Ab Machines – Reassessed
January 15th, 2009. Published under Fitness. No Comments.
Ab machines waste time. These machines will help you strengthen your abdominals, but to achieve ripped abs, ab machines are a waste of time. Increasing your overall metabolism through resistance training, controlling your diet and decreasing stress in one’s life will help you achieve your ripped abs.
There are ab machines that place our bodies in awkward positions causing potential injury, while others actually support our neck and back while doing the exercise, but since the support doesn’t allow those parts to train and get stronger while the abs are getting worked on and stronger simultaneously, there is a resulting imbalance and possible injuries.
Some ab machines don’t even target the ab muscles directly and trains the hip flexor muscles instead!
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.
When we eat lean proteins and complex carbohydrates instead of fatty fast foods, sodas and sweets, not only can we keep our caloric intake low, but we can also burn calories more efficiently and avoid having excess calories stored as fat especially around the stomach area.
Managing stress is another factor towards acquiring ripped abs. Stress can make the body store fat in the belly area due to Cortisol, a hormone which is produced during stressful times. Thus, controlling stress levels will prevent our body from reacting this way.
Increased lean body mass now allows our body to become efficient at burning excess fat to fuel the muscles’ higher energy requirements and our activities.
The truth is, ab machines can’t give us ripped abs. But by increasing our metabolism, watching our diet and managing our stress in our lives, we can finally achieve ripped abs.