SHAPE UP
Amazing abs require more than sit-ups

By Charles Stuart Platkin

In an informal study of the past 12 issues of a few top health and fitness magazines, I was fascinated that each had at least one story about how to get a flat stomach or sculpt amazing abs.

People flock to these articles, hoping that some miracle exercise or food will give them the belly of their dreams. With Americans spending more than $210 million per year on abdominal exercise machines, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, and buying hundreds of thousands of books and videos devoted just to abdominal muscles, you would think that everyone would be walking around with rock-hard abs.

This boggles my mind, because no matter how many sit-ups or crunches you do, you will not get a flat stomach or "six-pack abs."

You cannot "spot train" — meaning you can't work one spot on your body and have the fat melt away — no matter how hard you try. Sure, you can "spot tone," or work your stomach until you are blue in the face — and you might even succeed in building a layer of rock-hard abs. But if you haven't lost any weight in the process, your muscular masterpiece will still be obscured by a layer of fat.

"The idea that exercising the stomach muscles will result in an attractive, toned midsection is some sort of urban legend. The only way to lose abdominal fat is to lose weight," says Michele Olson, a professor at Auburn University Montgomery Human Performance Laboratory.

So why are we so obsessed with our stomachs? Is it biological? "For the most part, our obsession with the midsection is psychosocial — meaning cultural expectations contribute to body image," says Harrison Pope Jr., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the book "The Adonis Complex." Pope illustrates this with the GI Joe action figure, which started out being, well, a regular Joe about 30 years ago. Now even he has those amazing washboard abs.

Even so, maybe it is biological — perhaps we're wired to be attracted to those of the opposite sex with great-looking stomachs because they're healthier. Researchers point out that people who carry extra fat in their midsections (abdominal fat) have higher cholesterol levels and lower levels of the protective HDL cholesterol. They're also at greater risk for heart disease and some cancers.

Getting a great-looking stomach might be the least important — and least practical — reason for getting those abs into shape, however. For one thing, having strong abs protects our internal organs, helps our lungs function better, prevents injuries and helps us maintain good posture, which can reduce lower back pain — improving overall body performance.

So, how do you get amazing abs? Well to start, you need to know about the four different abdominal muscles:

Rectus abdominis: This single muscle, responsible for those great-looking abs, appears as a six-pack when you have very little fat in your abdomen. It gives the "washboard" or "six-pack" appearance because the muscle has bands of connective tissue that run through it; as the muscle gets bigger and the bands don't, the muscle bulges.

Internal and external obliques: These muscles create the shape of your waist. You really can't miss them because the fat on top of them is often referred to as "love handles."

Transverse abdominis: You use this muscle when you're told to "suck it in." This is the most overlooked of the abdominal muscles, yet the best one for flattening your stomach. "It's actually built to act as an internal girdle — the tighter you compress, the more it acts like a corset around your entire midsection — bringing it all together," Olson says. She recommends the "abdominal vacuum" as a good exercise to get acquainted with your transverse abdominis muscle:

You suck in your stomach and hold it. (Stand with hands on your hips. Now do a large exhale. Draw in stomach as far as possible. Feel the pressure forcefully in your abdominals. Hold, then release. You can do this while sitting or lying down — even in your car at a red light.)

Experts disagree about the "best way" to work the abdominal muscles — some say that these muscles are no different from any other skeletal muscles and so should respond to the same stimuli. "If you really want to have the outward appearance of washboard abs, you need to train the stomach muscles just like you train your biceps — using strength/resistance training methods (e.g., holding a weight against your chest while doing crunches)," Olson says.

Then there are those who believe the primary purpose or best function of your abs are as "anti-gravity" or stabilizer muscles, meaning they support and anchor your body (hold you upright) and are in a low state of activity all the time. Experts believe that, in this case, abs should be treated as an endurance muscle and trained accordingly.

"This means doing a variety of exercises, including using core equipment such as an exercise/stability ball, with a high frequency on a daily basis," Olson says.

Experts may not see eye to eye on the methodology of abdominal training, but they do agree that most of us do our ab exercises improperly. "We tend to overtrain and train inappropriately," says Leigh Crews, of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Charles Stuart Platkin is a syndicated health and fitness columnist.