Why Ab-Specific Workouts Wont Melt Away Ugly Belly Fat

     People want a flat stomach, and so they ask me the best ab workout to achieve it. See, I'm a fitness professional, and in the course of my work I encounter a great many misconceptions about fitness. The idea that ab-specific workouts will cause the loss of belly fat, in my estimation, has got to be one of the most widespread. The frustrating thing is that even though most people have excess belly fat, most people who want to lose it have no idea how to do it.

Here's the problem: people are looking for exercises and routines that target belly fat. And because we're living in this age of instant gratification, they think that not only do such exercises exist, they think that they'll produce results almost overnight!

The brutal truth is this: excess belly fat will not be eliminated by ab-specific exercises. Ab-specific exercises do what they're designed to do, and that's strengthen and tone the abs. Fat loss can't be targeted - the body turns to stored fat for energy when the metabolism is increased and when a particular hormonal response is triggered. These conditions are most efficiently set in motion by a well-planned full body workout. There's no way, though, to dictate which fat cells are burned first.

The most effective metabolic rate and hormonal response aren't going to be produced by a simple cardiovascular routine, though. Your needs will much more efficiently be met by a rounded program that targets the entire body. High intensity resistance training is a critical component of such a program, as are multi-joint exercises.

It's this full-body approach, combined with a nutrient-rich healthy diet, that will burn the excess belly fat and reveal the well-conditioned abs. In the long run, this approach will consistently produce better results, every single time, than a desperation-induced plan of crunches, leg raises and other ab-specific exercises.

It's really frustrating to see just how many people still think that to get rid of excess belly fat, you've got to do all sorts of gut-busting exercises while ignoring the rest of your body. On-line fitness forums and television infomercials are especially guilty of disseminating this erroneous and fallacious advice. That bad advice won't serve you well at all, and it may waste a great deal of your time and money.

Understand that as an abs expert, I routinely promote ab-specific exercises as an integral component of a good workout routine. I just recommend against expecting those particular exercises to melt away excess belly fat. The strength and tone of the abdominal muscles themselves is enhanced by a carefully-crafted routine of ab-specific exercises. What ab-specific exercises won't do, though, is cause the loss of the fat covering the abdominals.

Never underestimate the value of a well-rounded approach! A full body routine of resistance training, combined with a carefully crafted balanced, healthy diet are the most important factors. And don't forget - even while you're concentrating on a full-body routine, your abs are getting a good workout because many of the full-body routines, especially the more difficult variations, require a high degree of stabilization.

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