Remember back in high school gym class when you had to perform sit-ups to build 6 pack abs and demonstrate your fitness level?

Well, turns out that all that effort may have been for naught, as more research studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that sit-ups do little, if anything, to strengthen abdominal muscles – let alone help you build 6 pack abs.

So which exercises can bring you closer to the ideal “six-pack”?

Why Sit-ups Suck: Real Exercises that Build 6 Pack Abs

Dr. Stuart McGill, professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, argues that sit-ups can do serious damage to your back (read “The Painful Lumbar Spine” in the January 2010 IDEA Fitness Journal).

In the October 2009 edition of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, a study from Ohio’s Youngstown State University concluded that strength gains, body fat reduction, and waist size loss were non-existent for both its non sit-up and sit-up control groups.

Entitled “Traditional Exercises Do Not Have a Significant Impact on Abdominal Peak Force in Healthy Young Adults”, authors Ken Learman, Jennifer Pinter, and Renee Rogers suggest that low-intensity, low resistance abdominal training should be dropped in favor of exercises that promote the necessary repetition failure, i.e. muscle fatigue, required to build real strength.

Confused about sit-ups? Weren’t you always taught they help build 6 pack abs?

I certainly was, until I broke down the steps involved in classical sit-ups and crunches and noted the following:

• Traditional sit-ups benefit your hip flexors more than your abdominal muscles and DO NOT help build 6 pack abs. When your muscles contract, the stomach, rib cage, and shoulders are pulled towards your hips. By bending at the hips and pulling your torso upwards, the abs only benefit at the start of the sit-up. Beyond the first 30-45 degrees of motion, abdominal muscles only work as stabilizers, while the hip flexors power you upwards.
• Understandably, our sit-up efficiency declines as we proceed. The spinal flexion decreases and we lose the necessary form – turning the “abdominal” exercise into something that only works the hip flexors.
• Accelerated sit-ups are even more dangerous. Note that your hip flexors are attached to the pelvis and lower back, so that their fast movement can lead to unsafe motion and bending on your lower spine. Tight hip flexors can tilt your pelvis towards a bad angle.
• With targeted stomach “crunches”, the upper and mid-back bend and flex as your shoulders move towards the hips (spinal flexion). While related to full sit-ups, the range of motion here is deliberately limited to place “burning” stress on the abs.

So, what should we do to build 6 pack abs safely?

Clearly, 50-100 sit-ups daily aren’t the answer, since your abdominal muscles will not be sufficiently fatigued prior to being the strengthening process.

A daily three-thousand sit-ups routine won’t do the trick either, even if we had the time and discipline of a professional boxer.

Instead, consider the following three (3) exercises to help build 6 pack abs:

1. Squats: Your abs should work together with your back muscles to build good posture and support your spine. Squats (or “deadlifts”) supercharge your core stability by targeting many muscles, including glutes and quadriceps. Fat loss during recovery time will also vastly improve.
2. Plank Exercises: The plank is an increasingly popular exercise that targets a person’s core, i.e. the back, hips, and of course the abdominal muscles. Beginners can start with a series of 10-second, elbow bridge planks:
   - Lie face down on the ground or use an exercise mat .
   - Place your elbows and forearms underneath your chest.
   - Prop yourself up as a “bridge” using your toes and forearms.
   - Maintain a flat back and stop your hips from sagging to the ground.
   - Hold your position, focusing on tightening your abs, until it becomes too difficult to maintain a flat bridge.
   - Return to start position.
3. Dr. McGill’s Modified Curl-up: Lie flat on your back with one leg straight and the other bent. Placing both hands under the small of the back, lift your shoulder blades off the floor – don’t curl the spine! Hold this position for 2-3 seconds before returning to your start position. This exercise avoids stressing the back while tightening the abdominals.

The best abs exercise for working the abdominal muscles means replacing sit-ups with true crunches and spinal flexion exercises that promote core stability. Combined with sensible fat loss, you can confidently start with the above options, and then move to a more advanced abs workout program to build 6 pack abs that eveyone finds attractive.

Are you one of those people that have been doing belly fat burning exercises forever, but still don’t have rock-hard six pack abs to show for it? Don’t worry, you’re not alone…

That is actually one of the most common complaints I hear from people struggling to lose weight and get 6-pack abs.

The problem is typically a combination of several factors including:

• Nutrition plan.
• Types of belly fat burning exercises people are doing.
• Duration of the workouts.
• Intensity of the workouts.

I found this great research-based article with belly fat burning tips that really work. Check it out…

5 Research-Proven Belly Fat Burning Tips

By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Today I’m going to give you five RESEARCH-PROVEN belly fat burning methods to help you lose fat 24/7/365.

Alright, let’s do this.

Proven Fact #1 – Eat More Fruits & Vegetables

Subjects on a low-fat diet that ate more fruits and vegetables lost more fat than another group on only the low-fat diet.

After 1-year, the low-fat, fruits and vegetables group (LF-FV) lost more weight than another group of woman on the low-fat (LF) diet only. Why?

Because the LF-FV group reported being less hungry, thanks to being able to eat more food than the LF group.

Reference: Amer. J. Clin. Nutr. 85: 1465-1477, 2007.

So eat nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables to fill you up. Time to enjoy peaches, watermelon, apples, melons, and berries. Don’t let any “guru” tell you that fruit is bad, that’s nonsense!

2) For Belly Fat Burning You MUST Drop the Cardio and Use TT-Approved Interval Training

Our research friends in Australia have found interval training to be the solution to stomach fat.

According to Professor Steve Boutcher, an Australian expert on interval training, “high intensity intermittent exercise may result in greater fat loss in the abdomen”.

That means that unlike doing hundreds of crunches, interval training can work belly fat burning miracles over everything else. And that’s why the Turbulence Training for Abs workouts use intervals, not cardio.

3) Okay, There is ONE Type of Cardio That Can Help

In another study, researchers compared high-intensity cardio against low-intensity cardio. Both groups burned the same amount of calories in their workouts (400), but the high-intensity group exercised less.

Results?

The subjects in the Low-Intensity Exercise group did not lose fat.

So “Boooo!” to low-intensity cardio.

On the other hand, the HIC (high-intensity cardio) group lost a significant amount of abdominal fat.

Once again, research shows that exercising harder results in more belly fat burning in less time. And in fact, slow cardio does NOTHING for fat loss.

Reference: Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Oct 8. Effect of Exercise Training Intensity on Abdominal Visceral Fat and Body Composition.

So if you insist on doing cardio, I will allow you to do one extra high-intensity cardio session per week in addition to your three Turbulence Training for Abs workouts per week.

4) Burn More Calories AFTER Exercise with Supersets

The latest research shows that superset training – the type of resistance training used in Turbulence Training for Abs – boosts metabolism more than traditional straight set training.
 
Reference: J Str Cond Res 24:4 2010.

Sure, Turbulence Training was 10 years ahead of this research, but it is always nice to have more scientific proof that the Turbulence Training for Abs workouts are the best way to train for fat loss!

5) Stick with Lower Reps in Your Workouts for Calorie Burning

This is from one of the first studies I used to formulate Turbulence Training. In the study, researchers had women do two workouts. One workout was done with light weights and high reps, and the other workout was done with heavier weights and 8 reps per set (this group was called high-intensity).

The study found that the high intensity group burned more calories AFTER exercise and therefore the scientists recommend high intensity resistance training rather than low-intensity high rep lifting.

Reference: A Comparison  Of Two Different Resistance Training Intensities On Exercise Energy Expenditure And Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. Thornton, K, Potteiger, JA. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Volume 33(5) Supplement 1, 2001, p S73.

So there you go…five RESEARCH-PROVEN belly fat burning tips that work.

About the Author: Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and his trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, check out Craig’s website at TurbulenceTraininig.com.

What is the BEST abs exercise I should be doing to get six-pack abs?

That is the question I get asked all the time when it comes to ab training.

The answer is…

It depends!

The best abs exercise really depends on your current fitness level, if you have any weaknesses or muscle imbalances that need to be addressed, what type of equipment you have available, how much time you have to workout, and so on.

I can tell you it is NOT doing thousands of traditional sit-ups and crunches!

Check out this great article from ex-military fitness trainer Jeff Anderson where he reveals the best abs exercise technique for rock hard abs.

Best Abs Exercise Technique For 3-D Abs!

By Jeff “The Muscle Nerd” Anderson

Check out any local gym and you’ll see inexperienced members training their abs with endless sets of situps and crunches, right?

While the abs are predominantly made of Type 1 (endurance) muscle fibers and respond to slightly higher repetition ranges, your abs are made up of muscle just like any other part of your body.

Therefore the best abs exercise to get that “cut” look is resistance-based and treat them like any other muscle.

But there’s a special little trick you must know in order to maximize your abs training on your way to having a stacked 6-pack.

In fact, ignoring this principle, could force you to develop “lopsided” abs that are so common among beginner bodybuilders.

Let me share this best abs exercise secret with you now…

The main abdominal muscle you want to be working when training your abs is your “rectus abdominis”, that sheet of rippled muscle that goes from your rib cage all the way down the front of your body to your pelvis.

What’s unique about this abdominal muscle group is that the upper abs can work separately from the lower abs (to some extent)…BUT when you work your lower abs exercises, your upper abs are ALWAYS working as well.

This is why most people (including myself from years of military training focusing on upper abs) had overdeveloped upper abs but underdeveloped lower abs.

Here’s the best abs exercise technique to correct this…

Make sure you train your LOWER ABS first in your abs workout (ALWAYS!) which brings both upper and lower abs into the workload!

If you don’t work your lower abs first, you exhaust your upper abs too soon and when you DO target your lower abs, your upper abs will fatigue too fast and you’ll end up with under-targeted lower abs.

So the best exercises for lower abs are:

• Incline Leg Raises
• Incline Knee Ups
• Hanging Leg Raises
• Flat Bench Leg Raises

And then follow up with the best upper abs exercises:

• Crunches
• Weighted Crunches
• Situps
• Hanging Knee Raises

About the Author: Jeff Anderson is a former U.S. soldier (10 years of active duty) and master fitness trainer. His training utilizes the military’s top fitness secrets to give you the very BEST muscle-building and fat loss strategies on the face of the planet. If you are an “Average Joe & Jane” searching for a better body…and a better LIFE…check out Jeff’s website at CombatTheFat.com.