Posts Tagged ‘body fat ratio’

It might not seem fair, you have worked and worked on those abs as much as others at your, and you’re doing lots of repetitions, so why can’t you see your abs? It can be extremely annoying, that is for sure, and it seems so unjust that others have the perfect six pack abs while yours are still not in sight. Why can’t you see your abs, and what can you do about it?

Well first of all, you must realize that everyone is different, we eat different amounts of foods and drink of differing types, and our body’s process it differently. That’s why even in the same family we have people of different shapes and sizes.

Next, you need to be 100% sure that you are actually doing all the exercises the right way. Speed is not a factor here, and you should not be trying to do as many crunches as you can in one minute. You need to be certain you are accurately targeting the abdominal muscles – if you aren’t, you’ll never get perfect six pack abs. So slow your crunches down, and make sure it is actually your abdominals doing the work. If not, correct them, and pay close attention as you repeat them in the future to make sure you don’t slip back into bad habits.

Next, while you are at the gym, see what your body fat ratio is. It should be in the low teens, ideally around twelve. Anything higher will explain why your abdominals are not showing. The body fat ratio tells you the quantity of fat that your body has. The higher the number the more fat your body has, and the more fat, the harder it is for those abdominal muscles to stand out from under those layers of fat. Sounds right, right?

Ok, so if your body fat ration is not in the right range, what it is warning you is that you have to lose some of those fat layers. To do this, you need to do more than crunches and abdominal exercises. You need to do some cardio exercises too, and be careful what you eat. Perhaps you need to eat a little less while running a little more. You get the idea. Once you lose a few pounds, your abdominals muscles will be able to stand out more, and in time, as your body fat ration gets to the ideal level, your six pack abdominals will be showing good and strong, and you will no longer have to worry about where your
six pack abs are, as they will be there for everyone to see.

You may be getting discouraged, and it’s not surprising, because you have worked on those six pack abs regularly, and they are still not defined. How many more crunches do i have to do to get them developed enough to show as a perfect set of six pack abs?

First of all, you are not the only one that this has happened to, there are many more people in this position, so take heart, and with a few changes, your abdominals and six pack will be showing very soon. Even with the best of intentions, which can be seen by the number of crunches we perform daily, some people just cannot get their perfect abs to show. You feel that your abs are much stronger, nevertheless they still don’t show, so what exactly is going on? Well, what you need to do first is to make absolutely certain that it is your abdominal muscles that you are targeting in your crunches, an also make sure that you are not rushing them. For many exercisers, it is how many they can do in a fixed time that is what matters, but that lowers the level of the exercise. To benefit more, each muscle contraction should be held for a few seconds, and if you are rushing to beat the latest record of number of the crunches in two minutes, then you cannot do this, and the crunches will not be as beneficial for you. So slow down, and improve the quality of your crunches, and any other workouts you do that target the abs muscles.

Next on your agenda is to discover what your body fat ratio is – you will be able to do this on the weighing machines at the gym if your bathroom scales don’t tell you. This number should be around 12, but if yours is much higher than this, then that confirms why your six pack abdominals are not defined. The body fat ratio is an indicator to inform you how much body fat you have, and the bigger the number, the more layers of fat your body has. The more fat you have, the more layers of fat are covering your abdominal muscles, so if you have been doing your exercises the right way, your abs will be well defined but just hidden by too much fat.

Okay, if too much is the cause of your abs to not show as great six pack abdominals what are your options? You can see that you need to lose some of those layers of fat, and abdominal exercises alone will not achieve this for you. You must do some cardio workouts, to lose some fat. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to work even longer in the gym each day. You can probably reduce the time you spend on your abs exercises, and more time doing cardio. If you can eat a little less, you will be able to to losing some fat. Make sure your diet is healthy for you, and not over doing the alcohol. Occasional drinks are fine, but drinking alcohol on a regular basis is just giving your body with too many unneccessary calories.

So, to conclude, do your exercises appropriately, lower your body fat ratio and your 6 pack abdominals will be defined and showing like those on others you’ve been jealously watching.