I once read a fitness article titled ‘1000 Crunches and Still No Abs!”

It was probably the 6 most descriptive words describing the frustration most people are experiencing all the time in the quest for 6 pack abs.

One of the BIGGEST mistakes made when trying to lose fat from your midsection is simply doing a bazillion-and-a-half abdominal exercises.

Truth be told it takes much more than crunches, sit-ups, leg raises or torso twists to get those abs to come out of hiding.  The problem is that most people are misled into thinking the opposite mostly due to those awful television infomercials of ‘Joey Six Pack Abs’ telling you how you’ll sculpt a sexy stomach in minutes a day using his newest ‘scientific‘ breakthrough ab-bomber X.

Here’s 3 tips you MUST understand if you ever want to see your abs:

1) You Can’t See What You Don’t Have-

“I don’t think I have stomach muscles” one of my clients told me during a personal training session.

I laughed…

…She didn’t!

What I didn’t realize at the time was that she actually believed she did not have abdominal muscles simply because she couldn’t see them.

Not everyone who cannot see their abs needs to lose fat.

Huh?

Now, before you call me CRAZY let me explain what I mean…

Some people are fairly lean in the body fat department and still can’t see their abdominal muscles. How can this be?

Because they have the opposite problem…They haven’t built enough muscle to see.

You can lose the flab but when it gets down the nitty-gritty you’re going to need enough muscle to see your abs plain and simple.

So, if you’re on the lean side it’s time to start hitting your abs with some muscle building loads. You can do this by performing abdominal exercises in the 8-12 rep range or even including super-sets (back-to-back ab exercises).

2) Get Stable- It’s important to understand that your abdominals are designed to do more then flex your trunk like when doing crunches.

Your abs are also important stabilizers of your upper body and therefore you need to include some stability work to completely develop them.

Here’s the thing…

…When you perform a crunch you’re only using a small amount of muscles (the rectus abdominis-a.k.a ’6-pack’ and the external obliques).

But, when doing stabilization exercises like the plank, side planks, roll-outs, etc you involve the entire abdominal complex.

Think of it this way…

If you were going into battle would you rather have an army of 10 soldiers on your side or 100?

3) Clean Out Your Cupboards- Let’s be brutally honest here. You cannot out train a poor diet no matter what. It doesn’t matter how good your workout program is or how many calories you burn if you’re eating nutritionally deficient foods.

Most health & fitness experts lead you to believe fat loss is all about burning calories through exercise first then eating in a way that supports your fitness program.

I’m going to tell you the exact OPPOSITE.

The truth of the matter is that your diet is the single most important component in losing fat and revealing your abs.  No amount of exercise will offset a faulty diet.

Want more proof?

Did you know that the average person weighing 170 lbs would need to perform about 9 hours of running at a 6 mph pace to lose just 1 lb of fat? I know this sounds odd but running is not the most effective weight loss method.

And, the lighter you are the longer it takes.

Not a great return on your investment if you ask me.  You wanna lose your stomach then get 100% focused on fixing your diet and use exercise to compliment it. To start be sure to eliminate these 3 ‘health’ foods as they are some of the biggest fat storing culprits.

Bonus Tip 4) “Da Plane, Da Plane!” No, it’s not a bad re-run of Fantasy Island here.

I’m talking about planes of motion. Without getting all scientific just know that your body is meant to move in multiple directions and certain abdominal muscles are responsible for these movements.

When you ignore certain movements your body ‘forgets’ how to perform them properly and when you’re out and about and you need to move in a pattern your body isn’t conditioned for that’s when injuries happen.

Rather than doing the same crunch based motions try doing rotational (twisting) movements and side bending movements such as the side crunch shown below:

Once you have these 4 pieces of the puzzle in place you’ll make significant progress on your journey to a leaner, firmer midsection.

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