Why do you think that traditional ab workouts like the ones taken from Muscle & Fitness and Shape magazine are a waste of time?
Craig: "Each workout you spend crunching takes time away from more effective ab fat loss methods - such as interval training. Remember - I'm in the business of getting you the most fat loss in the least amount of exercise time...so I have little room in my program for traditional ab crunches...Instead, I focus on exercises that build a 6-pack AND burn a lot of calories at the same time. That's why I'm a big fan of making EVERY exercise an ab exercise (by bracing the abs in every movement), as well as using total body ab exercises (such as Mountain Climbers, the Spiderman Lunge/Climb, and the Stability Ball Jackknife). These exercises use far more muscle mass than a traditional crunch. In fact, some of the total body ab exercises are "interval-like" in nature, helping to put more metabolic turbulence on the body, and as you know, that's what burns calories during AND after the workout.
Can you share some strategies to maximize your workout time when your goal is to get lean, and get down to a low-enough body fat percentage to see your abs in as little workout time as possible?
Craig: First, simply cut back on your ab training. If your goal is to simply lose fat, gain a little muscle, and just look as good possible, then you can't spend 30 minutes on abs everyday. You can build your 6-pack by doing less than 30 minutes of ab exercise per week. I'm convinced that no one (not even a fitness model or pro bodybuilder) needs more than 30 minutes of ab training per week.
Second, replace your crunches with the total body ab exercises I mentioned earlier. Also, if you have access to a cable machine, you can do weighted ab exercises such as kneeling cable crunches.
Finally, if you are doing intervals for fat loss as I recommend, you can use the following approach to increase the difficulty of your ab and interval training. However, this is an advanced method only. Beginners should stick to the TT guidelines in their manual. During your interval workout, perform an ab exercise during your active recovery period. For example, if you are doing running intervals on a treadmill...Run for 60 seconds at your work interval speed. Immediately stop the treadmill, get off, and go into a set of 20 Mountain Climbers. Climb back on the treadmill and start it up for your next interval. Repeat for 3-6 intervals. You can also use basic spinal stabilization "ab exercises" such as the plank, side plank, or advanced plank versions (i.e. plank with your arms on the ball) to train your spinal stabilization while under heavy breathing stress.
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