The Importance of Obtaining & Maintaining a Narrow Waist

1. In order to display the abdominal muscles clearly - often referred to as a 'six-pack,' a lean midsection is required. Thus, achievement of a low level of body fat is the key to displaying well-defined abdominals.

2. A wide midsection is mainly the result of high levels of fat inside the walls of the abdomen, not just outside the muscle wall. The fat that accumulates under the skin as visible flab is not as harmful to our health as the fat that collects within the body cavity, around the organs (called visceral fat). Visceral fat is mainly responsible for the wide midsections people develop when they are out of shape. It differs from 'normal' (sub-cutaneous) fat because it secretes enzymes (such as estrogen) and other hormonal 'factors' which affect the functioning (and appearance) of the body. It increases cholesterol deposition, increases blood pressure and increases the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.Thus, it is crucial to make sure your waist conforms to specific "clinically ideal" measurements. For men, the "clinically ideal" waist measurement is anything below 94cm (but you should really aim to minimize that measurement to be safe). For women it is anything below 80cm (again, you should really aim to minimize that measurement to be safe).

These measurements have been verified in studies involving over 60 000 subjects, conducted over many years, all round the world (and apparently have no relation to height or weight of the person concerned). They are relevant to all people, although certain demographics may require even tighter waist circumference limits. The ones I have listed above are the least strict measurements.

Consider the midsection as being similar to the deep-end of a swimming pool. When you fill a swimming pool, the deep-end always fills first. Similarly, when you drain a swimming pool the deep end is always last to drain. The body will accumulate the most weight around the midsection when a person gets fatter. The mid-section is also the last part of the body to be rid of excess fat when a person loses weight.

This is why the key to having a well defined mid-section is to focus on aerobic and cardiovascular exercises - as well as on your diet. Intensive focus on abdominal training (alone) will not bring impressive results - regarding the appearance of your mid-section - unless you are already very lean.

So don't focus more on abdominal exercises than other exercises when you train, because increased focus will not be of any real benefit. Train the abs alongside all your other muscle groups - with equal intensity. There is no need to ever focus more on a particular area of your body when you train - unless you had been under-training that area previously, while focusing on other areas of the body more intensively (And even in those rare situations, extra training is probably unnecessary-just train adequately and those weak parts are likely to catch up).

Whether you spend an hour training abdominals alone, or just spend 5 minutes in an hour-long training session incorporating the rest of your body, you are unlikely to get a very different result with regard to muscular development of your abs. The longer you spend training the abs, the more endurance your abs will have. For example, if you run for 2 hours daily, you will not develop more muscular legs than if you run for 1 hour daily. It will just mean your legs will have more endurance when you regularly train for longer.

Thus, running, martial arts - or any other cardiovascular exercises - are as important in building a six pack as are crunches, leg raises and other abdominal exercises.

This leaves the question - what are the best abdominal exercises for developing a 'six-pack?'

The answer is that different physiques seem to prefer different exercises, based on the condition and length of the spine. For most people, the best abdominal isolation exercise is crunches. But they focus mainly on the six-pack area and not so much on the surrounding muscles. Sit-ups are good as well, although they work on the hip flexors as well as the abs. The best way to do sit-ups is on an inclined bench, which increases the work the muscles have to do, making them bigger, and also places less risk of strain to the lower back. The various types of seated knee/leg raises also work very well, especially on the lower section of the abs.

In a nutshell, as long as you use one or more of the basic abdominal exercises ( sit-ups, crunches, twisting sit ups/crunches, leg raises), then the abs will develop according to their genetically determined shape. Personally, the only exercise I use for abs is crunches or sit-ups.

It's that simple for developing a 'six-pack' - the rest will hinge on body-fat levels. Personally, I seem to lose sight of my abs if my body fat goes above 15% because the actual abdominal muscles are well developed and quite big. For some people, depending on the size and shape of their abs, this could happen at lower levels of body-fat. But the disadvantage of big abdominals is that if you get slightly overweight, the bulk of the abs actually makes you look much wider around the waist and the 'pot-bellied' look is exaggerated!

What volume of exercise is required for abs training? The answer is - high reps. Build up to about 50 reps for crunches, and twice as many for sit-ups (because they are easier). Only one set is really necessary for abs exercises (and most other exercises) - unless you are trying to build abdominal endurance (important for combat athletes who benefit from improved abs endurance).

Finally, as crucial as the actual abs exercises used and low body-fat levels are back exercises. You cannot successfully train your abs if you do not reciprocate by training your lower back. This rule cannot be violated - or else serious back injuries and chronic back pain will invariably follow, eventually.

The best back exercises to use are dead lifts, good mornings, back extensions and bridges. If there is one message you take from this article, let it be the fact that abs and lower back training go together, in the same training session preferably, so that you don't have one side of the body fatigued while the other is fresh. The imbalance of strength between back and front is what causes lower back pain or lower back injuries - in most people.