Cardio Training for Washboard Abs
Achieving washboard abs is directly linked with burning calories. Remember, this part of your body is prone to accumulating fat. Consequently, we can’t have great abs without performing some cardio training.
Look no further than treadmills
The best way to lose those stubborn pounds is to use the biggest muscles that we have: our leg muscles. Treadmills offer different speeds and even have a safety clip. Depending on our personal build and endurance, 20 to 60 minutes on the treadmill will help us to drop the weight.
Starting any kind of training routine by running is so beneficial. It’s one of the keys to toning and building a body that’s well-balanced in terms of weight. You need to start your routines with an initial warm-up, before building up to racing speeds.
Challenge yourself to jump rope
With just a few minutes of jumping rope, you’ll activate almost all of the muscles in your body. The best part is that there are several ways to raise the intensity. The routine below can ensure a complete workout:
- Feet together: this is the basic jumping rope position. Jump, keeping your feet together and don’t forget to relax your ankles! Relaxing them will help buffer the impact that your feet make with the floor. Five minutes is more than enough to help build the endurance that you’ll need.
- One-foot jump: this second exercise on our list is reserved for when you’re feeling comfortable with jumping rope. Jump rope standing on just one leg, then switch legs. This will help to strengthen each leg.
- Lifting heels: the intensity of the workout increases when you kick your heels up, close to your glutes. By doing so, the jumps are harder and your body has to work to balance itself.
Rowing machine: an alley for washboard abs
Rowing exercises might be designed for the back, but they can also exercise other parts of the body. Every time you row, your core has to be strong in order to maintain the correct posture. So, rowing will always work out your abs.
The point of rowing isn’t to move tons of weight; if it was, we’d end up doing a different exercise. Looking at rowing from a wider perspective, it actually requires the muscles to contract in a similar way to traditional ab routines. We can make it into a cardio exercise by rowing with repetitions.
The bike is your best friend
Biking is a great way to burn fat in a way that’s both comfortable and specific. That’s what makes spinning so popular! Nowadays, there are even spinning exercises to work out the upper part of the body.
Forty-five minutes of pedaling can help us burn up to 500 calories. The good news is that the abs, and the legs and glutes, are the areas that really get a good work out from cycling.
Going out for a walk in the park is a great idea, but working out on an exercise bike helps us build endurance by pedaling. If we stand on our bike, we could even enjoy an extra workout for our glutes.
Some aerobic exercises for burning calories
To burn off calories effectively, these aerobic exercises will help you:
- Boxing or mixed martial arts exercises: throwing punches or kicking to a constant, controlled rhythm will make you sweat. The turns and training positions will also keep you in constant movement. If you have a small punch bag, you could also strengthen your muscles.
- Push-ups: generally speaking, you can do various repetitions of push-ups once you’ve built up enough strength in your arms and trunk. A 20-repetition set would be enough to burn fat.
- Frog jumps: frog jumps are great for weight-loss. Any kind of jumping exercise is very effective.
To conclude, you need to understand the maximum percentage of fat that you need to achieve washboard abs. For men, it’s 10 percent and women, 18 percent.
