Surprisingly, not all exercises are good for you. In fact, research has discovered that doing crunches, sit-ups and other ab-targeted exercises will NOT help you get flat, washboard abs.
The problem is when you do conventional ab exercises, your stomach muscles feel sore, which fools you into thinking that you’re working your abs. Yet, after weeks of religiously doing your ab routine, your belly looks just as bloated and soft as it did before. All that time and pain for nothing!
Here’s the TRUTH…
Crunches, sit-ups, side bends (and other common ab exercises) force you to bend and contort your body in unnatural ways. This may come as a surprise, but your abs were NOT designed to crunch, twist, or bend. In fact, it’s the complete opposite!
The real role of your abdominal muscles is to PREVENT your mid-section from crunching, twisting, and bending. That’s right, your abs are a stabilizing force designed to resist movement in order to protect your spine.
So even though you “feel the burn” when you do crunches and sit-ups, you’re actually putting unnecessary pressure on your back, causing more harm than good. These ab exercises can cause lower back injuries by forcing your spine to bend too much, and they do very little to actually help you get a flat, tight stomach.
The key to getting sculpted abs is to burn off that stubborn layer of belly fat that’s hiding them. On the next page, I’ll show you how to quickly burn away the “ab flab” so you can finally carve out those lean, ripped abs.
But first, here are the 5 WORST exercise mistakes you MUST stop making (if you want to crank up your metabolism so you can melt away stubborn body fat and KEEP it off)...
Mistake #1: Doing Long Bouts of Cardio
If you’ve been doing cardio workouts to try and slim down, I have some alarming news…
Steady-state cardio (like jogging or doing the elliptical) increases the production of a stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol causes weight gain and makes it more difficult to burn off stubborn belly fat.
That’s why no matter how much cardio you do, you can’t seem to raise your metabolism and you always hit a plateau eventually.
Even worse, too much cardio accelerates aging! When you put your body under prolonged stress, you start producing free-radicals, which damages your cells and causes inflammation…and inflammation is what makes you OLD. Yikes!
But, there is a RIGHT way to do cardio. Stick with me because I’m going to reveal what you can do to get insane results in half the time of your regular cardio workout—without causing unnecessary stress on your joints. (Once you learn this simple trick, you’ll kick yourself for not doing it all along!)
Mistake #2: Doing Isolated Exercises
Doing isolated exercises (like bicep curls and tricep extensions) will NOT help you build lean muscle and get toned & fit. When you do these “isolated” exercises, you’re only working one muscle at a time. The problem is that these exercises do very little to increase your metabolism.
Here’s why: In order to boost your metabolism, your heart rate has to be raised to a certain level. But when you’re only working ONE muscle at a time, it’s virtually impossible to recruit enough muscle fibers to increase your heart rate significantly, so you’ll never be able to spike your metabolism or maximize your calorie burn.
If you want to slim down and tone up fast, you need to do exercises that stimulate as many muscles as possible at the same time. On the next page, I’ll show you the most effective exercises that target every inch of your body—so you can replace flab with lean, defined muscle.
Mistake #3: Using Gym Machines
Those big, shiny machines sure make the gym look high-end, but truthfully, the only thing they’re good for is for sitting down while you tie your shoes or catch your breath!
The problem is this: Machines alter the way your body naturally moves, restricting your range of motion. This severely limits your ability to fully activate all of your muscles fibers, which means less fat burning and less muscle toning.
Worse yet, machines can cause muscular imbalance and excessive strain on your joints, leading to nagging injuries down the road.
If you want fast results, you MUST incorporate exercises that allow your body to move naturally with full range of motion so you can skyrocket your metabolism and put fat-burning on autopilot.
In a minute, I’ll explain the 6 primary movements that are the foundation of these exercises…and I’ll also fill you in on the best types of weights to use for your workouts (no big, clunky gym machines required!).
Mistake #4: Repeating The Same Workouts Over & Over
Repeating the same workout routine over and over is a surefire way to STOP getting results. We’re creatures of habit and we tend to stick to things we’re familiar with and good at. But when it comes to working out, if you want to make progress and keep seeing changes in your body, you’ve got to start switching things up.
You see, your body has an amazingly ability to adapt quickly and when it does, that’s when you hit the dreaded plateau and you STOP making progress.
In a few minutes, I’m going to tell you exactly how often you need to change up your workout routine so you can keep your body guessing, which will keep your metabolism running on high so you can kiss that spare tire goodbye…
Mistake #5: Doing Loooong Workouts
Longer workouts do NOT equal better or faster results. If you’ve been slaving away at the gym and your body isn’t visibly changing, you can’t do more of the same thing and expect a different result.
When it comes to getting lean and fit, your body responds to quality over quantity. I’m going to tell you the #1 way to super-charge your workouts—this simple, yet overlooked method is the single fastest way to getting lean and ripped while cutting your workout time almost in half. This technique will open up a can of whoop-ass on your workout!
How To “Fix” Your Metabolism
Alright, now that you know what NOT to do, here’s the good news…
Science has proven that there are specific types of exercises that trigger a potent fat-burning effect, which skyrockets your metabolism and boosts your fat-burn for up to 48 hours after your workout is over.
These exercises activate more of your muscle fibers, which creates a bigger metabolic boost, demanding more fat to be burned for fuel—so you can burn off the fat and KEEP it off.
There’s even more good news…
These exercises also stimulate your youth-enhancing hormones so you can slough away old, dead cells — making you look and feel years younger!
Listen: getting a lean, defined body with a rock-solid core is easy once you know HOW to trigger the right hormones in your body (and stop the production of the bad hormones that are making you fat and old).
On the next page, I’ll show you the specifics behind this fast and easy method.
Soon you’ll be able to crank up your metabolism and turn on your youth-enhancing, fat-burning, and lean-muscle building hormones so you can finally shed that stubborn fat without exercising to death or starving yourself.