Saturday, January 3, 2009

Crunches - The Truth

By Jose Loni

The truth about crunches! We all seek answers to achieving ripped abs. The truth about crunches is that they are good for our abdominal muscles, but they will not give you the ripped abs that you want. To get ripped abs, you need to work on fat burning exercises that will burn overall fat, watching what we eat and eliminating stress from our lives.

Crunches do not target what needs to be trained. Crunches are good for stabilizing, strengthening and developing the muscles of the abdomen. But to achieve defined ripped abs, overall fat-burning activities must be done.

Overall fat burning exercises are activities that allow us to train our whole body to increase our metabolism. By increasing our metabolism, we are better able to burn fat and utilize the excess belly fat, which results in more visibility of the abdominal muscles.

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.

We should decrease the amount of stress we have in our lives. Stress makes our body release a hormone called Cortisol and causes the body to be in an emergency-readiness situation. When this occurs our body stores fat in the stomach to prepare 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.

Are crunches bad for six-pack abs? No, crunches are not the answer to achieve defined six pack abs. We need to focus on activities that allow for overall fat burning, through resistance training, monitoring our diet and reducing the overall amount of stress in our lives. Having the discipline and understanding to change our daily habits, we will be able to achieve six pack abs. - 16004

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