Do sit-ups help get rid of belly fat? Only training a single muscle may cause problems

Lie flat on the ground, bend your knees, and place your feet flat under the sofa. Once every two days, force yourself to do three sets of 20 sit-ups in the morning (lift your chest and place your hands behind your head). I heard that this is the most effective exercise to make your belly disappear and carve out a beautiful chocolate brick shape on your abdomen. But, ten weeks later, your belly still secretly insists on staying there. And your "belly" will make you feel bloated. Do you really think doing 60 sit-ups every day is effective? Let me tell you, it's not worth it!

Anatomy

Before you try to understand why sit-ups don't work, first understand what we mean by "abdomen." First of all, did you know that when we talk about the abdominals, there are four muscles involved? They are the rectus, inferior oblique, oblique and transverse muscles. These muscles are key to keeping your posture balanced and supporting your body.

Sit-ups basically use the surface of the rectus and abdominal muscles, which is where you get chocolate bricks. However, if you dream of a flat stomach, you should be interested in the lesser-known transverse muscle, which contracts when you cough and allows you to draw in your belly. Try it, cough and observe… Do you feel it? It is just below the abdomen. To train or strengthen it, there is no better exercise than core training. I will explain more about this later.

First things first: you won’t get any good results if you ignore one important basic factor—take care of your gut.

The unsightly bulge (and quite a bit of it) that lingers on the waistband of the abdomen is called "sagging". This is because the relaxed muscles allow the abdominal lining to bear pressure due to intestinal obstruction, bloating and excess weight. These symptoms of an unbalanced diet can even cause some inflammatory symptoms in the intestinal system, affecting the intestines' function of classifying and processing digested food, making the intestines almost anarchic, and providing perfect conditions for the reproduction and storage of fat cells - this is how the intestines become larger.

At this moment, if gravity pushes a little harder, the intestines will fall to the bottom of the pelvis. So begins the “puffy belly”—or “baby belly,” if you prefer—and if we don’t adopt healthy eating habits, it will get bigger over time.

Doing sit-ups will risk making the situation worse, causing the intestines to get stuck in a worse condition. Wrong movements, lifting the chest to approach the navel and hips without the correct technique and a specific breathing rhythm, will only aggravate the sagging phenomenon and may even cause back pain.

Comprehensive Strategy

So, what tactics can you use to get a flat stomach and keep it off for the long term? First, ignore the easy fixes—abdominal electrotherapy or so-called miracle creams—they don’t work at all, and just take action!

The first step: detoxify and cleanse our intestines. Three days of a mono-diet (that is, eating only one type of food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and drinking water, organic herbal tea, or green tea regularly to moisturize the intestines) will keep the intestines in optimal condition. I recommend using apples as a mono-diet, as apples can give people a great feeling of fullness, and this is the simplest therapy for those of us who are not used to it. After 72 hours, it is important to maintain good eating habits to avoid recurrence of inflammatory symptoms and enhance the intestine's ability to reduce swelling. In this regard, start by eating more vegetables at lunch and dinner, and stay away from a diet that combines animal protein with starchy foods, especially at dinner, making sure to eliminate them from the menu. Doing these is a good start!

When it comes to exercise, don't forget the key rule: never train just one muscle group! Sit-ups only work the rectus muscles. If you want to strengthen other parts of your abdomen, especially your transverse muscles, choose core training. This particular exercise emphasizes keeping the abdomen tense but still. The most famous exercise is the "plank pose", of course there are others, the advantage is that they comply with the main function of this muscle group, which is to be responsible for harmonious posture and provide good support for the spine. However, as I just mentioned, you cannot just focus on training your abdomen, you must train your entire muscle group. A combination of core training, weight training, push-ups, squats and alternating lunges, while engaging the abdominals and other muscle groups known as stabilizers or fixators, is the ideal all-around workout.

Initially, it is sufficient to perform the exercises with a single body weight, but after a while, it is strongly recommended to add some weightlifting exercises (combined with alternating lunges or squats, etc.). Why? Of course, it is to strengthen the effect of training these muscles (twice a week is the best frequency). We can see the miracles it creates on body lines and, of course, health!

summary

●If you want to successfully get a flat stomach and keep it, take care of your intestines before doing abdominal exercises! Please remember that when it comes to abdominal training, 70% comes from diet and 30% comes from exercise. In order to get rid of belly fat, the fat layer must be completely eliminated.

●The key to a flatter abdomen is core training, which aims to strengthen the abdominal muscles, especially the transverse muscles.

●Don’t make the mistake of only training a single muscle! Doing all-around exercises and moving the entire muscle chain can achieve the best results, and then make that stubborn "little belly" that embarrasses you disappear.

This article is from Dingmao Books' "Weight Loss Myth Terminator"