Lets be honest, who doesn’t want a flat stomach?

But for many people it doesn’t matter how many crunches or sit-ups we do it never seems to happen. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me the following question:

“Everyday I do hundreds of sit ups and crunches but I still have fat around my midsection. How come?

Well before I reveal the 6 pack system, first I’m going to debunk some very important myths regarding how to get 6 pack abs.

Myth 1. You must lose weight to see your abs.

This is not entirely true, the focus should be on fat loss rather than weight loss.

The reason?

Your body consists of fat mass and lean body mass (muscle, bone, water, organs etc). The key is to minimize your fat mass and increase your lean body mass to ramp up your metabolism, a body that starves fat and builds muscle like clockwork.

So if you lose 8 kilos of scale weight but lose some lean muscle in the process you will slow down your metabolism, decrease performance and lose muscle tone.

However…

If you lose 8 kilos on the scale but keep your lean muscle you increase your performance, increase muscle tone and lose mostly body fat.

The scale has far too many variables to account for that lead to frequent fluctuations such as hydration levels, sodium intake, and for women the menstrual cycle. I firmly believe one should NOT keep a scale at their home- it is such an anchor, particularly for women. Get off the scale and get over the numbers. The true goal is fat loss, not weight loss. Focus on clothing size reduction, digital before and after pictures, and of course the mirror for the most accurate progress tracking.

Myth 2- Doing lot’s of abs training will burn stomach fat

Spot reduction doesn’t work. You can’t train a region of the body and expect to lose body fat in that area. Nearly everyone you see does crunches but only a few people will do total body workouts so why isn’t more people walking around with flat stomachs and fat arms, legs etc. Spot reduction doesn’t work!

Everybody loses fat in a genetically pre-determined way when you create a calorie deficit through proper dietary habits and the correct training methods. So the best way to train is to focus your training around burning as many calories as possible by training your whole body every workout and not just your abs. Big exercises that work more than one muscle at a time like push ups, chin ups, squats, lunges etc burn far more calories than working one muscle at a time like crunches and sit ups. So make sure you focus your training around these big movements and only do specific abs work to supplement the rest of your training.

Myth 3- Sit ups and crunches are the N0.1 exercise for abs

The scientific term for your six-pack muscles are your rectus abdominis. For years now, we have been conditioned to think that the best way to work your rectus abdominis is by doing endless crunches and sit-ups since these trunk flexion exercises make the muscles you want to see in the mirror “burn.” However, the true function of the rectus abdominis is to prevent hyperextension, not to flex forward over and over again. Anytime you brace your abs (think slight crunch before you get punched in the gut) and pull your navel into your spine you effectively stabilize your spine into a safe, neutral position. And the moment you relax your abs and lose that braced abs position, your back will begin to hyperextend putting you at greater risk for injury.

So, we focus on stabilization exercises in all three planes of movement (saggital- front to back, frontal- side to side, and transverse- rotational) by using pillar exercise variations (also know as planks). Besides training the true “anti-extension” function of your superficial ab muscles, these bridging/stabilization exercises also activate the key transverse abdominus muscles, or your deep abdominal stabilizers, that wrap around your spine and support your internal organs. Strengthening these inner ab muscles is the key to optimal posture and performance in addition to injury prevention, yet another benefit to performing pillars over primitive crunches and sit-ups that often cause unwanted neck and back pain.

Myth 4- Long bouts of cardio will burn fat and reveal your abs

Real world case studies and scientific studies prove that aerobic training for fat loss alone isn’t the most efficient way to train. Whole body resistance training is the best way to train for fat loss. Furthermore HIIT (interval training) has been scientifically proven to burn nine times more body fat than ordinary exercise. At our boot camps we combine resistance training and interval training to combine the best of both worlds.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2 of The Six Pack Abs System.

Till then.

Dan Clay

Tags: boot camp, boot camp eastern suburbs, boot camp sydney, bootcamps, Fat loss, group fitness sydney, Group Personal Training Sydney, Outdoor Fitness Sydney, Personal trainer Sydney, weight loss

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Ab Training, Boot Camp Fitness Sydney, Diet, Fat loss, Fitness Tips, Personal trainer Sydney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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