The Health and Fitness ChannelJuly, 2002 IssueYour Truth In Fitness Source
TIGHT, FIRM, RIPPED, 6-PACK ABDOMINAL SECRETSAbdominal muscles have to be one of the most misunderstood yet most desired to improve muscles in the human body. Both male and female alike have always had a penchant to improve the one bodypart that, proudly displayed, shows others you have arrived. No other bodypart reflects your state of fitness and shape like a well-defined set of abdominal muscles. And in the ever elusive quest to get them literally billions of dollars have been spent by well-meaning but misguided people. Well, let me tell you that money, gadgets, and magic potions or pills will do little towards your goal of achieving what most consider the pinnacle of physical development -- the elusive "washboard" look. Although women probably don't want nor need the level of development men are capable of, nevertheless, nothing looks better (or sexier) on a woman than the subtle outlines of their abdominal muscles while wearing a bikini or low cut-off shirt. And in order for both men and women to get them you only need to follow and apply 2 simple truths: 1) You have to exercise in a way that will gradually "build" your underlying abdominal musculature (which when developed look like small squares of muscles, 2 columns by 3-4 rows long). This will allow them to "stand out" and make you want to proudly show them off. 2) You have to lose fat from the abdominal region in order to allow the muscles we ALL have there to show through. I'm only going to concentrate on #1 here because #2 is covered in my Ultimate Results Manual. THE MORE IS BETTER TRAPMost people think doing endless repetitions of situps, crunches, leg lifts, etc, are the way to the firm abs they strive for. As if all this activity directed at the abdominal region would somehow "burn" away all the unwanted fat there. Nothing is further from the truth. More abdominal exercises will not
burn more fat there. On the contrary, what it will do is work only the
endurance aspect of your abdominal and hip flexor muscles so that you'll
be able to do more work, but the And this is the trap most people fall into. Thinking they have to "burn" the fat away they do endless repetitions, hoping their ab muscles will eventually "show" through. A couple of basics first - Before you can sport a shapely set of abdominal
muscles you have to be convinced that you have to "build"them up first.
If you don't understand this subtle but important concept your quest
for the holy grail of fitness Your abs are a group of muscles just like any other voluntary set of muscles on your body. They also respond to different types of exercise just like any other muscle on your body would. If you perform long-duration, low-intensity training (irregardless
of the burn you feel - which by the way is a worthless indicator of
the value of your abdominal training) your muscles will respond by developing
more fatique-resistant However, science has shown that training muscles for endurance does
little to build them up or change their shape. The only reliable way
to change the underlying shape of a muscle is to subject them to high-intensity,
low duration training. This It doesn't sound intuitively right I know, but not much is when it comes to building a better body. Stay with me here, I'll explain more in a second. HIP FLEXOR DEACTIVATION IS KEYAnother problem in building better abs is properly targeting the abdominal muscles themselves. Most people exercising their abs do them wrong. They are mostly targeting their hip flexor muscles which will almost completely take over the function of the ab muscles if you let them. By the way, your ab muscles function is to contract your trunk between your waist and rib cage NOT, and I repeat, not to cause you to bend at the waist and shorten the distance between your upper and lower body. I have a little trick to help you eliminate your hip flexor involvement. Simply, just flex your hamstring muscles when doing any type of ab work. Why does this work? Because the hamstring muscles are an opposing muscle group to the hip flexors. And it's virtually impossible to contract the hamstring muscles and have the hip flexor muscles be working at the same time too. And that's what you want, to eliminate the involvement of the hip flexors to allow the work you're doing to be concentrated on your ab muscles. Contracting your hamstrings will do this perfectly. Here's an easy way to do it. And mind you, when you first try this
there will be some trial and error in learning how to do it right. Because
you will be taking the very strong hip flexor muscles out of the picture
all your ab exercises will suddenly Ok, go to a decline crunch bench, a bench where when you lay on it your head is lower than your feet. It should have some type of foot support to prevent you from sliding down the bench. Start with the lowest decline setting you can adjust the bench to. You will be performing crunches. Now, before you start with your first crunch and with your feet secured, make note of the pad touching the top part of your ankle. What you don't want happening while doing the crunch moevement is any "pressure" being felt between this pad and your ankle. And the way to prevent it is to drive your heels back towards you and away from this pad. In effect, contracting your hamstring muscles. So instead of using the pads as they were designed (by hooking your
feet underneath them), you'll want to use only the part of the bench
that's touching behind your knee. You want to use this part of the bench
to support yourself from sliding down instead of the ankle foot pad.
And the way to do that is to "contract" your hamstring muscles by, again,
driving your heels back towards your body. It will not feel like a natural movement as you'll want to use that nice, padded ankle pad to provide pressure against the natural feeling of wanting to "extend" your legs. You must fight this feeling and instead do just the opposite. The feeling you want to feel is the same as when you are doing a set of leg curls where you lie face down on a bench and "curl" your legs towards you. This feeling of contracting the back of your thighs is the same feeling you want to feel here. Although this may seem difficult, with just a little practice you'll quickly get the hang of it and be on the way to a great set of abs. Since doing crunches this way will be more difficult, you won't be able to do endless crunches like you used to. Instead, you'll perform repetitions in the 8-15 range for around 3-6 sets. Also, you should experience muscular failure towards the end of these repetitions. This will be the key to increasing the "size" of the individual ab muscles and allowing them to "show" sooner at a higher level of body fat than they would have otherwise. Remember, increasing the size of the abdominal muscles is the key (along
with diet of course). Many people have dieted down to low levels of
body fat only to be disappointed because their "6-pack" didn't show.
Although their body fat was low, their underlying ab musculature was
so underdeveloped (because of their incorrect So to get that great set of abs perform 8-15 reps for 3-6 sets 2 times per week (only). And watch how you too will soon be joining the 6-pack ab club. wishing you the best in health and fitness, Harry "Hank" Johnson Jr,
President
Harry is the creator of the "Amazing Fat-Loss/Ultimate Results Program" - the most effective method ever developed for losing fat - It will help you lose fat quicker than anything else available today. If you follow Harry's instructions you will have a lean, muscular or sexy body (it's your choice) in 12 - 15 weeks or less -- guaranteed! ''If you want to look great on the outside AND make sure your insides are as healthy as they can be too then The Ultimate Results Program is for you...'' CLICK HERE.
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