let me know of any excercises you've found to work really well for burning calories and working off love handles and getting distinct abs thanks!p.s. i do about 100 crunches a night and have for about 4 months now i suppose i mean religously NEVER missing and i am not getting a six pack yet ahhaha will i ever!?

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~Graysi~

[This message has been edited by gartgirl (edited 07-12-2003).]

Diet and cardio are the only way you'll see your six pack. All the situps in the world won't burn the fat around your stomach beacause you cant spot reduce. You're body doesn't work like that. Situps will only strengthen your abdominal muscles.

Here's what I learned from a newsletter that i subscribe to:-

The ONLY way to reveal your abs is to lose that layer of fat covering them. Now, the
only way to lose the abdominal fat is by consistent dieting and cardiovascular
exercise. Period. All those odd hanging, leg twisting, body contorting exercises
are no better than simple crunches.

"Abs are not made in the gym, they are made in the KITCHEN!"

The big problem is that intellectually, many people totally agree. However,
emotionally it does not click. I know this because day after day I see people
doing marathon abdominal work. They do four or five different exercises. They
think the more they do, the more defined their abs will become. They try to
target the upper, lower, inner and outer, left, right, etc. Give me a break.
They do tons of weighted side bends trying to get rid of the love handles.

Here's a news flash -- It won't work. You cannot spot reduce! What I mean by
this is that you can't pick and choose the areas that you would like to lose the
fat and do exercises that work those areas expecting the fat to just magically
disappear in those areas.

Your body does not work that way. The only way to decrease the amount of fat in
certain key areas is by lowering your total body fat levels. As you lose fat, it
will come off all over your body, not just in specific areas.

It's kind of interesting to watch sometimes. They have the right motivation, but
they are doing the wrong things. If they expended 1/2 the energy on their diet
as they do doing rep after rep of hanging leg raises, they would already have
their six pack. Developing a visible set of abs is simple.


Ab development can be boiled down to a few simple steps

======
First, go on a fat loss diet.
======

If you have a high body fat percentage, the abs won't show no matter how much
you work. Once your body fat falls below 8% for men, or 14% for women, your abs
will begin to show through.

Your diet should consists higher protein intake, moderate fat and moderate
complex carbohydrate. You should cut out all excess simple sugars, lower your
dairy intake and eliminate excess saturated fats. The majority of your dietary
fat should come from essential fatty acids (EFA's -- omega-6 and omega-3).

To lose fat you need to eat fewer calories. You should create a mild caloric
deficit when dieting. In other words, you should be using more calories than you
are taking in from your diet. This way, your body has to get the extra calories
it needs from fat stores (hopefully). I say hopefully because if you drop your
calories too drastically, your body may prefer to use muscle tissue for energy
instead of fat. This is why many people who go on fad diets look so soft. They
lose almost as much muscle mass as fat those drastic diets.


======
Second, start exercising aerobically.
======

Perform some form of cardiovascular exercise on a regular basis -- at least 3
times per week. It doesn't matter what you do (walking, running, cycling,
aerobics, stairstepper, etc.), as long as it keeps your heart rate elevated for
at least 30-45 minutes. This will speed your fat loss by elevating your
metabolism, thus burning more calories.


======
Finally, work your abs 2-3 times per week.
======

Work your abs like any other body part. Training them more than once or twice
per week is unnecessary. More is not necessarily better. I typically do only two
different abdominal exercises. The first is the simple crunch (yes, crunches)
and reverse crunches. That's it.

Contraction is everything when working abs. Remember that your abs work like an
accordion, not like a hinge. So when doing crunches, you should concentrate on
crunching together rather than moving your body upwards. This will maximize
muscle tension.

You must concentrate on contracting your muscles as tight as you can. This will
cause them to fatigue faster. It does not matter how many reps you can do; the
only thing that matters is how hard you can contract your abdominal muscles.

If it takes you 100 crunches before your abs begin to burn, then you are wasting
your time. Your abs should be fatigued at no more than 20-25 reps. If they are
aren't, you need to add weights to your exercise and work on contracting the
muscles tightly for each rep. Don't concentrate so much on "how many" you can
do, but instead focus on "how hard" you can contract the abdominal muscles

Contrary to popular belief (another myth), doing full sit-ups, lying leg raises
or hanging leg raises DOES NOT give your abdominals the best workout. In fact,
these exercises work your hip flexor muscles (psoas major) much more than your
abs!

Remember, the most effective exercises for working the abs must involve a
"scrunching" type contraction, like an accordion.


[This message has been edited by anik456 (edited 07-21-2003).]

[This message has been edited by anik456 (edited 07-22-2003).]

[This message has been edited by anik456 (edited 07-25-2003).]

Anik, by working your abs with a variety of exercises.... Doesn't that increase the size or tone them up so they pop out a bit more, even through a little fat? Also, I have heard for certain people who want to have a well-proportioned six pack, they should try and refrain from weighted ab exercises because that may result in abs getting to bulky or bloaty looking and look strange on a lesser developed physique. I have always done a variety of abdominal exercises to hit all areas.. IF they aren't that effective, why do they have these exercises in M&F and Gold's gym training manuals, etc? Your post gave me some food for thought.. thanks.

Hey anik, you seem to know a lot about abs, well how come some guys get a six pack and others a 4 pack? i am at 9.74% and all i can see are lines but it looks like a 4 pack. Also what can i do to get below 8% for my abs to show? ANyone have any ideas?

Contrary to popular belief (another myth), doing full sit-ups, lying leg raises
or hanging leg raises DOES NOT give your abdominals the best workout. In fact,
these exercises work your hip flexor muscles (psoas major) much more than your
abs!

Remember, the most effective exercises for working the abs must involve a
"scrunching" type contraction, like an accordion.


I thought about this a bit more and it seems that form has alot to do with the effectiveness of certain exercises.. When doing hanging leg raises, you CAN achieve that accordion style flex by curling your trunk more. Just curl your upper torso toward your raising knees and hold. Same with lying leg raises.. If you hyper-extend your hips so your thighs Beginning of movement) are even with the bench (knees bent,heels tucked under bench) you can achieve that beneficial flex. Your range of motion is good and as long as you bring your knees to your chest and your shoulders are off the bench you should be hitting the lowers pretty good. I focused on my form a bit more today and WAS able to get that pinch on both exercises.

It seems to me as well, that doing oblique exercises are good because they help sculpt the sides of the torso. Maybe one has to perceive ab exercising as a way to scultp your abs, rather than burn fat off.

Eat right

Walk alot

Hey Gangof4... There are so many Ab excercises its upto to you what you want to follow... i know some people who developed their six pack just by doing ordinary crunches!. Working your abs with a variety of excercises will increase the size or tone them up but they will not show properly UNTIL your body fat falls below 8%(or around 8%) just like I mentioned in my previous post. You may just be able to make them out through little fat.. but to see a proper six pack you should have (almost) NO Fat on your stomach. Some guys have flat Abs, some have abs that pop out and guys like the one on the pumpingstation website have abs that are huge and bulge out!!!....
Once you start to see ur abs then that means that you have successfully lowered your body fat %. Its from that point onwards that you should decide how You want to work them out if you are happy with flat abs like Brad Pitt in Fight Club (Some say its the lighting in the movie that makes them look flat). You may just do ordinary crunches or Weighted crunches, they will definitely give you more pressure and hence your abs may become bulky.... but its your choice on how you want to work them out.

I have always done a variety of abdominal exercises to hit all areas.. IF they aren't that effective, why do they have these exercises in M&F and Gold's gym training manuals, etc?

These excercises may not give the BEST workout.. but they they are still effective hence they are there in M&F AND Golds gym training Manuals...
To tell you honestly Im just tellin you what i was told by my instructor... I followed what he told me and the results were good... thats why im passing it on here http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

for years alot of people told me that workin out with light weights will give you cuts while heavy will give you mass... then i learned that thats not true it actually depends on your diet and your body fat %. But still alot of guys at my gym disagree and say that the former is true... the debate can go on on ... so basically its upto to you to believe what you want to afterall everybody's body and metabolism is different, sumthing that's effective for someone else may not be as effective for you or for me....
Good Luck and get ripped!!

P.S Im glad my post gave u some food for thought.. i'll be happy to pass on any more information I get in the future

Thanks
Nick

[This message has been edited by anik456 (edited 07-25-2003).]

[This message has been edited by anik456 (edited 07-25-2003).]

Hey CaliforniaBOy5..
Im not really sure why some guys have 4 packs instead of 6... your guess is as good as mine. Anatomically every body has a six pack hidden below a layer of fat.. once that is melted then they will begin to show and the more situps and/or crunches you do the more they will start to develop and pop out. Probably those guys with 4 packs are not effectively working out the area where the remaining 2 abs should be. My dads a Laparascopic Surgeon (he deals with the Abdomen)thats what he told me!
To get your Body Fat % to less than 8% u should do cardio... and lower the calorie intake in your diet ... if you have around 2000 calories a day... make an effort to reduce that to around 1500 at the least... u should do this by eating the right foods consistently. I have already mentioned what the rights foods are in other posts.
Good Luck....

Nick

I'm 28yr old female who is having a problem with getting rid of my pouch I'm 5'2 110lbs also I need to know how I mesure my body fat thanks

Estimating your body fat is quite easy, for guys you have to get below 8%, im not sure about girls. Well you can use this : http://www.freeweightloss.com/calculator.html
(if you use the one for fast computers make sure its under Body Fat YMCA)

Ok, i muse be doing something wrong! I apparently have 3.6 % fat! I want a 6 pack and trying for about 2 months now without any results! I must really be doing the wrong excercises! If someone could let me know exactly what kind of exercises i could do without requireing any equipment, i would greatly appriciate it!

Tyme_66,
I very much boubt that you have a body fat of 3.6%. For one thing, body fat measurements aren't that accurate so you can only get a reading at best withing 1 to 2 % of your actual body fat (depending on the method you used to measure it). Secondly, if your body fat were that low, your would definately see a six pack. Thirdly, a body fat % that low would be dangerous and would start to effect your health if maintained for too long a time.

Who told you you had 3.6% body fat?

That site that the person above gave...i must be measuring something wrong or somthing

EDIT
No, im not doing anything wrong as far as i can see...
5'10"
115lbs
28" waist

[This message has been edited by Tyme_66 (edited 08-10-2003).]

ok, sorry, i must have done somthing wrong last night, but i have body fat of 7.2%.....you guys said 8 percent to see your abs...so what could i be doing wrong....? What exercises should i be doing (without buying more equipment)?

That calculator is useless. All is asks for is your weight and waist size. There's no way you can accurately calculate bf% with these two measurements since it desn't take any accout of your body composition. The only fairly reliable (and easily avaliable) method of finding out what your bf% is is to use a skin fold calliper. Even then, there'll be a margin of error so its best to use it as an indication of progress, not as an absolute number.

"Abs are not made in the gym, they are made in the KITCHEN!"

100% correct.

I also agree with the crunch type exercises as being the best for pure abdominal motion. Hip flexor involvement is a real problem for most of us. Only when the abs are quite strong can situps or leg raises be done in a way that won’t cause the hip flexors to enlarge and shortchange efforts.

I am getting less and less of the mindset that cardio (running, jogging, dance style aerobics) is required for fat loss. Get the diet right on track and you will probably have tremendous success. I believe a good circuit training weightlifting routine can do the same thing as cardio. That’s because cardio burns fat only while you’re doing it. Whereas if you tone muscles they will burn fat (so to speak) even when you’re resting because they are constantly repairing themselves by using stored energy (fat) as substrate. The stress cardio tends to cause for some of us increases hormones that can prevent proper and timely fat loss if you overdo it. In which case, our starvation mode kicks in and causes weight loss plateaus.

As long as you don’t burn yourself out you should be okay. You can do 3 days of regular weightlifting a week (such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and then do a couple of days of some form of cardio (Tuesday, Thursday). Be sure to get plenty of rest and don’t overdo it!

I read some where that if you did a 1,000 sit ups a day for a year you'd burn 2lbs of fat :s not good!

Try this site:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/meriam/

Originally posted by Know Nothing:
I read some where that if you did a 1,000 sit ups a day for a year you'd burn 2lbs of fat :s not good!

http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/biggrin.gif HA! thats cool! y do people seem to think that doing situps will 'turn their flab into muscle'? fat and muscle are completly different cells, so u need to burn the fat off first before u can even think about seeing ur abs.