Pilates, the exercise specifically tailored to work your mid-section or core, have become extremely popular all over the globe. Gone are the days of working out your core, or abdominals and any muscles surrounding them, by doing laborious, back breaking sit-ups and exhausting crunches. To obtain the rock hard abs made popular by the movie “300″ and hunky Spartan warriors shown on the big screen, many people are concentrating solely on their abs and not much else in order to obtain the ever elusive and hard to get “six-pack”.
But the truth about core training is that most people will never obtain the abdominal muscles they desire simply by doing crunches or other core work. In reality, most people won’t see a speck of improvement in their midsection if all they do is core training. This is a dirty little secret that any Washington, DC fitness coach or personal trainers are aware of. But they let people, even encourage them to keep doing crunches because they are selling the fantasy of the six-pack, and fantasies are very popular as well as profitable.
Why crunches do not work in order to get a flat stomach
There are many contributing factors to obtaining the unicorn of muscle sculpting, the six-pack. Most people will never accomplish this feet. The six-pack really does require a ton of dedication and hard work including years of training, eating right and the thing many people omit from the “How to obtain a Six-Pack” speech, good genes. So instead of daydreaming about the six-pack, we should really simply be concentrating on a flat and toned stomach!
The biggest waste of time when working out at the gym or at home, thinking you will lose the pounds and inches, is only core training. The midsection or abdominal region seems to collect fat quicker than any other part of the body, especially in men. This seems to be evident in the amount of men sporting the beer belly look and their determination in getting rid of that “spare tire”. They are so desperate to get rid of their ever growing abdomen that they work out only on those muscles without realizing that it is really doing nothing but making them work extra hard and seeing no results.
Everyone has abdominal muscles but you can’t always see them because they are located under a layer of fat. Getting rid of the fat layer that is on top of your core is really the only way to get a flat stomach or the mystical six-pack. Simply working these muscles with core training, though making your muscles a little stronger, will not get rid of this layer enough to be seen by the naked eye.
We are talking of course about targeted weight loss here, which is one of the biggest myths in the exercise industry. There is no such thing as targeted weight loss. There is no such thing as working out one specific area of the body and losing weight just from that area. The body doesn’t work like that. When you lose weight, you lose weight from everywhere.
There are many workouts that can help you to achieve the weight loss that you desire. Anything in the cardiovascular family will certainly do this for you. Running, walking, swimming, using an elliptical, or jumping rope are all effective, popular and proven ways to keep your heart rate up and help you burn the calories needed to lose weight. Core training alone does not provide the calorie burning needed to achieve weight loss.
The act of core training can have more issues than just not providing results. This exercise can cause injuries if not done properly. Damages to the neck and spine are some of the most common injuries that are associated with core training. Keeping your form is an important part of preventing these types of injuries and people that have a pre-existing condition such as back and neck problems really should stay away from core training all together!!
The best away to achieve a flat, healthy stomach is to do all around exercising and not concentrate solely on the core section. Cardio is an excellent way to burn calories and help get rid of the extra fat you may be carrying around in that area. So stop wasting your time chasing after the unattainable and work on being a healthier person.
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