Once and for all let's get this straight. When the body burns fat it takes it molecule by molecule, gram by gram from the whole body, not just from the area you're exercising. What's more, by performing such small, isolated exercises you're not burning many calories or much body fat anyway!

The answer is to get off of your back and carry out more of your exercises from a standing position and using many more of your muscles each time you train. That way, without even directly targeting the abdominals you'll be burning many, many more calories AND conditioning your core at the same time.

You're far more likely to see your sixpack this way.

Myth Number Two - Cardio is king if you want to get lean

Not so. Especially if you do it the way most people do.

Just look around the gym next time you're there. How many of the cardio junkies that are glued to the treadmills, rowers and crosstrainers are sporting the look you're after?

Not many I'll bet!

And the reason is, they're doing so much cardio that the hormones that keep them going for those extended periods are actually commanding their bodies to give up muscle more rapidly than fat. The net effect is that they end up slowing their metabolism way down and creating bodies that are potentially fatter than before.

Not what most exercisers are after but nevertheless, what YOU'LL get if you insist upon training the way that most gym goers do.

No, to get lean you need to work harder for shorter duration. Short circuits, intervals, relays that get you breathing hard then rest. 5 mins at a time are all you'll need if you train this way.

Better yet, skip those boring machines anyway and use strength exercises with bodyweight or free-weights in to send your metabolism into warp drive.

I call this type of training my 'six hundred rule'.

In short, you've six-hundred or so muscles in your body. Incorporate exercises and movements that challenge as many as possible at once. Exercises like pushups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, jumps forward bends, deadlifts. Y'know, those honest to goodness 'old fashioned' exercises that people used to use before gyms got hi-tech.

Myth Number 3 - you've got to cut calories to get lean

Well, I've got to admit, this is partly true, especially if you overeat often, but much more important than cutting calories is to cut the rubbish foods out of your diet altogether.

You see, your body fat is used as a 'toxic dump', a waste-ground when your system is overburdened by foods it can't handle. When too many toxic foods find their way into your body, regardless of the calories you eat, your body will dump these toxins into wherever you hold your fat. Your waist among other places.

So if you truly want to get lean, you've gotta get clean!

That means removing many of the foods that your body considers toxic like:

Alcohol, Caffeine, Processed foods,Sugar (or substitute), anything with a number or unpronounceable word in it and most wheat products.

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