{"id":345,"date":"2010-07-02T14:00:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leanmeanvirilemachine.com\/?p=345"},"modified":"2010-08-01T10:10:38","modified_gmt":"2010-08-01T17:10:38","slug":"in-search-of-the-best-abs-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/in-search-of-the-best-abs-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"In Search of the Best Abs Exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"best<\/a>Six pack abs.<\/p>\n

Did that grab your attention? Ask 100 guys what their biggest fitness goal is and you\u2019ll hear those three words from 99 of \u2018em.<\/p>\n

Abs are one of the Trifecta of Glamour Muscles that guys obsess over, along with pecs and biceps. But they are a poor indicator of health and strength. And most women are more attracted<\/a> to guys with broad shoulders, low body fat, and strong glutes, making these muscles the sort of thing that guys needlessly obsess over.<\/p>\n

Now, don\u2019t get me wrong. A strong core IS vitally important. Almost EVERY movement you do in your day-to-day life requires your midsection to be strong enough to stabilize your entire body. But there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it… and most men are doing it the wrong way. If you’re looking for the best abs exercise, you’ll find it here…<\/p>\n

Crunch, Crunch, Neck Sprain, Crunch\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Crunches are NOT the best abs exercise. In fact, they are one of the worst.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite Fitness Myths is that in order to get a six pack you must train your abs every day with endless crunches, sit ups, etc. Much like training each muscle group individually to exhaustion is total crap, this myth \u2013 like most others, from old bodybuilding lore \u2013 is no exception.<\/p>\n

The human body is perfectly designed for compound movements. By moving our bodies in the way they are best suited, we can build the strong midsections we are striving for efficiently and without risking injury.<\/p>\n

Doing hundreds of crunches every day will waste your time and give you innumerable neck sprains. There\u2019s gotta be a better way\u2026<\/p>\n

Get Your Diet On<\/strong><\/p>\n

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You can\u2019t out-exercise a poor diet.<\/p>\n

You could have the strongest core in the world, but if you have a beer belly, you\u2019ll never be able to see it. If you are looking to get a strong-looking midsection, your first step is to eat a diet of real food<\/a> instead of “food products,” which will promote fat loss automatically… NO calorie counting required!<\/p>\n

Exercise the Smart Way<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Every complex movement your body does requires your abs to stabilize your body between the hips and chest. Translation: if you are doing lots of squats<\/a>, deadlifts<\/a>, presses<\/a>, pull ups<\/a>, and the like, you probably don\u2019t need to add any more ab work to your routine. These are truly the best abs exercises.<\/p>\n

Hell, even TMuscle (a bodybuilding hub and not the kind of place I\u2019d send my readers to for advice on efficient health tips) has recently named the pull up<\/a> as one of the best ab exercises!<\/p>\n

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t plug high-intensity interval training (per usual) for it\u2019s spectacular ability to put your body into long-term fat-burning mode with just a few minutes of exercise every week.<\/p>\n

And Finally\u2026 The Best Abs Exercises Revealed!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Okay, so Darrin hates isolation exercises. What else is new? OF COURSE I\u2019d recommend ditching the ab work and focusing on the big lifts to automatically get all the results you want, right?<\/p>\n

Well, the core is such an integral part of the human body, if there\u2019s any muscle group that\u2019s worth isolating, it\u2019s the abs. Truth be told, there are a few good exercises you may want to focus on.<\/p>\n

The Plank<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The main reason I don\u2019t like crunches and sit ups is the tendency to strain your neck with so many repetitive movements, along with the possibility of back damage long-term. It is for this reason that I prefer isometrics when it comes to ab work. Isometrics can be thought of as the opposite of plyometrics<\/a>, which emphasize explosive power. With isometrics, you hold your body in a static position for as long as you can.<\/p>\n

Planks are an isometric hold similar to the starting position of a push up, but lowered down onto your elbows. See if you can do this for 3 minutes!<\/p>\n

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L-Sits<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Another great isometric exercise is the l-sit. You may want a pull up bar, dip station, or rings for this, but the true minimalists can get away with just lifting themselves off the ground. No matter how you go around doing it, the jist is to hold your legs straight out in front of you as long as you can. Again, you are a rock star if you can do this for 3 minutes.<\/p>\n

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Ab Rollouts<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Okay, I\u2019ll admit, this is one of the most \u201cun-LMVM\u201d of the exercises I have advocated on this site so far, but even I gotta admit they’re pretty effective. You won\u2019t catch me doing too many of these (I\u2019m a much bigger fan of the isometrics), but they are light years ahead of crunches and sit ups, and are much safer for your neck and back to boot.<\/p>\n

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Three Easy Steps to Rock Hard Abs<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Wow, that headline sounds like an infomercial! Nevertheless, let\u2019s review the three steps to efficiently building core strength:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Eat a diet of real food: Heavy on the fresh meat and veggies, low on processed foods.<\/li>\n
  2. Do big movements: Compound exercises require you to engage your abs, getting an excellent ab workout without needing to focus any extra time on it.<\/li>\n
  3. Do HIIT: Interval training beats out steady state cardio by effectively transforming your body into a fat-burning machine, even when you aren\u2019t working out!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These three tips are all the most of us will ever need. But for some extra credit, throw in low-impact exercises such as planks, l-sits, and ab rollouts. And you’ll end up the envy of every guy who’s dropped some serious dough on crazy ab machines only to get no real results. There may be no one “best abs exercise,” but the three I outlined here are strong contenders for that title.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Six pack abs. Did that grab your attention? Ask 100 guys what their biggest fitness goal is and you\u2019ll hear those three words from 99 of \u2018em. Abs are one of the Trifecta of Glamour Muscles that guys obsess over, along with pecs and biceps. But they are a poor indicator of health and strength. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75,76,28,77,78,18],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exercise","tag-abs","tag-core","tag-glamor-muscles","tag-hiit","tag-isometrics","tag-sprinting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}