Cutting Exercises for ABs to shift a gut- NOT muscle building

[Faltermeyer]

Right, my thread title may be an oxy moron but I hope not.

I'm pretty small/light - about 5'8" and weigh about 60Kg(fluctuates).
I've a very low body fat % all round - I'd hazard a guess at under 10% - though my scales with a body fat test ranges from 18-20% but no way thats true. I'd be well toned all over, but fairly thin forearms/ankles.

I'm generally trying to bulk. But thanks to some terrible binge eating over a number of months I've developed a bit of a gut - though its very easily held in as I've good ab strength & train them regularly. However, I want to burn off this without bulding any further muscle on my stomach. Rest of my body is fine as I've been training regularly & hard.

So, I'm looking for suggestions on ab workouts geared towards burning off fat (&even a little of the muscle there if I have to initially) rather than bulding big abs.

So far i've been doing:

-Crunches - Quick movements on the positive, normal on the negative, releasing tension completely between each rep(my thinking is to avoid the sustained tension that helps hypertrophy?). Lots of crossover type crunches - i.e. touching left outstretched knee with right elbow etc.
-Lots of torso rotation/aerobic type exercises - side to side(i.e. leaning over on each side with hands on head), twisting(arms on hear, arms outstretched).
-Roll-outs (name?) - on knees, hands on barbell on ground, roll barbell forward stretching out holding abs tight?
-Hanging leg raises (fast)
-Leg kicks while balancing on other leg - forward, up at side, out behind, outward from front, across front while twisting torse opposite direction.

Any comments on these/other suggestions?

[Commander]

Originally Posted by Faltermeyer

So, I'm looking for suggestions on ab workouts geared towards burning off fat (&even a little of the muscle there if I have to initially) rather than bulding big abs.

Any comments on these/other suggestions?

An ab workout is not going to burn off fat. Fat is burnt by being in a caloric deficit and working out to keep your metabolism going and provide that stimulus to your body to keep your muscle.

[Faltermeyer]

Surely training muscles frequently in one area has some effect on the fat around that area? (If done without the sustained pressure/heavy weight involved for Hypertrophy)

[will-work4andro]

spot hypertrophy exists
spot reduction...not so much

training your abs isn't going to specifically reduce fat in your abdominal region and likely won't reduce fat in most any other place either...doing countless ab movements does nothing but take away from time that could be spent doing something else that would burn the fat away, such as high intensity cardiorespiratory work.

[joneser3eb]

Originally Posted by will-work4andro

spot hypertrophy exists
spot reduction...not so much

training your abs isn't going to specifically reduce fat in your abdominal region and likely won't reduce fat in most any other place either...doing countless ab movements does nothing but take away from time that could be spent doing something else that would burn the fat away, such as high intensity cardiorespiratory work.

yeah x2 on that, if you want the abs to show do it in the kitchen.

[rootb33r]

Originally Posted by Faltermeyer

-Crunches - Quick movements on the positive, normal on the negative, releasing tension completely between each rep(my thinking is to avoid the sustained tension that helps hypertrophy?). Lots of crossover type crunches - i.e. touching left outstretched knee with right elbow etc.
-Lots of torso rotation/aerobic type exercises - side to side(i.e. leaning over on each side with hands on head), twisting(arms on hear, arms outstretched).
-Roll-outs (name?) - on knees, hands on barbell on ground, roll barbell forward stretching out holding abs tight?
-Hanging leg raises (fast)
-Leg kicks while balancing on other leg - forward, up at side, out behind, outward from front, across front while twisting torse opposite direction.

Two things...
1)
The roll-outs and hanging leg-raises (do them slower) are the only exercises I see that is even remotely beneficial.

Crunches are bloody useless in my opinion. The best ab exercises are those that work your entire core together: obliques, serratus, and abdominals.

Try look up "core exercises" in google and researching those.

Some of my favorites are:
-Swiss ball tucks
-Lying leg raises, full 90-degree motion
-Cable crunches to the sides and straight
-Good old-fashioned Planks
-Wood-choppers
-Barbell arcing Russian twists (I don't know if it has an official name)
-Hip lifts
-"around the worlds" (Planks on a swiss ball but you move your hands around 360-degrees in a circle)

2) Don't try to avoid hypertrophy. Your abs won't get "huge;" they will, however, become larger and that will help them poke through the body fat better.

[Faltermeyer]

...maybe im exagerating by calling it a "gut".

You can see my abs, even when I relax my stomach completely. You can still see the lines of the muscles, just not as clearly, and it looks like I've eaten a very big dinner and my stomach is being stretched?

So even intense cardio type exercises focused on the mid-section won't help unless I have a calorie deficit? I really can't afford to loose weight anywhere else...

Best post to rootb33r - just had a quick google of the few of those I didn't recognise and thats what I'm after - stuff thats not focused on sections of the abs but that works all over - good core exercises.

I had been doing Planks also (just didnt know the name for it) and hip raises but the type where you have your legs bent and thrust your knees upward? I think these are more difficult than normal hip raises?

[ZachE84]

Originally Posted by Faltermeyer

So even intense cardio type exercises focused on the mid-section won't help unless I have a calorie deficit? I really can't afford to loose weight anywhere else...

Basically, correct. It really is that simple: you lose weight by being in a calorie deficit and gain weight by being in a calorie surplus.

It doesn't matter where you need to lose fat - you have to go into a caloric deficit (you can also do this by adding cardio). It's not about losing "weight", it's about losing fat. If you do it properly you shouldn't lose much muscle, but your belly fat should slowly go away.

So just to sum it up: It doesn't matter if you do "intense cardio" ab exercises, your body is going to burn fat wherever it sees fit. You might tone your abs, but that's different.

[klosey]

to see the abs go on a cut!

[maverickBU]

What os the rest of your training like?