Why Almost Everyone Is Wrong About Stomach Exercises And Abdominal Muscles
"Stomach exercises" are among the most frequently asked
about and searched on (via internet) yet misunderstood
subjects in the entire field of health, fitness and
exercise. Regardless of age, experience or gender, everyone
wants a flat "stomach" because the abdominal region is the
true showcase of your physique. Since the abs are usually
the last place to "shape up" and "lean out," then most
people would say that if you've got abs, you've got it all.
Well, in my way of thinking, this is only partially true.
There's more to a complete physique than "abdominal
exercises" and "six pack abs" and most people are
completely wrong about "stomach exercises" and ""stomach
muscles." (you'll find out why in just a moment)...
The Difference Between "6-Pack Abs" And Truly "Fit Abs"
Having a great looking set of abs is very much a matter of
low body fat. But make no mistake, just being lean and
seeing a "six-pack" doesn't mean you are strong, fit or
conditioned. Real fitness means more than visible muscle
development, it means strength, endurance, and stability,
and this type of true functional fitness does not come from
merely eating the right foods or reducing your body fat.
Nutrition is so important that you could even say that "abs
are made in the kitchen, not in the gym" and you would not
be telling a lie. But this clever maxim is not telling the
whole truth either. Great abs come from nutrition AND
training, not one or the other. The training develops them.
The nutrition uncovers them.
Don Juan Ponce de Leon arrived in America in 1493 looking
for a fountain of youth and today in the "stomach exercise"
marketplace, it seems that far too many people are looking
for a "magic fountain" in order to flatten their waistlines.
Ponce never found the fountain of youth and you will never
find a magical solution for flat abs. There are no short
cuts. It takes a change in lifestyle to get a change in
health, physique and performance. That includes nutrition
AND training. There's No Such Thing As "Stomach Exercises"
THIS is your stomach! Proper choice of exercise is a
critical factor in your quest for a firm and flat
waistline. But you will never get a great "stomach" from
ANY "stomach exercise" because your stomach is a part of
your digestive tract, not your skeletal muscular system! So
let's get the terminology straight, shall we? The area of
you body you really want to improve is called your "core
region." Many people refer to it as the "abdominal region."
However, training only with "ab exercise" is NOT the
optimal approach. The abdominals only include the front
(anterior) side of your body and if the only type of
training you do is abdominal training, you may be
unwittingly setting yourself up for lower back problems. If
you don't think this is serious, then consider this
statistic: According to the
American Chiropractic Association, more than 31 million
Americans are suffering from low back pain at any given
time. So would you like to trade great abs for a bad back?
I didn't think so. The good news is that you can kill two
birds with one stone. You can develop great abdominal
muscles, great core muscles and a strong, pain-free back by
using exercises that focus not on the "stomach," (which is
not a muscle you train at all), not on the "abdominals,"
(which is only part of the muscles you need to target), but
on the entire core.
The core is the key to your success. The core is the entire
complex of muscles around your hip and waist region from
your lower rib cage to the bottom of your pelvis. If you
just focus on "abdominal exercises" alone (or "stomach"
exercises, LOL), you will develop what I refer to as a "one
dimensional body." I focus on training the body as a whole,
or "multi-dimensional training" to develop a complete
person and to develop effective and powerful athletes.
What every program I write has in common is that I do not
attempt to "isolate" the abdominals (or train the "stomach
muscles!") It's all about the core and about integrating
your body as a unit so you function better in daily life.
As you do core-focused exercise programs you are improving
not only your muscular system but also the systems that
drives your muscular system - that is, the nervous system.
This may very well be the most important secret for getting
better results in your workout programs. The more
efficiently your nervous system works, the better your
results will be. Core workouts that improve both muscular
strength and conditioning while also improving neural drive
and develop stronger neural control of the associated
muscles.
This type of training for your core may very well be the
most important secret for getting better results in your
workout programs.
* THIS is why my "brand" of core training gets results in
women who have had C-sections, or other abdominal surgeries
when nothing else worked
* THIS is why the core exercises I recommend will flatten
out a "pooching" belly, which is a result of deep muscular
weakness and lack of neuromuscular control (It's NOT just a
body fat problem!)
* THIS is why my clients have overcome lower back when all
else failed
* THIS is why my workout program have helped men and women
recover from embarrassing incontinence
* THIS is how I have helped hundreds of new moms regain
their flat and firm midsections after having their babies
* THIS is why my clients remain injury free, while so many
other training programs are actually the CAUSE of injuries
* And THIS is why my type of training - PROGRESSIVE CORE
TRAINING - develops amazing athletes - top wrestlers, PGA
golfers, and pro boxers with powerful punches and abs of
steel. I've written an entire book about core training
("Firm And Flatten Your Abs), which you learn more about on
the Flatten Your Abs home page, as well as dozens of
articles which you can read elsewhere on this site (or you
can subscribe to my biweekly newsletter).
The purpose of this article was not to give more workout
routines (there are plenty of core training workouts to be
found on this site and in my book and lots more to come in
upcoming issues of my newsletter). The purpose of this
article was to "install" 3 incredibly important lessons
into your brain:
* You can't train your "stomach" because your stomach is an
internal organ of digestion not a skeletal muscle!
* You can't totally "isolate" your abdominals because your
abdominals do not work in isolation, they work in
conjunction with the rest of your body (and "isolation" as
with only doing crunches, is not the optimal approach
anyway).
* You get more by training your core! You become a better
athlete, you help prevent injuries, you get stronger and
you get that coveted 6-pack abs look. I hope the "morals"
of these lessons have already sunk in and will become a
part of your own fitness philosophy... and the next time
you hear someone talk about "stomach exercises", you'll now
be able to get a good chuckle out of that.
----------------------------------------------------
David Grisaffi is a Sports Conditining Coach and holds
multiple certifications including three from the
prestigious CHEK Institute: Level II Corrective Holistic
Exercise Kinesiologist, Golf Biomechanic, and Nutrition and
Lifestyle Coach. Plus he is also the author of the popular
selling e book, "Firm and Flatten Your Abs," which teaches
you how to develop a ripped abdominal region. Lean how to
shed bodyfat and eliminate low back pain and receive his
free newsletter by visiting: http://www.flattenyourabs.net
