Ab Workouts - The Truth About Ab Workouts - Dangerous Ab Workouts
Today’s article is the Truth About Ab Workouts. I hope you aren’t still doing hundreds of situps to try to get the six pack abs of your dreams. There are so many abs workouts out there and you never know which are the ones you will see results with. I remember in the past doing all those ab gadgets and machines and never getting anywhere. Thankfully I am no longer doing those. I’m just following through Craig’s Turbulence Training workouts.
Check out Craig Ballantyne’s Truth About Ab Workouts article below. It actually sounds a bit like what I did growing up. Hopefully this wasn’t your too. He will also give you a couple tips on what ab exercises are hurting your back and are dangerous exercises.
OK over to Craig Ballantyne with his truth about ab workouts.
The Truth About Ab Workouts
By Craig Ballantyne, MS, CSCS, CTT
=> http://turbulencetrainingworkoutreview.com/ttforabsdvds
When I first started lifting weights and doing ab workouts, I really didn’t know what I was doing. So let me tell you about some of the crazy ab exercises and training sessions I did back in the day involving ab crunches, sit-ups, and so many other ineffective and potentially dangerous exercises.
You see, I had started working out for the typical teenage boy reasons. I wanted to get big muscles to impress girls, and I wanted to get bigger, stronger, and faster for soccer and hockey.
My first ab workouts were done at the local YMCA after a few of my friends and I snuck in one night. We were those kids who went from machine to machine, not knowing what we were doing, and annoying – and probably intimidating – all of the regular customers.
And for that, I apologize, and to make it up to you, I’m going to share some really great ab workouts after I tell you about the abdominal exercises to avoid.
After causing havoc at the YMCA, I started lifting weights in my parent’s basement after purchasing a traditional York barbell machine weight set. Every other night, when I was 16 years old, I would go downstairs and do a full body workout routine followed by 100 crunches.
I did that because that is what the workout booklet told me to do.
Eventually, after buying a few fitness magazines and reading about the ab workouts of pro bodybuilders and fitness models, I started adding sets and reps of different ab exercises to the list. Soon I was doing hundreds of crunches, bicycle crunches, side crunches, and even sit-ups.
And while these exercises made my abs burn, nothing changed in the mirror. Well, at least not in terms of my abs. The weight machine exercises were helping pack on some muscle – in addition to the manual labor done at my after school job, and because of my teenage hormones.
Eventually I came to the decision that ab crunches and sit-ups were not helping me achieve my goals. By that time, I was in college and had access to a fully equipped, state-of-the-art gym. Plus, the Stability Ball had made its entrance into the fitness world.
So at this time, I was doing ab workouts that used stability ball crunches, Russian twists, and decline situps, and while my abs were sore, sometimes my back was sore too.
Truth About Ab Workouts – Some Abs Exercises Can Be Dangerous
The problem with this approach and these ab exercises is that they are all potentially dangerous for your low back. Each of these abs exercises puts your spine in flexion or rotation, and research has shown that rotation and flexion are the exact movements that cause herniated discs in your low back. Ouch.
I was shocked to find this out, but as soon as I did, I removed these from your workouts. They should be used rarely, if ever, and the great news is that you don’t need these exercises if you want to build six pack abs or have great ab workouts.
So if you find your back stiff and sore, you need to stop those exercises immediately. As mentioned, one day I stopped doing all of these ab exercises in my workouts.
They weren’t helping or making a difference for my six pack abs, but they were hurting my back. So they had to go. In reality, as long as you are keeping the fat off with interval training, metabolic resistance workouts, and diet, you’re going to have sexy abs. You don’t need to do 30 minute ab workouts.
However, you do need to do certain ab exercises to protect your back and improve your performance in sports, lifting, and every day tasks. (Great abs even help in the bedroom.)
So here’s what you need to do now. If you’re a beginner, you MUST throw away all of the crunches and sit-ups that you are doing, and you’re going to switch over to stabilization exercises like planks, side planks, and this cool little exercise called “The Bird Dog”.
These movements will help you build up abdominal endurance – and a nice flat stomach – so that you are ready for advanced ab exercises.
When you are at that point, you’ll want to use “anti-extension” and “anti-rotation” exercises like stability ball rollouts, TRX fallouts, stability ball “stir the pot” movements, and many more that I’m going to share with you in an advanced ab workouts article.
Get started with the TT for Abs DVD workouts here
==> Order your Ab Workouts DVD Today!
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Certified Turbulence Trainer
OK that did sound a lot like what I have gone through. But like I said I am way past that. Most of my ab exercises are using a stability ball or bodyweight exercises you can do at home. They are a lot more fun then doing situps and you may even break a sweat.
If you go to the page you can watch a free video of Craig doing Workout A. Maybe you even want to give it a try.
Stay Motivated!
Darren
Lean Body Fitness Articles
http://leanbodyfitnessarticles.com
P.S. If you decide to grab this fabulous offer I’m going to throw in a few bonuses for you. Just go through the link above to purchase and then email me (darren [at] leanbodyfitnessarticles.com) your receipt number and I will sent you the Turbulence Training Interval Report and the Turbulence Training Hot Zone Fat Loss Program.
So that’s the Truth About Ab Workouts, hopefully this has changed your abs life for the better.
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5 Common Ab Myths
Ab exercises aren’t the only thing you have to do in order to get your 6-pack. You also have to work hard on your diet as well, sticking to a fat-burning, muscle-building diet all year round.
Here’s a list of 5 common ab myths.
Myth 1) You don’t need to watch what you eat
Diet is first and foremost the key factor when trying to get 6-pack abs. Plan your nutrition in advance, to avoid dietary downfalls.
Myth 2) As long as you do a lot of ab exercises and repetitions, it doesn’t matter how well you do them
It is important to do all repetitions with good form. Focus on quality, not quantity. Avoid sit-ups and an excessive number of crunches. Both exercises can damage the lumbar spine in your low back, and crunches are rarely effective anyways.
Myth 3) You can “Spot reduce” the fat on your abs with crunches
No matter how many crunches you do, you won’t be able to get rid of your ab fat with crunches alone. You need a good diet and an increase in your calorie burning from strength training and interval training.
Myth 4) Infomercial products will help you get a 6-pack
You’ve probably seen dozens of ab gadgets on TV, but none are magic bullets. You can’t expect anything you order from TV to help you get a 6-pack. You have to do the hard work with nutrition and training to get results.
Myth 5) You must do abs every day
You don’t need to do abs every day. Instead, train them twice per week and use non-conventional exercises such as Mountain Climbers and Stability Ball Jackknives to reduce the stress on your low back.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training.
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Categories: Six Pack Abs Tags: Ab Exercises, Ab Myths, Abdominal Myths, Fat Burning, Muscle Building, Myths
The Best Exercises For 6-Pack Abs
Men’s Health expert Craig Ballantyne believes that men and women can lose their belly fat and get flat lower abs with fast fat loss workouts.
He even believes you can spot reduce and lose your tummy fat with a specific type of exercise - and no, it’s not ab crunches. Plus, he knows specific abdominal exercises that can flatten your lower abs.
“The classic ab crunch is generally a waste of time because the ab crunch doesn’t work the entire main ab muscle (rectus abdominis). There are other better, unique ab exercises that men and women can do to flatten their lower abs,” Ballantyne advises.
“And if you want to lose belly fat, forget about doing long, slow boring cardio for fat loss,” Ballantyne insists. “You’ll get more results in less time in your fat burning workouts by using interval training for fat loss.”
This was proven by a research study from Australia, who found that only interval training helped women lose belly fat, while doing cardio for twice as long did not!
Some of Ballantyne’s favorite abdominal exercises can be done with just your bodyweight or need only a common exercise ball.
Here’s a list of just a few of his favorite total body ab exercises that will help you get a flat stomach (provided you combine these exercises with interval training for fat loss):
Exercise Ball Ab Rollouts
- Kneel on a mat and place your clasped hands on the top of a medium sized ball.
- Brace your abs and slowly lean forward and roll your hands over the ball while the ball moves away from your body.
- Keep your body in a straight line and go as far as you can with perfect form.
- Contract your abs and reverse the motion to return to the upright position.
Hanging Leg Raise
- Hang from a chin-up bar using an underhand grip. Brace your abs.
- With a slight bend in your knees, curl your hips back and raise your legs up in front of you until they are parallel to the floor. Don’t use momentum.
- Go slow and controlled both ways.
Side Planks
- Raise your body in a straight line so that your body hovers over the mat.
- Keep your back straight and your hips up. Hold your abs tight.
- Contract your abs as if someone was about to punch you in the stomach, but
breath normally.
Plank with Your Arms on the Ball
- Place your clasped hands on the top of a medium sized ball.
- Keep your body in a straight line from shoulders to toes and keep your abs
braced.
Plus, if you have access to a commercial gym, his favorite resistance
exercises for your abs – to help you build a set of 6-pack abs – include:
Cable Chops
- Stand sideways beside a cable stack with your right shoulder closest to the stack.
- Attach a handle to the highest pulley position. Grasp the handle over your right shoulder with arms extended and a slight bend at the elbow.
- Your knees should be slightly bent and your hips slightly pushed back.
- Prepare for the exercise by bracing (contracting) your abdominals from top
to bottom. - Without bending at the elbows any further, bring your arms down and across the body using your abs to initiate the movement.
- Focus on working your abs and obliques. Bring your hands across to your
left hip pocket and then slowly return to the start. - Perform all reps for one side and then switch.
Kneeling Cable Ab Crunches
- Attach a rope handle to the top of a cable pulley system.
- Kneel in front of the pulley and hold the rope behind your head.
- Brace your abs, and curl your torso forward. Your arms should remain above your head during the crunch.
- Slowly return to the start position.
Do two exercises twice per week, and do intervals 3 times per week for best
results.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training.
Try Turbulence Training today with the Trial Version for only $4.95
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How To Lose Lower Belly Fat and Get Flat Abs
Men’s Health expert fitness trainer Craig Ballantyne believes that men and women can lose lower belly fat and get flat lower abs with fast fat loss workouts. He even believes you can “spot reduce” and lose your tummy fat with a specific type of exercise — and no, it’s not ab crunches. Plus, he knows specific abdominal exercises that can flatten your lower abs.
“The classic ab crunch is generally a waste of time because the ab crunch doesn’t work the entire main ab muscle (rectus abdominis). There are other better, unique ab exercises that men and women can do to flatten their lower abs,” Ballantyne advises.
“And if you want to lose belly fat, forget about doing long, slow boring cardio for fat loss,” Ballantyne insists. “You’ll get more results in less time in your fat burning workouts by using interval training for fat loss. This was proven by a research study from Australia, who found that only interval training helped women lose belly fat, while doing cardio for twice as long did not!”
Some of Ballantyne’s favorite abdominal exercises can be done with just your bodyweight or need only a common exercise ball. Here’s a list of just a few of his favorite total body ab exercises that will help you get a flat stomach (provided you combine these exercises with interval training for fat loss):
Exercise Ball Ab Rollouts
Exercise Ball Ab Jackknives
Hanging Leg Raises
Side Planks
and Plank with Your Arms on the Ball
Plus, if you have access to a commercial gym, his favorite resistance exercises for your abs — to help you build a set of 6-pack abs — include:
Cable Chops
Kneeling Cable Ab Crunches
Standing Cable Ab Crunches
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training.
Try Turbulence Training today with the Trial Version for only $4.95
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The Truth About Six Pack Abs
Among the fitness myths and misinformation comes a lot of surprise training recommendations from the real experts. Without the real experts, we’d all be stuck doing 60-minutes of cardio five times per week rather than faster, more efficient intervals.
And the world of ab training is a jungle of bad information. But last summer I spoke with a coach named Mike Geary. He’s a Certified Nutrition Specialist & a Certified Personal Trainer dedicated to showing your better ab and fat loss methods.
You might have come across Mike’s info in Muscle & Fitness Hers Magazine, or even read his wildly popular & controversial book The Truth About Six Pack Abs
Today, Mike has some surprises for you…
Craig Ballantyne : Mike, what got you into training and helping others?
Mike Geary : I just love helping people with this area of their lives, as not only does it improve their outward appearance and confidence, but more importantly, improves how they feel and their internal health, helping them to live longer and healthier lives. It’s something I’m very passionate about.
Craig Ballantyne : Okay, so where does the average man or woman go wrong when it comes to training abs?
Mike Geary : Most people are probably going to be surprised with this answer.
In their quest for ‘six pack abs’, the biggest mistake I see people making is wasting WAY too much of their time training their abs directly… pumping away with all kinds of different abs-specific exercises.
I’m sure you know what I’m referring to. The person is trying so hard to get those abs to show, that they’re spending almost all of their time in the gym with hundreds of reps of various crunches, leg raises, twisting exercises, etc.
Craig Ballantyne : Right, I see a lot of wasted time in the gym. So what’s better?
Mike Geary : All of that wasted time directly training the abs could have been better spent on a properly designed full body workout program that would elicit a much better metabolic response and increase the fat-burning hormone levels in their body as well.
After all, losing the stomach fat that is covering the abs is the MOST important aspect for most people to finally be able to make their abs visible. Unfortunately, pumping away with hundreds of crunches and leg raises does NOT cause much of a metabolic or fat burning hormonal response.
The essential metabolic and correct hormonal response is the main focus of my The Truth About Six Pack Abs book… full body training programs and proper nutrition to strip off that stubborn belly fat and reveal the six pack that’s hiding underneath!
Of course it wouldn’t be an abs book if I didn’t focus on ab development too, but I make sure firstly that the most important concepts for lasting body fat reduction are understood.
Craig Ballantyne : Do you see any gender differences in mistakes they make? And more importantly, do you see any gender differences in the response to various types of ab training?
Mike Geary : To be honest, I don’t really see any need for men or women to train differently. Bottom line… the best exercises are the best exercises regardless of gender.
However, in regards to mistakes I see between genders… Yes, I tend to see women more often are deathly afraid to use weight training with anything but really light weights. That is a shame, because THE most effective way to gain control over your body fat for life, is to maximize your lean muscle that your body carries, as well as working that muscle hard through intense resistance exercise regularly.
Craig Ballantyne : So do you have some specific advice for women?
Mike Geary : It’s important for women to realize that regular strength training using heavier resistance will NOT “bulk them up” (as long as caloric intake is controlled), but rather is one of the key secrets for losing body fat and staying lean year-round. As a matter of fact, some of the leanest females that I’ve trained over the years are the ones that aren’t afraid to work hard with the weights.
I also notice that most women (and a lot of guys too) spend way too much time with slow cardio exercise. This is simply not necessary, and the way I combine high intensity resistance training into full body routines provides enough of a “cardio” workout in itself usually. We’ll get back to this in a minute though.
I’ve separated my site into men and women’s areas, just to make sure I’ve covered everyone’s specific needs.
Craig Ballantyne : What about old school sit-ups? Do you use these? Are they good, bad, or does it “depend”?
Mike Geary : Sit-ups are a controversial topic. I don’t think they’re good or bad per se, but rather “in between”. I didn’t include them in my program. I simply don’t feel they are necessary, and I think there are much more effective abs exercises to focus on. Personally, I almost never do sit-ups except occasionally for a little variety every now and then.
Craig Ballantyne : Give us a weekly sample ab training program. How many days per week? What are a couple of the best exercises you’d pick? How many sets? Reps? Rest?
Mike Geary : Well, first I’d like to point out that the full body movements that make up the majority of my programs indirectly work the abs and the entire “core” area to a fairly decent extent. However, I do include abs-specific exercises into the routines generally about twice per week.
The “abs-specific” portion of the workouts generally only take about 5 minutes at most with very little rest between exercises.
Once people are past the beginning phase of gaining some initial ab strength, I try to get them away from the exercises that are too easy, where someone can do 50 or 100 reps, as is frequently common with standard crunches.
Instead, I like to focus on higher resistance exercises that actually stimulate the muscle fibers to a much greater degree.
Craig Ballantyne : Such as?
Mike Geary : One example of a higher resistance abs exercise is hanging leg raises with a proper “pelvic curl up”. It’s funny but usually someone that has been wasting so much time with hundreds of reps of crunches can usually only do a few solid reps when they first attempt some of these higher resistance exercises.
We also make sure not to neglect some rotational movements, as well as some work for the deeper muscles like the transversus abdominis.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training.
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Intervals Burn Stomach Fat
If you’re doing the same long, slow, boring cardio workout over and over again, then don’t bother to expect any results. If you want results, use intervals to burn stomach fat.
But if you are using cardio, you have to change your program.
You have to workout with more intensity.
You have to do shorter, less frequent workouts – using intervals.
Hopefully that caught your attention.
Shorter, less frequent Interval workouts. Yes, they will be more intense. But I promise you, the bottom line from interval training will be more fat burning and more fat loss. Basically, MORE results.
But even in your interval program you can benefit from variety. And with all the interval options available, there is no good reason to do the same interval program all the time.
So not only should you have variety within your training week (i.e. alternate between two different interval training workouts, rather than just doing the same interval workout each time), but you should also change these workouts every 4 weeks.
To modify your interval training workouts, you can…
- switch exercise methods (even using bodyweight exercises for intervals)
- increase or decrease the length of the interval (while decreasing or increasing the intensity, respectively)
- increase or decrease the number of intervals per workout
- increase or decrease the rest time between intervals
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First, let’s take a look at the interval methods. Here is my list of preferred ways to do your intervals, starting with the best methods listed first (based on my experiences)…
- Sprinting outdoors (and hills might be the absolute best)
- Strongman movements (Farmer’s walks, tire flips, car pushing)
- Kettlebell Swings, Dumbell Swings, Sandbag Swings, or Dumbell Squats
- Bodyweight interval circuits
- Treadmill running
- Stationary cycle (upright preferred)
After that, if you prefer any of these other methods, then go ahead:
- Stairmaster, Rower, Swimming (really only works for competent swimmers), Elliptical & Crosstrainer machines
But I stick to my top 6 methods above – those are the ones that I have seen work time and time again for men AND women to lose the stomach and chest fat. Intervals will scorch those love handles.
In fact, Professor Steve Boucher of the University of New South Wales in Australia, believes that interval training allows you to achieve the magic of spot reduction, because intervals specifically work to burn stomach fat.
As you’ll see in the Turbulence Training manual, I have two specific interval programs I like to use when clients get into my advanced programs. I have found these two workouts to work the best, and frankly, they are the simplest and easiest to follow.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training.
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How To Get Six Pack Abs At Home
If you rely on boring, back-breaking abdominal crunches and sit-ups to burn belly fat, you’ll never lose the ugly belly fat covering your abs. To get more fat burning results in less workout time, use fat burning interval training and total-body abdominal exercises instead.
You don’t even have to do ab workouts everyday to get six pack abs at home. In fact, one of the secrets of top fat loss trainers is to drop boring, repetitive ab exercises and replace them with total-body abdominal exercises you only need to do for a few minutes three times per week.
The best way to lose belly fat isn’t ab training or even long, slow boring cardio in the “Fat Burning Zone”. In fact, in a recent study, subjects did 40 minutes of slow cardio three times per week for 15 weeks but didn’t lose a single inch of stomach fat. However, only 20 minutes of interval training helped subjects significantly reduce belly fat.
So the truth is, you don’t need hundreds of ab exercises, or even expensive fancy ab machines down at your local gym. In fact, research shows that most abdominal machines in gyms are extremely DANGEROUS for your low back! But you can do simple, safe, and effective abdominal bodyweight exercises and interval training at home to flatten your stomach.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training.
Try Turbulence Training today with the Trial Version for only $4.95
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