If there was one fitness goal that both men and women shared equally, it would be the pursuit of a six pack. Why have we become so obsessed with achieving and maintaining the washboard stomach? I know I put a lot of effort into maintaining my six pack, at least mental effort. It doesn’t matter where you are from or how old you are, everyone wants a six pack. Walk into a gym and you will see handfuls of people doing all sorts of different ab work. There will be people on crunch machines going crazy, people doing sit ups in an aerobics studio, and some people doing weighted ab work. All with the intent of having a midsection that David himself would be proud of. Where in history did this desire become ingrained in our brains? Back in the 16th century Michelangelo created the ultimate male physique with a six pack. All of the Greek and Roman gods had flat stomachs. It is a goal that has been around for a long time. Even with the centuries that man has been striving for a flat stomach, it still eludes the majority of people. That’s because people are doing it all WRONG.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret, stop wasting your time doing hundreds of crunches and sit ups, stop doing ab work every single day, and please stop using those stupid crunch machines and all of the other infomercial products. None of this will get you any closer to having a six pack. There is only one thing that you can do to achieve your ultimate goal, have a low body fat percentage. I don’t care how strong your abs are or how many crunches you can do. If you don’t have a low body fat percentage you will never have washboard abs. Men need to have their body fat around eight percent or lower and women should be close to 15 percent to see the definition in the abdomen. Every single person in the world has a six pack; there is just a thick layer of fat covering it. Once you get your body fat low enough, then it will start to appear. So don’t waste so much time striving for something that ab work alone will never achieve.

The number one way to achieve a six pack is to have near perfect nutrition. If you eat crap throughout the day or even a little too frequently it will be nearly impossible to achieve a six pack. Now there are those few exceptions, people who have an easy time maintaining abs Adonis himself would be proud of, but for the majority of people it takes work. The second way to obtain a six pack is through exercise. Any form of exercise will burn calories, which in the long run will help keep your body fat in check and hopefully lower it, as long as the exercise intensity is correct. There are a few previous posts that cover the topics of nutrition and one specifically on how to maximize your cardio. In the future I will continue adding posts to provide information on nutrition and exercise, but for now I want to maintain the focus on the abs.

Just because you can’t achieve a six pack by doing ab work doesn’t mean to stop doing it all together. There are a number of benefits from doing ab work, the primary being torso support. One of the most common ailments today is lower back pain. At some point nearly every American will experience lower back pain. The problem is, we should never have to deal with it if we do a little preventative work. Part of the problem is that people do the wrong kind of abdominal exercises. People are so obsessed with the sit up and crunch that they create muscular imbalances that lead to pain and injury.

The quickest way to get rid of the pain is to stop doing crunches and sit ups. These two exercises, for the most part, focus on one portion of one muscle, the upper rectus abdominis, or the six pack muscle. The problem is that there are quite a few other muscles that are in your abdomen, most of which play a more important role. There are two different roles muscles perform, stabilization and mobilization. People have created a huge imbalance between the stabilizing muscle and the movement muscles by doing all the ab movements, but neglecting the stabilizers. If you had the choice of doing one kind of ab exercise you would be much better off performing a stability exercise. Think of it this way, the majority of Americans spend the majority of the time either sitting, standing, or lying down. Very little motion takes place in the torso. It is much more important to have strong stabilizer muscle so that they can adequately keep your body upright and safe from injury.

So what does this mean for you? Again stop doing countless sit ups and crunches. Secondly, since I love keeping everything simple, I will give you one exercise to do for now. Over time I will write more on different ab exercises, but for now simplicity is important. The one exercise everyone needs to incorporate into their workout is a plank. It’s a pretty straightforward exercise that most people think looks too easy until they try it. All the exercise requires is getting down on the ground with both forearms on the ground next to each other. From there you get in what would look like a push up position, except for the fact that you are on your forearms. Then rise up off your knees and keep your hips in line with your shoulders, knees, and ankles. Hold that for as long as you can. Do a few sets of this two to three times a week and you will hopefully notice a difference in your posture and your lower back. Once you are able to perform this exercise easily three times for a minute you are ready to move on to a more difficult version.

For a little review, a six pack is strictly dependent on having low body fat. Another thing to remember is to stop using all the ab machines at the gym; they are doing more harm than good. As with all exercise, perform simple exercises primarily using just your body. This will provide the results most people desire. The last thing to focus on is to start doing more stability exercises for your abs and less crunches and sit ups.

In the next few weeks I will right a more in depth post on the specifics of abdominal training and how to maximize your results. For now I hope this changed your perspective and hopefully will save you some wasted time and effort. Don’t ever make an excuse of why you can’t achieve the six pack of your dreams. Once you truly commit to your goal you can achieve anything. Good luck and push yourself to accomplish the unthinkable. You would be surprised what you are capable of when you put your mind to it.

Trackback URI |