Abdominal Exercises - The Real Truth About Six Packs!
Getting six packs is supposedly all about Abdominal Exercises. Well the truth is, that this could not be further from the truth. The reality is that you can build your six packs up until the cows come home, but until you get your body fat way down, no body will ever see them!
It seems that every time you turn the television on there is another new info commercial selling the latest and greatest abdominal machine that is designed to give you abs of steel in no time at all.
Well if only it was that easy then everybody would be walking around with a six packs but unfortunately that’s not the case.
Most of these advertisements are for machines that are designed to assist in the process of exercising the specific abdominal muscles required to build yourself a six pack. And most of them do quite a good job of that. But what these advertisements always neglect to advise is the fact that you will never see those abdominal muscles without removing the fat that covers them.
So while you are working away at your situps or using whatever machine it is you have purchased, you must also work very hard to reduce your body fat.
Abdominal exercises won’t generally burn a lot of fat so don’t think that doing abdominal exercises alone will get do the job of both building your muscles AND burning away your excess body fat.
Only a carefully constructed weight loss program will help you get down to a body fat percentage that will ave that fabulous new six pack actually on display!
So what are the best abdominal exercises you can do?
The three best exercises are;
- The use of the Swiss ball, these cost around $50.00 for a good one and normally come with a comprehensive set of exercise instructions. In your early training, concentrate on the crunch style where you have your feet on the ground, your lower back on the ball and your arms on your chest. The movement is to raise your head and shoulders while keeping your lower body as stable and still as possible. If you don’t have a swiss ball and would rather not buy one then standard crunches will do fine. The difference with the swiss ball is that it engages more of your deeper abdominal and supportive muscles, and really enhances your “core stability”
- A static hold similar to a push up posture. Assume a classic push up position. If you can not hold this for more than a couple of seconds, you can use the “cheats” position by dropping your knees to the ground. Once you have you push up position established, now drop from your hands to your elbows and hold this position with a nice straight body for as long as you can. Your objective will be 1 minute, and to do the hold three times with a 2 minute interval (gap between exercises) This will build your “obliques” which are the abdominal muscles that go over you hip bones. A great set of obliques acts just like a picture frame for your six pack!
- And leg raises. Lying on your back with your arms aid out on the floor and slightly away from your body. You bring your knees up to your chest while supporting your upper body with your arms. This exercise will really work the upper region of your abs.
These exercises should see you strengthening and improving your abdominals without the need for any exercise equipment other than the swiss ball which is optional in any case.
You should perform at least one of these exercise per day. The first time you perform each exercise record what your maximum result was. Then multiply that by 80%. So if you can do 20 crunches on the swiss ball, 80% = 16.You should then do each exercise in sets of three with a 2 minute interval using the 80% number.
At the begiing of each week you should re test what your maximum is and adjust your workouts according to the 80% rule.
Good luck and remember, persistencepays off so get over it and g on with it!
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