Sports And Fitness Archives

If you are working out to develop six pack abs then you need to be aware of the three biggest mistakes described in this article and avoid them at all cost!

First, you need to understand the difference between getting six pack abs and simply losing body fat. Getting six pack abs is a all about having extremely low levels of body fat. For men this is around 8% and for women around 15%. Training and eating to get body fat levels this low is much different than someone who just starts a diet and wants to lose 20-30lbs.

If you are just trying to lose a lot of weight, then making small changes to your diet will help you make a lot of progress very fast. For example, if you were to only drink water, unsweetened iced tea, and green tea, then you will not be consuming any calories from beverages. For someone who just wants to lose weight, a small modification such as this can make a big difference.

For someone who wants to get six pack abs, the process is much more detailed. Here are two mistakes that most people make when they try to develop six pack abs.

Six Pack Abs Mistake #1: They try to do too many crunches and ab exercises.

While crunches and other ab exercises will help to build a stronger core, they will not help you get down to a low level of body fat. Trying to use endless reps of ab exercises simply does not build enough muscle or work your body hard enough to burn significant calories.

The myth of “spot” reduction is where a lot of people get caught up. The concept of spot reduction basically states that if you want to lose fat in a certain part of the body you should work the muscle underneath it. Our bodies do not store fat in one specific place, therefore you cannot lose fat in one specific place either.

I guarantee you will never see someone who has six pack abs in the front and is flabby around the rest of their midsection. If spot reduction actually worked this is what would happen. In the real world however, you need to focus on losing body fat all over in order to developing six pack abs.

Six Pack Abs Mistake #2: Trying to use infomercial ab gimmicks

When you see an advertisement for an “miracle” piece of ab equipment, the people who are using them usually have great bodies, low body fat, and a great six pack. However I can guarantee you one thing, and that is they did not get that way to using one single piece of abdominal exercise equipment.

Like we just talked about with why lots of crunches do not help you get six pack abs, the same holds true for any ab crunch machine or anything else you see on an advertisement.

This all goes back to the false concept that working the abs with lots of exercises will directly lead to a six pack. All the people who have the best abs got them by exercising their whole body and by adhering to a very strict diet. Not by using some ab crunch gimmick for “two easy payments of $29.95.” Six Pack Abs Mistake #3: Eating too many calories.

Sounds overly simplistic doesn’t it?

This is one of the most important core concepts that is crucial to understanding how to lose body fat and develop six pack abs. So many people try to eat healthy and still have trouble losing weight. Sometimes they think they have something physiologically wrong with them and their bodies simply cannot lose weight.

Before you fall into this trap and start seeking “miracle” quick fixes, you need to know that not being able to lose body fat is simply a matter of taking in too many calories. If you try keeping a food journal for a week and counting the calories you consume you will be amazed at the insight it will give you.

Even if you eat 400 extra calories a day from little snacks here and there (which is not difficult at all), you will be taking in an extra 2,800 calories per week. For some people, taking in an extra 500-1000 calories per day can easily come from foods that are extremely calorie dense but do not help you feel full. Such foods include bagels, donuts, muffins, potato chips, soda, any kind of fast food, and more.

So before you think that getting six pack abs or simply losing body fat is impossible for you, try taking a few days to really track what you are eating. You will be surprised that losing weight can really be as simple as cutting out small calories dense foods from your diet.

A wise man once said that having **** six pack abs feels better than the best tasting food in the world. Remember this concept and start taking action today. Good luck.

Get In Shape Now

By: Tom Gifford

About the Author:

Are you not getting the results you want with diet and exercise? If so, there is good news for you. My name it Tom Gifford, Certified Personal Trainer, and I would like to extend to you a personal invitation to stop by my website at http://www.TheGreatCardioMyth.com
and check out the first two chapters of my brand new book! You will get lots of great tips you can start implementing immediately. Looking forward to seeing you there!

These days it almost feels like we are inundated with image after image of the perfect body. It’s definitely a hard thing to get away from, which is probably the reason why so many of us are striving to get ‘abs of steel’. And while that may sound like a title for a very cheesy movie, you can be assured that quite a few people can say that without cracking a smile!

To get abs of steel though, is not an easy matter, and it doesn’t matter what all those magazines and TV shows will tell you. You need to put in time effort and energy into getting abs of steel, and nothing you do will make nature work any faster. There are a many factors which you will need to take into account when thinking about getting abs of steel, and these will all affect your results.

And the first one that you should perhaps realise, and probably the one thing you won’t normally learn about until too late, is that not everyone can get abs of steel, or a six pack. Some of us have to be content with merely getting firmer, flatter abs. It’s a genetic thing, and depending on your body makeup you will have to be satisfied with what you can achieve.

That was the first point that you will need to take into consideration when trying to get abs of steel. The next thing is that you will need to work hard in order to achieve your dream. Abs of steel don’t just come about because you have been doing all the right ab exercises for a week or two, you will need to continue at it for a longer while, until you reach your goal. The time limit on this obviously changes with the amount of time and effort that you put into over the months.

You really can’t have abs of steel if you have a rolling belly getting in the way. So the first thing you need to do is to get rid of that. And to do that, you will need to adjust your diet so that you don’t add to the problem, but so that you are in fact helping to get rid of the problem.

The next thing you will need to look into is a getting into a fitness regime that will help you to get rid of your roll of belly fat. Once this is accomplished, you can then think about keeping your overall diet to a healthy one so that you get your abs of steel.

By: Muna wa Wanjiru

About the Author:

Muna wa Wanjiru Has Been Researching and Reporting on Abs for Years. For More Information on Abs Of Steel, Visit His Site at ABS OF STEEL