If you are doing 200 crunches then you have build some impressive endurance, but you stopped building muscle a long time ago. It's not how long you work the muscles that counts, but how you work them. You might want to take a look at Kathy Smith's Lift Weights to Lose Weight, either the original or vol 2. Both of these have excellent ab routines that teach you about proper form and working the muscle to failure in the right way. Tamilee Webb also has a pretty good video called I Want Those Abs. Or, you could look at Pilates -- Kathy also has a video called "Pilates for Abs" and there are tons of others out there -- I like the Gaiam ones.
Also, realize that exercising a body part will not cause it to lose fat. Fat doesn't LITERALLY turn into muscle -- what that phrase usually means is that while you are moderating your intake and exercising, you will lose fat, and if you are doing strength building you will add muscle at the same time. So, it's possible to build muscle but still have fat in those areas. Your body is genetically programmed to burn off fat in certain places in a certain order, and that order varies from person to person. If the part of your abdomen you don't like is due to fat, you can exercise it until the cows come home and that's not going to make it look better, until you lose enough fat. In some cases, especially the older you get, it's impossible to get rid of ALL the fat in that area without becoming seriously underweight all over.
|
