I've been researching the best ways to work your abs, or how much you should work them in a given week. Some sites say you should work them everyday and others say no more than twice a week.

I know when I did P90X I was doing it 3 times a week at 15 minutes per but I didn't get the results I wanted... Probably because at the time I was a 260lb man standing at 5'11. Now I'm down to 173 and would like to focus on this area as I still have a little flab on the belly.

So my questions are:

1) How often should I work my abs.

2) What should my focus be when working them? Meaning, should I focus on different areas on each workout or do the same like I did in P90X.

3) Should I eat lots of proteins after doing an ab workout like I do with weight lifting workouts?

(Just to clarify with the P90X, I dropped all my weight doing this workout. I'm sure if I had done one more round of it I would get the results I want.)

Thanks for the help.

According to our fellow SB Nation blog site, Gang Green Nation and The Newark Star-Ledger, free agent kicker Jay Feely reportedly has agreed to terms on a two-year contract to become the new kicker of the Arizona Cardinals. From the Star-Ledger:

Unrestricted free agent kicker Jay Feely has agreed to terms on a two-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on behalf of either side.

Feely had a fairly good season in '09, hitting 30 of his 36 field goals, while missing just three from 40 yards or longer. He has been consistent over his career as well, matching or increasing his 80% success rate over the past six seasons (total of 179 field goal attempts).

Update: Jay Feely confirmed the signing on his twitter account:

I am officially an Arizona Cardinal!! Very excited to head to the desert with former teammates @kerryrhodes and Joey Porter.

Ken Whisenhunt responded to the change at kicker

“When you get to free agency and we have no kickers on the roster, that’s an unsettling feeling for the organization,” Whisenhunt said. “We attempted to sign Neil. We were forced to move on to the next guy when we couldn’t get anything done. Not that we didn’t think Neil could do it, but we had been working in negotiations and hadn’t made a lot of progress.”

Feely will be replacing Neil Rackers, who was famous for his pooch and onside kicks - often catching opposing teams off guard. He was also a fairly accurate kicker when not injured(somewhat often), making 161 of his 195 field goals (82.5 success rate). However, when the game was on the line, Rackers struggled - becoming the primary reason the team is parting ways. What are your thoughts on the new signing?

Negatives: He's is a bit small for the position, listed at 5-11 and 203 pounds. Although the size has not been a problem for him, it is still a red flag. He also tends to lead with his shoulders looking for a big hit instead of wrapping up the ball carrier and bringing him down. With the type of high-caliber player that Berry is though, these problems won't be a big deal.

Why the Chiefs will take him: The Chiefs have many needs on their team and they could possibly go defensive tackle here with Gerald McCoy on the board, but Berry is too good to pass on. Not only will he upgrade that awful secondary immediately, but he will also help out in the run defense that was ranked 31st in the NFL last season. This too me, is just a no brainer on KC's part.

Thanks to Pyromnc for making this pick and that move now puts lorenzothedog on the clock with the Seattle Seahawks first pick. Please email me sometime today at revengeofthebirds@gmail.com. Also, az78true needs to submit the Browns pick on Saturday while CardsDefense needs to submit the Radiers pick on Sunday. The picks and who selected who are after the jump...

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Hat tip to JoeCB1991 for catching this first

Before the 2010 free agency gets kicked off on March 5th, Michael Bidwell and the rest of the Arizona Cardinals brass wanted to get a few contracts taken care of, with one of them belonging to head Coach Ken Whisenhunt.

Since moving to Arizona in 1988 the Cardinals have had 8 head coaches (including Whisenhunt) and none of them had served a second contract with the team, until Thursday. On Thursday afternoon, it was announced that Cardinal's head coach Ken Whisenhunt had agreed to a new four year deal (with the fourth being a team option). According to Kent Somers at azcentral.com, it is believed that the contract will pay an average of 5.5 to 6 million a year. If true, that would make him one of the highest paid coaches in the NFL, after surprisingly being one of the lowest paid head coaches the last couple seasons.

Whisenhunt has had a very successful career in his three years with the Cardinals, sporting a 31-23 record over that time period. In two of the three seasons Whiz, as Arizonan's like to call him, lead the team to two division titles and to their first ever Super Bowl appearence - not bad for a first time head coach.

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Now that the 2009 season is officially over, with the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl win, it is time to take a look at some possible moves for the Arizona Cardinals 2010 offseason.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Karlos Dansby

As much as the Cardinals and every Cardinal's fan out there would like Dansby to stay, consider him as good as gone. The deal that Dansby is worth, is around the same ballpark that Bart Scott got (48 million with 20 million being guaranteed). Dansby wants more than that, and another team will unwisely give into his request. That being said, at this point the Cardinals don't have an adequate backup to step up and fill Dansby's shoes. This means they will need to find his replacement either via the draft or free agency.

Through free agency there are a few names that could be available, such as DeMeco Ryans from the Houston Texans and Barrett Ruud from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but assuming there is no new CBA (collective bargaining agreement) in place by the time free agency starts, those players will be RFAs (restricted free agents). After you take away the RFAs from the list there is a significant drop off in talent. The best available would be Larry Foote, who would be nice signing for now but not really a long term answer. That is why the Cards will more than likely look to fill the position through the draft.

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With the return of Neil Rackers from a groin injury, the Cardinals had no need to keep two kickers on the roster with Mike Nugent. Nugent had 2 decent fill in games, making both his field goals and all eight of his extra points.

To fill Nugent's spot the Cardinals signed defensive end Jason Banks off the practice squad. Banks, who had been placed on the injured reserve back in August, had been on the teams practice squad for six weeks. He most likely will be inactive for this Sunday's game.

As for Rackers, the Cardinals get back a kicker that most teams have to game plan around when looking at special teams (although most teams don't take a huge look at special teams). He not only has been good with giving his team a chance at recovering pooch kicks this season, he has also been good at giving his team a good chance at recovering onside kicks. He was also 17/18 on field goals this season and missed one extra point (first missed attempt in 80 tries) in his final game before being out from injury.

In Green Bay, they have an immensely talented group of football players that spans through out each unit. If you wanted to talk about the offense, players such as quarterback Aaron Rodger's, wide receiver Greg Jenning's, and tight end Jermichael Finley's names come to mind. If you want to talk about the defensive players, then we're talking about linebacker Clay Matthews, linebacker Aaron Kampman, and defensive back Al Harris. There's one name missing from this group though, and that would be Charles Woodson. Woodson has not only been Green Bay's best player this season, but he's been one of the best, if not the best, defensive player in the NFL. This will be the player to watch out for on Sunday.

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The Arizona Cardinals came up with a huge win against the St. Louis Rams on Sunday, as they reached a double digit win total for the first since 1976. The Cardinals made it look easy as they held the Rams to just 10 points. The offense wasn't too shabby either as they had more than 400 yards of offense, and they did it with both the running game and passing game being in sync. This is exactly how they should look heading into the playoffs.


The Good

Kurt Warner had been having a tough stretch the past few weeks, turning the ball over five times (three of them interceptions), and only throwing two touchdowns. This week he came out and took care of his former team by throwing 313 yards (52nd time of his career) and two touchdowns (100th with the Cardinals). This is the Warner we all like to see, and hope this will be the Warner that shows up in two weeks when the playoffs begin. Warner had another fumble lost this week but that can be forgiven when he plays as well as he did in this game.

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The St. Louis Rams don't have much talent on their team. Their record of 1-13 really supports that claim. However, the talented players they do have should give them hope for the future. The obvious player to talk about would be Steven Jackson, but he was covered in the last game between the two teams. All the same holds true in this game as it did then; Jackson must be stopped. The other player the Cards will want to look out for is inside linebacker James Laurinaitis.

Laurinaitis was drafted with the 35th overall pick in this year's draft by new head coach Steve Spagnuolo, the former defensive coordinator for the New York Giants. Spagnuolo came over trying to fix a team that had a bad offense and a bad defense. He would take care of the offense, or at least start the process, by picking up such players a center Jason Brown in free agency and tackle Jason Brown in the first round of the draft. He would then start the process of fixing the defense by picking up safety James Butler and linebacker James Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis was projected to be a first round pick but slipped to the second and had to have made Spagnuolo very happy that he was there with their pick.

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After a tough loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the Arizona Cardinals were looking to rebound against the Detroit Lions. Everything indicated that happened when the Cardinals took an early 17-0 lead going into the half. Coming out of the half was a different story. Detroit came out and scored 17 unanswered points in the third quarter. The Cardinals pulled it together in the fourth quarter however, by putting up 14 points. The Cardinals were supposed to use this game to make a statement. They did - the Cardinals play down to the competition they face.

The Good

Beanie Wells had quite possibly, his best game since becoming a pro. He recorded his first 100 yard rushing game by putting up 110 yards on 17 carries (a 6.5 yard per carry average). He also tacked on a pivotal 18 yard touchdown in the 4th quarter that would get the Cardinals back into the game. Beanie is clearly the best back on the team, and it's evident coach Whisenhunt is aware as Wells had 17 carries compared to Tim Hightower's 6. Wells also recorded a 13 yard catch in the game.

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For the past decade, the Detroit Lions have been one of the worst organizations in the NFL. They failed to draft much talent and have had a handful of 1st round busts. They also failed to sign key players in free agency, and in front of their eyes they were actually running the organization into the ground. Those tendencies have started to change the past couple of seasons with very good draft picks in linebacker Ernie Sims, quarterback Matthew Stafford, running back Kevin Smith, and the immense talent at wide receiver in Calvin Johnson (aka Megatron). The Cardinals defensive backs better be aware of where Johnson is at all times, otherwise they may be in for a long game.

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When playing the San Francisco 49ers the past few years, you used to only worry about one player. That player was running back Frank Gore. While he is still a threat on offense, he hasn't been quite as good as he has been the last few games. This can be attributed to the new offense that has been made to make new starting quarterback Alex Smith comfortable. Since then, the dominate player has been tight end Vernon Davis.

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The past few seasons the Minnesota Vikings had been one of the better teams in the NFL. They had drafted, traded for, and signed such star players as defensive end Jared Allen, runningback Adrian Peterson, and guard Steve Hutchinson. These players are among the best at their positions in the league and helped the Vikings become a playoff team, but they still lacked the one player that could put them over the top. That player would end up being quarterback Brett Favre.

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The title says it at all as the Tennessee Titans would need every second to win this game. The Arizona Cardinals offense was not as good but that was because Kurt Warner sat out this game despite practicing all week. This would mean Matt Leinart would be getting his first start since 2007 when he got hurt against the St. Louis Rams. With Leinart getting the start, with virtually no practice time, the defense and run game would need to step up and help win this game. The run game was almost nonexistent and the defense did not play well when they needed to the most.

The Good

Matt Leinart was much better than most will give him credit for. He did start this game off pretty slow and some of his passes lacked some zip, but he would start to show some life in the second quarter. Through the first quarter and a half Leinart would complete just three of his nine passes (33.3 completion percentage) for 27 yards. For the rest of the game he would complete 18 of 22 passes (81.8 completion percentage) for 193 yards. Clearly he was rusty in the beginning of the game but after a few passes he helped this team move down the field. He would only help lead the team to one touchdown and one field goal but key drives would be held up because of penalties or dropped passes. Overall, Leinart had a pretty good performance despite having just ten percent of the practice reps during the week.

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After a season in which the Tennessee Titans started 10-0, they weren't able to duplicate that start for the 2009 season. They started this season off by going 0-6 and have not played well in any of those contests. Since that awful start, they made a change at quarterback by starting Vince Young instead of Kerry Collins. Ever since that move they have won four straight to make their record 4-6. Even though Young has played pretty decent since becoming the starter, he has not been the player that has carried this team, as that player would be running back Chris Johnson.

Johnson was a first round draft pick last season and was brought in to compete with LenDale White for the starting job. These two backs would not only compete with each other but become quite possibly the best running back duo in the NFL last season. Both runningbacks would combine for a total of 2277 yards and 25 touchdowns. Those are big numbers for a pair of runningbacks but this season has been different. Johnson has had an amazing season leading the league in rushing yards with 1242 over 10 games (124.2 yards per game) and 262 receiving yards. He has also has eight rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown. White has seen his playing time dwindle to almost nothing compared to last season getting just 63 touches that have gone for 220 total yards and two touchdowns. Johnson is clearly the back to worry about in this game.

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The Arizona Cardinals discovered a little bit more about Matt Leinart in Sunday's win against the St. Louis Rams. It wasn't because Arizona was blowing out the Rams, but because Kurt Warnercame out after getting a big blow to the head in the first half. Warner would be alright and would end up on the sidelines the remainder of the game, but coach Whisenhunt didn't want to take any chances. Luckily for the Cardinals, all of this happened after Warner led them to three touchdown drives.

The Good

The passing game was good despite not having Kurt Warner in the second half. Warner completed 15/19 passes (78.9 completion percentage) for 203 yards and two touchdowns. He would end up leaving because St. Louis's safety Oshiomogho Atogwe slammed Warner's head to the turf. This meant Matt Leinart would get a chance to prove he is the future of this team. Leinart looked rusty in the beginning but started to show signs that he could be a decent quarterback towards the end of the game. Despite the rustiness he would complete 10/14 passes (71.4 completion percentage) for 74 yards and no touchdowns. Overall, Leinart wasn't that bad considering he hasn't had much playing time this season.

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