March 19, 2012

Myth #1

Abdominal muscle is different from regular muscle.

Your abdominal muscle is no different than any other muscle except for where it is located. Other muscles like biceps, triceps or thighs rest on bones whereas abs don’t. Other than that, it’s the same as any other muscle of our body and therefore needs to be trained like you train your chest or biceps.

Myth #2

You have to train your abs everyday.

As explained earlier, ab is no different than any other muscle. Like other body parts, they need at least a day’s rest to recover. Instead of working on your abs everyday, train them HARD every alternate day and you will see results.

Myth #3

Doing ab exercises gets rid of abdominal fat.

Ab exercise will help develop ab muscles but you should concentrate on an overall body development to reduce fat from your tummy. We burn a lot of fat when we work on bigger muscle groups like thighs, back and chest. You should also plan your DIET to achieve your goal.

Myth #4

High repetitions are required to make gains.

Again, it’s no different than any other muscle. There’s no point sweating to death doing infinite crunches. Focus on quality rather than quantity.

Myth #5

Anyone can have a flat stomach.

Having well defined abs is different than having a flat stomach. Many of us are genetically designed to have a slightly rounded stomach and even 1000 sit-ups and crunches a day can not change that.

Myth #6

If you have a weak lower back, training the abs will worsen it.

People with some kind of back problem tend to avoid doing abdominal exercises. Having a Strong back muscle will only help recover / develop a poor back. The weight will get distributed to the strong ab muscles while lifting as opposing muscles assist each other.

Train intelligently without falling victim to such myths and you’ll soon get those ripped abs.