Over the recent months I’ve been searching for a workout and nutrition routine that will help me reach my fitness goals. I love reading and seeing others who have reached their goals.  I get inspired when I see someone who has been completely out of shape, and then transform their bodies into fitness freaks. 

So, I started on BodyBuilding.com’s website and followed Kris Gethin’s  12 Week Transformation. This was a great beginner’s guide to help me get back into the mindset of a person who wants to get stronger.  Kris offers solid weight training, steady cardio, and some great nutrition tips in his videos.  I would take the videos on my iPod and watch them while doing cardio.  Unfortunately, I only made it to week 7 because I found myself wanting to adjust my schedule and not spend so much time in the gym.  I really like Kris’s program and may revisit it in the future.

I then went to a 5 day split because I wanted to focus more on specific muscle groups each day and spend less time in the gym.  I pulled a 5 day split workout from DailyBurn and was happy with this for a little while.

As the day grew closer for the DailyBurn 90 Day Fitness challenge, I was wanting to narrow my focus down even more for the 90 days.  My friend has been harassing me, trying to get me to do the P90X program for some time now. I kept dismissing it because I’ve found that when you tell people you’re working out, there are alot of people who don’t really listen to your needs, yet rather they just blurt out their own ideas.  Part of this is why I didn’t really listen to my friend.  He kept telling me to do P90X and I kept dismissing his beckoning.  After all, I really felt like P90X was the next marketing craze filled with too much hype and not enough delivery.  I thought it was going to be a guy yelling at me, while he’s dancing circles around me as I’m huffing and puffing, ready to puke my guts out.

Well, I eventually gave in.  I studied out the program and viewed some peoples’ progress on YouTube and decided that the P90X program would be a perfect fit for my 90 Day Fitness Challenge.

Fast Forward to Day 3 – today.  Let me just tell you I did shoulders and arms at the gym, which I’m glad I did because I love going to the gym and putting weights on the agenda.  I then came home and did the Ab Ripper X program with my wife.  Tony, the lead instructor of Ab Ripper X wasn’t dancing circles around me yelling at me.  Instead, my wife was keeping perfect form and keeping up with the folks on the video.  I felt awkward and it hurt. Did I mention it hurt? And that I felt awkward? Tony is actually a very forgiving instructor and he wants to make sure we do these workouts to our best of our abilities.

Needless to say, I’m pretty sore, but it’s a good kind of sore.  I’m happy with my choice of doing P90X and I’m glad my friend kept encouraging me to do it. I think he was right on the mark with identifying what I wanted to do in reaching my goals.

I’m ready to Bring It some more tomorrow.

Busy women want to know where to find good six pack ab workouts.  I know this because my wife is a busy woman. She is also doing ALOT better than me right now with her workout routine.  This article is dedicated to all you women out there who are working on developing your own sexy six pack abs. 

For women it’s much harder to get a six pack that shows definition like a man’s abs and most women like my wife want the slim definition but not the rocky washboard six pack that a man likes to sport. 

You may not know this but you probably already have a six pack.  The problem is the layer of fat that covers it.  The key is getting rid of this layer of fat.  But how does one do this?  How does a woman achieve this?  By doing abdominal workouts on a daily basis?  This is not recommended and can in fact, work negatively against your six pack goals.

The best way to removing the fat, while revealing your six pack is done through a combination of dieting and exercising properly.

For a woman to show her six pack comfortably, she will need to work her body fat below 14%.  For a man, (since he wants the ripped, washboard stomach) he will need to work his body fat down to below 5%.  So, the first thing you’ll want to do is eat a healthier diet in order to get your six pack showing.

After you get your body fat where you need it to be, here are six proven workouts that will further define your rock hard abdominal:

Upper Abs

Basic Crunch
Lie on your back with your knees raised and bent keeping your feet flat. Place your hands by your head in a comfortable position. Bring your shoulders forward, lifting your upper body off the floor, moving forward. Contract your abs for one to two seconds, then lower your shoulders back to the starting position.

Crunch w/Knees Up
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat. Place your hands by your ears. Curl your shoulders forward, contract your abs for a second or two and then lower your shoulders back to the starting position.

Lower Abs

Leg Raises: Progressive
Lie on your back with your hands behind your head.  Slowly lift your legs to about five to ten inches from the floor and hold for about 15 seconds. Now move your legs up another five inches and hold for another 15 seconds. Now move to a 45 degree angle and hold for same.  Bring legs back down to floor.

Knee Raises
Lie on your back, hand under your buttocks with your palms down. Press the small part of your back against the floor. Keep your head up (chin to chest) and shoulder blades off the floor.  With your legs straight out, knees slightly bent, and your heels on the floor, use your lower abdominal muscles to bring your knees up to your chest. While keeping a slight bend in your knees, lower your legs. Repeat.

Obliques (Love Handles)

Source: ShapeFit

Side Leg Raises
Lie on your right side on the floor on a mat and keep your left leg over your right, placing your right hand in a comfortable spot and your left hand behind your head. Bring your torso and left leg toward each other as you pull with your obliques. Squeeze for a one-count and return to the starting position.

Side Crunches
Lie flat on your back on a mat with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your right hand over your right ear. Crunch your midsection up and across, trying to touch your right elbow to your left knee. Concentrate on contracting your midsection throughout the movement. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat.