NYC
Personal Trainer Takes on the Empty Promises of Getting Washboard Abs: If It
Sounds Too Good To Be True …
Build Abs of Steel! The Ten-minute Six-pack
Workout! Abs of Steel … Guaranteed! 30 Days to Abs of Steel!
Everybody’s thinking summer, and many, in
turn are thinking about bikinis and washboard abs. There are programs,
challenges, and guarantees that feel like they’re too good to be true. Well, I
hate to tell you this. They’re too good to be true.
Honestly, if it only took ten minutes a day
to get a six-pack, everybody out there would have abs of steel. So, what’s not working in these foolproof bikini
body plans? Myths abound, and there’s a lot of money selling products or plans
that make empty promises.
Our abdomen muscles are under layers of fat
on our bellies. Each of us has different body
type. If there is extra body fat covering those abs it does not matter how many
minutes a day we do of abs. It’s more about losing the fat on top of the
muscles. And the only way to get rid of fat is change our diets and do
cardio exercises. So ten minutes of crunches and sit ups aren’t going to erase
our layers of fat.
So,
buyer beware:
1.
Get a six-pack in 10-minutes a day: No.
You can’t. You might improve your abdominal strength, but you won’t see it
unless you’re doing a heavy cardio plan with a changed diet.
2.
Fat suits, fat belts, vibrating machines, electro-stimulation
machines will give me great abs: These are
gimmicks. They won’t change the composition of your body which is unique to you
and only you. Save your money and invest in a gym, a personal trainer, a
nutritionist to learn to build habits that will last a lifetime.
3.
Okay, maybe not 10 minutes, but an hour a day: Again, this falls into the fallacy that doing ab exercises gives you
great abs. They don’t. To have great abs, you need to burn fat. To burn fat,
you need to do extensive cardio. Also,
you have to take into account your body type and nutrition.
4. So, doing abdominal
strength workouts is a big waste of time: Not at
all! Here’s why …
Even if you don’t have a Mr. December body,
having strong abdominal muscles is incredibly important. We all have abs. These are our core muscles that connect our
lower and upper bodies. Our core is the big link, as in Harvard’s healthbeat http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/the-real-world-benefits-of-strengthening-your-core blog says “necessary motions either originate
in your core, or move through it.” Abs are part of everything we do. In
the real world, we need these core muscles to be strong and flexible, as a
strong core does oodles to keep us healthy including:
1. Helping with lower back
pain: According to the Mayo Clinic http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/back-pain/basics/definition/con-20020797?reDate=26042016
“[b]ack pain is one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor or miss
work and a leading cause of disability worldwide.” A strong core is a direct
link to lessening back pain. And it’s way better than over-medication.
2.
Improved balance and stability: When I
work with seniors, one of the most important things we work on are our core
muscles to help improve balance. For
athletes of all levels, from beginners to professional, core strength is
critical to success. Even sex gets
better when we have good core strength.
3.
The day-to-day thing called life: Having
a strong core helps us with everything: standing, sitting, reaching for the can
of soup at the top of the shelf, picking up our kids at the park … Every
activity we do, as we quoted in Harvard, originates or passes through our core.
Everything
4.
Great posture http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/back-pain/basics/definition/con-20020797?reDate=26042016
Good posture is important for brain and body health. Since we’ve become a
nation of professional sitters, strengthening our core can help us have better
posture at work, at home, and keep us healthier.
So, instead of falling for the false
promises of ab workouts and gimmicks of belts and shocks that guarantee steel
and six-packs, we should consider the innumerable benefits of strong abs and a
healthy lifestyle that includes cardio, good nutrition, and core strengthening
exercises.
Our everyday lives will be greatly improved. And, perhaps, a six-pack
will be an unexpected side effect (instead of the end goal!).
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