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Parks & Rec Business
| Perfect Abs The Myth Revealed By Jim Mihevic Even though winter is upon us, it's time to think spring because this is the season to begin sculpting your body for the time you can't hide it under winter clothing. Soon fitness magazines and television shows will be promoting quick, flat tummies in absurdly short periods of time. They will also present people whose testimonials illustrate how well “miracle” equipment works without even mentioning other exercises, cardio, diet or even drugs they may be taking. I would like to shed some light on what I believe is the biggest misconception in the fitness world. The Spot Reduction Myth The biggest thing with which ads try to fool us is spot reduction. This is a complete farce and totally impossible. You can do 20,000 crunches, abs-rollers and abs-lunges a day and never have a flat stomach, or even see a reduction. In fact, your waist size may actually increase due to the increased muscle under the fat. The truth remains that you can have the greatest abs in the world, but nobody will ever see them as long as there is fat covering them. In order to actually see the abs, your body fat must be between seven and 10 percent (closer to seven). The average male has about 24 percent body fat, and females are around 35 percent, not even in the cheap seats as far as seeing your abs. Diet and exercise are the only non-surgical ways of getting a flat stomach. Priority-wise, abdominal exercises should be near the bottom of your list of workouts. Since muscle burns fat, the more muscle we have, the higher our metabolic rate will be throughout the day and night. The best exercises to do are ones with compound movements (involving many muscle groups). The ones that will have the greatest impact are squats and dead lifts. These exercises work all the major muscles of your lower body. Since your lower body has the largest muscles, this will cause the largest caloric burn. As far as upper body, your best bets are bench presses and dips. Don’t Forget Cardio And Diet Work The other two aspects of six-pack abs are cardio and diet. You should always do your cardio work after your weight training because the weight work has depleted your energy stores, causing your body to burn fat. Don’t forget proper diet. I won't go into detail, but stay away from simple carbohydrates and saturated fats, and try to eat about six small meals throughout the day. Since protein is thermogenic, it builds muscle and is a good appetite suppressant. Include it in each meal. Your body will burn many more calories from a meal that is high in protein than one that has predominantly carbohydrates. Please note, these six meals are not large and should be approached more like snacks than real meals. Almonds make a great snack. I look at them as almost the perfect food. They contain complex carbohydrates (not easily converted to fat), monounsaturated fats (not readily stored as adipose tissue and essential for almost all bodily functions) and protein. The six small meals will keep your metabolism high, as well as prevent hunger, which is one of the secrets of the trade -- never let yourself get hungry because then you will automatically want to overeat. Eating when you are not hungry will actually keep you from taking in a lot of unneeded calories. I know I just scratched the surface in this short article, but at least I hope I saved you a few bucks on another "miracle machine." Jim Mihevic is currently attending The University of Akron for a degree in dietetics, and is an ACE-Certified Personal Trainer. |
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