I am almost finished reading The Truth About Six Pack Abs, and I just found a part that is very interesting in my opinion. There are some people out there that do actually know that the best way to get abs is to lose fat. The approach they chose however is not perfect most of the time.
And the sad thing is: It is not ever their fault. Ask a doctor how to lose weight quickly and what he or she will usually tell you is “perform 30-60 minutes of steady pace cardio 3-5 times per week maintaining your heart rate at a moderate level”. I know I fell for that line.
But why is that bad? Why isn’t that the perfect way to go? In a previous post I have already discussed how cardio workouts only elevate the amount of calories your body burns for about 1-2 hours past the end of your workout while this effect lasts 1-2 days for weight training. But I want to talk about something else today.
Envision the body of an Olympic sprinter for a moment. Now compare this body to the body of an Olympic long distance runner. If you were to ask yourself “How to get six pack abs”, who would you rather ask?
Sprinters train the way a human body is supposed to work. There type of exercise is in tone with the evolutionary setup of our body. We are made for stop-and-go movements, having short bursts of extensive exercise followed by cool down periods. The way cardio training is usually taught in our society completely contradicts this. Just try to think of a real life scenario where people have to hold a moderate heart rate for a long time period. You won’t find one. It’s against nature.
I have a lot of friends coming up to me and asking “Dieter, why is it that I run every other day, and still have a lot of fat around my belly?”
The answer is simple: The only thing traditional cardio training does is increasing your cardio. And it is not even the best at that. The downside of traditional cardio training is that it actually decreases the amount of muscle you carry around with you. Not only does that decrease the amount of calories your body burns naturally every day, but it also destroys the way your body looks. Have you ever seen a professional cyclist and thought “That’s the kind of body I want to have”? Didn’t think so.
If you want to get the best possible effects out of your cardio training in order to get six pack abs you must switch to interval training. Short bursts of high intensity training followed by a time of relaxation.
In the truth about sic pack abs Mike Geary describes this issue in way more detail and also offers you some sample workout plans. I hope you can use this information and can implement it into your arsenal of ways to get abs. In the next couple of days I will post my The Truth About Six Pack Abs Review so make sure to check this site regularly.
Yours,
Dieter
