Top 5 reasons why you'll never have six pack abs

If you have been dreaming of six pack abs and pumping out thousands of crunches a day in the hope of being beach ready then it's time for a reality check. Here are my top 5 reasons why you'll never get your ripped stomach:

1. Too much Sugar - Sugar is my number one reason why you'll never get your 6 pack abs to show. If you want that cheese grater abs look then you must keep your blood sugar levels balanced to lose fat and this means cutting out your sugars.

Most foods nowadays contain sugar in one form or another and sometimes they are hard to spot. Here's a tip, check the ingredients of your food and drink and look for anything ending in "ose", these are sugars in disguise eg. sucrose, glucose, maltose etc. As a general rule most things that are not fresh will contain sugars of some kind because it's a natural preservative.

2. Too many Sit ups - Cranking out a 1000 sit-ups every morning will not give you six pack abs. There are 2 reasons why sit-ups or crunches will not help.

Firstly, performing regular sit-ups will not burn fat from around your stomach, if it was to burn any calories, which it barely does, it would come off in layers from all over the body and not just from the stomach.

Secondly, sit-ups and crunches are ineffective, bad for your back and unnatural. To really target the abs you need to address them from a number of angles. The stomach takes loads from all directions and just exercising them in one way will not get you the results you want.

3. Doing long Cardio - If you are going out for long runs or spending hours plodding along on the treadmill each week to bring out those 6 pack abs then STOP right now. Research has shown that short bursts of high intensity cardio is far more effective than long boring cardio for blasting belly fat.

So if you want that washboard stomach you need to start working at a higher intensity and for shorter periods. So, running at a fast pace for 1 minute and then walking for 2 minutes is far more effective than 3 minutes of slow paced cardio.

4. Not strength training - If you are not performing full body strength training workouts then you really are missing out on your six pack abs potential. Strength training creates muscle tone which in turn raises your metabolism, which then burns more calories for you, even at rest!

Target all the large muscles of your body and hit as many muscles in one go as you can. Base all of your workouts around the squat and the deadlift. Forget about biceps and triceps and perform all your exercises standing up so your abs are constantly working. Believe me this will bring out your abs better than any sit up or crunch.

5. Too many Toxins - The gut is used as your natural dumping ground so anything that your body doesn't like or understand often finds itself in the gut. Too much caffeine, drugs and medication, artificial food and drink additives, smoke toxins, alcohol, all find there own hiding place in the gut. So to avoid that bloated feeling and pooch belly you have to eradicate toxins from your life.