Strength Training
You may be wondering at this point, “When is he going to tell me what kind of sit-ups to do?” Well, I guess, that would be this section. But this section is more general than that because abdominal hypertrophy (big ab muscles) is probably the least important aspect of O6P. This may be counter intuitive, but it’s true. This section is about training all your body’s muscles including abs.
It’s important to focus on all muscles instead of just abs for a couple reasons. First, if you’re following the nutrition section correctly you’re eating fewer calories than you are burning. This caloric deficit leads your body to break down fat for energy, but it also has the ability to break down muscle for energy. In order to keep minimize the amount of muscle the body breaks down we need to stress our muscles with weight training. The second reason for training all muscles rather than only abs is that more muscle increases metabolism and makes the body more efficient at burning fat, which leads to a lower body fat percentage.
The exact details of the weight training program are not that important as long as it involves the whole body (including the abs), uses progressive resistance, and is done at least three days a week.
So know the moment you’ve been wating for: What’s the best ab workout? Well, it really doesn’t matter. My favorite is leg lifts. My least favorite: crunches.
Check out the blog for a sample weight training program if you’re unsure where to start.