Abs and crunches

[Thanatos]

I know that diet/cardio is the way to losing fat around midsection, so that's not the issue. My point is, loose and flabby skin ----- would crunches at least tighten/tone them? Not saying crunches help in losing stomach fat, but do they help tightening...?

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

you can't tone skin per se. The best way to avoid loose and flabby skin is to manage your weight loss slowly - crash dieting will lead to lots of loose/flabby skin. Also make sure that as well as just counting calories, you are watching what you eat, as eating lots of deep fried stuff and excess sugar is bad for your skin's health, too.

Also make sure that you are separating loose skin from excess flab. You will need to get your body fat pretty close to single digits to avoid having at least a small handful of flab around your waist.

Finally - yes, of course having a strong core and a muscular middle will help in some regard. It will also help you avoid injury in other parts of your body and generally keep your body flexible and malleable.

[avangard]

If you are looking for a strong core, i reccomend that you throw do sit-ups or leg raises. Do not do crunches as they belong to the junk pile of history next to feudalism. Crunches hurts your neck.

For more information, I recommend that you read Bulletproof Your Abs by Pavel Tsatsouline.

[CaptainCool309]

Speaking from my own experience, I used to buy into the old idea that if I did a ton of crunches every night, i'd get a nice toned stomach with strong abs. After about a year of doing at least 500 crunches every night, all i got was basically a sore spine and neck. I did get my stomach a little bit more toned and tightened than it previously was, but not to the extent that I lost the flab in my stomach and got rock-hard abs.

So do they help in tightening your stomach? My answer to that is maybe. If you combine them with a variety of other abs building exercises, a good diet, cardio, and some jogging, then yeah you may get the results you want...but if you only do crunches as your only exercise for getting toned abs, then I'd definitely have to say that you won't get the results you want.

[RedSonRising]

A key element most people miss out on is adding weight to your ab exercises. Implementing resistance with a medicine ball is a good start, and I'd say generally diversity your workouts. Leg raises, Russian twists, planks, etc.

[IWantToLearn]

I recommend you a T Nation article called "A calorie is sometimes not a calorie (http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/a-calorie-is-sometimes-not-a-calorie)", what i like about it is that it explains why a "eat less exercise more" approach to weight loss can be counterproductive.

[bropasaran]

To get your skin in shape go mainly organic veggy as much as you reasonably can for half a year or a year, similar to detox diet, a friend of mine had flabby skin and strech marks and did this and had great results, has something to do with the body needing not only protein but also unsaturated fats and lots of minerals ans vitamins to renew itself properly and the body badically slowly rejuvenates itself to a degree when you're on a healthy diet and leading a healthy lifestyle.

[Tim Cornelis]

Speaking from my own experience, I used to buy into the old idea that if I did a ton of crunches every night, i'd get a nice toned stomach with strong abs. After about a year of doing at least 500 crunches every night, all i got was basically a sore spine and neck. I did get my stomach a little bit more toned and tightened than it previously was, but not to the extent that I lost the flab in my stomach and got rock-hard abs.

So do they help in tightening your stomach? My answer to that is maybe. If you combine them with a variety of other abs building exercises, a good diet, cardio, and some jogging, then yeah you may get the results you want...but if you only do crunches as your only exercise for getting toned abs, then I'd definitely have to say that you won't get the results you want.

Your problem seems to have been not so much crunches, but the frequency with which you did them. 500 crunches?! Every night?! Three sets with 8-12 reps, (reverse) pyramid, and 48 hour rest periods for your muscles to recover. Obviously you're not going to make gains with such ridiculous frequencies.

[black magick hustla]

To get your skin in shape go mainly organic veggy as much as you reasonably can for half a year or a year, similar to detox diet, a friend of mine had flabby skin and strech marks and did this and had great results, has something to do with the body needing not only protein but also unsaturated fats and lots of minerals ans vitamins to renew itself properly and the body badically slowly rejuvenates itself to a degree when you're on a healthy diet and leading a healthy lifestyle.
please dont give dieting tips.

[Tim Cornelis]

Yeah it sounds like pseudoscience at best.

[bropasaran]

I had a really bad case of cholinergic urticaria, got rid of it by going organic vegetarian.

Yes, eating healthy is pseudoscience.

[Tim Cornelis]

I had a really bad case of cholinergic urticaria, got rid of it by going organic vegetarian.

1) Correlation does not imply causation. 2) Anecdotal evidence is not a substitute for systematically tested and reproducible evidence.
This just reinforces that it's pseudoscience really.


Yes, eating healthy is pseudoscience.

No one is saying that.

[Prometeo liberado]

Speaking from my own experience, I used to buy into the old idea that if I did a ton of crunches every night, i'd get a nice toned stomach with strong abs. After about a year of doing at least 500 crunches every night, all i got was basically a sore spine and neck. I did get my stomach a little bit more toned and tightened than it previously was, but not to the extent that I lost the flab in my stomach and got rock-hard abs.

So do they help in tightening your stomach? My answer to that is maybe. If you combine them with a variety of other abs building exercises, a good diet, cardio, and some jogging, then yeah you may get the results you want...but if you only do crunches as your only exercise for getting toned abs, then I'd definitely have to say that you won't get the results you want.

Watch the processed sugar and ...... PLANKS, planks people!!!!! Has history taught us nothing?