Achieving a lean and muscular midsection is all about fat loss. You can do 1000 crunches a day and it won’t make any difference because you can’t spot reduce fat.
Here are 5 great tips to help you achieve awesome abs!
1. Cardio, cardio, cardio:
Cardio plays an important role in fat loss. Keep your cardio sessions short (16-20 minutes) and intense. If you are emphasizing fat loss do cardio at least 5 times a week.
2. Monitor your caloric intake:
You should keep a log of your food intake each day so you can calculate your total caloric intake. Once you establish a starting point you will want to gradually skim calories over time to target fat loss. (see my “Lost Logs” for a perfect guide)
3. Eat your vegetables:
Vegetables, especially the green crunchy variety, are a helpful tool for fat loss. When you are following a low calorie diet vegetables help you stay satisfied and digesting all that fiber helps keep your metabolism elevated.
4. Don’t crunch your life away:
Ab crunches will not trim your waistline. Training abs once a week directly is enough, especially if you are following the Max-OT training principles. Train abs with resistance to help develop the abdominal muscles and let diet and cardio take care of the fat loss.
5. Eat often:
Small frequent meals throughout the day will help keep your metabolism elevated and aid the fat loss process.
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I walk home from work five days a week for a total of 25 minutes travelling time; i get a lift to work. I suppose I could increase the intensity, for fat loss purposes, by throwing in some quick dashes or sprints every couple hundred meters or so, or just jog home.
Correction: I have been looking for a way to burn “fat” the best way & I keep seeing a conflict between cardio vs interval weight training (I hope I’m saying that right). Some people say that cardio isn’t the way to go. They say that with weight training there is a afterburn effect that is better than doing cardio. I have been doing the treadmill for some time and people have said they can tell the difference. So for the sake of clarity why do you think cardio is the best route to go (if that’s what you’re saying). Thank you for your time.
Cardio is essential in the fat burning process. Cardio exercise will aid in boosting your metabolic rate and aiding the fat loss process. You can’t spot reduce fat no matter what type of resistance training you are doing.
My doubts will be what time I would do cardio before or after your workout?
If you have to do cardio during the same workout session do it after weight training.
Hi Jeff,
why only 15 min of cardio, since aerobic threshold is achieved after 20 min and our organism after that starts to burn off fat?
What do you mean by the term “intense”? Could you elaborate an example?
What if someone is on “cutting-phase” (dieting etc.) and does 3-4 times/week for 30-40 mins?
Thank you in advance.
The key to cardio for fat loss is what it is doing to your metabolism. Short duration/high intensity cardio has a bigger elevating effect on your metabolism and keeps it elevated longer after activity than long duration/moderate intensity.
I don’t advise any longer that 20 minutes at a time. I prefer 16 minute duration.
This blog entry further explains: http://www.jeffwillet.com/newsite/2010/05/short-durationhigh-intensity-cardio-is-key/
Hi Jeff! Im ready to start losing some body fat and get in better shape. But I dont want to lose my current strength gains. I understand I probably wont get stronger on a calorie deficit, but I worked really hard to get to where I am and would like to continue to be strong. Is that possible or is it just how it is when dieting?
If you follow an intelligent approach any strength loss should be at a minimum. You should actually be able to get stronger through part of the process as well. As you get deep into calorie cuts you will likely find it hard to increase strength but should bee able to maintain for the most past.
Hi Jeff
I have recently had an accident resulting in knee surgery preventing me from training my legs for a while. I also suffered a nerve injury paralyzing my serratus anterior and preventing me from bodybuilding my upper body also. I have decided to focus on maximum muscle gain on my abs and also maximum fat loss during my period of recovery. Considering my situation do you think it best for me to work abs on monday in the normal max ot way with 5 days of cardio or abs twice a week because I am not currently doing any compound work.
As always your advice is much appreciated.
Ben
I’d still say abs once a week and focus on cardio and nutrition.
Okay thanks alot Jeff, at the moment I am reducing the amount of protein I am consuming as the week goes on because I am doing my crunches on monday. Is this a good idea or should I consume alot of protein for the whole week. I am trying to find the balance between to much protein and not enough for my goals and current situation??
Thanks Jeff
I think you always want consistent protein intake every day of the week to maximize the recovery process.
Hello Jeff,
I completely agree with you as I have trained with MAX-OT for about a year and I found out the only way a natural bodybuilder can get big is through gaining strength. In fact, you cannot see any huge natural bodybuilder who is not very strong. It’s enough to look at physiques of Jeff Willet, Doug Miller, Amin Shahry , … who are really strong. In addition, I have found DC training very effective too. By training hard and heavy( but not too frequent I believe) and eating huge amount of protein and other needed nutrients, we can grow beyond what public think they can achieve.
Hi Jeff
I am from IceIand and i really like and believe in the max-ot principles.
I once got through 12 weeks of the program and it showed some serious results, 23% body fat too 12%
I’m not trying to get to competition level, just trying to stay healthy and in shape.
About cable crunches…They are my favourite abdominal exercise, but how do you warm up for cable crunches?
And also I always feel like i’m doing them wrong, can you explain the execution ?
Thanks for the great feedback.
You could warm up for cable crunches like any other movement where you do a few sets where you gradually increase weights and decrease reps to introduce heavier weights without approaching the point of fatigue.
Hard to describe exactly how to execute the movement. I will say try to think of your arms as “hooks” simply holding the weight in place while movement is generated from the abdominal muscles. As you crunch down think of curling elbows towards your knees while contracting your abs. Hope this is helpful.