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This is a guest post from Hasic M. He is editor behind Ab-Solutely-Fit.com where he shares his best tips and thoughts on how to sculpture your body!

Are you trying to get back in shape, carve out a great physique and then cram all of this into a life that never seems to give you a break? Don’t worry if you raised your hand just now — if you were in a crowd of people that were asked this very same question, it’s pretty likely everyone’s hands would go up.

You just have to make sure that you’re trying to reach your goals without damaging your body. Now, I know that’s not a very popular opinion.

After all, isn’t it all about having rock hard abs that inspire lust, jealousy, and envy in the eyes of just about everyone that you meet?

Men that see you will wish they could have your body, and women that see you will wish they could give you THEIR body — isn’t that the way it’s supposed to go?

All jokes and nudges aside, let’s get serious here. There are some pretty strong myths out there about abdominal exercises, but there are also some truths out there. So let’s cover everything together, okay? Great!

The Myths of Abdominal Exercises

Myths plague the business of building abs because everyone is looking for a shortcut. So if I could name off the top myth of building abs through abdominal exercises, it would be that these exercises are designed to get you the shape that you crave.

But that’s not really the case, as you might have imagined. You will need to instead think of abdominal exercises as a way to supplement the type of exercises that you’re trying to do. You want to still aim for getting the exercise in of course but you have to think bigger than just abdominal exercises.

A Quick Example of This Myth in Motion

A lot of people see the late night infomercials featuring some machine that targets only the abs. That’s nice in theory until you really study a photo of the muscular system of the body.

You’ll see that the body has tons of other muscles than just the abdominals, and those muscles need to be strong too.

So even if it was possible to “spot reduce” or even “spot tone” one muscle group over another, you wouldn’t have the symmetry that you’re looking for. That’s the part that needs to be repeated here: there are just no shortcuts to getting the type of body that you ultimately want.

Another Myth I Hate — and One You Should Steer Clear Of

There’s so much attention on abdominal exercises that the assumption might be that your nutritional needs don’t matter. This myth is almost as big as the spot reduce/tone one that I just covered. Why? Because it appeals to the human side of all of us that wants a shortcut.

We want to get the body that we’ve always craved but while doing as little as possible to get there. So if you can spot tone and then eat whatever you want when you get home, who wouldn’t find that appealing?

Unfortunately, this is one myth that will hold you back more than anything else. You need to think about your nutrition every single day of your life if you want to not only make your abdominal exercises contribute to your fitness program as a whole, but to maintain your body shape as you do manage to drop fat and build muscle.

Some Truth For You 

Again, I’m not saying that abdominal exercises don’t have their place. A strong core helps you do a lot of other stuff quite well.

For example, if you wanted to do some compound lifts, you’ll find that your core gets activated through all of them. Try doing a deadlift without using your abs/core in any way. Hard, isn’t it? That’s the whole point.

Overall, you are going to have to take matters of your fitness and health into your own hands. Don’t let a multi-billion dollar industry to keep you from doing the things that you know are right for your body.

The more work that you can put into your body, the easier it will be to get the results that you’ve always craved. It also cannot be stressed enough: the most powerful tool you really have is time. Don’t skip the time that it takes to get extraordinary results, because this is what can really make all of the difference!