Turbulence Training for Abs
I’ve been saying this for years…
You don’t need to do crunches.
In fact, most of my clients NEVER do crunches.
You can get the abs you’ve always wanted without the pain (literally) of doing crunches. Read this from Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training fame.
Never Do Crunches Again
If you want to have a flat stomach or 6-pack abs, you never have to do another crunch or sit-up ever again.
In fact, the truth about abdominal crunches is that they are useless, ineffective, and even damaging to your spine. The latter fact is covered in great detail by Dr. Stuart McGill in his book, “Ultimate Low Back Fitness & Performance”. His research will shock you (and the scare the bejesus out of you) if you are one of those gym-rats who spends 30 minutes on abdominal crunching type movements.
I found out crunches are useless the hard way, spending ten minutes per day on crunches back in my 3rd year of University, but to no avail. They didn’t do anything for my abs.
That year I stumbled across interval training and total body abdominal exercises. Finally, it was these training secrets that helped me change my torso from regular fit college-aged male into cover-model six-pack abs worthy.
We’ve talked about interval training beforeso let’s focus on the total body abdominal exercises to help you build a better looking torso without doing so at the expense of your low back health.
For beginners, the 3 exercises you must master are called, “The Plank”, “The Side Plank”, and “The Bird Dog”. Now I’ll be honest, these aren’t the most exciting moves in the world, but they will put you on the track to flatter abs and a healthier low back.
For intermediate fitness and strength, you can graduate to exercises such as Mountain Climbers, Plank with your Forearms on the Ball, and Stability Ball Jackknives. There are also at least a half-dozen advanced pushup exercises
that will work your abs as well as crunches ever could!
Finally, if you are advanced, some of my favorite abdominal exercises include, Cross-Body Mountain Climbers, Chin-ups with Knee-Ups, and Stability Ball Rollouts.
Here’s to the new era of CRUNCH-FREE abdominal workouts.
About the Author
Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training For Abs workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTrainingForAbs.com
Popularity: 8% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
The Shocking Truth about Cardio Training
Why Cardio Doesn’t Work for Fat Loss
By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com
Cardio exercise is such a strange thing. In theory, it should work perfectly well for all men and women, but as anyone who has tried it knows, the practicality of it just doesn’t add up.
After all, some men and women do cardio 6 hours, 9 hours, or more per week, and still have belly fat to burn. On the other hand, it works just fine for others.
British researchers wanted to get more insight into this paradox, and studied 35 overweight men and women, who weren’t previously exercising.
(Reference: International Journal of Obesity 32: 177-184, 2008).
Subjects exercised 5 times per week for 12 weeks. That’s a lot of exercise, but it helped the subjects lose an average of 8.2 pounds, which is great - I was positively surprised by the results.
So cardio will work for some people, however, in my experience, it works best in young men, who need the help the least!
Back to the study, the variance in fat loss between individuals was huge. Check this out…
The best subject lost a staggering 32.3 pounds in 12 weeks, while the worst subject actually GAINED 3.74 pounds.
The scientists think they know where things went sour. They classified the subjects into 2 groups, called the “Compensators” and the “Non-compensators”.
The Compensators were hungrier, and as a result consumed an extra 268 calories per day, all but wiping out their cardio efforts.
Therefore, the Compensators lost the least amount of weight, and scientists believe that was due to the huge “compensatory” increase in appetite experienced by this group.
Does your appetite increase when you do slow cardio? If it does, research shows it will ruin your cardio efforts.
So if your cardio program is not working for you, check your appetite and calorie intake to see if you are “compensating” for your efforts.
If you are, you might be better off using a program of high-intensity resistance and interval training (i.e. Turbulence Training) for your weight loss efforts.
As Australian Professor Steve Boucher has shown in research, interval training increases hormones called catecholamines.
And increased catecholamines can reduce appetite, among other fat-burning benefits.
In the real world, few people lose 33 pounds after 12 weeks of cardio. Heck, few even achieve an average weight loss of 8 pounds with aerobic exercise.
So again, check your appetite, and consider giving high-intensity exercise a go for your next workout program.
Beat the curse of cardio with high-intensity Turbulence Training.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training
About the Author
Learn about the “Dark Side of Cardio” in the free report from Craig Ballantyne at www.TurbulenceTraining.com. Craig is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com
Popularity: 9% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
fitness-
Add Me/Follow Me
Add Me as a Friend on Facebook
Click Here to Follow Me on Twitter -
By N2H
