Abdominal exercises
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Abdominal exercises are exercises designed for strengthening muscles, tendons and ligaments of the abdomen.
These exercises are categorized into four sections: Upper Abdominals, Lower Abdominals, Love Handles and Lower Back.
Types of abdominal exercises
There are literally thousands of different exercises for the abdominal muscles. One famous system of abdominal exercise is Pilates. The three most common and well known exercises are:
It has been found that for a six-pack, these exercises are helpful; however, other factors such as diet and cardiovascular exercises are also necessary.
Misconceptions about fat and the performance of abdominal exercises
It is a common misconception that one can do these exercises to "tone" one's stomach, and especially that one can "spot reduce" fat from the stomach through these exercises. This is almost entirely false. Fat is burned in response to low blood-glucose (blood sugar) levels, and the receptors for blood-glucose are in the brain; thus, the fact that a particular region is consuming a lot of energy will not cause the fat from that region to be burned at a rate any greater than if the energy-consuming region were elsewhere in the body, since the energy deficit will only be detected in the brain rather than locally to the source of the energy deficit.
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