The fact is, crunches do not work for six pack abs. To have visible lean abs, we must consider our diet, increase metabolism and reduce stress in our lives.

The abdominal crunch exercise concentrates on the development of the low back and abdominal region. However, some crunch exercises don’t train the abs but rather they develop the hip flexors. When we overdevelop some muscles and not train other muscle groups, imbalances can occur and cause low back pain.

Achieving six pack abs requires eating a balanced diet of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, fat, and minerals. By eating small, frequent (5-6) meals a day, we can avoid causing spikes in our blood sugar level and keep our energy levels constant.

Resistance training helps to give our body a metabolic boost. The increased muscle mass causes the greater metabolic activity in our body, which results in greater utilization of body fat. The excess body fat is then converted to fuel our activities.

The body’s metabolism is also increased as a result of interval training. The exercise demands of anaerobic training causes the body to adapt by increasing muscle mass. The increased muscle mass makes the body’s efficiency to utilize body fat as fuel greater and increase the body’s overall fat burning capacity.

Stress has a way of increasing the amount of fat that is stored in our stomach area. In a stressful situation, our body releases Cortisol, which then stores fat in our abdomen. The stored fat is then kept there as a fuel source for the body during an emergency situation.

Managing our stress can take many forms. Techniques in relaxation, deep breathing, meditation, tai chi and yoga have been effective in stress management.

We should eliminate crunches from our exercise program if we want to have tone, lean abdominal muscles. Our exercise program should be focused on overall dietary changes, increasing our metabolism and reducing our stress.

The truth is, doing ab exercises may actually be hurting your six-pack ab results, therefore, instead of solely doing ab exercises, we must rev up our metabolism and stick with healthy eating to get ripped abs.

It has always been thought that ab exercises are key to achieving six pack abs. However, exercises like crunches, core movements and sit-ups train mostly the hip flexor muscles instead of the abdominal muscles, leading to muscle imbalances. Other exercises place us in odd, awkward back positions that may cause potential injury.

Doing ab exercises will not give us ripped abs. Instead, we must increase our metabolism by doing resistance and interval training, as they have been shown to yield excellent fat burning results.

When we train with resistance or intervals, we place demands on our body, which causes our muscles to react by increasing its metabolic activity. When our muscles require energy, our body will seek any excess fat and utilize it as fuel resulting in fat burning and utilizing the excess fat in our belly.

A beneficial side effect of interval and resistance training is an increase in metabolism, which allows for extended fat burning even several hours after the training session.

Our diet is important in that we can fuel our bodies with quality food and allow our body to burn calories more efficiently. By eating food that is balanced in lean protein and complex carbohydrates, we can energize our body to easily burn the calories we consume. Avoiding sugar snacks, sodas, fast foods and fatty foods will allow our body to not store the excess calories as fat and help us watch our caloric intake.

To have enough energy to burn throughout the day and to stabilize blood sugar levels, it is also good to eat small, frequent (5-6 times) meals throughout the day.

Ab exercises may be hurting your six pack ab results so the best way to avoid muscle imbalances and injuries and to achieve ripped abs is to increase metabolism through interval and resistance training and to practice healthy eating.

A reassessment of ab machines indicate that they are not effective for getting six pack abs. Many ab machines don’t target the ab muscles directly and may even cause injuries. The best ways to get ripped abs are to rev up our metabolism and to have healthy eating habits.

Overall resistance training has shown to increase the body’s metabolism. The increased lean body mass that results from resistance training, increases the muscle’s activity, which utilizes the excess body fat to fuel its needs.

To increase the body’s metabolism, do exercises that train in intervals. These anaerobic exercises increase the body’s metabolic activity, which then converts excess body fat into energy. The increased efficiency of the body to burn fat continues for several hours after the training session.

Relying on ab machines to give us six pack abs should be reassessed. Practicing healthy eating habits like having small, frequent meals 5-6 times throughout the day is recommended to help keep our energy levels constant and prevent blood sugar highs and lows.

Lower total caloric intake by decreasing food portion sizes and eating 5-6 times a day. This helps stabilize energy levels and a lower total caloric intake, which allows the body to burn the food we eat as well as the excess body fat.

Controlling stress in our lives is another factor we need to consider. Stress has the ability to make our body store excess body fat in our belly area. The hormone Cortisol causes our body to react this way, so in order to keep that from happening we must decrease our stress levels.

Practicing yoga, deep breathing, tai chi and meditation can help manage stress and effectively decrease the storage of body fat in the abdominal area.

The reassessment of ab machines indicate clearly that they are not effective and can even be harmful. To get six pack abs, we need to discipline ourselves to exercise regularly and to practice healthy eating habits.