Myth #1 – Abdomen workouts alone will be enough to bring out your Six Pack Abs!

Last year a friend asked me if I knew of some abdomen workouts that would help him eliminate his abdominal fat.  He had noticed that he was growing a little large in the midsection and thought maybe a few sit ups would change his shape and show off his abs.  As he was telling me this, he was chowing down on french-fries and sucking down a beer.

It has been proven many times that abdominal workouts do not eliminate fat, that, in fact, the only way to expose your abdominal muscles is by eliminating fat, which can only be done in two ways:  Eat less and move around more.    In other word, reduce your calorie intake and increase your metabolism through exercise.

My friend, who is also my regular racquetball partner, made some changes to his lifestyle.  He started eating salads and stopped eating burgers and fries and he cut way back on the beer, and we started playing racquetball much more frequently.  In short order, a couple months, he lost 20 pounds, became much quicker on the court and gained a ton of stamina, as well as reducing some of the asthma symptoms he was wont to show after a couple hard games.

So, debunked myth number 1 - doing abdomen workouts will not reduce the fat around your midsection!

Myth #2 –Sit Ups are the best exercise for the Abs!

Bo Jackson, when he was playing football in the NFL and baseball in the Majors, claimed he did 1,000 sit ups every day after waking up.  He claimed it only took him about 40 minutes.  Now Bo Jackson is Bo Jackson, he could probably have done 20 sit ups and still had the incredible athletic body he had at the time.  But as to whether those 40 minutes were time well spent, well, that is what myth #2 is about.

Once again it has been proven that sit ups may actually be the worse exercise for abdomen workouts known to man.  Rather than focus the effort on the abdominal muscles, sit ups create a strain on the lower back and can cause neck strain, as well as leaving much of the abdominal muscle untouched.  Instead, crunches, leg raises and planks should be used in combination with each other in order to work the entire abdominal region and minimize strain on the other parts of the body.  These three exercises also focus the effort much more effectively on the abdominal region.

A superb athlete, paid to keep his body in shape, Bo Jackson, had the 40 minutes a day to basically waste doing sit ups, who knows it may have been therapeutic for him.  However, I don’t and I doubt you do either have that kind of time to waste on such an ineffective exercise.  Instead trying doing the three exercises mentioned above.

Debunked myth number 2 – sit ups are actually the worst exercise for the Abs!

Myth #3 – Six Pack Abs take a really long time to create!

A couple years ago, my wife was a little heavy (please don’t tell I told you this!) and decided to join a fitness boot camp.   The way her boot camp works, they meet 3 times a week for 30 minutes each week.  Now when they meet the instructors works them for the entire 30 minutes, no goofing around, no gossiping, and no showing each other pictures of their kids, just intense interval training for the entire half hour.  She was sore the first week, tired the second, but by the third week she had lost some weight and was feeling pretty good.  After about two months, she had lost the 15 pounds or so that she needed to lose and was looking good.   And man did her six pack abs show up then!

Our stomach muscles are always fairly well defined; just think, it is the one muscle group you use while sitting, standing, moving or laying down.  It supports the entire rest of the body.  It really is not about developing the abdominal muscles; it is about getting rid of all the fat hiding them.  Once you expose your muscles, just a couple quick weeks of abdomen workouts will flush them out and ensure a taunt sexy midsection.

My wife has kept up with her fit camp and although challenges in our diet can sometimes lead to yoyo weight, she always knows she has fit sexy abs hiding behind what little fat she might gain and that all she has to do is ramp up the cardio a little and cut back on the goodies for awhile and they will be there, ready to shine for her…

Debunked myth number 3 – Once the belly fat is gone, defining the abs through ab training can be done in literally a couple weeks, you already have sexy abs, you just have to get them out from behind that curtain of flab.

These three myths have dominated our fitness field for many decades, but now we know:  abdomen workouts will not eliminate belly fat, sit ups are the least effective exercise for abdominal workouts, and once you eliminate the belly fat, your sexy abs will reveal themselves in all their glory!