Ab Workouts – Muscle Mass vs. Endurance

May 6, 2009 Filed Under: Abs Training

Muscular strength is different from muscular endurance when it comes to ab workouts. Both types are very good at helping people lead a healthy, fit lifestyle and keep the body strong. However, if you want ripped abs, your best choice would be muscular strength training. You will get faster results!

The often debated question, go for a run or hit the weights? It all depends on what you want to achieve and what appearance you want to have. If you want to be very muscular, with big muscles and ripped abs, then going for a long run will not give you those results.

Endurance activities will train your body to perform for that type of activity. For long distance running, the body will streamline itself and become lighter as you glide over the long distances. If your body did have big muscles, endurance training will decrease the size of the muscles to make the body lighter to run better.

Muscular strength training is very effective at increasing the body’s metabolism. The increased size of the muscles causes the body to work harder to supply energy to the bigger muscles, which results in more calories burned and greater fat burning.

The increased calories that are burned include the food we eat and the excess fat that is stored in our body. The excess fat on our belly covers the ab muscles beneath it. When we increase our metabolism, the body will burn the fat and expose the underlying ab muscles.

Muscle power can be done with weights and lower repetitions. The muscles are pushed to exert a greater intensity, which results in an accumulation of lactic acid and carbon dioxide in the muscles. When this occurs, the body will need to replenish and remove lactic acid and carbon dioxide by getting oxygen to the muscles.

The moment the body is able to bring a fresh supply of oxygen to the muscles, it will continue to replenish and repair the muscles to get it ready for the next bout of exercise. This process can take several hours and can occur for the majority of the day. The increased overall metabolic activity turns the body into a fat burning machine.

Endurance training is good for cardiovascular health and leading a fit, healthy lifestyle. However, to get abs that are ripped and rock hard, you need to train for muscle mass and really kick start your body to burning fat. When the body becomes more efficient at burning fat, ripped abs will come faster. If it’s your goal to strengthen joints and lose fat, I have a surprise for you!