Learn the Truth About Weight Loss and Getting Great Abs

Debunking The Ab Myth

Ab training has been done to death but it's time

to take another look. Why? Because people are still

training their abs wrong so all that ab training

information must not be doing the job.

1 - No Spot Reducing - Endless crunches will not

melt away the fat from your midsection. It just

doesn't work that way. And despite the "burn" of

high rep ab exercises, you barely burn any calories

while doing those endless crunches.

Your fat burning time is best spent elsewhere on

more effective training. You also don't work the

ab muscle intensely enough to develop it.

So endless high rep crunches fail on both counts -

poor muscle building and poor fat burning. Two

thumbs down as the cliche goes.

2 - The Abs are a Muscle and should be trained as such.

You don't need high reps and lots of sets to work

your abs. This just leads to overtraining.

Now, abs are a more endurance oriented muscle so

slightly higher reps may be more effective. However,

you should keep the reps at 20 or lower and work on

increasing the resistance.

Yes, you should be increasing the weights on ab

exercises, just like your other exercises. The stronger

your abs, the better they will look when the fat

is stripped away.

Ever see a really thin guy with a flat stomach but

no abs? The abs haven't been trained and aren't

developed enough to stand out even when the fat is

stripped away.

3 - Don't train the abs - What the heck do I mean

by this? Well, your abs get a lot of indirect work

from other exercises so you really won't need more

than a couple of hard sets of weighted crunches to

work your abs.

Your abs are a factor in exercises such as squats,

deadlifts, seated or standing presses, dumbbell

pullovers, pulldowns, etc. Don't believe me?

Next time you work out, do a few hard sets of standing

stiff armed pulldowns on the lat machine and tell

me your abs aren't sore the next day. I did them

yesterday and my abs are more sore than my back today.

If you want to develop a flat stomach with your abs

visible, you need to treat your abs like a muscle

and train that way. And you need to strip away

the fat with a proper training and nutrition program

designed around total fat loss, not trying to spot

reduce through endless crunches.

Is there anything out there in the fitness world

suffering from more misinformation that how to get

abs?

The number of ab machines constantly coming to

market is mind boggling. Especially considering

that they aren't needed and won't give you the

results that you want.

Let's set the record straight on ab training right

now and give you the real information you need so

you can say no to the next infomercial ab machine

and yes to actual abs.

1 - Training your abs consistently will eventually

give you the flat stomach or six-pack that you want.

No. It's not gonna happen if your abs are covered

by a layer of body fat and doing endless sets of ab

exercises is not the way to rid yourself of that

excess body fat.

2 - Train your abs everyday for best results.

Again, no. Your abs are a muscle, just like your

chest, lats, arms and so on. You should train your

abs just like these other muscles, with progressive

resistance and high intensity - then allow them to

rest and recover. Never train your abs more than 3

days a week.

3 - You need to do hundreds or reps and feel the burn

to get great abs.

Yep, again the answer is no. The abs a muscle just

like I mentioned above. To get six pack abs you

need to strip off the fat, but you also need to build

the abs to get them to really pop out.

If the muscle isn't developed, you'll just have a

flat stomach but no abs. The name of the game is

progressive resistance for sets of 8 - 20 reps, just

like your other muscles.

4 - Train the abs with lots of sets and high reps to

burn off stomach fat.

You guessed it. This is also false. Spot reduction

just isn't going to happen as much as we'd all like

it to. You can't burn fat on your stomach by doing

endless crunches.

You need to put together a proper weight lifting

program, nutrition plan, and cardio in order to rid your

stomach of that stubborn layer of fat and bring yout

your abs.

Gregg Gillies

Gregg Gillies is a speaker, consultant, fat loss expert, trainer and author. He teaches fitness via his articles, books and courses at his web site http://www.buildleanmuscle.com . He is the author of two books: Complete information on his books, along with lots of free articles are available at his site. And while there, don't forget to sign up for his free newsletter, "Fit Physique".