Doing lower ab workouts and why this may actually be setting you up for failure is a question you may be wondering about. Most people focus on lower ab workouts when they want to get ripped abs thinking it’s logical – there’s a flabby problem area so let’s work in that area to fix it. But your body doesn’t operate that way. Flab means there’s fat so you need to lose the fat first and no amount of isolation exercises can burn that fat away.
A lot of ab machines and exercises are out there claiming they can solve your flab problem. However, because they work solely the ab area, you don’t see any visible difference after using their machines and workouts. In fact, they just don’t work because spot reduction really doesn’t work.
Focusing your training just in the ab area will not sculpt and give you six packs. Sit-ups, crunches and lower ab exercises can strengthen and tone but they will not sculpt. The fact is, you likely won’t see any visible changes.
To sculpt and reveal those six packs, you need to get your whole body moving and do cardio activities, which will jumpstart your metabolism into burning fat continuously, allowing you to lose the fat cover around your ab muscles.
Some exercises you can do include jogging, squats, lunges, brisk walking, push-ups and even dancing. Doing these specifically trains the large muscles, which uses up more energy. The more trained these large muscles become, the more efficient they are at burning fat.
Another way we can increase our metabolism is through interval training. When we do short intense bursts of activity, our muscles react by working so hard that there is a build up carbon dioxide and lactic acid in the muscles. As a result, the body must work extra hard at clearing away and getting oxygen to the muscles. The muscles react by increasing in size and also consuming more energy by working hard to adapt to the physical activity.
At the same time, the processes of clearing away lactic acid and carbon dioxide waste products and re-supplying of oxygen to nourish and replenish muscle stores require a lot of energy. These processes raise your metabolic rate, resulting in stored fat being mobilized for use.
Exercises that specifically train our abs will not work. Instead, focus on kick starting your metabolism through multi-joint exercises and interval training. By training your metabolism, you train your body to become a fat burning machine that will give your ripped hard abs.
