Sit-ups

[Fretless]

For the last two or three months I have been doing about 120 situps a day - 60 normal and 30 oblique on each side - five days a week. But I still have a really flabby gut with no abs in sight. I am 5'10", 156 lbs. Do I need to do more sit-ups, vary my exercises, lose more weight, or what???

[Sexychiick16]

You gotta RuN...Work on your stretching! stretching is soooOOoo Important!

 

DoNt worry tho..You will get there!

[sankin]

hey, the only thing I can tell you is that to eat a healther diet, and a veriety of excercizes.

[claque]

hey fretless,

 

you may have awesome abs under there, but you'll never know till you get rid of the fat. aerobic exercise will do a lot more good, ride your bike or go for a run.

[RayKay]

To lose actual weight (ie flab) you need to add cardio (so running, biking, swimming, whatever) and eat well. Eat less calories then you burn.

 

Sit ups will strengthen your abdominal muscle, but won't do much for burning off the flab off that covers them.

[tiger_lilies]

I'd love to have abs like Janet Jackson's. But I read somewhere that some people, due to hereditary reasons, may never get the abs that they desire.

 

I've been in sports all my life, basketball, gymnastics, baseball, hockey and swimming...yet I've never been able to develop a six pack.

 

Cardio is the best way to lose weight, but you have to do resistance training as well, plus eat a healthy diet.

[DropToZero]

Pretty much what each of them said....but with a little more insight on the fact that doing that 5 days a week, and the same exact exercise over and over again....you have to change it up, you wont recognize it but your body will get used to that almost daily routine and it wont build as well. I don't know many exercises for abs tho, I know of like 3 differents ways besides sit ups....but Im actually having a hard time trying to get my lower abs to show that well, but its probably just the fact that I dont run enough...too busy

[asdf]

working out everyday is counter productive. you will actually lose your muscle like that, because you're not giving your body a chance to rest.

 

how working out works, is that you put so much strain on your muscles, to stimulate them to grow (as a reaction to the stress). the growth happens when your body rests. so it's best to work out about 2 to 3 times a week.

 

lots of intensity from you though. 120 is a good amount, and if you keep at that on just 2 or 3 days a week, your abs should be good.

 

fat loss is also important. muscles just don't show when they're covered by fat. running is good, because it'll work your lower abs a bit too (sit ups mainly target the upper abs).

 

make sure you're doing your sit ups right. some people do their sit ups, by pulling their upper body up till they're in a sitting position. in fact, you only need to have about a 30 degree angle (stretch your arms straight in front of you, raise yourself up until your hands reach your knees). any more than that actaully puts a lot of bad strain on your lower back, not your abs.