It remains extremely popular in gyms: the abdominal quarter-hour. With a group of like-minded people, you work hard to reveal your six-pack, especially now that the first rays of sunshine have appeared and summer is approaching.
Flat stomach through abdominal exercises
Burning fat locally is unfortunately not possible. Although it is still not understood by many, doing hundreds of crunches or sit-ups and other abdominal exercises will not reduce the fat mass on your stomach or make your abs visible. Moreover, doing all those crunches and sit-ups is not without risk to your health. Did you know that bending your torso and thereby your spine puts a lot of pressure on your intervertebral discs? So not only do those sit-ups not provide a good training or slimming effect, they actually work against you when you are pursuing a strong and healthy body.
Body posture
Many people nowadays lead a sedentary lifestyle. This can have a disastrous effect on our mobility and body posture. So after work at the office, heading to the gym to get moving? Yes, good idea, but not if you’re going to train your abdominal muscles and bring your body back into the same forward-leaning position! Your body is made to stand upright and be ‘functionally’ loaded, so use it that way.
Training your abdominal muscles through sit-ups and crunches is NOT a good plan if you want to become physically stronger, reduce back pain, and walk more upright.
Glute quarter-hour instead of abdominal quarter-hour
In a previous article, I wrote about the benefits of the glute quarter-hour compared to the abdominal quarter-hour.
In the article, you can read about the disadvantages of following an abdominal quarter-hour, but also what you should do instead: the glute quarter-hour. Properly training your glutes gives you a stronger body, less back pain, and a nice appearance. Because the glute muscles are so important to keep a body healthy and balanced, we should train them more often and the abdominal muscles less. After reading the article, you will know exactly why!
To summarize once again the benefits of a glute quarter-hour compared to the traditional abdominal quarter-hour:
- You develop a strong, sexy body by training the large muscles of your body
- You get stronger hips and knees
- You develop more power
- You work on reducing back pain instead of increasing it
- You develop better body posture
Activation exercises to do every day
Because these exercises do not use heavy loads, you can perform them every day. However, note that the effect for fat burning or muscle growth is not significant, meaning you need a well-structured and varied strength training program to achieve good results. For maximum effect in terms of fat burning and getting those visible abs, a proper diet is essential; you simply have to eat less than you expend in energy.
The Fire Hydrant
Mobilization and activation exercise for the gym and home
Points to consider
Because these exercises do not use heavy loads, you can perform them every day. However, note that the effect for fat burning or muscle growth is not significant, meaning you need a well-structured and varied strength training program to achieve good results. For maximum effect in terms of fat burning and getting those visible abs, a proper diet is essential; you simply have to eat less than you expend in energy.
