6 Pack Abs – Different Opinions

Time and again, expert studies have shown that total body cardiovascular exercises are most effective in eliminating excess body fat. There’s no way to bring out the striations and contours of the abdominal muscles to show a 6 pack unless the belly fat is reduced enough.

It’s a well-known fact that a combination of body-building exercises and cardiovascular workouts are the most effective in developing the muscles and facilitating fat loss at the same time. Since there are two types of cardio exercises, the question here is which type is the best for getting 6 pack abs?

A lot of folks use the low-intensity approach for the simple reason that they’re easier to do. Even beginners, the elderly and the extremely obese can benefit from low-intensity aerobic workouts.

Low intensity cardio exercises have also been discovered to burn caloric energy from fat stores as opposed to high intensity cardiovascular workouts that keep the heart at 90% of the maximum. The latter burns more calories obviously, but some of it comes from glycogen already.

Glycogen is a form of carbohydrate that is necessary for muscle repair and development. Since muscle helps in proper metabolism its retention is essential for losing body fat. For this reason, folks that belong to the low intensity cardio faction say high intensity exercises can lead to loss of muscle tissue- delaying the process of getting 6 pack abs.

On the other hand, high intensity exercises burn loads of calories even if done for just 10-20 minutes. This means considerably less time can be spent in the gym and proponents say the lost glycogen can just be replaced anyway by eating carbo-rich food after working out.

High intensity folks also say hard cardio exercise causes muscle development because it works the whole body hard. In addition, intense workouts kick-up the body’s metabolic rate hours after leaving the gym. The more calories spent throughout the day, more fat loss and faster 6 pack abs.

There are two different opinions when it comes to cardio exercises- both with pros and cons. Low intensity exercises have to be done for longer periods and this means more hours spent in the gym. High-intensity cardio workouts can have you out of your sweaty clothes in half an hour but they’re not for beginners, elderly and the extremely overweight.

No related posts.