Why Ab-Specific Workouts Won't Melt Away Ugly Belly Fat

Most people I meet want a hard, flat belly, and so they ask me for great ab workouts. 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. What people want is instant gratification: they want a miracle cure for a flabby belly - some set of exercises that will not only strengthen and condition their abs, but also miraculously melt off all the ugly belly fat covering up those abs!

Here's the bad news: there's no ab-specific workout or exercise that will eliminate excess belly fat. All they do is strengthen and tone the abdominal muscles living under the belly fat. Excess belly fat can only be achieved through an overall program of weight loss, because the body most readily burns fat for energy when two conditions are met - metabolism is increased and a specific hormonal response is triggered. The best way to achieve these conditions is a full-body strategic workout.

If you want the greatest metabolic and hormonal response, though, you're going to have to go beyond simple cardiovascular routines. 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. The results you're looking for will be accomplished with this program, and it will produce them far more efficiently than a desperation-induced program of crunches and leg raises.

A disappointing truth, though, is that a majority of the population that wants to get rid of excess belly fat stubbornly clings to the fallacy that ab-specific exercises are the best way to get it done. You can imagine how frustrating it is for me to see this bad advice routinely given on the on-line fitness forums and fitness-oriented television programs. 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. But it's incontrovertible - no exercise targeting a specific muscle group will also cause the loss of fat in that area. Ab exercises won't cause the loss of belly fat.

What are the most important factors? First, your workout routine should concentrate on resistance training, and should be a full-body routine. Second, your diet is absolutely crucial - you should have a balanced diet composed of healthy ingredients. And keep this in mind - the abs get a great deal of work, even if it's indirect, from many full-body routines because of the stabilization required.