Saturday, January 24, 2009

Crunches Should Be Eliminated

By Jose Loni

Crunches should be eliminated from our exercise program if your goal is to have ripped six pack abs. In order to have visible, tone and lean abs, we must focus on diet, increasing our metabolism and stress reduction.

Doing crunches develops different areas of the lower back and abs. Actually, some crunches train the hip flexors instead of the abs. Focusing on doing crunches may create imbalances in our back and, consequently, cause back pain.

If we want to achieve defined abs, we need to eat a balanced diet of protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. By increasing the frequency of our meals to 5-6 times a day, we can maintain our energy levels and avoid spiking up our blood sugar levels.

Resistance training helps to give our body a metabolic boost. The increased muscle mass causes the greater metabolic activity in our body, which results in greater utilization of body fat. The excess body fat is then converted to fuel our activities.

The body's metabolism is also increased as a result of interval training. The exercise demands of anaerobic training causes the body to adapt by increasing muscle mass. The increased muscle mass makes the body's efficiency to utilize body fat as fuel greater and increase the body's overall fat burning capacity.

Stress has been shown to increase the amount of fat stored in our stomach area. During stress, our body releases the hormone Cortisol, which causes fat to be stored in our stomach area. The excess fat is kept there for the body to use when there is an emergency.

Reducing stress through meditation, deep breathing, relaxation techniques, tai chi and yoga are highly effective and can help us get toned abs.

We should eliminate crunches from our exercise program if we want to have tone, lean abdominal muscles. Our exercise program should be focused on overall dietary changes, increasing our metabolism and reducing our stress. - 16752

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