Every New Year we all make a promise to start an exercise routine. Our goal is to lose weight, look good and get fit. But with each passing day, the urge to exercise fades away. We lose motivation, our busy schedule seems to get in the way and the whole idea flies out the window.

Sound familiar? It happens to all of us. We all make our New Year’s resolutions with the best of intentions, but fail to stick with it or never start in the first place. You need to find a way to make exercise fun, so it’s not a chore, but something that you will look forward to.

Read through the following tips and see if there’s anything that you can do that will start you off, help you stick with it and get the results you are looking for. Just think of the end result and how good you will look this coming summer and for the rest of your life.

Tip #1 – Make Exercise Fun

The biggest complaint is that exercise is boring. Period. But what if you could incorporate exercise into your daily routine and make it fun? There is no need to think that you have to spend countless hours on an exercise bike, treadmill or stepper. Change up your routine and it will be better for you and break it up a bit. Go for a walk, ride a bike, take a swim or play with your kids. 

Tip #2 – Make a Set Time for Exercise

Even though we all lead very busy lives, we need to make time for exercise. If you can make an appointment to see your hairdresser, doctor or insurance agent, then you can just as easily make an appointment with yourself to exercise. Once it becomes a part of your daily routine it will be much easier to stick with it. Sometimes exercising with a friend is a good motivator.

Tip #3 – Exercise is Healthy

This may be a no brainer, but remember that exercise can be a great way to de-stress and energize yourself. Sometimes you may think that you are too tired and too stressed out to workout, but exercise will be the best thing for you. 

Tip # 4 – Change Your Routine Often

Do not get in a rut doing the same workout day in and day out. Not only will you get bored, but your body will stop responding and you will reach a “plateau”. Variety in your exercise routine, just as in your diet is the best thing for you.

Tip #5 – Warm Up to Avoid Injury

The last thing you need once you start to exercise is an injury that will lay you up for weeks and prevent you from working out. Stretching will reduce injuries, get your blood flowing and warm up your muscles. This should only take about 5 minutes to do.

This is an interview by Geovanni Derice with Mike Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer ( reprinted with permission by Mike Geary, author of “The Truth About Abs”)

Click Here to Review The Truth About Abs

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by a fitness professional from NYC, Certified Personal Trainer, Geovanni Derice. The interview is below and I think you’re going to like it… I reveal some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of that stubborn stomach fat to uncover those flat six pack abs that everyone wants.

“GD: Welcome Mike to our 4-ever-Toned Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself and how you can help our readers with their fitness and health.

MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 17 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning.

At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I’m 33 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis.

I decided earlier in my 20′s that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we’ve reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That’s why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process.

I’ve expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.

GD: Now Mike, there’s so many things out there as to what works and what does not work… if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to get flat lean abs, what would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to lose your belly fat and get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.

There’s so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is… after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There’s so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn’t even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.

The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat.

In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

For the third thing, let’s talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.

I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.

GD: What are people doing wrong when it comes to developing the coveted “6 pack abs”?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat 6-pack abs is… are you ready for this?

They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time spent on abs exercises. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Remember, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and increasing your metabolic rate. That just does not happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs.

Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That’s what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat sixxer!

GD: Which exercises are the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum defintion with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book).

However, maximum definition in the abs and midsection comes from losing bodyfat, and the most effective exercises featured in my program for that goal are various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking flat abs, focus on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing… and that is fat loss. What recommendations have you used to successfully help your clients lose body fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which accounts for almost half of the book, but I’ll try to make some nice simple generalizations to get people started on the right path immediately. The most important thing is that your diet is as natural and unprocessed as possible. It almost always comes back to the overprocessing of food that makes it unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body.

For example, why eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains (even better are sprouted grains, as I usually recommend limiting grain foods overall for best results).

Why eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when you can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and so forth.

The point is to not fall for some gimmick like extremely low carbs (although I do believe in a fairly reduced carb intake as that is a big problem for most people), low fat, super high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another.

Your body needs all macronutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Trying to cut an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I get into much more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for sharing with us all of this great information.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this interview and plucked several nuggets of info to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs shortly. If you don’t already own a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of my Truth about Six Pack Abs book and discover the entire system I’ve developed for ridding yourself of that extra ab fat for good!

The Truth About Abs has 163,000 subscribers in 154 countries and is helping people lose their belly fat, look and feel great and have that sexy stomach we all want!

If you are serious about losing belly fat and getting six pack abs, which I think you are because you have landed on this page, then read on to discover why this program will get you a flat stomach, tight abs and the sexy body you’ve always wanted…

Imagine what it would be like if you no longer had to hide behind baggy clothes and loose fitting t-shirts and could finally walk proudly down to the beach or pool and never be embarassed over what you look like ever again!…

• Are you tired of hiding your beer belly?
• Do you want to finally fit into those tight jeans or sexy, black dress?
• Have you wasted your money on diet pills, gadgets and silly contraptions that just don’t work?
• Do you want to lose fat and finally see your abs?
• Are you ready to make the decision that will change your life forever?
• The Truth About Abs will teach you how to change the way you diet and exercise so that you will burn calories, boost your metabolism and build muscle in the fastest way possible.

This program costs only a fraction of the money that you’ve probably spent over the past few years trying out all kinds of  pills, potions and contraptions that don’t work.

Stop wasting your time and start changing your body today!

Think about it…if you started The Truth About Abs today, 7 weeks from now, you could be walking down the street and heads will be turning in your direction or you could wait, keep looking for that “miracle” and 7 weeks from now you will still be hiding behind baggy sweats and loose t-shirts, feeling embarassed over what you look like.

The choice is yours – start today or keep looking…but remember, the quicker you start, the faster you will see results!

If you are looking to get flat tight female abs, are you working out the way you should or are you hoping to get them from a bottle of “fat melting” pills? If you think you can get a great looking stomach from a bottle, you are very wrong.

If you would like to look trim and sexy by the Holidays, vacation or next summer’s beach season, there are some things I am going to let you in on that are probably hindering your efforts to lose the stoamch fat.

Here are 3 tips to get you going in the right direction:

1. If you are using any kind of “fat burning” pills or over-the-counter diet remedies, please do yourself a favor and throw them away. The side effects are horrible and you are not doing your body any good. You may see results for a short period of time, but they do not work for the long term and they will certainly not get you flat abs.

2. Stay away from foods labeled as “low fat” and “sugar-free”. Most of these foods are packed full of other bad ingredients that actually cause you to store fat. Do not eat any processed foods. Stick to healthy, fresh foods that have lots of fat burning ingredients.

3. When it comes to exercises, if you have any of those so called “ab machines or gadgets” lying around, get rid of them. Women are taken in by advertisements promising a flat stomach, but these are actually worthless garbage. Also lots of women do lots of cardio thinking that by doing more, they will burn more fat. The opposite is true. Too much cardio can cause your metabolism to slow down and produce more fat.

I hope these tips have been enlightening and will get you to do what you need to do to get a flat, trim and sexy stomach. High intensity, fat-burning workouts will get you to your goal. Combine that with the proper diet and you have a recipe for success and you will have flat, tight female abs before you know it!

Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for busy people that always use the excuse that they don’t have time to go to the gym, or even for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.

Please keep an open-mind and don’t worry so much about what other people think, because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you’ll get the last laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that’s the case for you, then that’s your loss.

Here’s how it works (these workouts can be done at home or even in your office):

Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for 45 miutes to an hour at a shot… with this program, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.

The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your cube-mates watch you. Actually, I’ve found that some people that have tried this have actually gotten their co-workers to join them!

If you have a private office, then you don’t have to worry about anybody watching you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there’s no reason you can’t fit these in throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.

If you’re on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.

Some of the bodyweight exercises that are the best to focus on are:

bodyweight squats (and variations)
pushups (and variations)
forward, reverse, or walking lunges
up & down a staircase if one is available
floor planks (holding the plank position from forearms and feet)
floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts
This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to keep it real simple and don’t want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.

The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body’s muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it’s usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.

Here’s an example workout routine at home or the office (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):

Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am – 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am – plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total of 3 minutes)
11 am – 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm – plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm – 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm – plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm – max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)

Tues/Thurs
9 am – 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am – one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X for 2 sets
11 am – 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm – one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm – 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm – one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm – max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)

In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.).

The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you’ve accomplished with these “mini” workouts completed throughout each day… You’ve increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.

Even though each “mini” workout was a very short duration, you’ve accumulated lots of repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn’t even have to break a sweat during any of the “mini” workouts. And there’s hardly any excuse for not being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.

Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don’t have to devote any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little throughout the day. You’ve now got some extra free time on your hands!

Try this type of time-efficient workout routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I think you’ll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these “mini” workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.

Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn’t mean that you should only stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I’d recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means, don’t worry so much about what other people think…have the courage to try something a little different. In the end, you’ll be the one laughing back at all of the “blubber-bellies” at your office that are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!

If you liked these training ideas, my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs contains hundreds of more innovative training ideas to lose stubborn body fat and carve out a rock hard set of abs and a flat stomach.

Renegade Dumbbell Rows:

Starting  in a pushup position with your hands on 2 dumbbells, stabilize your body with one arm and row the other dumbbell up with the opposite arm. Alternate between the two arms. One stabilizes, while one rows. Your entire midsection should feel the burn.

Mountain Climbers:

Start in a pushup position and shuffle your feet in and out. Your knees should just about hit your chest. This is like mountain climbing only parallel to the floor.

Front Squats Using a Barbell:

Stabilize a barbell in front of you, resting it on your shoulders, by crossing your arms and pushing your fists into the bar against your shoulders while keeping your elbows out in front of your body. Although squats are mainly for the legs, front squats are very effective to getting flat abs because they require stabilization strength and you will feel it in your mid-section gauranteed. You may want to get help from a personal trainer because these are not easy to do at first.

Try to do 3-4 sets of 8 reps for each exercise. Mountain climbers can be done for a time interval (such as 30 seconds) instead of “reps”.

So there you have it. 3 great flat stomach workouts that really pack a punch. Try these exercises to boost your metabolism and give you a powerful workout in very little time each day.

The only problem though, is that spot reducing doesn’t work.

Why Can’t I Spot Reduce?

There is lots of misinformation out there on the benefits of all these revolutionary products.

1. Healthy Diet Is Important

You’ve probably heard this saying before –  ”you are what you eat”. Nothing could be more true. Everything you eat has an effect on the amount of fats that are stored in your body. Diet is the main culprit for the presence of fat. Unless you learn to eat a proper diet, no gadget in the world will make you lose any weight.

2. Spot Reduction Is a Mere Myth

You simply cannot attach some kind of device to your body or rub a cream on your problem areas to see any kinds of results. You need to learn what it will take to lose the fat and achieve any kind of goals. For instance, if you want those six pack abs, doing hundreds of crunches or situps just won’t do the trick. It takes more than that. Spot reducing exercises are not the answer.

3. There Are No Shortcuts

Diet pills and magic weight loss potions will not give you the healthy, toned body that is your goal. You will need to work at it and earn it. Looking great does not happen overnight. It takes time, dedication and the willingness to stick to it.

4. Health and Fitness Require Commitment

If you do lose the weight, it takes commitment to stay with your routine and not sway off track. You can’t eat right and exercise for a few months and then slip back into old habits. It has to be a permanent, conscious decision.

Do It the Right Way

No pain, no gain. If you don’t work at being fit and healthy, you will never achieve any results. Do not be a victim of the misleading information and empty promises of machines and gadgets that simply do not work.

Full body workouts are ones that use multiple joints and muscle groups. These will give a boost to your metabolism and burn those calories. Examples of some multi-joint exercises are:

• Lunges (works the lower body)  
• Bench Presses (works the chest, shoulders, back and triceps)  
• Squats (works the thighs and hips as well as the back, shoulders, chest and arms)  
• Pullups (biceps and back)  
• Pushups (chest, shoulders, back and triceps)  
• Leg Presses (strenghthens the quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteals) 

In addition to these you can add:

• Walking  
• Jogging  
• Biking  
• Rock Climbing  
• Jumprope

In the beginning, try working out every third day with two days of rest in between. You can then advance to working out every two days, with one day of rest. Most of these exercises can be done without having to buy expensive equipment or machines. Try different combinations of these exercises to decrease the boredom. If you are bored with your workout, you will do it less. Try switching a really good upper body workout with a brisk walk one day and then hitting the bike trails another. Jumping rope is an excellent cardio vascular workout as well. 

Working the entire body is key. These types of exercises will give a boost to your metabolism, increasing your fat burning capabilities and producing rock hard abs as a result. Forget all those weird contraptions you have floating about your house. They don’t work and will not produce the results you want, if any at all. What you really want is to work every inch of your body to lose belly fat and uncover those “six-pack-abs” you dream about.

You will get the best results from a morning workout. This will give your metabolism a boost for the day and increase the ability to lose belly fat throughout the day. There is a bit of controversy about doing a workout on an empty stomache or eating first. Some people complain of getting cramps if they workout after eating. It’s probably best to eat a small amount of carbohydrates and protein, preferably in a liquid form, before doing your workout. This way you get enough energy and less cramps. Before you start any exercise routine, consult your physician and get an ok. This is especially important if you have ongoing health problems or are trying to lose belly fat due to pregnancy. After pregnancy your body needs time to rest and recover. Doing exercises too quickly could be too strenuous and actually do you harm.