I'm not a big fan of bodybuilding, but I know
good info when I read
it. And last Thursday while I sat in the Toronto
Airport waiting for
my flight to Tampa Bay, I finally got around to
reading an interview
with bodybuilding expert, Tom Venuto.

This guy knows his stuff.

You need to search high and low to find
everything Tom says about
building 6-pack abs.

I have, and fortunately I was able to get
permission to re-print
the following article from Tom on how to get rid
of lower ab fat...

"How to see your lower abs"
By Tom Venuto

Seeing your abs, or any other muscle group, for
that matter - is
almost entirely the result of having low body fat
levels. You get
low body fat from proper diet (as well as cardio
and strength
training), not from doing hundreds of ab
exercises every day.

My guess is that it may seem like your lower ab
muscles are "hard to
develop,"but it's not really an issue of "muscle
development" at
all, you simply have too much body fat and are
storing it in your
lower abdominal region more readily than other
parts of your body
and you can't see the muscles through the fat.

Most people don't have their fat distributed
evenly throughout
their bodies. Each of us inherits a genetically
determined and
hormonally-influenced pattern of fat storage just
as we inherit our
eye or hair color. In other words, the fat seems
to "stick" to
certain areas more than others.

MEN often tend to store fat more readily in the
lower abdominal
region (the "pot belly", "spare tire", "beer
gut", or "love
handles").

In WOMEN, the "stubborn" areas are usually the
hips, thighs
("saddlebags") and the triceps ("grandmother
arms").

You could focus on more "lower ab" exercises like
hanging leg
raises, reverse crunches and hip lifts ("toes to
sky"), but even
these won't help as long as you still have body
fat covering the
muscles.

You can't "spot reduce" with abdominal exercise.

The lower ab area is often the first place the
fat goes when you
gain it, and the last place it comes off when
you're losing it.

Think of ab fat like the deep end of the swimming
pool. No matter
how much you protest, there is no way you can
drain the deep end
before the shallow end.

I would suggest cutting back the volume on your
ab training and
spending that time on more cardio work instead.
Personally, I only
do about 15 minutes of ab work two times per
week. (About two to
four exercises with reps usually ranging from
10-25 reps).

As far as nutrition goes, here are a few
fat-burning nutrition
guidelines in a nutshell:

- Eat about 15-20% below your calorie maintenance
level. If you use
a more aggressive calorie deficit of 25-30%, then
do not keep
calories too low for too long; increase calories
to maintenance or
maintenance +10-15% 1-2 days per week.

- Spread your calories into 5-6 smaller meals
instead of 2-3 big
ones. Be very conscious of portion size. eat too
much of anything
and you can say goodbye to your abs. Period.

- Eat a source of complete, high quality lean
protein with each meal
(egg whites, lean meat, fish, protein powder,
etc). Choose natural,
complex carbs such as vegetables, oatmeal, yams,
potatoes, beans,
brown rice and whole grains. Start with aprox.
50% of your calories
from natural carbs and reduce carbs slightly
(esp. late in the day)
if you are not losing fat.

- Avoid refined, simple carbs that contain white
flour or white
sugar.

- Keep total fats low and saturated fats low. Aim
for 20% of your
total calories from fat (and no more than 30%). A
little bit of
"good fat" like flax oil, fish fat, nuts & seeds,
etc is better
than a no fat diet.

- Drink plenty of water - a gallon is a good
ballpark to shoot for
if you are physically active.

So while doing 1000+ reps of ab work four days a
week is an amazing
feat of endurance, but thats not how you get
visible, rock hard,
6-pack abs!

You might have outstanding development in your
abdominal muscles,
but if your abs are covered up with a layer of
fat, you won't be
able to see them even if you do 10,000 reps a
day!

You "get abs" from reducing your body fat and you
reduce body fat
mostly through diet and cardio.

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Expert at Global Health & Fitness (GHF)
==========================================

You just can't argue with Tom's solid advice. If
you want to ask
Tom more questions and get more of his fat
burning articles, visit
Global Health & Fitness:

http://www.global-fitness.com/at.cgi?a=442150&e=TT.php