If you’ve ever hit the crunches and core work hard in an effort to get a flat stomach, but instead your belly somehow seems to grow, you’re not alone. Many people report this counter-intuitive and frustrating phenomenon. Take it as a sign from your body to rethink your core game, experts say.
“For the most part,crunches are not the most effective way训练您的核心。“您在地面上，运动范围很小。”
当然，进行100次紧缩可能会导致燃烧，但这并不是核心设计的方式。相反，对于一个强大，稳定的核心，可以帮助您最佳移动，您必须超越腹肌（腹肌）（six-pack) and include the hips, glutes, chest and back as part of your core training.
STAY ON YOUR FEET
Get off your butt. “To sit down on the ground will work one muscle, but not all your muscles together. The smartest core training is on your feet, because the core muscles are designed to be most effective when standing,” explains personal trainer Pete McCall, author of “Smarter Workouts: The Science of Exercise Made Simple.”
保持平衡
He suggests using a TRX with either your hands or feet in the straps or trying exercises with aweight in only one hand. So do single-arm overhead presses, single-arm unsupported bent-over rows, single-arm kettlebell swings and reverse lunges while holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in one hand. These movements require your muscles to stabilize the spine and work the shoulders, hips and pelvis simultaneously, making them more effective and efficient for working the core than crunches.
Anythinganti-rotationis also great, says Dixon, who designed Equinox’s Master of One class around using a single weight to challenge the core and work more muscles at once.Planks of all variations- 叛逆行，在前臂上移到前后的前臂上，将一只手臂伸到侧面或一个简单的高木板上，而您将手推入地面并挤压屁股 - 非常好。
THE BOTTOM LINE
You don’t have to give up crunches entirely, but focus more on incorporating core work into what you do every week. “I don’t think, ‘I’m going to train my core today,’” Dixon says. “I do total-body work and that will train my core more than doing crunches.”
但是胃呢？
“If you want a six-pack, talk to your parents about your genetics or spend extra time in kitchen,” McCall says. “Abs are made in the kitchen, and you can’t out-train genetics.”
迪克森同意。她说：“如果您的腰围更大（在做更多的核心工作后），则需要看其他东西。”您可能不会以适当的强度训练，而是忽略有氧运动和/或饮食不佳的饮食。大多数人需要努力工作（真的很努力）才能雕刻和维护六包。
Lastly, you don’t need washboard abs to have a strong core. “Your muscles don’t know what they look like, they just generate force,” McCall says. Can you carry your kid or multiple bags of groceries up flights of stairs without feeling winded or in pain? If so, your core is functionally strong, no matter what it looks like. That’s what matters most.
