i need something simple.

[DarklyCharming]

Okay found a Men's Health article on it. I knew I read something about it:

"Sit-ups everyday are only for men who don't hit that crucial number of exhaustion. You can overtrain your abdominals by doing too many, essentially wearing them out of everything they have and not allowing them adequate time to rebuild. However, if you aren't gym hungry and hitting the military-esque numbers every 3rd day, you should do situps everyday to give them a good workout, increase your calorie burn, and inch closer to that six-pack those who drink beer will envy."

 

[Trent]

so wait, if i do situps to the point that it really burns, then i should do them every other day, but if I just kind of casually do them as a calorie burner i should do them everyday? or do you think i could only "exhaust them" if i went to the gym and did an ab workout with weights?

again, thanks for all your help, trying to get a good at home regimen going here. I'm going on vacation in 2 months and i don't want to look like some beer bellied hunk of horse sh*t.

 

[DarklyCharming]

I've been researching Trent and everyone seems to say that the real key is diet if you want to show off abs. If you have a small belly you can prolly drop it in 2 months, if not, then best cut your losses and make a smaller goal.

 

[The Gardener]

I agree with Darkly. Doing situps won't help much, they are good for maintaining basic ab tone but aren't great for fat burning.

I hear people say they do ab exercises to burn off their guts. Well, unfortunately, working ab muscles won't necessarily burn off ab fat. Your body will burn fat evenly from where it is stored all over your body, regardless of the actual location of the muscles you are chosing to work.

A trainer once told me that if you want to maximize the fat burn from resistance training, it is best to work the larger muscle groups. The abs, relatively speaking, are a narrow band of muscles if compared to, say, your thigh muscles, pecs, or lats. Your leg muscles are the largest muscles in your body, by mass, so doing ten reps of leg workout will result in a much higher calorie burn than ten reps of a small muscle group such as the abs. Not to mention the fact that I, personally, hate working out abs because it always makes me have to pee after the set.

Thus, instead of the situps, I would recommend jogging, and/or push ups if you want to do stationary exercises. The push ups work both the pecs (a relatively large muscle mass) and the triceps. I think leg press is a fantastic exercise if you can find a way to do it. Even people who do not work out their legs regularly should consider folding regular leg press into their routine, if just a set a month.

However, the best way to burn ab fat is not to work the ab muscles, but to keep up a good cardio routine. The Surgeon General recommends 30 minutes of activity that makes you sweat each day. So, salute the General and get your *** moving! If you have a girlfriend, then 30 minutes of sex is outstanding cardio. Tell her it is an order from the General.

 

[Trent]

dammit. so i have to run, that sucks. it takes me ten minutes to go to the park, 20 to run, 10 to get back, and then i have to shower and dry off etc. it basically blows 50 minutes out of the day which I don't have. I'm not really trying to get rid of a "gut" i've always had sort of a natural six pack, but right now its just sort of ill-defined behind a little layer of fat, if that makes any sense. I was hoping sit ups would sort of begin to tone that area.

I'll keep rocking the pushups, but once I do like fifty my arms are so sore that I can't do anymore, don't think that's much of a cardio workout.

trent <--- weak