Misconceptions About Six-Pack Abs

Six-Pack Abs Series, Part 1:

We all make mistakes; it is just a fact of life. But years ago, my dad said something to me that will stick with me for the rest of my life: “If something isn’t working, change it.”

His simple yet very wise words can be directly applied to just about anything in life. And the same holds true for your health and fitness journey. If you have been doing something for years or months (heck even weeks!), and you still do not have the results you have been looking for, something is drastically wrong.

When I started working at my first gym during college, I remember people who would come in every single day and do the same workout routine day in and day out to see little or no results. I always wondered what kept them going…

I mean for someone like myself who is very goal oriented, if I am not seeing progress being made I start reevaluating what I am doing and try to come up with a solution to help me move closer to my goals.

I specifically remember one man who would come into the gym every single day trying to lose weight. He would run on the treadmill for one hour, do a few ab machine exercises and call it a day. He did this every single day! He would sweat up a storm and if you saw him it would LOOK like he got a great workout in.

The problem was, this gentlemen came in everyday for months and maybe lost 5-10 pounds at most when the reality was he needed to lose closer to 50 pounds. And the truth is this man could have lost the 50 pounds if he were to dedicate himself to doing the correct workouts and eating the right foods.

“If something isn’t working, change it!”

The story above is a prime example of what happens to so many of us. The gentleman in the story can be described as 80-90% of the gym goers today. They do the same routine thinking that it will magically start working to help them lose weight and get the body they have always wanted.

Albert Einstein once said: “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”

It is time to stop the insanity and it is time to start getting results! You deserve it…

There are tons of misconceptions out there about how to get six-pack abs. I am going to unpack a few HUGE misconceptions so many people have about getting six-pack abs. These are ones I hear and read about everyday that make me shake my head in disgust. Remember, if something isn’t working, change it.

You do not have to starve yourself to get six-pack abs:

This one absolutely kills me because starving yourself will kill your results when it comes to getting six-pack abs and getting healthy.

When people go on crash diets, the body is put in a very interesting situation. Our bodies are made to adapt to whatever is happening to them so if we are not feeding the body enough food, the brain will start telling the body to store all the food we eat as fat so we can use it as back up energy.

Our bodies will then start eating up our hard earned muscle and start using that as energy. This is not what you want!

Instead of starving yourself, you should be focusing on eating lots of the RIGHT kinds of food. The truth is, if you are eating the right kinds of foods, your body will naturally burn fat. This is especially true if you are working out a few times a week.

Starvation diets are NOT the way to go when trying to get healthy and get six-pack abs. You need to be constantly fueling your body with good sources of energy so your body can burn unwanted fat. You should focus on getting 4-8 meals per day that are loaded with good sources of protein, healthy fats, and tons of vegetables!

If you eat the correct foods, eat when you are hungry and until you are satisfied, results will follow!

You do not have to spend hours doing cardio to get six-pack abs:

Just as you saw in our example above, doing hours of long slow cardio is not going to bring you results fast. It may bring some results, but it will not bring the results you are looking for.

The truth is, I spend a total of about 30-40 minutes a week doing cardio workouts. I do two days of sprints that last about 15-20 minutes each. If I am looking to get more toned, I may add in 1-2 more days but most of the time I keep it to two days per week. Beats running on a treadmill for an hour a day right?

If you keep your cardio sessions short and intense, your results will skyrocket. When we engage in high intensity cardio sessions (especially sprints), our bodies naturally produce Growth Hormone (GH) which plays a huge role in burning fat, keeping you lean, strong, and ripped!

So ditch the long slow cardio and start focusing on short bursts of all out intensity activities for a short period of time. This style of cardio workout will bring you far better and far faster results than long slow cardio ever could.

One thing I will say, I do encourage you to do long slow cardio, just never as a workout. Go on long walks, hikes, go play some Frisbee at the park, or simply move around; these kinds of activities can only help your results.

But as for your actual cardio workouts, keep them short and very intense. The more intense they are the better!

You do not have to do thousands of crunches to get six-pack abs:

Yes, this is completely true; actually, you technically do not need to do any abs exercises to get six-pack abs. See, the problem for most people is the layer of fat that is covering up their abs, so doing thousands of crunches won’t do anything to help eliminate that fat.

Many times if you have a layer of fat that is covering your abs, doing tons of crunches will make you look fatter because you are building your ab muscles but the layer of fat is still there. Your focus should be to first eliminate the layer of fat, then work on building up your abs.

I do feel core workouts and ab workouts are necessary, but the truth is you can get a six-pack without ever doing a crunch or ab routine. If you focus your workouts on eliminating the fat covering up your abs and focus on doing key compound movements, you abs will start showing. That being said, assuming that you are eating the right kinds of foods of course!

I encourage you to stop wasting your time doing thousands of crunches and instead start focusing on eating properly, doing key compound exercises (ie. Squats, deadlifts, bench press, bent over row, overhead press, pull ups, push ups, etc), and engaging in high intensity cardio sessions!

Oh and just so you know, I incorporate ab workouts 2-3 days a week, but I just wanted to get the point across that an ab routine should not be the focus of your workout. It should simply be an add on to your workout routine!

Conclusion

The three misconceptions about six-pack abs that we just covered are very powerful. If you started changing just what we talked about above, you would start seeing results within weeks. This means focusing on eating lots of the right foods, doing high intensity cardio workouts, and focusing on doing the right kinds of exercises and workouts routines.

I encourage you to start applying this stuff to your daily life. Stop starving your body of the nutrients it desires and stop wasting time doing long slow cardio workouts and thousands of crunches a day. As was stated earlier, if something isn’t working, change it!

Be sure to stay tuned for Part Two of our six-pack abs series as I will be going over a simple formula to getting six-pack abs and how you can get started with that right away!

Part Two we will be focusing on the quote: “If something IS working, DON’T change it.” This is going to be jam packed with awesome information and an incredibly simple six-pack abs formula that you will not want to miss!

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