Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Ab Machines Do Not Work For Your Abs Functionally

By Jose Loni

Ab machines are not effective. Ab machines do not work for your abs functionally. They can cause muscle imbalances by not targeting the proper muscles and may cause potential injury. To get ripped abs, we must consider our nutrition and increasing the metabolic activity in our body.

There are ab machines that support the back and the neck, while training the abdominal muscles. However, while the abs are being trained, the neck and back are not being trained. The result of which can cause strength imbalances in the muscles and cause back pain.

Other ab machines place our bodies in awkward positions that may potentially injury our back. While other ab machines, don't directly target the abdominal muscles and work the hip flexor muscles instead.

To get ripped abs, we have to watch what we eat. We should keep a balanced diet and avoid fast food, fatty food, sodas and processed foods. In watching what we eat, we can better control our caloric intake.

Consuming lean protein and complex carbohydrates allows our body to utilize those calories with greater efficiency and increase fat burning. Also by cutting out sugar snacks, fatty foods, fast foods and carbonated beverages we are better able to control the calories that we eat and keep our body from converting the extra calories that we consume into fat.

Stress makes our body store excess body fat in the belly area. When we are in a stressful situation, our body stores fat in our belly because of the hormone Cortisol, which is released during stress.

The body's increased muscle mass, which is the result of the resistance and interval training helps to increase the body's efficiency in burning fat and getting rid of excess body fat.

Ab machines do not work for your abs functionally. Ab machines can cause injury and cause imbalances in our muscles, which can lead to further injury. If we want to get ripped abs, we must make changes in our nutrition and increase our metabolism. - 16004

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