A natural abs workout is the unconscious movements we all make during our day, every day. Even a simple activity like walking provides the abdominal muscles with a mild workout. Other day to day movements and activities like stretching, driving, standing, turning and bending also induce the abs to work. Without doubt these natural workouts are working out our abs all the time because if they weren’t you would not be able to do all of the above movements.

Think of the example of the astronaut in space who looses muscle mass and strength due to the weightlessness because the body does not have to work against gravity, so therefore loses strength. Fortunately, we do have gravity on earth so our abs along with all the other muscles in our body maintains strength.

The modern lifestyle has had a negative impact on the effectiveness of the natural abs workout. The modern lifestyle can viewed as increased sugar and fats in our foods, the convenience and accessibility of food (no need to catch the rabbit yourself for dinner any longer). The work place has become less laborious over the years due to a less rural economy (less tilling the land by hand). More automation, equipment and technology has now replaced a lot of the grunt work. The days of running free have gone for the young what with curfews earlier and earlier, play boundaries reduced and the increased security and protective society which now exists. Sorry, a little bit off topic but you get the point that all these issues reduce the opportunity for our body to naturally stay in shape.

We all have a natural base exercise which we unconsciously do every day. It would not take much effort to take advantage of this free source of workout. Below are some easy ways to capitalize on your free natural workout.

1) Walking: straighten your back and lift your head high. Feel the abs tighten! Advance this tightening by tensing you abs for say 10 seconds and release. Depending how long you are walking for, tense your abs for 10 seconds and relax for 20 seconds and do as many of these reps as you can during your journey.

2) When driving: Again it’s as simple as sitting tall in the car seat and draw-in your abdominals, holding for 10 seconds and then release. You could use the street blocks or traffic lights as counters for the draw and release. Why not at least get some benefit from that commute time. If you are on your way home to do a workout, you may have already done enough of these abdominal exercises to warrant not having to do any more that day… RESULT.

3) Standing or sitting: try standing and sitting normally. Then tense your abs and do it again. The difference is subtle but if you do this all the time when sitting and standing it will become natural to you.

4) Generally, in all your movements, take a couple of seconds and think to yourself “how can my abs assist me in this movement”. You’ll find that they can assist you in numerous ways and even add further value in that by using the abs more may take the strain off your back?

Conclusion
You can see that all of the above movements are natural movements. Movements that you do in life every day. Why not capitalize on these movements and get some payback from them. No, these movements will not be the be all and end all of your work out regime. But it will definitely make your work outs and achieving your visible abs easier and faster since you are conditioning your abs daily.