Forget Crunches If You Want Six Pack Abs

That can't be right can it?
Surely if you do nothing else but do ab crunches all day long you'll end up with a stomach like a washboard?

Er, well no, that's not strictly true...

In fact, not only is it possible to get flatten stomach fast without a single crunch, it's also possible that relying on relentless crunching is moving you away from your desired flat stomach!

Ok, before I get carted off by the men in white coats, let me explain. Come to think of it, even if you *did* call the men in white coats, it would be *me* they would agree with!

It's all to do with the physiology, the construction of the body around the abdomen. A six pack is a display of defined abdominal muscles. Crunching is a superb way of strengthening and building these muscles, but it's vital to bear in mind, that if you currently don't have that six pack, your ab muscles will most likely be covered with a layer of fat. It doesn't have to be a rippling spare tire, Homer Simpson style, but there will be a layer of fat covering those muscles.

If you simply concentrate on building the abs, but do nothing about the fat, then as your abs develop, not only will they not be visible, but they will actually be pushing the layer of fat outwards! This is the last thing you want!

The layer of fat is one of the hardest areas to get rid of, so you need to start an all-round fitness regime if you really want a six pack. Try to focus on a good cardio workout, some sort of aerobic type exercise that will get your blood pumping and keep it in your target heart rate zone for at least 30 minutes and do your cardio at least 5 days a week for best results. Brisk walking, jogging, swimming and TaeBo are all good examples of a cardio workout. Gradually, and this won't and cannot happen overnight, as the fat layer disappears, your ab muscles will become closer to the surface, and therefore more visible.

Take it from me, as someone who's done it, the ab muscles get plenty of workout in everyday life, so are often defined enough so that once the fat layer had gone, they give off that familiar six pack look.

So there you are, a simple explanation of biology has got rid of almost any need for those horrible crunches!
You may want to do them to buff up your abs once the can be seen, but blimey they are hard enough to do at any time let alone if the effort is just going to waste!