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Strong, toned abs are one of the most common goals to work towards in the gym, and it’s not rare for people to attempt to spot reduce fat in one specific area in order to see results more quickly with targeted exercises. While building up your abs with core specific workouts can have its benefits once you have shed the layer of fat which may be hiding them, certain abdominal exercises are less effective than others and may actually have an inverse effect when working to achieve a flat, lean stomach.
At the top of the list for core exercises that are better left out of your workout are crunches, which incidentally are often the first move people turn to when first beginning their exercise journey. In order to get a sense of why crunches aren’t effective for a flatter stomach, and what you should be doing instead, we checked in with VFit Studio owner and CPT Rachele Jaegers and Shari Roberson Belmarez, VFit Studio’s head yoga instructor, E-RYT 500, YACEP, ACSM, CPT for a better understanding on the mechanics of core workouts.
When people think of the way they would like their stomach to look, we often think of a toned, lean frame which is mistakenly assumed to be built through doing crunches, sit ups, and other exercises which focus solely on those muscles. However, it’s important to remember that building up those muscles may not create the desired appearance, and it takes a more holistic approach to see results. “Your core is more than just your artificial abs,” says Jaegers. “Abs don't have a ton of function in the body. People obviously like the way they look, but you really can't crunch your way to a six pack. So much has to do with diet and genetics.”
Using crunches as your sole approach to flattening your stomach can often backfire, especially if you aren’t doing the exercise in the proper way, which Belmarez notes is the case for many people. “Most people don't do it correctly,” she says. “They're putting a lot of strain on their neck and they're pulling up with their head, not their shoulders, and they're not actually using their abs.” With this, you may end up creating an injury or strain in another part of your body without ever targeting your abs, causing you to become discouraged when you’re feeling sore and in pain without actually seeing results.
Instead of using repeated crunches as your method for flattening out your stomach, it may instead be more useful to focus on full body exercises which will increase fat burn, engage your core, and allow you to lose weight without ever targeting your abs specifically. “At VFit Studio, we're more about full core, shoulder to shorts, front to back, doing exercises that target range of motion,” notes Jaegers. “The typical crunch is a waste of time, most people don't do it right, they pull on their head, they hurt their back and they're just doing a small little crunch. To me just doing crunches is kind of pointless. Anything that could cause you to pull and compress your back is very dangerous.”
By focusing on full body movements such as cat-cow and other yoga moves to fire up your core without crunches, you can increase your body’s metabolism, naturally boosting calorie burn and allowing you to see results more quickly. Remember, you cannot spot reduce fat and it’s unrealistic to exercise one part of your body and expect to see immediate results. This will rather build up the muscle beneath the fat, so it’s essential to shed that top layer before you see any real changes in your body.
