Lower Ab Workouts – Should We Really Be Targeting Something So Specific?
Are doing lower ab workouts the answer? Should we really be targeting something so specific when we train with the objective of getting ripped abs? The answer is, "no". Ripped abs are not brought about by isolation exercises as a lot of people wrongly believe. Ripped abs are revealed when the body becomes lean and loses its excess fat.
A lot of ab machines and exercises are out there claiming they can solve your flab problem. However, because they work solely the ab area, you don't see any visible difference after using their machines and workouts. In fact, they just don't work because spot reduction really doesn't work.
Focusing your training just in the ab area will not sculpt and give you six packs. Sit-ups, crunches and lower ab exercises can strengthen and tone but they will not sculpt. The fact is, you likely won't see any visible changes.
To sculpt and reveal those six packs, you need to get your whole body moving and do cardio activities, which will jumpstart your metabolism into burning fat continuously, allowing you to lose the fat cover around your ab muscles.
Doing exercises like squats, lunges, spit squats, chin-ups, push-ups, and step-ups, we train using more muscle groups, which will help us burn more calories. The more muscle groups we train, the more efficient our muscles will be at expending more energy and forcing our body to burn more fat to help fuel our physical activity.
Doing short, quick bursts of intense training like a circuit program of jumping jacks-brisk walking-sprinting-walking makes our muscles work extremely hard. They start building up waste carbon dioxide and lactic acid, which the body must now get rid of.
At the same time, the processes of clearing away lactic acid and carbon dioxide waste products and re-supplying of oxygen to nourish and replenish muscle stores require a lot of energy. These processes raise your metabolic rate, resulting in stored fat being mobilized for use.
Exercises that specifically train our abs will not work. Instead, focus on kick starting your metabolism through multi-joint exercises and interval training. By training your metabolism, you train your body to become a fat burning machine that will give your ripped hard abs.
