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"I train my abs every day but I don't seem to be making any progress..."

As a personal trainer, this is one of the most common laments that I hear. People are forever seeking that elusive "six-pack" and have been led to believe that daily abdominal exercise is the key to achieving this lofty goal. Day after day, week after week, they perform sit-ups, leg raises and other abdominal movements, hoping to chisel their abs to perfection. Still, after all this hard work, their midsections inevitably appear no different than when they first started training.

Throughout the ages, it has been taken as gospel that the abs can, and should, be trained on a daily basis. While it is widely accepted that other muscle groups need sufficient rest to facilitate recovery, the abs somehow have always been considered "different"-an opinion that's even shared by many fitness professionals. The justifications given for this sentiment, though, are largely based on hearsay, not established fact.

One of the biggest misperceptions is that abdominal training helps to flatten the stomach. Those who adhere to this notion feel that, by training their abs with increased frequency, they can whittle down their spare tire in an expeditious fashion. Unfortunately, this simply isn't the case. As previously discussed, spot reduction is a physiological impossibility. No amount of sit-ups, crunches or leg raises will strip away abdominal fat-it just doesn't work . Abdominal exercise only helps to develop the muscles of the abdomen; if a layer of fat obscures your midsection, you'll never see the underlying muscles, regardless of training frequency.

Another misguided belief is that daily abdominal training helps to promote muscle tone rather than bulk. This theory, however, ignores the process by which muscular development takes place. The degree to which a muscle increases in size is predicated more on the way that it is trained (i.e. amount of reps, length of rest intervals, etc), than how often it is trained. Muscle tissue is actually broken down while working out . It is during rest where your body begins to repair this damaged tissue, fueling the acquisition of muscle tone. Short-circuiting the recuperative process doesn't allow adequate time for a muscle to regenerate itself . Train too much and you'll stop muscular development completely!

It also is theorized that, since the abdominals are an endurance-related muscle, they can tolerate repeated bouts of physical activity. The abs recover very quickly from exercise, the thinking goes, so there is no need to give them extended rest. The problem with this theory, however, is that the abs really are not an endurance muscle at all! The rectus abdominis (i.e. the "six-pack" muscle) actually is comprised of roughly equal amounts of fast-twitch (strength-related) and slow-twitch (endurance-related) fibers -a composition similar to the muscles of the thighs and arms. Compare this to a true endurance-related muscle like the soleus (one of the calf muscles), which has about 80 percent slow-twitch fibers , and you'll see that the abs are just as oriented to strength as they are to endurance.

The truth is, the abs are not structurally different from the other major muscles of the body. Accordingly, in order to ensure adequate recuperation, they should be trained no more than three times per week, allowing at least 48 hours rest between training sessions. It even can be argued that those who are involved in a regular strength training program should train their abs even less frequently than other muscles. The abdominals act as "stabilizer muscles, helping to support the spine and maintain balance during bouts of intense physical activity . They are indirectly involved in virtually every exercise that you perform. Squats, military presses and numerous other movements require significant contributions from the abdominals during performance; in effect, your abs are being trained every time you work out. This is the reason why many bodybuilders never train their abs at all yet are able to maintain phenomenal ab development.

In final analysis, while achieving an abdominal six-pack is certainly an attainable goal, frequency has little to do with maximizing results. As long as you work your abdominals intensely, daily training is completely unnecessary-in fact, it's counterproductive. With respect to ab exercise, less really can be more!

Moreover, you don't need any fancy equipment to produce results. The "gut-busters" and "ab-blasters" sold on late-night infomercials aren't any more effective than traditional exercises (such as the crunch or reverse curl) in promoting abdominal development . If you stick with the basics and focus on quality rather than quantity, results are sure to follow.

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