Why crunches and sit ups don't work

As a Personal Trainer loads of people ask me this question: Gavin how can I get a six pack? Gavin I do loads of crunches and sit ups but I still can't see my six pack. What do I need to do? I bet you have asked these questions at some point in time...

My reply to those questions are usually: we all have a six pack but we first need to get rid of the layer of body fat before we can see your six pack. This usually leads to: How do I get rid of the body fat?

First of all its hard work. Wherever you have seen peole with your dream six pack, magazines, books, athletes, films I guarantee you they have worked hard to get that.
So here we go...I am going to let you know why crunches and sit ups dont work. Yes thats right I just said that...

If you walk into any gym you would see countless numbers of people on there back doing every variation of a sit up or crunch. Come on admit it you do it as well...The thing is people think that doing hundreds of sit ups and crunches will help them get rid of that layer of body fat that will bring about their six pack. Sorry to disappoint you but if that was true we would all be walking around with a six pack and I would be out of work.

If you want to see your six pack then you need to know this:

It all comes down to the basics of losing body fat, which is calories in vs calories out
So to decrease your body fat you need to create a caloric deficit, which means your body needs to burn more calories than it is taking in. To do this you need to increase the intensity of your workout to burn more calories and reduce the amount of calories taken in by eating healthy foods.

The biggest problem with crunches and sit ups is it does not give you the best return for the efforts you put into it. You can spend lets say 15 minutes working on your abs and only burn a few calories while doing so which does not have have a large effect on losing body fat.
Here is what I mean: if you do a 15 minute circuit of push ups, squats, lunges, plank..etc and 15 minutes of crunches and sit ups which do you think will burn more calories overall? I hope you said the circuit. Like I said at the begining it is hard work!!!

The answer to getting your six pack is total body exercises which works more than one muscle at a time and as a result burns more calories. The more calories you burn the more body fat you will lose and only then you will be able to see your six pack. This is why total body workouts are so much more effective as it gives you more return for you money on your workout and in less time.

So doing loads of crunches and sit ups is not going to get you your dream six pack. Try total body exercise, increase the intensity of you workout, increase your lean muscle mass which will in turn increase your metabolism which in turn will help you get closer to your dream body.

Until next time...

See Ya

Positive Steps Personal Trainers

A step in the right direction...

Gavin De Souza -CPT