Everybody wants six pack abs. Some people spend hours a day doing sit-ups, crunches, and other abdominal workouts to try and get them. However, six pack abs do not come from crunches alone. In fact, they hardly have anything to do with the number of crunches you do. Six pack abs are revealed when you have a low enough percentage of body fat to see them. That’s right, it doesn’t matter how many crunches you do, if you have a layer of fat covering your stomach, you will never be able to see your abs.
Aside from bones and organs, our bodies have three layers; muscle, fat, and skin. Muscles cover our bones, fat covers our muscles, and skin covers our fat. Everyone’s muscles look the same if you remove the skin and the fat. Some peoples muscles might be larger than others, but they still are the same as everyone else’s. This means that everyone is born with six pack abs, and everyone has six pack abs their entire life. You just can’t see them because most people have a high percentage of body fat covering their muscles.
When you exercise your abdominals, you are making them stronger and larger. It makes perfect sense. If you wanted larger biceps, you would do curls. If you wanted larger pectoral muscles you would do bench presses or push-ups. So, if you want larger abdominals, you should keep doing crunches; but if you want a flat stomach that shows off your abs, you should focus more on burning fat. However, abdominal training should be a part of your total body workout.
The only proven way to lower body fat, is to create a calorie deficit. That means you have to consume less calories than you burn on a daily average. I have read a lot of different articles about fat burning, and there are many different tips and theories for how to burn the most fat, but I don’t believe that there is an exact method. I also don’t believe there is one specific type of exercise that burns fat better than another. A person’s body fat percentage is a representation of overall fitness combined with how many calories they consume.
If you look at most professional athletes, they are usually very lean and have flat stomachs. However, professional athletes do not train for six pack abs. They train to be as fit and as healthy as possible to excel in their sport. What we can gather from this, is that fitness and health equals six pack abdominals. So, instead of focusing solely on exercising your abs, you should concentrate more on overall fitness. Obtaining a level of overall fitness will probably give you much more desired results than concentrating on only one aspect of your physique.
