People are still brainwashed to believe that you have to do millions of crunches to have a great mid section. You see it on TV all the time with the latest and greatest ab busting machine and that only perpetuates the problem.
Let me say it again.....YOU CAN NOT SPOT REDUCE FAT. You could do millions of crunches and never see chiseled abdominals.
Having great abs has a simple formula and the two primary variables in that formula for achieving the desired look are cardio and diet. That is right - cardio and diet are the keys NOT crunches.
In our documentary "I Want to Look Like That Guy" Stuart MacDonald goes from a 44 inch waist to a ripped and shredded contest ready set of abs and a lean 27 inch waist by doing abs directly only 1 time per week with resistance. Let me repeat....44 inch waist to 27 inch waist and did not do high rep abdominal training. (On a side note, do not forget with heavy Max-OT training abs and core muscles are worked daily as stabilizers during free weight compound movements. This also supports the idea that you should not be directly training your abs multiple times a week.)
The key to Stu obtaining awesome abs was his attention to diet over a 6 month span and short and intense cardiovascular activity done on a daily basis.
Abdominals were one of my strongest body parts that rivaled anyone on stage whether they were steroid free or not. My abs got better every year because of Max-OT style training which included training abs directly with resistance only once per week. Diet and cardio did the rest.
You have to treat abdominals like any other muscle. You need to build them with resistance and then melt away the body fat with cardio and diet to reveal the coveted 6 pack.
The sooner you can get the notion out of your head that you need to do hundreds of crunches to get a ripped mid section the sooner you will be on your way to achieving awesome abs!
Believe. Achieve.
http://www.jeffwillet.com/
http://www.iwanttolooklikethatguy.com/
Jeff, I watched the video and Stuart was doing abs twice a week, not once, if I'm not mistaken. That being said, do you believe doing abs twice a week might be beneficial to training? Is it worth trying out? - Jerry
ReplyDeleteI think it can make sense if one session is focused on resistance and the other is focused on core with fit ball training.
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