One of the most sought after things in the world for men (and for women) is washboard abs. Very little in the male physique is so coveted, surrounded by mystery and urban myth and so difficult to achieve.
Why Aim For Washboard Abs?
That said, having a great 6 pack is something that every man can be proud of. Whether it’s just to take your shirt off and feel proud of your appearance or to pose in the gym or to catch the eye of the ladies at the beach, no other body feature will be as eye-catching.
As a personal trainer, this is how you are judged. Have even the tiniest bit of a beer belly and people don’t respect you. Washboard abs are the biggest request, as in ‘teach me to get a rock hard abdomen’.
The biggest urban myth involved in the attainment of this look is that simply doing 100’s of sit ups or crunches will suffice with little other effort. Now, ironically, the sort of person that will do hundreds of crunches a day in his or her search for a six pack is also the sort of person that eats healthily, which is the real trick.
It’s simple. If you have a covering of fat over your abs, nobody will be able to see them. You could do a billion crunches and it would make no difference.
The other thing that people do that isn’t as effective as you may think is to isolate the abdominal muscles and try to exercise them individually. You’re far better off working on your ‘core’ as a whole and do exercises that work on your balance, which work that entire section. For example doing your crunches on an exercise ball will give you much more of a great result than simply doing them on the hard, stable floor.
And it’s not just crunches that you can do with an exercise ball that will work your abs. Push ups will not do a lot normally for your abdominals, but try them while perched on a ball and you’ll feel the difference immediately. Place the ball beneath your feet and it will work your core while you balance doing the push ups.
A word of warning however, don’t use the ball or balancing exercises while lifting a heavy weight. It won’t take much from there to pull a muscle and injure yourself.
Once you get into the habit of using an exercise ball in your core and fitness exercises, you’ll wonder how you didn’t think of it before. This is just one of the secrets to building washboard abs that you’ll find in the No Nonsense Muscle Building guide.
