Fat...and ab workouts

[swordfish151]

How many of you bro's have seen the "fat" guy come into your gym and start doing abs right off the bat...and never see them on the tread...im talking about kids over 20% BF...this is amusing to me...I used to think (back in the day) that if i did abs every other day that i would clearly get ripped abs...never thought that diet/cardio was the key component to this..i know better now of course...but so many dont...so many think that by doing abs every day or every other day they will get that six pack..WRONG...alot of the times i want to tell these guys to forget about ab work..and to jump on the tread....anyway my question is...do you think its wise for someone that has a higher BF to do abs once a week, while doing AM cardio on an empty stomach for 45 min 5X a week? As you get down in BF say lower then 15% or 10% this is when you should start doing abs every other day or everyday? correct?

 

[Jim Ouini]

Saw this yesterday at the gym, actually. Two middle aged guys clearly 25+% BF (I'm talking huge protruding guts) taking turns on the crunch machine doing those rapid fire-pull the head-crunches saying things like 'ya feel that rippin it up?'

I also see large ladies doing a ton of isolation exercises like tricep kickbacks, pec-dec fly's and side raises, usually under the supervision of a PT. Well I don't know what their goal is so who am I to criticize.

 

[LoneTree]

I frequently see an old man (late sixties/early seventies) vigoreously doing high chair. He has a big tummy. I was almost tempted to tell him not to waste his time, but then I thought that any motivation for exercise is good at his age. At least he is getting in better shape physically.
It's all those TV ads about abdominal machines (..'take 20"s off your waist in two weeks'........) that is causing this misconception.

 

[araiber]

Well, props to them for actually doing it with that percentage of body fat. They must get some nice muscles underneath that fat..
I cant go against it. I say they should do both, get rid of the fat by cardio, and keep the ab workouts up, so once the fat is gone, their abs are gonna be nicely built.

 

[Guinness5.0]

I used to work at a gym and I feel like I can safely say that 90% of the people there are sporadic at best and have absolutely no dedication whatsoever. They don't care to learn what works- going to the gym eases guilt and makes them think they actually did something about their health. They ALMOST ALL think that spot reduction works, that weightlifting makes everyone "big" and that walking on the treadmill at 2 mph for 20 minutes is going to be effective.

Working there was depressing actually, except for the copious amount of scantily clad college age girls that work out (though they know on average very little about exercise- they just have good genes for the most part).