FYI... doing crunches doesn't actually make your stomach any flatter than doing pushups or jumping jacks. What makes you stomach FLAT is burning calories and there is no such thing as "targeted weight loss". You just burn calories and your body decides based on genetics which calories get burned first. So doing crunches wont neccesarily burn fat around your belly.
Doing crunches WILL make your abs bigger which can make you look FATTER if you don't do fat and colorie burning activities as well.
---Andrew
Well yeah, that is true but you defintely can make your stomacn look flatter and tighter doing cycle pumps- because i witnessed it myself! I really don't believe that girls can get fatter stomach from it (unless you're a body builder!) but i do get your point because it happens with men- all you end up with is a cool stomach you can punch but it doesn't hurt! hee hee
I got one of them.. after six years of hundreds of situps every week.. works eventually lol =)
Don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but if you want to tone your muscles, then do lots of small reps, with rests in between, and make them hard (by doing crunches for example). So instead of doing two sets of fifteen, do three sets of ten. To build up stamina you have less rests and just keep going. So you'd do one set of thirty. This is why body builders lift huge weights a few times or maybe even once and then have a rest and then do it again, whilst stamina training is more constant with less stress on the muscles.
Hope some of that made sense. It's all stuff I learnt doing karate and going to the gym.
Andrew speaks the truth. If you want to lose weight off your stomach, then toning the muscles won't do anything. The muscles will be toned but you won't be able to see them! The trick is to burn off calories and get the body to burn off that fat. It's mainly down to finding a good healthy balanced diet that suits your body. Whatever you do, don't go on the crappy crash diets, because as soon as you go back to normal eating you'll just put the weight back on again. It's all about finding a healthy eating lifestyle that suits you that you stick to.
Or you could be one of the lucky ones like me and you can eat whatever you want =P
*evil cackle*
Anyway.. I'm out before my monitor dies again lol
Ciao
-- Matt
