When someone with a big gut approaches me, I know he’s going to ask me for a good ab workout to get rid of his belly fat. See, I’m a fitness professional, and in the course of my work I encounter a great many misconceptions about fitness. The idea that ab-specific workouts will cause the loss of belly fat, in my estimation, has got to be one of the most widespread. Getting rid of excess belly fat is an issue for most people, but how to do it seems to be a mystery.
Here’s the problem: people are looking for exercises and routines that target belly fat. They seem to think that there’s some secret set of exercises out that that not only will condition the abs into a perfect six-pack, they’ll also burn off the belly fat that’s hiding those muscles – and all of this pretty much overnight!
The brutal truth is this: excess belly fat will not be eliminated by ab-specific exercises. Ab-specific exercises, like any exercise that targets a specific muscle group, will only strengthen and tone the target muscles, not the fat blanketing them. Fat loss can’t be targeted – the body turns to stored fat for energy when the metabolism is increased and when a particular hormonal response is triggered. These conditions are most efficiently set in motion by a well-planned full body workout. There’s no way, though, to dictate which fat cells are burned first.
The most effective metabolic rate and hormonal response aren’t going to be produced by a simple cardiovascular routine, though. Your needs will much more efficiently be met by a rounded program that targets the entire body. High intensity resistance training is a critical component of such a program, as are multi-joint exercises.
It’s this full-body approach, combined with a nutrient-rich healthy diet, that will burn the excess belly fat and reveal the well-conditioned abs. Unlike a plan of crunches and leg raises, this program will produce real results.
It’s really frustrating to see just how many people still think that to get rid of excess belly fat, you’ve got to do all sorts of gut-busting exercises while ignoring the rest of your body. On-line fitness forums and television infomercials are especially guilty of disseminating this erroneous and fallacious advice. Part of the purpose of this article is to help people recognize and avoid such bad advice!
Understand that as an abs expert, I routinely promote ab-specific exercises as an integral component of a good workout routine. I just recommend against expecting those particular exercises to melt away excess belly fat. Ab-specific exercises strengthen and tone the abdominal muscles, just as any exercise targeted to a particular muscle group will strengthen and tone that group. Ab-specific exercises condition the abs, but they won’t melt away the fat covering them up.
What are the most important factors? First, your workout routine should concentrate on resistance training, and should be a full-body routine. Second, your diet is absolutely crucial – you should have a balanced diet composed of healthy ingredients. And keep this in mind – the abs get a great deal of work, even if it’s indirect, from many full-body routines because of the stabilization required.
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