Free The No More Excuses Diet by Maria Kang Page A

Combined with a healthy diet and exercise plan, you can start seeing results within three weeks. (For illustrations of these moves, see here and here .)
    1. Engage your core for 3 minutes three times a day. Here is an exercise to remind yourself to engage your core. Inhale and imagine drawing in your belly button toward the small of your back. Exhale and watch your belly tighten. Do this small exercise while sitting in your office chair, standing in line at the grocery store, or walking to the mailbox. Tighten your belly and imagine your core muscles hardening. That’s engagement.
    2. Perform three exercises that focus on yourtransverse abdominals (TVA) three times a week. Your TVA are the deepest core muscles in your body. You can’t see them but you will always feel them the next day after a deep core workout. The very best exercise for the TVA are variations of the plank, like pikes and side planks.
    3. Perform 30 repetitions with 30-second breaks. Core muscles are used all the time, so focus on total engagement for a sustained period of time. Breaks should last only 30 seconds.
    4. Train yourlower back twice a week. Supermans, dead lifts, and back extensions are great exercises to strengthen the lower back. Perform three sets of 15 to 20 repetitions twice a week. If you commit to a lower back program, your abdominal area will notice a huge difference.
    PRACTICEBREATHING PROPERLY
    You should always exhale during the “hard” phase. For example, when you are performing a toe touch or bicycle crunch (see this page ), you exhale when you crunch. When you are performing an active superman (see this page ), you exhale when you raise your arms and legs.
    Core Truth #3: Core work must engage thelower back andabdominal muscles.
    Very often we are looking at only what we see in the mirror, which is usually our front. It’s not an accident that most people fail to train their back, hamstrings, and calves. You just don’t see them as much! You have to remember that our bodies are an entire unit made up of different parts. Our thighs, for example, can flex and extend because both the hamstrings (the back of the leg) and the quadriceps (the front of the leg) are performing the action. This is the same concept for the abdominals. To strengthen one side, you must equally engage the other side.
    One of the best exercises to activate your back is the superman ( see here ). You lie on your stomach and raise your arms and legs at the same time. If you want to make it more challenging, try incorporating some movement by raising your legs and arms up and down simultaneously for 15 to 20 repetitions. This lower-back exercise elongates and stretches the front of your body and assists in the overall development of your abdominal muscles.
    Core Truth #4: The core’s most often the LAST place you will see develop.
    Many people have heard the phrase “abs are made in the kitchen.” It’s true to the extent that it requires a disciplined diet to burn the last 10 pounds of fat sticking to your body. Your body doesn’t know you want to look sexy in a swimsuit or fit into your high school jeans. It just wants to survive, and so it stores extra energy in the form of fat as a safety precaution. That’s why losing the last 10 pounds to uncover your abdominal muscles is so difficult—it goes against your body’s natural instinct for self-preservation. Seeing your abdominal muscles pop will require you to be at a lowerbody fat percentage, which can be attained only by eating a very healthy diet and committing to an intense exercise routine that will speed up yourmetabolism.
Let’s Talk About Strength
    Strength training is all about control. It’s about challenging your body with the right amount of opposition, without straining yourself. It’s about becoming stronger because your core is stronger. It’s about increasing your flexibility, your bone strength, and your metabolism.
    There are two types of exercise:aerobic andanaerobic. Aerobic