Surely if you do nothing else but do ab crunches all day long you’ll end up with a stomach like a washboard?
Er, well no, that’s not strictly true…
In fact, not only is it possible to get six pack abs without a single crunch, it’s also possible that relying on relentless crunching is moving you away from your desired flat stomach!
Ok, before I get carted off by the men in white coats, let me explain. Come to think of it, even if you *did* call the men in white coats, it would be *me* they would agree with!
It’s all to do with the physiology, the construction of the body around the abdomen. A six pack is a display of defined abdominal muscles. Crunching is a superb way of strengthening and building these muscles, but it’s vital to bear in mind, that if you currently don’t have that six pack, your ab muscles will most likely be covered with a layer of fat. It doesn’t have to be a rippling spare tire, Homer Simpson style, but there will be a layer of fat covering those muscles.
If you simply concentrate on building the abs, but do nothing about the fat, then as your abs develop, not only will they not be visible, but they will actually be pushing the layer of fat outwards! This is the last thing you want!
The layer of fat is one of the hardest areas to get rid of, so you need to start an all-round fitness regime if you really want a six pack. Try to focus on a good cardio workout, some sort of aerobic type exercise that will get your blood pumping and keep it in your target heart rate zone for at least 30 minutes and do your cardio at least 5 days a week for best results. Brisk walking, jogging, swimming and TaeBo are all good examples of a cardio workout. Gradually, and this won’t and cannot happen overnight, as the fat layer disappears, your ab muscles will become closer to the surface, and therefore more visible.
Take it from me, as someone who’s done it, the ab muscles get plenty of workout in everyday life, so are often defined enough so that once the fat layer had gone, they give off that familiar six pack look.
So there you are, a simple explanation of biology has got rid of almost any need for those horrible crunches!
You may want to do them to buff up your abs once the can be seen, but blimey they are hard enough to do at any time let alone if the effort is just going to waste!
Getting that elusive 6 pack doesn’t have to be hard, you just need to know the facts. To learn the best way to get Rock Hard Abs and receive a free copy of the special report “The Stubborn Fat Solution” please visit:http://www.squidoo.com/flatten-your-abs/
Are you interested in achieving a truly sculpted look like a celebrity or sports star? Although you may not readily admit to it, you probably have wondered how to get ripped abs and how best to achieve a rock-hard physique. This is an answer the vast majority of people would love to know.
However, remember that getting ripped abs is not something that will happen overnight, requiring serious time and dedication.
1. Lose the excess fat from the stomach. You will need to lower your body fat percentage to less than ten percent in order to show off the ripped abs you will achieve.
2. Reduce your total daily calorie intake. In order to best do this, refrain from consuming foods high in refined sugars or saturated fats. Furthermore, consider starting a diet high in protein and fiber. Also, remember to drink plenty of water and refrain from any sodas or other sugary drink.
3. Engage in intense cardio workouts to help burn through the fat. You should engage in a cardio routine no less than three days per week. Some cardio exercises you should consider doing are treadmill jogging or enrolling in a fitness class.
4. Once you have shed off the fat, concentrate on developing on building your abs. Begin with abdominal exercise like reverse crunches, abdominal crunches, knee raises, and side raises. For faster results, consider hiring a personal trainer or enroll in a class where an instructor can assist you. They will be able to show you other ab exercises you can do that will help you.
These are some tips on how to get ripped abs. If you want to use techniques that are guaranteed to help you get abs fast, click here.
If you can manage to convince yourself that exercise is natureâs way of helping you to stay fit and young, and not the sadistic invention of some health nut, you might just be able to get in some ab exercises into your busy schedule to help your abs look their very best.
It doesnât matter whether itâs the height of summer and you need to display your tight abs to the whole world, or whether itâs the depths of winter and youâre trussed up tighter than turkey at Thanksgiving, if you want to be of the class of people who are uber fit and trim, then you will need to give in and do some type of ab exercises to help you out.
No one is born with well defined muscles, and everyone who wants them, needs to work at it. And, horror of horrors, this means that you will have to get your very own workout routine going. You will not only need to do ab exercises to help you get your firm flat abs, but you will also have to incorporate into your lifestyle an all over workout as well.
Why, you might ask? Well, you could do like all those magazines and things say and try to get well-defined abs by doing only ab exercises, but you will soon find out that this is a lost cause â or maybe you wonât find out. Some people can go on for years doing the same fruitless ab exercises because they believe everything being told to them about ab exercises, and more simply to the point they donât know any better, and so they continue on their way doing ineffective exercises.
However, if you know better, or if you come across information that gives you the unvarnished truth, you might have a fighting chance of making your ab exercises work for you. Whatâs the unvarnished truth then? Trying to target only your abdominal muscles and working or giving a workout to only these muscles, will not help you to achieve greater ab definition. This is a myth.
You need to do other, all over-body exercises as well for the ab exercises to have some impact and affect on your abs. Why is this? Because doing ab exercises alone, isnât going to give your body the necessary workout it needs. And even though you can get a schedule going where you only do your ab exercises three days a week, you should ideally do some other type of exercises either along with it on the same days, or on the other days so that you rotate your exercise schedule.
This is the way forward when trying to achieve the well defined ab muscles which have become the latest fad, but which are also, if you but admit it, healthy for you. And if you combine your ab exercises with other workouts plus a good diet, you will find that you are much better off than you were earlier.
Muna wa Wanjiru Has Been Researching and Reporting on Abs for Years. For More Information on Ab Exercises, Visit His Site at AB EXERCISES
If you want to get ripped abs, stop the crunch marathon, quit the gym and train this way. Learn how to get a ripped, toned, shredded physique without the rules of a gym by going to www.rockbodyfitness.com
