Posts Tagged ‘ab training’
Sit Ups DO NOT Build 6 Pack Abs
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. Read the rest of this entry »
The Best Abs Exercise for Six-Pack Abs!
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.
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