Aquiring flat and toned abdominals is probably one of the most desired physical improvements that the majority of my clients pursue. There are common myths about how core exercises affect the fat that surronds our midsection. Performing endless crunches, elbow planks and roman chair sit ups to name a few; don't appear to remove the subcutaneous fat that lies beneath the surface of our skin. Here is the real skinny on how to reduce those subborn fat deposits that prevent us from acheiving this much desired goal.
Before I continue, allow me to point out the difference between uncovering the abdominals and conditioning the abdominals. Uncovering involves fat loss in the midsection, while conditioning involves training the midsection. These are two entirely different things. Never train abdominals with the intention of losing fat around the waist. Approach your abdominal training as a part of your overall core conditioning. Let's face it, what do people ask for more than anything? A flatter stomach! What do trainers and fitness enthusiasts immediately focus on when fat loss in the abdominal region is the challenge? You guessed it, abdominal exercises. Wrong!
In the absence of dieting and/or improving your fitness lifestyle in other areas, if you were to do nothing but abdominal exercises you would show no results when it comes to revealing those invisible abs. This may be one of the single biggest reasons beginners lose their motivation to train. They exclusively do tons of abdominal work and never show signs of improvement. When a person does see fat loss progress while training abdominals, it is almost always because there are other newly added components of their fitness program that are responsible. Specific to fat loss, abdominal training alone is nearly worthless.
Imagine if you will, impermeable sheaths of tissue separating subcutaneous fat stores from muscles throughout the entire body. For our purposes, these sheaths separate subcutaneous fat from its underlying muscles making it impossible for localized fat to move directly across to trained muscles. Now imagine the cardiovascular system being able to transport fat to muscle. When muscle energy is expended and is being replaced in any location in the body, under the proper dietary conditions, fat burning hormones and enzymes circulate to every fat cell the vascular system can reach simultaneously. Hence, there is a general fat release throughout the body, not localized or isolated fat release as some still believe. Frequent, low to moderate intensity full-body workouts with a moderate amount of aerobics thrown in, coupled with an effective diet, will go a long way to improving general fat loss to include that waistline. (NFPT, May 2008)
Check out the link below for exercises to tighten up your midsection
http://www.sixpacknow.com/abdominal_exercises.html
