Full disclaimer 20 years ago you would have found me in my college dorm room doing 100 crunches on my roommate’s stability ball in hopes to get a “6 Pack!”
Yes, this was before I knew any better. Fast forward I can tell you that you can do as many crunches as you want, but it will not give you a “6 Pack!” Yes, working the muscle will make it STRONG, but if you want definition then you have to do a lot more than just crunches.
I am sure you are not new to the phrase “Abs are made in the kitchen.” Yes, what you eat, when you eat and how much you eat will determine what happens around your waistline in conjunction with the way you train.
You will never out exercise a bad diet, which is why it’s important to note that if you truly want to see a change, lose weight, change your BMI then you have to be willing to alter what you put into your mouth and no I am not saying that you need to live off of grilled chicken and salads the rest of your life, but there has to be balance.
Donuts, burgers, french fries, fried chicken, diet coke, ice cream cannot be staples in your house.
It all starts with awareness. This is why I encourage everyone to keep a journal. So many people fail to recognize how much they are really consuming in a day. Are you even eating enough?
It is all about energy balance.
The second component is energy expenditure. Are you training the right way? As you all know I am a huge advocate of heart rate monitors because knowing where, when and how you are training is key to seeing results. If you really want to see a change in your body then you need to be working in your appropriate zones, tracking your progress and expenditure weekly. Your heart rate changes daily due to a myriad of different factors which is why it is key for you to work with your body and not against it.
Strength training/functional training is one of my favorite ways to train because it forces you to work your abdominals in so many ways not just as the primary mover, but as a stabilizer. This gives you more strength and power over time when executing different movement patterns. You are also working 15 different muscle groups at once opposed to sitting at a machine isolating one muscle at a time. More bang for your buck and this will allow you to expend more calories per minute.
Training your cardiovascular system the right way, listening to your body and following a set program is guaranteed to yield sustainable results. This is why I created the BTF App to give you everything you need at your fingertips without the guesswork!
As you see there are three pieces to the equation. Yes, your diet is super important, but so is the way that you train because it will also affect what you put into your mouth. Overtraining will cause overeating, undereating will cause lack of energy to perform at your best, which is why our goal is always finding the right balance to the equation.
