4 Common Myths About Your Abs

Virtually everyone who starts going to the gym wants a perfect set of defined abs; however, what they don't realize is that getting a nice six pack is harder than it seems. Many people associate having great abs with fitness obsessed individuals who spend more time in the gym than they do on anything else. That's simply not true because everyone has a set of abs underneath all that fat covering them. To help you along your journey, I have complied 4 common myths that you can do away with in order to be better focused on building stronger and better abs.

Myth 1: Avoid Crunches

Recently, a lot of people started avoiding crunches due to fitness experts and rehab professionals speaking out against the exercise. The theory is that crunches require you to flex and bend your spine which could negatively impact your spinal discs by pushing them too far out and causing herniated discs. However, the truth is that this issue is still highly debated. Others researchers state that your body position does not have any responsibility in putting pressure on your spinal discs, but the fact of how tightly you compress your muscles that impacts it. In addition, others note that a person's spinal discs can actually realign themselves during crunches instead of pushing them too far out. In the end, if you do have any spinal injuries, you should not be doing crunches. Otherwise, doing a couple of proper sets can only benefit you in the end.

Myth 2: Your Abs Serve No Purpose Outside Of Looking Good

This one I hear a lot from my various clients. However, saying that their only purpose is for looking good is ignorant. Firstly, your abs are great stabilizers. When you contract your abs it helps you stiffen you mid section and stabilize the entire body, especially when doing exercises such as deadlifts and squats. If you don't have a strong core, you will never be able to deadlift or squat a lot of weight. Secondly, the abs allows us to slow down rotations around your body and for hyperextension of the back.

Myth 3: You Have To Do Only "Abs Exercises" To Build Your Abs

Popular to contrary belief, you don't necessarily have to do abs specific exercises in order to build your abs. Exercises such as deadlifts and squats still work your abs due to them being engaged in order to stabilize the muscles during the lift. In addition to these exercises, even something as simple as a push up can force your abs to work indirectly. Think of the push ups as a plank position except made more difficult by the motion of pushing up and down and you'll get the idea. Therefore, you do not have to directly do abs exercises for your abdominal muscles to still get a solid workout.

Myth 4: You Don't Need To Do Any "Abs Exercises" To Build Your Abs

As I stated above, you don't necessarily just have to focus on doing abs exercises in order to get a nice set of six pack abs, but you still have to do abs specific exercises in order to strengthen your midsection completely. While doing deadlifts and squats will help in improving core strength and stability indirectly, doing exercises such as the Swiss - Ball Pike Rollouts can effectively and directly hit your upper abs, lower abs, and oblique's all at once.

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