Crunches May Be Stopping You From Getting Six Pack Abs

Written By Chouhab on jeudi 8 janvier 2009 | 06:35

By Jose Loni

Lately, the controversial question is, are crunches bad for six pack abs. No, they are not bad for six pack abs, but if your goal is to attain visible six-pack abs, then you need to focus on other aspects of exercise and diet. Concentrating on resistance exercises that increase our metabolism to burn fat, monitoring our diet and reducing the amount of stress in our lives.

Doing crunches may be stopping you from getting six pack abs because it doesn't focus on what needs to be trained. Crunches strengthen, stabilize and develop the abdominal area. But to get six pack abs, we need to focus on overall fat burning.

Fat burning exercises consist of overall exercises that increase our metabolism to further burn body fat. When we increase our metabolism, our bodies utilize the excess body fat in our stomach area, which allows the underlying abdominal muscles to become more visible.

Resistance training has been shown to increase metabolic activity and help the body to consume more body fat. Increasing lean body mass from resistance training allows us to utilize more fuel for our muscles.

Our diet plays an important role in getting six pack abs. Eating smaller portion meals more frequently throughout the day allows our bodies to maintain energy levels and stabilize our blood sugar. Also, eating better quality foods, well balanced in protein, carbohydrates, fat, minerals and vitamins, will help us to achieve our goal of six-pack abs.

Stress has a way of counteracting our efforts. With increased stress, Cortisol is released and causes the body to store more fat in the abdominal area. The fat is stored there to help prepare the body for an emergency situation.

There are activities that are effective in reducing our stress. Activities like yoga, tai chi and deep breathing have all been shown to decrease stress in people.

Six pack abs are not a direct result of doing crunches. In fact, it may be stopping you from getting six pack abs. We should focus on overall fat burning activities like resistance training, watching our diet, and reducing the stress in our lives. Understanding these facts and being disciplined to change can achieve your goal of getting six pack abs.

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