1000 Crunches a day and still no abs???
1000 Crunches A Day And Still No Abs???
I have been working out for around a year now and I cannot get my lower abs into any type of shape no matter what I do. Despite doing 900 various crunches, ab roller, and 100 sit-ups four days a week, along with running and my regular workout on the weights, I still have a tire around my waist. What else can I do?
Though it was just little role playing, bet we all have experienced such a situation at one point of our life or another …
Now back to reality ...
"What should I do to get abs?" is still one of the most frequently asked questions by many personal training clients the world over. Although the question is often phrased differently, the answer is always the same:
Seeing your abs, or any other muscle group for that matter - is almost entirely the result of having low body fat levels. You get low body fat from proper diet (as well as cardio), not from doing hundreds of ab exercises every day.
Some people think the lower ab muscles can sometimes be hard to develop, but it's not really an issue of "muscle development" at all, it’s simply having too much body fat and storing it in the lower abdominal region more readily than other parts of your body so you can't see the muscles through the fat.
Most people don't have their fat distributed evenly throughout their bodies. Each of us inherits a genetically determined and hormonally-influenced pattern of fat storage just as we inherit our eye or hair color. In other words, the fat seems to "stick" to certain areas more than others.
Men often tend to store fat more readily in the lower abdominal region (the "pot belly", "beer gut", or "love handles"). In women, the "stubborn" areas are usually the hips, thighs ("saddlebags") and the triceps ("grandmother arms").
You could focus on more "lower ab" exercises like hanging leg raises, reverse crunches and hip lifts ("toes to sky"), but even these won't help as long as you still have body fat covering the muscles. You can't "spot reduce" with abdominal exercise.
The lower abs is often the first place the fat goes when you gain it, and the last place it comes off when you're losing it. Think of ab fat like the deep end of the swimming pool. No matter how much you protest, there is no way you can drain the deep end before the shallow end.
Cutting back the volume on your ab training and spending some time on more cardio work would help. Personally, I only do about 15 minutes of ab work two times per week. (About two to four exercises with reps usually ranging from 10-25 reps).
Here is a recent ab routine for bodybuilding/ab-development purposes). Do this routine only twice a week and change the exercises approximately every month so your body doesn't adapt. Use slightly higher reps than other muscle groups, but as you can see, it is far from doing a thousand reps a day. (Check out this guy’s abs)
A1 Hanging leg raises 3 sets, 15-20 reps
Superset to:
A2 Hanging knee ups (bent-knee leg raises) 3 sets, 15-20 reps
(No rest between supersetted exercises A1 & A2, 60sec between supersets)
B1 Incline Reverse Crunches 3 sets, 15-20 reps
C1 Weighted Stability ball Crunch 3 sets, 15-20 reps
For maximum fat loss, you should do cardio 4-7 days per week for 30-60 minutes (the amount is variable depending on your results). You could focus on running or mix up the type of cardio you do (stationary cycling, stair climbing, elliptical machines, and other continuous aerobic activities are all excellent fat burners without the high impact and joint stress of frequent running).
If time efficiency is an issue for you, you could perform high intensity interval cardio training and achieve very efficient results with even briefer workouts (20-30 min per sessions, or less, if the intensity is high enough)
Once you are satisfied with your level of body fat and your abdominal definition, you can cut back to 3 days per week for 20-30 minutes for maintenance to make sure your abs don't go into hiding again :-)
As far as nutrition goes, here are a few fat-burning nutrition guidelines in a nutshell:
- Eat about 15-20% below your calorie maintenance level. If you use a more aggressive calorie deficit, then do not keep calories too low for too long; increase calories to maintenance or maintenance +10-20% 1-2 days per week.
- Spread your calories into 5-6 smaller meals instead of 2-3 big ones. Be very conscious of portion size. Eat too much of anything and you can say goodbye to your abs. Period.
- Eat a source of complete, high quality lean protein with each meal (egg whites, lean meat, fish, protein powder, etc)
- Choose natural, complex carbs such as vegetables, oatmeal, yams, potatoes, brown rice and whole grains. Start with aprox. 50% of your calories from natural carbs and reduce carbs slightly (esp. late in the day) if you are not losing fat.
- Avoid refined, simple carbs that contain white flour or white sugar.
- Keep total fats low and saturated fats low. Aim for 15-20% of your total calories from fat (and no more than 30%). A little bit of "good fat" like flax oil, fish fat, nuts & seeds, etc is better than a no fat diet.
- Drink plenty of water. A gallon is a good ballpark to shoot for if you are physically active.
1000+ reps of ab work four days a week is an amazing feat of endurance, but that’s not how you get visible, rock hard, 6-pack abs!
You probably have outstanding development in your abdominal muscles. (You certainly have great muscular endurance). Unfortunately, if your abs are covered up with a layer of fat, you won’t be able to see them even if you do 10,000 reps a day!
You "get abs" from reducing your body fat and you reduce body
fat mostly through diet and cardio.
There are many other ways you can reduce body fat through nutritional
strategies.
My program Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle emphasizes the importance
of strength training and cardio vascular exercise, but it has always been
first and foremost a nutrition program designed specifically to increase
metabolic efficiency through proper food choices, meal timing, meal frequency
and proper portioning of nutrient ratios.
If you learn how to control these critical factors, along with your caloric
intake, then YES, you can get results with minimal exercise (although
I'll always keep preaching that it's better
WITH exercise).
If you don't have the e-book yet, you can grab a copy at:
http://www.burnthefat.com
Train hard and expect success all-ways,
Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Certified Personal Trainer
Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
Fat Loss & Bodybuilding Coach
http://www.burnthefat.com
About Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer, certified strength coach (CSCS), and author of hundreds of articles
and been featured in IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development,
Exercise for Men and Men's Exercise.
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