Why I never do crunches

21-08-2017 -

You do not lose fat by doing exercises for specific problem areas.

Visible abs

I never train my abs. At least not according to the fifteen minutes abs method that means doing various crunch exercises for 15 minutes long. I hate it, but more important, as there really are more exercises I dislike, it is not nearly as effective as promoted in the marketing of many gyms.

How many crunches you will do, the fat around your waist will not disappear. You do not lose fat by doing exercises for specific problem areas. For visible abs you must have a very low body fat percentage. This requires a complete training (consuming more energy) and a balanced diet (take less in).

Reduce fat

It comes down to lowering your overall body fat. The less fat on your body, the more your muscles are visible. The HIIT method of the Workout Club app and my intense personal training sessions of half an hour are the perfect way to burn fat and this will also result in less fat on your stomach. Keep in mind that 70% of your effort is in nutrition and 30% in exercise to achieve your objective. What matters at the end of the day how many calories you burn. If you want to reduce fat, you must take in fewer calories than you burn.

The less fat on your body, the more your muscles are visible.

Train your legs

Excess fat around the abdomen causes the abdominal muscles to be invisible. It may well be that your abs are strong but hidden by a layer of fat. However, body fat is not burned by abdominal exercises.

You burn body fat by training large muscle groups. Did you know that over 60% of your muscles are in your legs (especially between your hip and knee). That is exactly why training your leg muscles is crucial for raising your metabolism and calorie consumption.

Do you want to loose your tummy fat than you need to train your legs! Crazy but true! Training your legs simply delivers the highest efficiency because of the huge muscle mass. Large muscles burn more fat!

My favourite abdominal workout

Crunches are never a part of my training. Still I have strong abdominal muscles. My way to strengthen my core is heart-pumping exercises like the burpee, plank jumps but also static exercises like commando plank (low / high plank alternating) bear-crawl and off course all kind of push up variations. Oh and I almost forgot the TRX. With all TRX exercises you strengthen your core so the TRX is definitely in my top 3 favourites.