Getting Abs – What You Do and Do Not Need

The weight loss industry spends millions and millions of dollars advertising products that don’t work. Because they sell so many gimmicks, it’s easy to find at least a few people that their product worked for to get some testimonials. Then it appears that everyone can use this system or gimmick to get results. And you’re sold!

Most weight loss products don’t work, plain and simple. It is amazing to us to see commercials for products like the Red Exerciser (in its heyday it was heavily promoted), which is essentially a bar stool that promises you an amazing body. Trying to comprehend how one specific exercise machine will give you such great results throughout your entire body gives us a headache, but somehow they sold a lot.

What You Don’t Need for Getting Abs

Bogus Ab Machines

There are many, many ab machines being sold on TV. Some make you do crunches, some have you twist side-to-side, and some really don’t have you do anything. Yes, there are actually products like the Flex Belt that require no effort whatsoever. Either way, all of them promise results with minimal effort on your part.

The truth is that if you buy these products; expect the only weight loss you obtain to be in your wallet. Actually, let’s back up for a second. Some of these products do work, but when it comes to the 6-pack abdominals, you need a variety of exercises – not just one. Due to the complexity of the abdominals, no one machine is going to give you a 6-pack, despite what most marketing will have you believe.

There are a few pieces of equipment that will be vital to getting your six-pack. These include the decline bench, hanging bars (something you can suspend your body from), and medicine balls. You can spend a bundle on these products individually, buy a membership at any gym will give you access to all of them.

Hundreds of Crunches and Sit-Ups

Believe it or not, there are some clowns out there that say you can get a six-pack by doing hundreds and hundreds of crunches a day. We’ve all heard it, and it sounds good in theory, but it’s just not true.

Crunches and sit-ups are important for attaining that six-pack, but they are only a small piece of the puzzle. Exposing your abdominals requires some serious abuse to the ab muscles, and you’re not going to get that just from crunches and sit-ups.

Tons of Boring Cardio

Most people think that getting a six-pack requires running for 3 hours a day so you lose the fat around your abs. While this can work, it’s not very effective or fun. There are much better ways to burn fat than doing boring and repetitive cardio exercises, which we will explain in the our How to Get Abs Guide.

What You Do Need for Getting Abs

Most of the ab exercises we outline in this guide can be done at home with no equipment. But when you want to get serious about your sexy six-pack, you will eventually need some equipment. Decline benches and medicine balls are just some examples.

We recommend getting a gym membership. Most people already have one, so it is not a major problem. Your other option is buying a comprehensive home gym, but that is expensive. In any case, the program outlined in our How to Get Abs guide requires equipment, so if you are serious about that six-pack you need to get yourself into a gym!

You must work on the total package. If you only do the exercises outlined in this program, ignoring the rest of your body, your abs will never show. The body is a machine and all of the parts have to be trained, not just the abs. You must work all of the other muscles in your body. This means using your home gym or getting a gym membership.

If you’ve ever heard that spot training is a myth, well, it’s true. Don’t expect a perfect 6-pack when you still have fat hanging from your arms.

You can avoid getting a gym membership with some ingenuity, but when you can find everything you need in one place, it just makes sense.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 3:30 pm and is filed under How to Get Abs and Show off Your Six-Pack Fast!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.