Pilates is an excellent type of exercise to help you lose unwanted fat around the waistline. Surprisingly for a somewhat static type of exercise, Pilates can really get your blood pumping and cause you to work up a sweat.

Pilates is not only a very cost effective exercise, but this type of exercise can be extremely convenient as all exercises can be done pretty much anywhere.

All you need is a spare half an hour and you can do a thorough Pilates workout in the comfort of your own home.

Some excellent benefits of integrating Pilates into your exercise schedule:

• Low cost: for the price of a DVD video and mat you have everything to get started
• Convenience: no traveling to a gym or to a pool, pilates can be done in the comfort and privacy of your home
• Low impact: unlike running pilates is the perfect low impact exercise which greatly reduces the risk of injury
• Strength: pilates is an excellent strength building exercise which focuses largely on building your ‘core’ strength
• Cross Training Benefits: adding a regular pilates session to your training schedule will help you perform better at other exercise types like weights and running

The real key to using pilates for maximum results is to use this type of exercise to mix your training schedule up and keep your muscles guessing what’s coming next.

Using a session of pilates say twice a week, three days apart is a great way to ensure continued fat loss results.

Remember that no single type of exercise or type of physical training will give you miracle results. To get the best results you have to accumulate a number of different exercise types whether that be running, weights, pilates, swimming or anything else and become comfortable using them regularly.

In fact the more you mix your exercise types up the better!

Although you still have to enjoy doing the exercises, this helps you to avoid getting bored and losing motivation.

In many ways, motivation is much more important than the types of exercises you perform!

A great way to get the most out of a Pilates workout

Many people really like the idea of working out in the comfort of their own home which is why pilates has become hugely popular.

Although if you have never done pilates before, there is no way to know whether you are doing the exercises correctly and with good form and if your getting a good workout by properly isolating muscles.

It really pays then to do some classes at your local gym just to get the feel of how to properly perform many of the exercises.

Don’t be shy to pick the instructor’s brain and get some hints and tips on how to get the absolute max from the exercises in the class.

You won’t have to do to many classes to have a good feel on how to perform many exercises after which you can simply add more DVD’s to your collection and do most of your pilates sessions at home.

Although Pilates is a very popular exercise for women, it is just as effective for men!

In fact many male elite athletes use pilates along with weight training and other forms of physical training to obtain that competitive edge.

Pilates in general is an excellent tool to add to your training regime when your short on time and is extremely cost effective, though the key is get the most out of this exercise by integrating it effectively with a complete, planned training schedule.

The abdominal crunch is the most popular abs exercise of all time. It is done by everyone who is trying to develop their abs muscles. But there is a problem. Many of you aren’t doing it correctly.

So what’s wrong with my ab crunches?

You might be a little offended that I am just flat out telling you that you are doing the crunch wrong. I’m not trying to start some inter-site flame war, I am just trying to help.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Does your back get sore?
If you back gets sore while you are doing your crunches then there is a good chance your technique is way off. This is a sure sign.

2. Does your neck or throat get tight?
A common symptom of bad crunching is a tight or sore neck or throat. It shows that you aren’t putting the correct emphasis on the right muscles.

3. Are your abs growing?
The sure sign. If your abs haven’t improved over the last six weeks then you are doing something wrong. The whole point of the crunch is to make your abdominal muscles grow and if that isn’t happening then something is wrong.

4. Do other muscles get worked?
Is it just your abs doing the work or are your hip flexors and obliques stepping in and helping cover some of the load? Make sure you notice which muscles are sore the day after.

So how do I do the abs crunch properly?

Now that we have looked at some of the symptoms of a poor abdominal crunch we now have to look at how to do the damn thing properly. Here are some tips:

1. Keep your lower back on the floor
Make sure you are not sitting the whole way up. That is a sit up! Keep your lower back pressed against the floor.

2. Mentally crunch the abdominal muscles
As always, make sure you are mentally “crunching” the abs as you do the crunches. Do not just go up and down over and over again – you really need to make sure you are crunching them hard.

3. Go slowly
If you are finding that other muscles are getting sore it is most likely because you are going to fast and your technique is suffering. Make sure you go slow and concentrate on the technique.

If you want to learn more about the crunch the check out these other articles which give more tips and hints to help you get the most out of your abdominal crunch.