21st Century Ab Training

Sit-ups and crunches are so 20th century. They’re what people in the 1980s did to achieve their beach body. The midsection they could be proud of; enabling them to wear a bikini, slather on baby oil, and lay on top of tin foil in order to get an extra crispy tan. Skin cancer started to rear its ugly head so the baby oil and tin foil idea was abandoned. While most people are now more sensible in their tanning methods, they haven’t become more sensible in the way they train their abs.

The general public is still under the impression that you can crunch your way to a flat stomach. It’s a logical assumption if you don’t know the principles behind fat burning. And it’s not only the abs that people have misconceptions about. People sit on thigh machines to get rid of thigh fat, glute machines to get rid of the junk in the trunk, and tricep extensions to get rid of upper arm fat. It’s only logical that one would do sit-ups and crunches to get rid of belly fat. Unfortunately, none of it works and the body doesn’t care what you think is logical. It does whatever it can to ensure its survival, and if that means being crunch resistant, so be it.

The problem is this: you can’t spot reduce fat. We’ve all heard it before, but no one seems to understand how to incorporate this inconvenient truth into their ab workouts. I’m here to show you a better way to train your abs which will help you banish belly fat. All I ask is that you abandon your 20th century ab mindset and step into the 21st century. It may take a leap of faith, but I guarantee it’ll be worth it.

The first thing we have to accept is that sit-ups and crunches do not remove the fat that is covering up your abs. The reason is simple. Those movements are not metabolically costly. The body doesn’t have to expend much energy to do them. To demonstrate the difference in metabolic cost, do the following experiment. Use two exercises that primarily work the quads, the leg extension machine and the split squat (a lunge performed in place). Now pick a weight that you can ONLY do 10 reps with. Do ten on each leg. Which exercise gets your heart pumping faster and makes your body fatigue more? I’d bet anything it’s the split squats. The split squats are more metabollically costly. The more metabolically costly an exercise, the greater effect it’ll have on fat reduction because of numerous physiological responses to the exercise stress. This is why in order to build muscle and burn fat, people should stick with training movements, not individual muscles. Squats, bench presses and seated rows are movements that we call compound exercises. These exercises, incorporating more than one joint and multiple muscle groups, are very metabollicaly costly. The larger muscle mass involved and the heavier weights that can be used result in more energy expended to complete them. Leg curls and tricep extensions are not metabolically costly due to the limited muscle mass involved and the comparatively lighter weights that can be used. Deadlifts, on the other hand, are very costly.

Is weight training for fat loss as simple as using compound exercises with heavier weights instead of working individual muscles with lighter weights. Yes, it is (with proper diet, obviously). There is a problem, however. Explosive movements, which are the way compound exercises are meant to be performed, require a strong core. The core is comprised of a number of different muscles, not just the “six pack” muscles. I’ll define the core as the muscles that surround your pelvis. These include the Rectus Abdominus (six pack), Internal and External Obliques (love handle area), Transverse Abdominus (can’t be seen), Glutes, and Spinal Erectors (lower back muscles). All of these muscles have seperate functions. However, they also work together to peform one very important function: stabalization of the pelvis and spine. If the core isn’t strong enough to stabalize the pelvis and spine, proper compound exercises can’t be done. Have you ever seen somene doing lunges hunched over? I see it all the time. Their core isn’t strong enough to keep them upright while performing the lunge. If they don’t strengthen the core musculature, they won’t be able to use heavy enough weights to spur muscle growth and fat loss. They open themselves up to injury, as well.

Shedding body fat is the key to a flat stomach. Explosive compound movements are the key exercise component in losing body fat. A stable spine is the key to performing explosive movements. A strong core is the key to stabalizing the spine. Crunches and sit-ups neglect the majority of the core musculature. See where this is going?

Enter 21st century abdominal training. Your primary training goal when doing abdominal work should be to strengthen all the muscles of the core so that you can stabalize the spine. In doing so, you give yourself the opportunity to train safely at higher intensities, thereby building more muscle and burning more fat. Once you start melting away the body fat that is covering your abs, you’ll be able to start doing some targeted “six pack” training that will further help you get the flat stomach you so desire. Until then, stick with the following exercises:

Start with planks and side planks. These are basic spine stabalization exercises. You sould be able to work your way up to a minute on all of them. You don’t really need to go beyond that. Or, you could just do 3 sets of 30 seconds for each exercise. The cumulative effect is just as good.

Once you get good and strong in these static positions, you can proceed to add the dynamic element which will increase the difficulty. All the videos I presented on Youtube are dynamic in nature. If you are just starting out with training, start with the planks and side planks. Otherwise, you won’t be able to do the dynamic movements with good form. You can’t run before you walk.

The important thing to notice in the dynamic videos is my hip alignment. You must strive to keep you hips in a netural position. Keep your stomach and glutes tight. This optimally activates the core musculature. Very important: Don’t let your hips sink down or ride up. This reduces the effectiveness of the exercise.

To step into the 21st century and effectively train our bodies, we need to rid ourselves of some of the most popular training regimes of the 20th century. Don’t focus on crunches in hopes of getting rid of belly fat. It’s not going to happen. Strengthen your core, lift more weight, build more muscle and burn more fat. That’s what real abdominal training is all about.

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