Flat Tummy
How Body Fat Storage Patterns Affect You and Keep Your Flat Tummy Abs from Showing
Get A Flat Tummy
What’s the point of all this physiology? Well, it turns out that in men, the lower abdominal region has a higher concentration of A2 receptors, so this gives us one possible explanation of why the lower abdominal region is often the first place the fat goes when you gain it, and the last place it comes off when you’re losing it. (Incidentally, the fat in women’s hips and thighs is also higher in A2 receptors.) This situation is dictated by genetics and by the hormonal and enzymatic pathways just discussed.
Think of ab fat like the deep end of the swimming pool. No matter how much you protest, there is no way you can drain the deep end before the shallow end. However, don’t let this discourage you. Lower ab fat WILL come off, it will simply be the last place to come off. Simply put: First place on, last place off.
This helps to explain why abdominal exercises have little impact on body fat loss. It’s a huge mistake to think that hundreds or thousands of reps of ab exercises will remove lower abdominal fat, except to the degree that it burns calories and contributes to a calorie deficit. What removes the fat—all over your body—is a calorie deficit and that comes from decreasing food intake, increasing activity, or a combination of both.
What I suggested to this young man was cutting back the ab training, spending the time he was wasting on excess ab exercises for more intense, calorie-burning cardio and weight training for the rest of the body. I also suggested he do an accounting of his food intake, get his nutrition in order and decrease his calories slightly if necessary.
As it turned out, his diet was a mess, and as nutrition experts like to say, “You can’t out-train a lousy diet.” Read more
Get Six Pack Abs
How to Lose Stomach Fat & Get 6-Pack Abs
How To Get Six Pack Abs
If you want to know how to lose stomach fat and get 6-pack abs, I can tell you in about 30 seconds. You don’t need complex six pack ab workouts containing hundreds of crunches and dozens of exercises each week. The best way to burn belly fat and start seeing your 6-pack is to spend less time focusing on it!
In my opinion, all you need to do to get 6-pack abs is this…
Lose belly fat with nutrition, intervals, and resistance training.
More specifically…
First, start by improving the quality of the food you eat. No more processed carbohydrates, no more sugar, no more deep-fried foods, no more fast food, and no more sodas or juices. Simply making these changes will help you lose stomach fat fast, and you’ll drop your body fat percentage in just days.
Next, you need to spend more time on the basic workout methods, such as total body strength training and interval training, and less time on boring, ineffective ab training exercises. Doing hundreds of crunches won’t get you results. And doing long, slow boring cardio is also an inefficient way to burn belly fat and see your 6-pack abs.
According to researchers from Australia, including Professor Steve Boucher, the only way to spot reduce belly fat is to use interval training. This exercise method burns more belly fat than slow cardio workouts.
Once you’ve taken care of your nutrition, resistance training, and interval training, you can start with basic abdominal workouts. Here’s what you need to know, and this will surprise you!
1) Beginners should stay the heck away from situps and crunch-type movements until they master the Plank, Side Plank, and Bird Dog.
You have to take care of your back before you can start pounding it with traditional ab exercises.
2) Here are some my favorite no-crunch ab movements for intermediate exercisers…
a) the Stability Ball Rollout (also can be done with the Ab Wheel or as a Barbell Rollout)
b) the Stability Ball Jackknife
c) the Plank with Your Arms on the Ball (which according to research quoted in Mens Health, this exercise works your abs 30% harder than regular Plank – all without messing up your lower back).
Okay, so I’ve given my controversial advice about what beginners and intermediate fitness levels should do for abs…now for my more advanced 6-pack ab recommendations.
But first, I want to mention some “unknown” ab builders…
a) The Elevated Pushup
b) Straight Arm Cable Pullover
c) Front Squat
d) DB Pullover & even DB Triceps Extensions with extra stretch
All great total body moves to have in your program to burn calories and build abs at the same time.
Now what do you really need to do to bring out your abs once you have your body fat low?
My favorite advanced ab exercise is Cable Crunches, which are without a doubt, the best resistance exercise for building abs. There are several ways to do them, with one version being safer but just as effective as all other versions. Read more
