Why Jumping Rope Is More Effective Than Crunches For Gaining A Six-Pack

Doing ab workouts is not going to get you a six-pack. Seriously. You could do a 45-minute ab workout every day for the rest of your life, and you still would never be able to reveal even one ab.

Wait a minute; what about all the magazines you've seen claiming to have the new cutting edge, top secret, fat-blasting ab workout? That's just solid marketing.

The truth is, 90 percent of getting a six-pack is eating at a caloric deficit (burning more calories than you are eating), so you lose body fat. The other 10 percent of the equation can be filled in by doing exercise that helps you burn fat faster.

Ab workouts burn an average of 84 to 151 calories per 15 minutes. Not very efficient right?

Instead of doing another ab workout, I want you to go pick up a jump rope. The jump rope is the number one fat-burning tool for myself and my clients because in a very short period of time, it allows you to burn a sh*t ton of calories and continue burning them for the rest of the day.

In an average 15-minute workout, you'll burn about 250 calories, but because of something called EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), you will continue to burn calories long after your workout has been completed. So, your actual total calories burned from that jump rope workout is more like 400 calories.

I need to mention that when we're talking about doing 15 minutes of jump rope training, we are talking about doing it as high-intensity interval training. Meaning, you will do 30 seconds of jump rope as fast as you can, alternated with 10 seconds of rest for the duration of the workout.

Here is a sample jump rope workout we recommend trying out today to start burning more fat faster than ever, so you can finally reveal that six pack:

30 Seconds Jump Rope: Regular Bounce

Do this with 10 seconds rest.

30 Seconds Jump Rope: Run In Place

Do this with 10 seconds rest.

30 Seconds Jump Rope: Single Leg

Do this with 10 seconds rest.

30 Seconds Jump Rope: Side Straddle

Do this with 10 seconds rest.

30 Seconds Jump Rope: Three-Step Twist

Now break for 30 seconds of rest.

Repeat this circuit three times for approximately 15 minutes. The amount of fat you burn during these workouts will ultimately come down to how intense you decide to go and how many circuits you decide to perform. Moral of the story: Drop the ab roller and pick up a jump rope if you are serious about losing fat and getting a six-pack.