It's no secret that having six-pack abs is the symbol of the ideal physique. The Greeks showed us what it looked like to be fit through sculpture and even the armor they wore had a strong six pack built in to the breast plate. Leonardo Da Vinci showed us through drawings and Michelangelo through his paintings. It makes sense that in today’s fitness craze we would have such a huge emphasis on losing that tummy.
But how do you do it? It seems like every few months there is a new simple solution that comes out on the market, usually seen on a bad TV infomercial. There is always some jacked dude and ridiculously in-shape woman demonstrating an easy exercise on a simple or complex machine, and there is always the guy with the great voice in the background telling you the science behind it and how fast and easy it will be. I'm here to tell you these products don't work, because they are not the answer. If it were easy to get a six-pack everyone would have one.
Everyone wants to believe crunches and isolated ab exercises are how they will get a 6 pack. This is not true. Your diet needs to be in place, you need to do cardio to burn calories, and include functional strength training.
What is functional strength training? I like to think of functional strength training as blue-collar training. Some of the strongest cores in the world belong to firemen, construction workers, loggers and other hard labor workers. These people work using their whole body to perform natural activities the human body was designed for. My brother, who is a homebuilder, told me the other day that since he has been working more in the past few months, he has lost 30 pounds and is stronger than ever.
Now, ladies, I'm not saying to quit your job and become a construction worker. Try this Workout Wednesday first! Today’s workout focuses on starting your ab routine with full body movements that engage your whole core, which builds more overall strength. This will start to exhaust the muscle, but you will not experience a burn in your abs. Think of it as warming up your abs so the finish is more effective. These exercises are hard and may be difficult in execution, but do your best and stick it out. By the end you won’t be able to hold a crunch for more than 5-10 seconds.