A unique exercise you can use to help flatten your stomach while driving in the car?

This may sound a little weird to do this in the car, but it actually WORKS to slowly help to flatten your belly over time if done consistently

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-sellers:  The Fat-Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

With today's short article, I wanted to show you a VERY simple exercise that you can do anytime, anywhere to help get a flatter stomach over time.
Now I will preface this by saying that this specific exercise does NOT increase fat burning, but it CAN help to flatten your stomach by strengthening your deeper transversus abdominis muscles and hence "pulling in" a lazy stomach (aka beer belly or "pooch belly").
It involves doing an exercise called "ab vacuums"...
I find it a good time to get in the habit of doing daily ab vacuums while driving on your daily commute or another time that would get you in the habit of doing them regularly.
(please make sure this doesn't distract you from driving safely... I find that it doesn't distract me at all, since you can keep your eyes on the road at all times and both hands still on the wheel...it's certainly much safer than driving while on a cell phone!)
Of course, ab vacuums can be done anywhere and at anytime and don't have to be just for driving, but I've found that it helps me to remember to do them if I do them at a specific time when driving regularly.... this could be while driving home from the gym every time (I do this 3-4x per week while driving home from the gym), or perhaps during your daily commute to work.
They even help to strengthen your core and support a healthy back!
Ab vacuums are simple (Instructions)

• You can do them standing, seated (such as in a car), kneeling in a four-point position, or even lying flat on the floor.  I prefer them seated or standing.
• The movement is as simple as pulling your belly button in as far as you can by imagining you're trying to touch your belly button to your spine and holding for 10-20 seconds at a time.
• Start by inhaling deeply. Then, as you exhale, start pulling the belly button in towards the spine and hold it there for 10-20 seconds while just taking short breaths. Repeat for several of these 10-20 second holds, perhaps 5-10x if you have enough time while in the car.  But even just repeating 3-4x every time you're driving somewhere can really add up over time and give you the benefit of a flatter belly!
• Get in the habit of doing this at least 4-5 days per week while driving somewhere and you may find that this helps to flatten your stomach more by strengthening the transversus abdominis muscle (the deep abdominal muscles beneath the rectus abdominis) if you previously had a "lazy belly".

Like I said previously, this "ab vacuums" exercise does NOT increase fat burning... it only helps to flatten a round stomach that has lazy deep ab muscles, and it will strengthen your core.  It's worth a place in your weekly belly-flattening repertoire, BUT...
If you actually want to BURN OFF the fat from your abdomen, you MUST apply the tested and scientifically-proven fat-burning principles on the next page.
 
Here's What to do Now...
On the next page below, you're going to discover some extremely SIMPLE tricks that you can apply to your daily life to BALANCE your hormones, BOOST your metabolism, and fire up your fat-burning machine inside your body...  there are 101 total "tricks" you can use to flatten your stomach faster, including these:

• Belly-Flattening Trick #1:    The simple twist to your morning routine that INSTANTLY jump-starts your metabolism and boosts fat-burning by as much as 30%!
• Belly-Flattening Trick #5:    The tasty beverage you've been WARNED to stay away from...but new-found studies reveal the shocking health benefits jam packed in this potent anti-aging & fat-burning "elixer"!
• Belly-Flattening Trick #15:    The amazing "super-food" that in one clinical study, dissolved away more than 10 extra pounds in 12 weeks...WITHOUT DIETING or any other lifestyle changes!
• Belly-Flattening Trick #99:    The candle (yes, candle) that can help maximize your body’s own natural release of age-defying, fat-melting growth hormone and have less fat on your body within the next 8 hours!
   

Some of these fat-burning tricks are odd, some are crazy, some involve your diet, others exercise, and some involve your mind - but they all have one thing in common... they are all SIMPLE!
All you have to do to discover those tricks, and so many more, is head to the Next Page...

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The Ultimate Hard-Body Exercise

Get a rock-hard body from head to toe, and ripped abs with this exercise!by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
author of best-selling program - The Truth about Six Pack Abs

A Look at the "Front Squat" (a surprising exercise not only for legs, but also rock hard abs!)
As you may have already discovered, the squat is at the top of the heap (along with other greats like deadlifts and clean and presses) as one of the most effective overall exercises for stimulating body composition changes (muscle gain and fat loss). 
This is because exercises like squats and deadlifts use more muscle groups under a heavy load than almost any other weight bearing exercises known to man.  Squats and deadlifts use hundreds of muscles throughout your entire body to move the load and also to stabilize your body while doing the drill.
Hence, these exercises stimulate the greatest hormonal responses (increasing fat-burning & muscle building growth hormone, testosterone, etc.) of all exercises. 
Another weird fact:  University research studies have even proven that inclusion of weighted squats into a training program increases upper body development, in addition to lower body development, even though upper body specific joint movements are not performed during the squat. Whether your goal is gaining lean muscle mass, losing body fat, building a strong and functional body, or improving athletic performance, the basic squat and deadlift (and their variations) are a couple of the ultimate exercises to accomplish this. 
If you don’t believe me that squats and deadlifts are THE basis for a lean and powerful body, then go ahead and join all of the other overweight people pumping away mindlessly for hours on boring cardio equipment and getting zero results!
Squats can be done with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or even just body weight. Squats should only be done with free weights – NEVER with a Smith machine!  (This article shows why smith machine squats are a horrendous exercise for your body)
Side note:  My program, The Truth About Six Pack Abs contains the full story on why machines are so inferior and even potentially DANGEROUS compared to free weights.
The type of squat that people are most familiar with is the barbell back squat where the bar is resting on the trapezius muscles of the upper back.  Many professional strength coaches believe that front squats (where the bar rests on the shoulders in front of the head) and overhead squats (where the bar is locked out in a snatch grip overhead throughout the squat) are more functional to athletic performance than back squats with less risk of lower back injury. 
I feel that a combination of all three (not necessarily during the same phase of your workouts) will yield the best results for overall muscular development, body fat loss, and athletic performance.  Front squats are moderately more difficult than back squats, while overhead squats are considerably more difficult than either back squats or front squats. I'll cover overhead squats in a future newsletter issue.
If you are only accustomed to performing back squats, it will take you a few sessions to become comfortable with front squats, so start out light. After a couple sessions of practice, you will start to feel the groove and be able to increase the poundage.
To perform front squats:
The front squat recruits the abdominals to a MUCH higher degree for stability due to the more upright position compared with back squats. It is mostly a lower body exercise, but is great for functionally incorporating core strength and stability into the squatting movement. If you're doing front squats right, you'll feel a hard contraction in your abs during these.
It can also be slightly difficult to learn how to properly rest the bar on your shoulders. There are two ways to rest the bar on the front of the shoulders.
In the first method, you step under the bar and cross your forearms into an “X” position while resting the bar on the dimple that is created by the shoulder muscle near the bone, keeping your elbows up high so that your arms are parallel to the ground. You then hold the bar in place by pressing the thumb side of your fists against the bar for support.  This technique is a bit tricky and you want to make sure to have the weight resting on muscle and not bone!
Alternatively, you can hold the bar by placing your palms face up and the bar resting on your fingers against your shoulders. For both methods, your elbows must stay up high to prevent the weight from falling. Your upper arms should stay parallel to the ground throughout the squat. Find out which bar support method is more comfortable for you.
Then, initiate the squat from your hips by sitting back and down keeping the weight on your heels as opposed to the balls of your feet. Squat down to a position where your thighs are approximately parallel to the ground, then press back up to the starting position. Keeping your weight more towards your heels is the key factor in squatting to protect your knees from injury and develop strong injury resistant knee joints.
Keep in mind – squats done correctly actually strengthen the knees; squats done incorrectly can damage the knees. Practice first with an un-weighted bar or a relatively light weight to learn the movement.  Most people are surprised how hard this exercise works your abs once you learn the correct form.
You also need to use a good bit lighter weight on front squats compared to back squats.  For example, personally, I use about 250 lbs for 8 reps on the back squat, but on the front squat, I need to be around 175 lbs for 8 reps, so a good bit lighter.


START/FINISH

MIDPOINT
So there you have it... one the best exercises for both rock hard abs, and a rock hard body from head to toe!  I could list a LOT more, but wanted to focus on front squats today as they are one of the most under-utilized.

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