonus gifts
to keep you motivated

1
Rev It Up Cardio
No more boring treadmill cardio. This workout is spiced with Capoeira moves to burn the fat off your abs and your entire body. (approx. 30 min.)

2
Anytime, Anywhere Abs
On the road or can't get to your TV? Take this workout anywhere and do it anytime. It only takes 5 minutes.

3
RevAbs Wall Calendar
More than inspiration, it tells you which workout to do each day for maximum results and makes it easy to keep track of your progress.

4
Professional Fat Caliper
The perfect tool to measure your body fat before and after your transformation. See if you can pinch an inch after 90 days!
Plus, FREE Online Support

FREE 24-hour access to the RevAbs Web site, where you can chat with Brett and other fitness experts, and meet other RevAbs customers!

Click on this link to find out even more about RevAbs-
http://bit.ly/5LSdw5

Revolutionary Ab Talk, with Brett Hoebel
By Steve Edwards
In the second part of our talk with RevAbs creator Brett Hoebel, we get down to the nitty gritty of how to create that coveted six-pack look that graces the cover of most fitness magazines. You may hear a lot about this in the media, but I think you'll find most of Brett's information will be new, if not downright revolutionary.

For example, even if you know that you can overtrain your abs, you probably aren't sure why or what leads to it. That's because discussing phasic muscles or angles of exercise doesn't make sexy copy. It's easier to show models crunching their ab muscles into oblivion because the concept is simple. But that's about as effective as training for the NBA by just slam-dunking a ball over and over. It's simply one aspect of a complex issue.

But don't let the complexity scare you. We handle that by creating programs so all you have to do is follow along. The goal of today's discussion is simply to enlighten you on the science behind RevAbs. Besides, as Hoebel tells us, "The most important thing to consider on achieving a six-pack (or even flat abs with lines down the side) is what you're willing to do for it."

"People think they can drink their way to a six-pack, or eat all the bread and pasta they want because they're training twice a week by running and doing crunches and using some nonsense ab machine or ab stimulator. They're just fooling themselves, and frankly, they know it."

Science aside, it still all comes down to one thing: desire. "You have to be realistic," says Hoebel. "Those 5-minute ab blast programs you see on TV, and all of those gimmicky machines, don't address the science; they are a cop-out. You have to be willing to change your diet and to train 4 to 5 times a week consistently. You have to do ab training, but you also need to do full-body strength training and cardio, because doing only one or two of them is not enough. Simply put, it all comes down to how bad you want it and what are you willing to endure."

That said, knowing the science behind the six-pack will help guide your training. This is where Hoebel excels. He's trained and studied with some of the biggest names in the business, such as Paul Chek and Charles Poliquin, and has years of trial-and-error experience in developing his reVamp® training method, which is the foundation for RevAbs. This unique background gives him insight you won't find with most trainers. For example, you'll rarely hear an explanation like this for achieving a six-pack:

"You have four abdominal muscles, but the rectus abdominis is divided into the six parts that most people think of as the "six-pack," he begins. "So building this muscle and its six divisions is key. But the other side of the coin is that you've got to burn the fat off the stomach. The best way to do that is to burn more calories by driving the heart rate up. And the key to this is your leg muscles, specifically the quads, hamstrings, and glutes. They are the biggest muscles in the body and can produce the most force and, hence, burn the most calories overall."

So training your legs is pivotal in seeking your six-pack. This is not exactly late-night TV copy, as those muscles aren't seeing a lot of use while reclining on the Ab Lounge®. Most ab programs we see advertised show a lot of midsection movements, mainly crunches. This led to my next line of questioning: Mainly, can you work your abs wrong and is more always better, as those shows would have us believe?

"You can work your abs wrong," he states. "And you can work them too much. In fact, overtraining them is the number one problem there is. People do too much of the same ab exercise/ab angle too often, and they also don't give their abs a chance to rest. They end up overtraining their abs, which usually results in their hip flexors and other muscles doing the majority of the work instead of their abs."

"The abs are like any other muscle group in that they need to rest," he states emphatically. "You can train your abs several days in a row, but you need to make sure and mix up the angles of training on the different days. If your abs are too tired from training, you're in jeopardy of injuring yourself. They are major muscles in your core region and are involved in stabilizing many parts of the body during other movements. Oftentimes, injuries that happen during other exercises are a direct result of overtrained abs."

Then we get into the crunch mentality, where Hoebel blows the lid off what many of us are taught about ab movements. Traditionally, since most of your ab muscles have a higher percentage of red (or slow twitch) muscle fiber than other muscle groups, the common sentiment is that they are best trained with high volume and low intensity.

"More reps and sets are not always better," he says. "In fact, the rectus abdominis is considered a phasic muscle that should be fatigued in less than 60 seconds. It is strengthened mainly by heavy loads with longer rest periods. Doing hundreds of sit-ups with little to no rest for 10, 15, or 20 minutes would be opposite to this. You should stick to doing exercises that are hard enough, and loaded heavy enough, to fatigue your abs in 60 seconds or less for three to five sets. If you were to do, say, 12 reps for five sets it would be 60 reps total, not hundreds (like some of those programs advertise)."

This leads straight into the next common question about ab work: Should it be done daily?

"No," he states flatly! "The abs are like any other muscle and need to rest. As I said, you can effectively train them several days in a row, but only if you make sure and target different ab angles on the different days. If you are even able to train your abs every day it means that you are not training them hard enough, heavy enough, or correctly on the other days."

Finally, Hoebel sums up by simplifying the scientific process. "If you really want it, and if you're willing to do the work and pay attention to what actually works, the rest will fall into place."

Eat Your Way to Great Abs

This is a great article from Team Beachbody written by Ben Kallen that I thought I would share. Who doesn't want great Abs?

No matter how much effort you put into creating a six-pack, no one's going to see it if it's covered by a layer of flab. (The good news? While it's impossible to "spot-reduce," abdominal fat is often the first to go when you start losing weight.)
If you're following the dietary guidelines of a Beachbody Fitness Program or a Personalized Fitness Plan from Beachbody you'll automatically be eating the right foods to lose fat as you get in shape. But the following seven principles can give you an extra edge, and will help ensure that the effort you're putting into your abs will bring you the results you want.
1. Get plenty of protein. Eating enough lean protein promotes fat loss and muscle gain, the two most important elements for developing great abs. It also helps keep you from getting hungry while you're eating right. You don't have to gobble down 12-ounce steaks-just eat a normal portion of lean meat, fish, low-fat dairy, or vegetarian protein with every meal, and make sure your snacks contain some protein, too. If you still have a hard time getting enough in your diet, a daily shake made with Whey Protein Powder or Shakeology® can be a perfect addition.
By the way, protein is especially important in the morning, when a lot of people don't get as much as they should. A protein-rich breakfast will help keep your blood sugar steady for hours, preventing the dips that can lead to cravings later in the day. (Try some low-fat chicken sausage, or an omelet with one whole egg and three egg whites, along with fruit or whole-grain toast.)
Reconsider your carbs. Despite the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets, the average American meal is still too high in sugar and fast-burning starches to bring body fat down to ab-baring levels. It's time to say goodbye to sweetened soda, ditch the Doritos®, and save the cake for your birthday. If your fitness plan calls for a sports drink before a long cardio workout, or a carb-and-protein recovery drink after resistance training, that's fine. But the rest of the time, stick with foods that are on the low end of the glycemic index (refer to GlycemicIndex.com for more information)-these foods burn more slowly, so they won't spike your blood sugar and insulin levels.
2. Have fun with fiber. Something about the word "fiber" just doesn't sound appetizing. But high-fiber foods can actually be quite delicious: fresh berries and other fruits, salads loaded with colorful produce, your favorite steamed vegetables or vegetable soup, stews or chili made with beans, chewy whole-grain breads and cereals . . . You get the picture. (These foods just happen to be loaded with nutrients as well.) High-fiber foods keep you fuller with fewer calories, and they help keep your digestive system working at its best-a double-whammy for getting rid of belly bulge.
3.Enjoy some yogurt. Probiotics, the healthful bacteria found in yogurt and other fermented foods, have been proven to help reduce belly fat. In a recent study in Finland, new mothers who took probiotic supplements averaged smaller waist circumferences, and lower body fat in general, than those who didn't take probiotic supplements. And while the topic is still controversial, studies have found that eating lots of calcium-rich dairy foods like yogurt may increase overall weight loss.
4.Don't forget to eat. Tempted to lower your daily calorie count by skipping meals? Don't. Going hungry can raise your levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol, which research has found can increase belly fat even in otherwise thin women. And eating too infrequently can lower your metabolism and energy levels, while increasing the chance that you'll get too hungry and decide to chuck your meal plan entirely. If you're eating the right foods, regular meals and snacks will keep your body fueled while you're working toward that strong core.
5. Drink more fluids. Hydration is important when you're on a fitness plan, but drinking plenty of water has particular benefits for your midsection. It helps keep your stomach full, so you don't overeat, and it helps flush out excess sodium to prevent belly bloating. (Eating more potassium-rich foods, such as tomatoes and bananas, will also help in this area.)
Plain ol' H20 can't be beat, but you can also switch it up with flavored waters, iced tea, and anything else you like to drink that isn't full of sweeteners. How much do you need? The old rule of 8 glasses a day is a good start, but everyone is different: drink more if you're exercising or it's hot out, and drink less if you're running to the bathroom every 5 minutes.
. . . With two exceptions. It's time to cut down on those mood-altering substances, coffee and alcohol. Too much caffeine raises your cortisol levels and can impair your sleep, which can lower the production of fitness-promoting hormones. Meanwhile, the proverbial "beer belly" isn't just the result of extra calories-alcohol actually makes it more difficult for your body to metabolize carbs and fat. Booze also stimulates your appetite and lowers your inhibitions, which can lead to bingeing. The best road to flat abs is no alcohol at all, but if you really like a drink now and then, just have one at a time (and no more than a few a week), and stay away from higher-calorie beers and sugary mixed drinks.

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Dancing Your Way to 6-Pack Abs
This article is from Beachbody.
Steve Edwards
When MTV first aired in the '80s it changed our vision of what a dancer looked like. What had been the domain of the ballerina or, perhaps, a well-tailored Fred Astaire floating nimbly around a ballroom was more or less instantly transformed to the world of Madonna, i.e., scantily clad, chiseled bodies that moved with power and athleticism. And, all of a sudden, the word "dancer" became synonymous with "hardbody."

Back when we were still in the depths of the crunch craze, this depiction probably sold more Ab Lounges, Ab Rollers, and other types of crunch-based workouts than any advertisement. Unfortunately, it failed to transform us into a nation of hardbodies because crunching left out a rather large piece of the proverbial pie. It left out the dancing.

"I've never had to do a crunch or a sit-up," says hip hop dancer Shaun T, who's performed on stage with Mariah Carey and created with Beachbody his own fitness program, Hip Hop Abs %u2122. "Dancing, especially hip hop, is very powerful. You work your arms, your legs, and your core is engaged the entire time."

Let's take a look at how dancing has changed and ways that it can help you get a stage-worthy body.

THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!

Dancers have always been fit. It's just the society hasn't always had the desire to work that angle. We never saw Fred Astaire with his shirt off because, most likely, MGM didn't want us thinking he might be able to take on the action heroes of the day. Back then, guys like Clark Gable or Bogie were far more apt to show up in ads for Benson & Hedges than 24 Hour Fitness. Tough guys didn't have to be fit.

Gene Kelly was the first to make a true attempt to change the public persona of the male dancer. He rolled up his sleeves, beat people up, and acted more like Jackie Chan than a ballroom king. To match his athleticism, the women he danced with were allowed more and more freedom. And once we got a look at Ann Miller's legs, there was no turning back. Dancers' bodies were hot and audiences wanted to see more of 'em. Enter MTV.

DANCING VS. SPORTS SCIENCE

Dancers looked the way they did because they danced all day, but sports trainers (and exercise marketers) began to look for something to get the same body in less time. As usual, there was some trial and error associated with the research, leading to a lot of public misconception. The main one being that those MTV-inspired 6-packs were a function of how strong one's stomach muscles were.

Unfortunately, the ripped midsection is directly linked to the individual's body fat percentage, not how strong their core muscles are. This means that you could do ab exercises until the cows (and everything else) came home and you'd never look like Madonna. But that didn't stop the major industry of ab gimmicks from flooding the market.

THE CRUNCH YEARS

In spite of this, isolation training, or training individual muscle groups, was all the rage for a couple of decades. Probably spurred on by Arnold in the iconic bodybuilding movie, Pumping Iron, people were creating exercises to isolate one muscle at a time and blasting it into submission. As these exercises trickled away from Muscle Beach and into the mainstream, the one that stuck more than any other was the crunch.

The crunch is a great isolation movement. Plus, it's relatively easy and you can work your abdominal muscles to a state of rigor mortis within minutes. And, actually, it worked pretty well for bodybuilders. After all, they aren't movement-based athletes. And, since they spent so much time in the gym, isolating the abs wasn't so bad because they isolated every muscle group. By skipping that last tidbit, this spawned an entire industry of quick-fix workout gimmicks promising that you, too, could look like Arnold or Madonna. But instead of dedicating your entire life to exercise, these promised similar results in a few minutes of ab isolation.

THE RISE OF FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

Functional training is basically exercising using movements that you'll encounter in everyday life. Ya know, like dancing. So, essentially, it has always been around. But functional training as a workout grew out of physical therapy, which makes sense as more and more people were landing in PT units because they'd been injured due to isolation training. What they found was that isolation training was creating muscular imbalances. This is, essentially, where one muscle group becomes stronger than it's supposed to be compared to others. When this happens it's easy to get injured.

Functional training focuses on your core: the middle of your body where virtually all movement begins. A strong core creates a base to work from. If this base is solid, your chances of getting injuries decrease greatly. Your core is not just your abs, but all the muscles that connect to your spine and pelvis. It's essentially all of the prime mover and stabilizer muscles that you use to stay standing. For this reason, core exercises often include balance movements. These include using gadgets like stability balls, boards that wobble, golf balls, soft balls, and foam rollers, but it also includes simple old-school movements like push-ups, squats, and yoga stances-which are all similar to the various forms of movements you get when you dance. All of these movements require body awareness (balance) to keep you from falling over, which is, again, like dancing.

DANCE TO THE MUSIC

While functional training was slow, calculated, and difficult to sell to the masses, dancing was a different issue. For one, you didn't have to sell it. People dance because it's fun and, thus, will do it anywhere they can. When the video workout movement came about in the '80s, dance workouts became commonplace, which made a lot of sense since they were easy to sell if people thought that they could dance into great shape. The problem is that they weren't targeted. Fun, yes. Somewhat effective, yes. But it wasn't creating Madonna clones.

The problem was creating realistic workouts. Dancers work on specific movements over and over-similar to a way that you do when you would try to work on a jump shot or increase your bench press. The early dance workouts mainly just got you to move. There was no real emphasis on the true training aspect.

The next wave of dance-related workouts was hybrid, combining dance with another discipline to create a more effective workout, such as Turbo Jam. Its creator, Chalene Johnson, saw dancing as a catalyst for creating effective workouts. "You'd see these women at weddings who would dance for hours on end," she said. "It wouldn't even cross their minds that they were getting a 'workout.'" From there she used dancing as a base to work from and, bingo, had a targeted workout that felt like an activity you'd do for fun.

HIP HOP: THE RIPPED GENERATION

All forms of dance will make you fit but when hip hop arrived on the scene the rules changed. As a new art form, the performers could shape it any way they wanted. Athleticism and aesthetics were at its foundation as artists attempted to one-up each other in both how they looked and performed. It became, essentially, like a bodybuilding competition for dancing.

"I've done all types of dancing from jazz, to modern, to musical theater," says Shaun T. "But nothing comes close to the athleticism of hip hop. After I quit running track in college, I began to have problems with my weight, so I began dancing. Hip hop became my first love because it was so fitness oriented. Because it comes from so many different areas of dance it's, by far, the most fitness-oriented form of dance."

Core function is vital for all movement in sports, including dance-but especially hip hop dance. Though the arms and legs are what you mainly notice in traditional western dancing, conditioning the foundation is still paramount. But non-western dancing tends to begin at the core. Belly dancing and hula are probably the two most famous, but the majority of dances coming from more equatorial regions largely focus on mastery of the core area.

Hip hop dance is a fusion, a blend of athletic modern dance moves and traditional non-western dancing that features that core area. Because all the movements stem from the core, it's probably the most functionally directed activity you can do for reshaping your midsection. This is why it's rare when you see a hip hop artist who doesn't show off his or her abs.

Today, you've got a lot of choices for dance-related exercise programs. All of them will help you dance better, most of them will help you get fit. But if you want to look like Beyoncé, consider hip hop.

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Step By Step Blue Print To Achieving Six Pack Abs By Training Advisor To Mens Fitness Magazine, Todd Scott.

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Eliminate Lower Back Pain, Get Ripped Abs And Build Insane Strength With These Never Before Seen Abdominal Exercises!

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Getting to the Core of Your Ab Routine
A great article from Beachbody
By Steve Edwards
Core is the new abs.

Translation: Those chiseled six-packs you see adorning magazine covers these days are achieved by working the entire midsection, not just the abdominal muscles. So chuck your Ab Lounge, your Ab Roller, and your 30-second ab routine and read on to see what could land you on the cover of Maxim.

This is the part where I confess to a bit of hyperbole. Those six-packs are mainly a function of the individual's body-fat percentage, not how strong their core muscles are. Those gimmicky ab workouts can be okay as part of your program. And hiring a publicist will do far more for your hopes of appearing in Maxim than any amount of time in the gym. Oh, and one more thing: most of those models don't look like that all of the time. As one of them put it to me at a shoot, "I can't wait to eat. You think I look like this all the time? That would be sooooo unhealthy."

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get down to the business of creating a healthy core.

The crunch phenomenon

Isolation training, or training individual muscle groups, was all the rage for a couple of decades. Probably spurred on by Arnold in the iconic bodybuilding movie, Pumping Iron, people were creating exercises to isolate one muscle at a time and blast it into submission. As these exercises trickled away from Muscle Beach and into the mainstream, the one that stuck more than any other was the crunch.

The crunch is a great isolation movement. Plus, it's relatively easy and you can work your abdominal muscles into a state of rigor mortis within minutes. And, actually, it worked pretty well for bodybuilders. After all, they aren't movement-based athletes. And, since they spent so much time in the gym, isolating the abs wasn't so bad because they isolated every muscle group. By skipping that last tidbit, this spawned an entire industry of quick-fix workout gimmicks promising that you, too, could look like Arnold. But instead of dedicating your entire life to body sculpting, these promised similar results in a few minutes of ab isolation.

The rise of functional training

Functional training is basically exercising using movements that you'll encounter in everyday life. It grew out of physical therapy, which makes sense as more and more people were landing in PT units because they'd been injured due to isolation training. What they found was that isolation training was creating muscular imbalances. This is, essentially, where one muscle group becomes stronger than it's supposed to be compared to others. When this happens it's easy to get injured.

It's hard to create a muscular imbalance in your natural life. If you run, for example, your body naturally responds in a way where it uses all the muscles it can to help the movement. This includes what are called your prime mover muscles and your stabilizer muscles. In isolation training, the prime movers would get isolated because those were the muscles that you could see. This would create major imbalances and the stabilizers would often get no attention at all.

Your core and its function

Functional training starts with your core: the middle of your body where virtually all movements begin. A strong core creates a base to work from. If this base is solid, your chances of getting injuries decrease greatly. Because of this, functional training programs spend the majority of their time working on this area.

This might sound like isolation but it's not, because your core is not just your abs but all the muscles that connect to your spine and pelvis. It's essentially all of the prime mover and stabilizer muscles that you use to stay standing. For this reason, core exercises often include balance movements. These include using gadgets like balance balls, boards that wobble, golf balls, soft balls, and foam rollers, but it also includes simple old-school movements like push-ups, squats, and many yoga stances. All of these movements require body awareness (balance) to keep you from falling over. It's exactly the opposite of a Nautilus exercise machine or, say, a crunch.

Is isolation the root of injury and evil?

Some functional trainers like to tell you this but it's not true. There are many reasons why isolation movements still exist. The main one is sports. Sports create a reason for an athlete to attempt to exceed their natural physique's strength ability in certain areas. In order for a muscle to exceed its natural capacity for strength, it must first grow. Isolation exercises are great for this. So, while fine tools, these are only a piece of the athlete's pie. To avoid injury and increase performance, athletes periodize their training, which means they do various cycles of training that target different goals. Athletes may isolate a muscle group for a training cycle but then they must switch their training to functionally train this new muscle to work within the limitations of their body.

Your abs and you

So how does this affect you and how you'll look at the company beach party? First, the bad news: You won't look like Maria Sharapova by watching Oprah on your Ab Lounge. The good news, however, is that you can create a great-looking midsection by training in the way that's most beneficial to your body.

This is the point where I tell you that a true six-pack is a phase. Like I said before, even most fitness models don't walk around looking chiseled all the time. They try to stay fit and thin but the duration of the ultra six-pack is fleeting. It's the same for many athletes, who will often reduce their body fat to below healthy levels for increased sports performance (because reduced weight at the same strength = increase in power output). But they aren't always in this state. For a six-pack to appear, most men need to get below 10 percent body fat and women under about 14 percent-abdominal muscle strength has nothing to do with it. Athletes are better off doing most of their training a little above this and losing the last bit for competition. This is because body fat helps your defense mechanisms. Some fat is needed to avoid injury and illness. Where you are concerned, the state of the six-pack should be something you target for some photos or, perhaps, a beach party. Your daily life goal should be a slim midsection. Brett Hoebel's RevAbs%u2122 workout is ideal for reducing body fat while strengthening your core.

Creating a healthy core

If you will commit to exercising, it's not all that difficult to ensure that your core is sound. Functional trainers love to use the word balance. And not just in regards to standing on a wobbly board. Balance in both your life and how you exercise will help you center yourself in more ways than one. Here are a few tips to ensure you're getting to the core of your workouts.

Work your entire body. Whatever your workout program is, make sure it works on everything. Not just your core but your arms, legs, hands, and feet. Everything is connected to your core, like branches of a tree. Whatever workout program you choose should, at least a little bit, stress every muscle in your body. No one with an overweight body has ripped abs. It can't happen.
Periodize your training. No matter how great your routine is, change it sometimes. Using various programs helps you work different muscles and create new engrams (neuromuscular brain patterns), which results in keeping your body balanced.
Do some yoga or Pilates. Even if you hate it. Yoga, particularly, is the oldest functional training program there is. You don't need to do Shiva the destroyer's Power Yoga program. The basic old-school movements will be plenty to round out your workouts. Or for a fun yoga workout, try Yoga Booty Ballet® Master Series Yoga Core.
Do some balance work. These workouts can be hard, mentally taxing, and kind of boring. But you don't need to spend 45 minutes balancing on one leg under a skateboard on top of a golf ball to see results. Just sitting on a balance ball at your desk is very helpful. Any balance work is better than none.
Alter your crunch. You can still crunch and, of course, you still need to work all of your midsection muscles. A simple balance element, like lifting your legs as you crunch, turns an isolation ab movement into a core movement. Keeping your legs off the ground, and straight, contracts something called your transversus abdominis (TVA). This is the muscle responsible for holding your gut in (another good TVA exercise is simply sucking your belly button in as far as you can). You'll start recognizing variations of these movements by staying present, aware, and observing life, which is another good exercise. Or you can do crunches with a Squishy Ball, as in the Yoga Booty Ballet programs.