Did you ever notice sprinters always seem to have a six pack?  Did you know Ab exercises are on the lowest priority of exercises to do on their list meaning they don’t devote hardly any attention as you would think on their abs— yet they still have a six pack or wash board abs.  Have you ever wondered the reason why?  These are 3 concepts that might shed some light and  help  if your goal is getting a six pack or wash board abs. Its actually better than regular cardio when It comes to shedding fat.

1)  Abs—-the main job for the abdominals is to stabilize the spine.  You will notice anytime your arms and legs are out of alignment with your body—for instance your arms extended over head or extended to your side, your abdominals tenses/flexes automatically.  The same goes for your legs — stand next to a wall hold it one hand -to brace yourself- now raise one leg straight out in front of you and hold it.  Use your other hand to feel how hard your abs just got….(you can actually do abs like this raising one leg at a time 10 to 15 per  side 3 sets or more …let me know how you feel the next day hehehe).  Anytime you perform an explosive movement, by explosive I mean a movement that is done very fast/a bust of speed, the abdominals will be recruited  to stabilize the spine.

2) Fuel economy…everybody knows if you have a car with a  big engine its going to use more fuel than a car with a small engine.   Well the same concept applies to your body. When you use your largest muscles specifically your legs, you are going to burn more fuel..the fuel being fat (glycogen/carbs goes first usually).  We can go further and say  you use more fuel when you drive at 80 mph than you would at 55 mph.

3)Muscle fibers type and explosive movements.  You have 3 muscle fibers type

• Type 1-> slow twitch muscle fibers- built for slow and enduring movements.  This is what you would use when you are running slow. This is mainly what marathoners use
• Type 2a—> slow twitch muscle fibers the middle ground its still use for aerobic/endurance much like type 1.
• Type 2b—>Fast twitch muscle fibers->The Big dawg! The largest of the 3.  Its used for explosive movements so they are able to burn energy at a higher rate. The tire quickly because of this.  Sprinters would be a good example of people who utilizes type 2b muscle fibers .

Ok right now you have 3 concepts you can use to fight fat and get that abs in for summer, but how do you apply this ?  After all, knowledge is useless if  you can’t apply it.

sprints is by far the most efficient  and one of the fastest way to get a six pack.  Yes sprint will melt that abdominal fat away.  Sprints not only works on your legs it works directly on your abs.   When you sprint, the motion forces your obliques (pic below) and your rectus abdominis (six pack, pic below) to get involved.  This occurs because the obliques and  rectus abdominis are stabilizing the spine during sprints.

Obliques

Rectus Abdominis

This is why doing abs is usually on the bottom of a sprinter’s list.  I can attest to this because I only do abs once a week on average If I can get to it.

Sprints makes you use your big engine.

When you sprint, you are using your biggest engine—>your legs.  Not only are you using your legs, you’re using the type 2b muscle fibers—>your largest muscle fibers.   So in effect,  you are using your biggest muscle (engine) and you’re firing on all cylinders.  Bigger engine + all 8 cylinders(explosive movement) = more fuel (FAT) being burned.  A reason why sprints is better than regular cardio (steady state cardio ) when it comes to shedding fat.  It actually builds up  as good of an endurance, if not better.

It doesn’t matter if you are an olympic sprinter all you have to do is this

1) Hop on a thread mill

2) walk a full loop to get warmed up

3) increase speed to a point where you can jog

4) Gradually go up to sprint speed —this is where you are running as fast as you can (safely) until you get tired which doesn’t take long if you are sprinting like you should

5) Reduce speed to where you’re able to jog or walk, catch  your breath then repeat    Do this for 10 15 to 20 mins (depending on your level of fitness) 3 times a week.

Note: If you feel you’re losing control i.e. in danger of falling off grab the handle/rails put both feet on each side of the thread mill that’s not moving . Or just hit the emergency stop button.

Bonus

If you had to do one exercise for Abs-the best movement is Leg raises and its other variations. Also remember the simple movement I mentioned in the beginning easy to do can be done anywhere and effective when done right.

Remember if you don’t eat clean no amount of exercise is going to get you where you want.  Eating clean and sprints will get you the abs you want in a flash…pun intended ;)