How do you guys do your sit-ups, all the way to the knees or halfway? If all the way, do you use a foot anchor?

 

Very true. Your building muscle underneath a layer of fat. If you don't do cardio, the ab muscles won't show up. ex: if you do alot of abs and but still have some fat, try pulling ur stomach skin down and you can see ur ab muscles underneath the layer of fat.

You have to do cardio to get rid of that layer of fat. When growing up, I used to play soccer alot and never worked out my abs, but had a six pack.

I'm trying to do cardio everyday and work abs once in a while.

Do crunches not situps.

 

you need consistant aerobic activity to raise your metabolism and burn more calories than your take in to reduce the fat. The others are correct you won't SEE your abs if you don't diet/cardio.

Sit up do not work - waste of time. They put tension on your back, neck and mostly make your hip flexors.

Crunches are good for beginners but after doing them daily they won't provide enough challege to your abs. In sets of over 100 isn't good either. Cross your arms over your chest 15% to 30% lift off the floor and no more.

Best exercises you can do are hanging or supported knee ups and leg raises. If you're in a gym you'll often see people doing these incorrectly (straight back). You need a forward curve of your spine so you don't use your hip flexors and control the motion. The lower abs are the toughest to work so focus on these rather than the uppers - that crunches work.

 

O a topic I like. POF or point of failure is best in my book, I do this three times a week. Now one should add incline and weights if you want bigger abs and no weights with lots o rep's for smooth stomuch.

Now weight loss is key, the biggest problem is that you can not isolate a place to lose weight, so you will see faster resuls with the weights. I work out almost 5 times a week 1-2 hours and even with suplements the abs are the hardest to do with in my book. Now if your like me and simply don;t have the genetics to have a set of ultra huge abs you can give yourself some balance by working out the chest and upper arms to reduce the look of the abs.

If you want I can give you a killer weightloss plan for the long term but it sucks taste wise and requires a lot of cardio to supplement a heavy hypertrophy lifting rutine. I lost almost 9 pounds over the last seven weeks.

 

or u could try liposuction, i hear it works a treat.....

 

I know the abs-under-the-fat effect. I have a nice pudgy layer, and I know I have a six pack under the pudge, but because I always walk and do recuperative martial arts, I am fairly strong under my flab. Recuperative because 4 years ago I was kicked (hard) in the tailbone at a tournament. I felt my vertebrae go "pop" and was like "OH SH*T, I'm gonna be paralyzed." Thankfully I didn't actually get any spinal injuries, just shifted bone that physio and chiropractic helped reset.

My routine is walking to the bus stop and back again (15 minutes each way quick walk). Walking at quick pace between classes. Controlling my diet to have only 3 kg's of mayo in it a day (j/k) When at home, I do 25 pushups (still recuperating the muscles I lost in my arms from being out of martial arts for 2 years) and 100 kicks per leg, after stretching. 20 of each kind: forward, side, crescent/spinning heel, roundhouse and back.

As a result, I'm limber, and strong, but I still have the fatty layer. I plan on starting cardio this winter to finally get back to looking the way I used to (ripped to an extent)

 

When you get older and can afford to eat in restuarants more often it becomes harder to keep that fat off your mid-section (for us guys)

So, for me ... 10-15Kms on the stationary bike 3-4 times a week followed by a weights workout (heavy or light depending how I feel)

5Km walk twice a week on the days in between.

Used to do a fair bit of Jet-Skiing (good exercise) but have since sold my ski.

Have been working out since my early twenties. I'm 44 now and still enjoy it. I love the feel of those endorphins rushing through my brain. It keeps me 'up' mentally and physically. The gym is my sanctuary from the rush and madness of everyday life and business.

 

Only consider this if you have been working out for a while and have areas that do not go away. Ultrasonic is the way to go. Good thing about it is that the fat won't come back as bad if you do gain weight. They basically swiss cheese your fat with a tub and it collaspes in. I've know both women AND men to get this done but they were in shape to start.

 

Muscle burns fat 24/7/365, if you want to lose fat...gain muscle. If you are a skinny leg guy you are in luck, you can add 5lbs of muscle to your legs fairly easily and take inches off your tummy with NO cardio.

If you want to do cardio FOREVER, fine, do it to lose weight and then keep it up 'til you're 70. BAHH! Gain muscle, lose fat, end of story.

As for the abs, when you do your crunches make sure your shoulder does not come off the floor more than 15 inches or you are wasting your time, and after you are done with your crunches do leg raises to supplement.

Andrew

 

ultrasonic, hmmmmm, tell us more