Do you notice how much time people spend in the gym on the
floor doing crunches? Bobbing away, 10, 30 sometimes even
100's of crunches.
Funny how those people down there on their backs seem to
have the biggest bellies!
My new clients will often say;
"I do 100 crunches a night but I still can't lose my tummy?"
"Can we do crunches because that's the area I need to
improve?"
"I really want six-pack abs so I know I've got to do a lot
of crunches."
Crunches are by far the most overrated exercise, one of the
most risky for your spine, useless for weight loss and
worst of all they don't even work your core musculature
that well. No matter how much you want to believe it, doing
thousands of crunches is not going to take off any inches
from your waist or fat from your abdominal muscles.
In a recent study 13 Male subjects did a total of 5000 sit
ups over 27 days. At the end of the study, biopsies
examining the rate of change in fat cell diameters showed
that the subjects lost NO fat around their abs.
This goes back to the infamous fitness myth of spot
reduction. You cannot spot reduce fat on your abs by doing
sit ups, fat is not utilised by the body in a localised
manner. Basically working a specific muscle does not burn
the fat around that muscle. Leg exercises wont remove fat
directly from you're your legs, arm exercises wont remove
fat directly from your arm and ab exercises wont move fat
directly from your abs!
Surely it can't be all bad, crunches must do something?
Crunches will provide a training stimulus for your abs to
get stronger and probably grow. A crunch is basically a
weight training exercise for your abs, the same basic idea
as doing a triceps extension for the back of your arm. You
are working the muscle, which will eventually make it
stronger and make it grow.
Well this is a good thing isn't it?
Maybe not as recent research shows that the crunch may not
be the safest exercise for your spine and lower back. The
growing body of research shows that a crunch is in fact one
of the worst positions you can put your spine in. Doing
excessive amounts of crunches could very well lead to
imbalanced abs and core development as well as potential
lower back and spine pain.
Your abdominal muscles are meant to assist in the
stabilization of your trunk/core musculature. In other
words they are meant to simply hold your trunk in place as
your arms and legs move and do work such as running,
jumping, throwing and lifting. All of these motions will
work your abs without forcing you into the potentially
dangerous position of a crunch. What's more they will work
your other core muscles, oblique, TVA, and low back muscles
equally well.
Functionally the abdominal muscles are not meant to pull
your body into a forceful curling or crunching position.
Exercises need to have some functional carry over into
sport or everyday life, otherwise what's the point?
A pull-up; for rock climbing, gymnastics or getting out of
a swimming pool.
A squat; for a powerful karate kick, Jump power in
basketball or picking up a parcel on your doorstep.
Can you think of a practical or sporting situation where
you really need to crunch?
Crunch Ball? Crunchnastics?
Or as most people do 20-200 repetition endurance crunches
can you think of a situation where you might need to crunch
repeatedly over 50 times?
A Crunchathon? Iron- crunch?
Ok so I'm being a bit silly now but the truth is people
spend far too much time on ab specific training especially
when someone's main goal is fat loss.
So how should you train your core muscles then?
Well first of all ignore all the ads for- 6 min abs, ab
rocker, ab curler, ab rack (think I made that one up!), and
don't bother with that TOTAL abs aerobic class with the
chubby instructor, and definitely stay away from that ab
crunch machine in the gym that's been designed by Alton
Towers theme park.
Perform exercises that work your core muscles in a pattern
they are meant to be used in. Exercises such as planks,
side planks, stability ball roll outs, all forms of push
ups, medicine ball throwing, squatting, running, swimming.
The list could go on, but I think you get the idea. All of
these exercises will work the muscles of your core in a
balanced manner (unlike crunches which do not work your
oblique or your lower back muscles).
So these exercises will get rid of body fat around my
stomach and give me a thin waist or a six pack?
Well not really, they will strengthen your core in a
functional manner, help with postural alignment and
sporting performance, but now we get to the bit you
probably didn't want to hear. To get rid of that unwanted
stomach fat its simple, eat less food and burn more
calories.
Being able to see a well defined 6 pack has nothing to do
with doing any sort of ab exercises. It is all about
burning fat. You already have a six pack, when you strip
off enough fat you will eventually see it. Instead of
wasting too much time on direct abdominal training you want
to train your whole body to become a 24 hour fat burning
machine!
To do this use full-body weight training sessions 2-4 times
a week that elicit a great hormonal response and increase
fat burning. Combined with short (10-20mins) interval
cardiovascular sessions 2-4x a week to give maximum
metabolic boost. But of course the most important part of
getting that 6-pack is keeping to a diet high in natural
proteins like chicken and fish, combined with natural
unrefined carbohydrates such as brown rice and good fats
like nuts and olive oil.
It seems to be the people who are obsessed with ab training
that have the worst ab definition. Thinking of your body as
a whole and not isolating certain areas is the key to a
toned tummy; you might be surprised at what happens.
Carl, a client of mine, was surprised! Carl came to me to
lose weight and get fit enough to join the British
Paratroopers. When he started his training the last thing
on his mind was to get a six-pack. After 12 weeks of
excellent training and eating like I have described above
he was fitter than he had ever been in his life, passed the
paratrooper entry test and had a bonus prize, a rippling
six pack! Carl said he had been working on his stomach for
years and got no where so gave up. He certainly never
thought he could get a six-pack without doing a single
crunch!
So in summary ignore the fitness industry hype and stop
crunching. Start training your abs in a functional manner
that will benefit your whole core musculature. Stop
focusing on you midsection, think of your body as a whole
and train your body to become a 24hour fat burning machine.
Healthy eating combined with exercise will get you there,
so what are you waiting for get up off the matt and burn
the fat!
----------------------------------------------------
Mark Lawrence is an experienced fitness professional
specialising in fat loss. He runs his own Personal Training
business in Greenwich, London along with his partner and
women's fitness expert Judit Rago. To find out more and to
download a free report on The Truth About Weight-loss go to
http://www.lawrenceandrago.com
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