Somethings in life are taken just too seriously. When it comes to body building, I think focusing on abs being taken too seriously. No matter how much we focus on our abs, its the total body fat that actually counts in revealing your six pack. No amount of spot training will sculpt and show off your six pack abs. In the same sense, if you gorge all day and expect your six pack abs to show by running for 30 minutes a day, you’re doing to be very disappointed.
Making sure your six pack abs show is part art and part science. The art part is your workout and the science part is your food. You need both for a master piece. So, I am going to talk about some of the popular myths in these two categories to help guide you through your six pack journey. It is not an easy one, but keep working at it and you’ll certainly see the results.
Myth number 1:
Running for 40 minutes a day is required for six pack abs.
Let me clear this myth right away. Running is good for endurance training and a great cardio exercise. But, running forty minutes or an hour can actually have a negative impact on your muscle building plan. Research has shown that the best running exercise for abs is interval training performed twice a week. For tips on interval taining refer to this article on exercises.
Myth number 2:
Eat fat will make you fat (and it is bad when you’re trying to sculpt a six pack)
Nothing can be farther from the truth! Fat is an essential part of a normal diet. In fact, consuming the right amount of the “right” fat is actually going to make you consume less calories since it get you full faster!! Now all fats are not made equal. Monostaturated fat is very good (olive oil, avocado, nuts) and saturated/trans fat is bad (any oil that is hydrogenated, a lot of packaged food etc). Eat the good and skip the bad. Easy enough?
Myth number 3:
Doing a 100 crunches will get me six pack abs.
While crunches does get your abs to be defined, just crunches will not get your body to reveal six pack abs. Its total body workout, where you get your body fat percentage to below 10 that will start showing off your six pack abs. Here is more information and a quick way to check your body mass index. So focus more on total body workouts and your abs will start to reveal themselves.
Myth number 4:
You repeat your workouts
While its good to get in some workout rather than none, fat burning and six pack revealing exercises depend on muscle confusion. Let me explain. Your body starts to plateau i.e. get used to the trials you’re putting it through after about 4 weeks. Your body gets used to the stress during workouts and adjusts how much calories your burn and starts to conserve more. To avoid the plateau effect, you need to switch your workouts every 4 weeks or so. This will help your body keep burning the calories and rev up your metabolism.
Myth number 5:
Drinking alcohol with diet soda is OK.
While the actual calorie content of your drink might be low, alcohol has strange effects on your body! It slow down your metabolism by up to 80%. And what kind of food do we usually eat with alcohol .. uh .. the fried kind or something not in low calorie range, lets put it that way. So this combination is worse than fat food binge. If you’re working on six pack abs, lay off alcohol totally for atleast 4 weeks. You will save on a ton of extra effort needed to burn off your alcohol induced calories.
Hope this clears up a few common myths around what to do or not to do when working out for six pack abs. As always, remeber – A balanced diet along with a strong regimen of the best ab exercises can get you the ripped abs you have been longing for.
