An effective component of any exercise routine is resistance bands and this includes exercises for the stomach. Resistance bands are incorporated into a lot of exercising focused on the midsection. There are a variety of difficulties for resistance bands which will normally be indicated by the bands color such as red meaning difficult or yellow being medium resistance. Pick a level of resistance that is right for you and increase it as needed. You can injure yourself by overdoing and starting with the highest resistance level you can find. Injuries are avoided by proper warm ups and talking to a professional before starting any exercise regimen.

Seated Crunch
There is reduced neck strain and no discomfort caused by this exercise when lying on the floor even though the benefits of this exercise are the same as the traditional abdominal crunch since the resistance is provided by the band instead of gravity. You need a straight back chair you can loop the resistance band through to sit in for this exercise. With feet on the floor flat and hip width apart sit up straight; contract the abdominal muscles while bending forward to an angle of forty-five degrees slowly. Repeat. The back should remain as straight as possible and the feet should stay on the floor.

One-Arm Band Pull
Keeping the feet apart hip width lose the chair and stand up. Hold the band approximately eighteen inches apart with your hands over your head. Leave the left hand above your head and bring the right arm to your side bending the elbow approximately ninety degrees. Contract the abdominals without moving the left arm while lowering the right arm so the hand is lined up with the chest. Hold before returning slowly. Perform one set then alternate hands. Do not lean or bend at the waist your back should be straight. Stand on one foot while doing this exercise if you need more of a challenge. Use both hands to do the exercise while standing on the right foot then do the same thing standing on the left foot.

Twisting Roll-Back
A flat surface such as the floor is needed to sit on to do this stomach exercise. Strain to the tail bone can be reduced by cushioning yourself with a towel or mat. Sit down with your heels on the floor and legs bent. The feet shouldn’t be flat you want the toes to point up. Put on end of the band in each hand and put them together after looping the other end over the feet. Lower the torso about forty-five degrees to the floor with a rolling motion. Spread your hands to the sides and twist to the right while you do this. Hold briefly before rotating to the middle and raising the torso back to the beginning position. During the entire exercise you want your heels to stay on the floor. Do a complete set before alternating sides.

Last week, I gave you the “1% rule”, which showed that all it really takes is 1% of your available time dedicated to intense exercise to get as lean and strong as you want. It just shows how insane it is to hear someone complain that they “don’t have time to workout”.

This week, I’m going to give you the “morning rule” for getting in top shape permanently…

What the “morning rule” involves is making sure that you start every day by doing something very healthy for yourself… and by starting each day with a positive action that makes you feel good about doing this healthy action, it makes it harder to fall off the wagon later in the day.

This healthy action in the morning could be doing a good workout first thing in the morning or it could be cooking up an extremely healthy breakfast that gets you feeling great… or better yet, BOTH!

I’ve found that getting people to engrain a healthy ritual first thing in the morning makes it easier for them to follow healthy habits the rest of the day.

After all, you feel so good from your morning workout and your healthy breakfast that you can’t possibly even conceive of eating any of those donuts that your co-worker brought in… and you’ll certainly find it easier to just drive right past the fast food joint and instead make yourself a healthy lunch because you want to keep the momentum going in the right direction from the great start to the day that you had.

This is yet another one of those small pieces to the big puzzle… but when you put all of these together, you eventually have the habits and rituals of a fitness lifestyle that works for you on a permanent level… So start tomorrow with a great workout, a super-healthy breakfast, or both, and make this a healthy daily morning ritual.

Before I go, just wanted to mention that my friends at Prograde are having an 11%-off sale on their Cravers low-cal organic snack bars until the end of Friday. These little buggers are delicious organic snack bars best used for those times of the day that you just need a quick but healthy snack instead of giving in to the vending machine junk food or fast food.