You’ve heard the promises from supplement companies, you've watched videos of ‘the best abs exercises’ and seen amazing before and after photos showing unbelievable abs popping out of athlete's paper-thin skin around their midsection. But does any of this really work?
Let me cut straight to the chase and give you the honest facts.
You could do a thousand ab-crunches, kettle bell swings or even plank yourself silly all day long, but the fact is, if there’s a layer of fat covering your midsection you won’t get to see them, and that’s that.
For all the abdominal muscles to be visible (the 6-pack) you need to reach an athletic percentage of bodyfat, and that is below 16%. At around 18% BF, people start to see the top 2, maybe.
But reducing all-over bodyfat to these levels is a way of life (genetically gifted not included).
The lifestyle to remain 16% to 9% bodyfat allowing full view of the most desirable rack, is a result of dedication to training and nutrition long term. This includes reduction in calories and portions, finely balanced macronutrients, carefully managed hormone patterns and a very good understanding of the mode or training most suited to your own genetic set up. It’s not just a slimming shake and an ab-blaster video for a few weeks!
So looking at reducing bodyfat, you needn’t even focus on isolating the abs as you’ll need to blast the whole body with multi-joint or compound intensive training. It’s well documented and shown that adding intervals to this intensity whilst maintaining the muscle is paramount to ensure the mitochondria do their work in firing up the metabolism for lipolysis (fat burning). Steady state cardio (jogging, cycling, walking etc.) burns approx 40% muscle!) #saggybod.
But how much fat can you lose in a given timeframe?
Typically about 1% - 2% per month at a standard rate.
So just quickly calculate how many months until summer, get your current bodyfat level tested and then work out if it is realistic to beat yourself up trying to achieve the percentage of bodyfat required to 'reveal' the machine within.
What you may find more suitable is that a good strengthening programme with clever postural correction will provide you with a great improvement on your beach body far quicker than you might expect. We have the specialist at Profile to achieve this for you.
To get your bodyfat tested, and for a consultation on the best programme for you, give us a call on 77788846 or email: info@profilemalta.com for more details.
