Why The Elliptical Machine and Treadmill Are useless for Six Pack Abs

I know that all of the elliptical and treadmill worshipers are probably fuming at me now after that article headline, but the fact is, ellipticals and treadmills are one of the least effective methods of working out in existence. With this article, I’ll show you how to get a much more effective fat-burning workout without wasting time mindlessly exercising on a boring elliptical machine or treadmill.

Now first let me state that if you really honestly enjoy your elliptical machine workouts and treadmill exercise routines, then I give you my blessing to keep doing what you love. The reason is that even though ellipticals and treadmills are relatively ineffective compared to other types of exercises, whatever you actually enjoy doing the most is going to benefit you most in the long run because you will be more likely to stick with it more consistently.

However, don’t say that I didn’t warn you that you might be wasting your time with all these boring mindless cardio machine workouts.

I’ve talked about this previously with my ezine subscribers… I actually do not believe in cardio machines as a good form of working out at all. This might surprise you coming from a fitness nut such as myself, but I don’t think I’ve personally used an exercise bike, treadmill, elliptical, or any other cardio machine for at least 8 years or more.

In fact, I don’t even use cardio machines anymore for warm-ups before my workouts. I actually think it’s a much more effective warm-up to do dumbbell and/or kettlebell swings, snatches, clean & presses, etc, mixed with bodyweight exercises as a great full-body warm-up before working out.

Why do I think cardio machines are so awful? Well, here’s 5 reasons:

1) Treadmills and ellipticals are just a very ineffective way to workout compared to other options. Why should you do treadmill or elliptical workouts when you can get better results by doing more interesting forms of training that actually stimulate a fat-burning hormonal response and stimulate your metabolism to a greater extent.

2) Elliptical machines and treadmills are insanely expensive and a waste of money for people that work out at home… there are so many better things for home workouts you could have spent your money on rather than wasting it on an elliptical machine, treadmill, or exercise bike.

You’ll see plenty of ideas below for better home workouts if you don’t like going to a gym to work out.

3) I have seen several studies that indicated results that treadmill running may be less effective than outdoor running for various reasons such as stride abnormalities on treadmills vs natural running, slightly less caloric burn compared to outdoor running, and so on.

(although I never recommend just “jogging” anyway… variable intensity walking/running or sprinting are much more effective, training your heart rate in a much wider range instead of the same heart rate range the whole time).

4) Steady state exercise (that doesn’t require concentration on what you’re doing) while watching tv or reading a newspaper or magazine creates a mind/body disconnect resulting in extremely poor results compared to exercise that requires focused attention.

5) Elliptical and treadmill workouts are just mind-numbingly boring!

So what are some good alternatives to elliptical machine and treadmill workouts? Some of my favorites are:

 

• Outdoor wind sprint workouts – This is the ultimate workout for a rock hard lean body… just look at the powerful yet super-lean and ripped bodies of world class sprinters, and compare that to the withering weakling physiques of typical marathoners… what would you rather look like?
• Jumping rope – incredible mind/body connection and actually fun (you can try speed jumping, crossover jumps, and double jumps once you get good at it)
• Kettlebell workouts – nothing will get your heart pounding and sweat pouring like high rep kettlebell swings and/or snatches (or clean & presses)! These can be done with dumbbells too, but I prefer kettlebells as they have a better “feel” to them and the unbalanced nature of KBs makes you work harder)
• Bodyweight exercises – mountain climbers, bodyweight squats, push-ups, jumping drills, lunges, bear crawls, plank holds, and so on.
• The good old fashioned rowing machine – I don’t really lump this in as a “cardio” machine per se like elliptical machines and treadmills… Rather, I think the rowing machine is actually a great full body workout that actually uses real resistance)
• Hill sprinting – running as hard up a hill as possible, followed by walking down and repeating as many times as you can for a full workout (yet another classic drill for a rock hard lean body)
• Shadow boxing… a killer workout, but if you are shy, this is best done at home since you will get some crazy looks doing this at a typical gym!
• Swimming sprints – a more muscle toning workout compared with steady pace distance swimming… I actually love the upper body pump I get from sprint swimming (instead of swimming slow and steady, with sprint swimming, you swim as fast as you can exerting as much force as you can for 1 lap. Then rest for 15-20 seconds before doing another swim sprint).
• Heavy bag punching/kicking workouts, speed bag, rebounding bag… all are tremendous workouts and much more fun than boring cardio machines (requires an very intense mind/body connection which increases results).

 

I hope this article gives you lots of ideas you can use to go out right away and bring some more variety into your workouts instead of relying on the same old dull elliptical machine and treadmill workout routines. Have fun!

For more effective and efficient fat burning workouts and exercises go to Ab Truth to continue reading.

Shed Years of Extra Stubborn Belly Fat and Get a Sexy Flat Stomach

Think about this… if what you’ve been doing all these years hasn’t been getting you the results you want, doing more of that same thing won’t get you any further!  If doing 4 hours of cardio a week hasn’t worked for you, why do you believe that doing 7 hours of cardio will?

If doing 100 crunches a day hasn’t gotten you the results you want, why do you think that doing 200 crunches a day will?  Of course you remember that doing the same things over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity!

The truth is that all of these techniques are WRONG and ineffective ways to workout.  In fact, doing excessive cardio is actually working against your results because you are stimulating excessive cortisol production in your body and breaking down lean muscle tissue… all of which leads to the slowing down of your metabolic rate over time and deposition of even more belly fat on top of what you already have.

Also, wasting most of your workout time with ineffective abs exercises such as crunches, situps, and torso twists actually goes directly against your fat loss efforts as well.  You see, the time you waste with doing all of these fairly ineffective abs exercises, is really just keeping you from doing the truly effective full body exercise combinations that actually stimulate your fat burning hormones and increase your metabolic rate for as much as 24-48 hours after each workout.  You don’t get that with “ab workouts” or “cardio”!

When you get these types of full body metabolic-surge workouts right, the excess belly fat starts to melt off quicker than you ever could have imagined.  Yes, it IS going to take a little work though. You’re not going to be able to just be lazy and sit on the couch every day hoping for your dream body to come true.  Don’t worry though, it’s a system that can be applied by anyone, regardless of your age or current conditioning. 

Shed Years of Extra Stubborn Belly Fat and Get a Sexy Flat Stomach

Six Pack Abs And The Struggle To Lose Belly Fat

Do you struggle to lose belly fat?

I bet you’re thinking that you’ve tried every technique in the world to try to lose your stubborn belly fat, but it just never seems to budge… right? I’m sure you see TONS of commercials and ads making all kinds of miracle claims that you can lose your belly fat overnight with their magic pill or wildly-hyped snake-oil supplement. How about all of the bogus infomercial gadgets out there claiming you can reduce your belly fat in a matter of days just by strapping some worthless “ab-belt” around your waist, or sizzle away the stomach fat by using their patented “ab-roller-rocker” do-hicky.

Come on now! I hope you’ve been insulted by all of these fraudulent marketers and the gimmicks and scams that they are pushing down your throat by trying to get you to believe that a belly-fat reduction miracle is possible overnight.

So let’s get past all of the scams and gimmicks and get right down to the hard science and reality behind what techniques and strategies really do help you to lose your stubborn belly fat and keep it off for life!

1) The first important principle we’ll discuss is how you structure your workouts. In order to stimulate fat-loss from your stomach, you need to stop wasting so much of your time doing all kinds of abdominal exercises and hundreds of reps of crunches, leg lifts, and torso twists in the hopes of “spot-reducing” your belly and love handles.

I’m sure you know by now if you’ve read any reputable fitness publications over the last decade that spot-reduction DOES NOT occur. It’s a myth that just won’t seem to go away. The truth is, you don’t lose belly fat by doing exercises that target the stomach area. Unfortunately, even though most people by now do understand this (or at least they should), they still spend WAY too much of their training time trying to target the stomach with tons of abs exercises.

Now don’t get me wrong, a certain amount of abdominals exercises are great and they do help to strengthen your core and help you maintain a healthy back. But the fact is that direct abs exercises should only be a small portion of your workout routines. The majority of your time should be spent focusing on multi-joint exercises that work the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, chest, and back.

Now that is one of the REAL secrets for ridding yourself of that sloppy belly fat for good. Focusing on big multi-joint exercises for the largest portions of your body greatly increases your metabolic rate both during the workout, and for 24-48 hours after the workout. In addition, this also stimulates an increase in fat-burning hormones within your body. You simply don’t get this type of metabolic and hormonal response by wasting most of your time with “abs-pumping” exercises.

Want to lose belly fat… Well, get your butt under a barbell and do some squats, do some deadlifts, some lunges, step-ups, some back and chest work. It doesn’t matter per se if it’s barbells, dumbbells, or even bodyweight exercises… the focus needs to be on big multi-joint exercises at a high intensity. That means no 5-minute rest periods between sets while you flap your gums with half of the people at the gym. Losing your belly fat for good requires some focus and intensity in your workouts! Anybody who tells you that you can do it while sitting on your couch watching TV with some “ab-belt” strapped to you, or doing only 2-minutes of crunching with your “ab-rocker-roller” is flat out lying to you!

2) The second important principle to rid yourself of that flabby belly revolves around your nutrition. The first thing you need to realize is that “diets” only work against your body in your effort to lose the stomach fat. You see, if you follow any of these fad diets like low-carb, or low-fat, or the grapefruit diet, the soup diet, or anything else that restricts 1 or more of the macro-nutrients (protein, carbs, and fat), most of the time you will actually lose lean muscle and lower your metabolic rate. This only makes you fatter in the long run, when you start to eat normal again!

I could go into all kinds of details, but essentially you are messing up processes related to your hormonal balance in your body, the muscle glycogen process, insulin, blood sugar, etc., and this stops your fat loss dead in its tracks!

It’s important to stop falling for the fad diet gimmicks, and understand that as humans, we are meant to eat a balanced diet full of a diverse array of foods from healthy natural sources of carbohydrates, proteins, AND fats. This gives your body all of the macro-nutrients as well as all of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes that your body needs to run as a well-oiled fat-burning machine!

I could go on and on with dozens more strategies for losing your belly fat fast, the natural way, but this article can only be so long, so see below to download a free report detailing some of my best fat-loss strategies for helping you to flatten that belly and uncover those hidden abdominals of yours.

Thanks to Mike Geary for this article. To learn more about how to lose belly fat, total body conditioning and six pack abs click here Abtruth