Do You Want "Six-Pack" Abs?

The first step that you need to do to get an awesome set of abdominal muscles, is to cut out all of the junk food and processed food form your diet. You are what you eat and if you significantly reduce sugar and high glycemic index carbs and eat a lot more fresh produce, you are taking a huge step in the right direction. Strong abs are not visible under a thick layer of abdominal fat.

The second step is to realize that the myth of spot reduction isn't possible. Spot reduction is the belief that when you exercise one area, such as your abs, you are exclusively burning abdominal fat.

When you exercise your abs, you don't burn the fat just over your abs. Whenever you exercise, you will first use your blood glucose, the next level of energy comes from stored glycogen (chains of glucose molecules) and body fat is burned next.

Everyone has different patterns of body fat depositing and body fat burning.

To understand this, please consider these points:

1. It is believed that when you hit your teens, you have developed most, if not all of your fat cells.

2. When body fat is deposited, these fat cells get fatter. When body fat is burned, these fat cells get thinner.

3. Everyone has different patterns of body fat deposition. This pattern depends on their genetics and where the fat cell are in their bodies.

4. When you burn body fat, your body usually will take the fat in a particular pattern, making certain other areas very difficult to reduce the fat from. In other words, your body holds on to fat more so in certain areas.

5. The areas that your body will burn the fat from, is not related to the muscles that you are exercising.

6. If you get liposuction, you are messing with your body's fat depositing pattern. The fat cells that are removed, can no longer have fat deposited into them and the fat might then get deposited in strange places, such as the face. This isn't why people would want to get liposuction, but this is what happens when you mess with Mother Nature.

7. Around the midriff, hips, butt and thighs are the most common places that body fat is deposited.

8. Men need to get their body fat down to about 6% and women around 9% in order to achieve those abs that are a classic six-pack.

9. The combination of practicing intermittent fasting and high intensity training (HIIT), is particularly good to accomplish this. I have also done blogs on each of these strategies.

Strong abs are not just for appearance. As a chiropractor, I know that they are also important, along with general core strength, to help to prevent low back pain, to keep your internal organs supported and stable, as well as to improve your balance and to help to prevent falls.

Strong Abs:

Strong abs can be accomplished by a combination of a number of exercises. Planking, push-ups, leg lifts, modified crunches, oblique crunches, exercises on an exercise ball, bridges, extension exercises, side bends and knee raises can all be helpful.

One key is to mix it up and not get into the same exercise pattern day in and day out.

This link has videos and specific exercises that you can refer to. Just pick the ones that you like the best and start with them

Before you start any diet or exercise program, consult your physician first, to make sure that the program is appropriate for your age and level of health.

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