I just spent the last two hours reading through questions from subscribers, looking for a good one to answer.
But I noticed a TREND in the questions that was even more disturbing, that I need to talk about today instead.
And that trend is: a LOT of you are still doing traditional crunches trying to find the answer of how to get a six pack
And unfortunately, you are NOT going to get six pack abs this way.
I think that you may be starting to realize this, as most of the emails were also complaining about how the crunches were not producing very good results. But to really hammer it home and to make sure you NEVER make this workout mistake again, here are the top 7 reasons why you should never do crunches:
REASON 1: THEY DON’T CAUSE YOU TO LOSE ANY FAT
Guess how many crunches you’d have to do to lose one pound of belly fat?
Five hundred? Eight hundred? Maybe even a THOUSAND?
As it turns out, it’s actually far more. Men’s Health recently did a study, and they found that you’d have to do approximately TWENTY THOUSAND crunches to lose one single pound of belly fat.
Why? Because there is no such thing as “spot reduction,” or losing fat in one specific place. You can only lose fat evenly over your entire body. And since crunches don’t use the large muscle groups of your body, they only burn tiny amounts of calories and miniscule amounts of fat.
REASON 2: DOING CRUNCHES WHEN YOU’RE OVERWEIGHT MAKES YOU LOOK MORE FAT
And to add insult to injury, a cruel “trick” of how we perceive the human body actually makes you look MORE fat if you’re overweight and you’re doing crunches…
All crunches (and any direct abdominal exercise for that matter) can do is build the abdominal muscles up. They’re actually not even very good at this especially when you’re already in shape, but they can build some muscle if you’re just starting and are overweight and are looking on how to get a girlfriend
But unfortunately, if you still have a belly, unfortunately this additional muscle will be COMPLETELY INVISIBLE. It’ll be hidden beneath the fat.
And it will actually cause the fat to BULGE out – creating the optical illusion that you are actually more fat.
REASON 3: THEY’RE DANGEROUS WHEN THEY’RE EFFECTIVE
As I mentioned before, if you’re overweight and can only complete 5-20 crunches before you’re completely exhausted, then crunches theoretically might help you build that “hidden muscle” on your core.
But here’s the thing – this is actually when crunches are the MOST DANGEROUS.
If your core muscles are weak, then it’s going to be very hard to maintain proper form during your crunches. And if you’re using bad form, it’s only a matter of time before you end up with neck pain and lower back pain from your crunches.
I know dozens of people who’ve given themselves back or neck problems doing crunches or crunch-type exercises, and you probably do too.
