Convict Conditioning - Paul Wade

PAR'l! II: THE BIG SIX: PoUR Mows 151
Crunches only became popular after the steroid era of bodybuilding was in full swing. This happened
because steroids don't only cause the arm, chest, back and leg muscles to grow-they also
cause the stomach wall and the internal organs to swell in size. Whereas a drug-free athlete could
never develop an oversized waist through training, many steroid-taking athletes from the seventies
and eighties did, the result being an ugly, muscular paunch that is now known as a "roid gut." An
even thicker, more powerful stomach wall was the last thing these guys wanted. So they stopped
directly training their midsections with effective exercises, and the "crunch" was born-a pathetic
isolation technique that is designed merely to tense and gently tone the front of the abdomen, to
prepare this area to be posed during competition. The crunch is totally impotent to add any real
athletic function, muscle or strength. But modern bodybuilders don't care-they are only desperate
to reduce the size of their artificially bloated waists.
Unfortunately, because modern bodybuilders are now seen as the personification of the fitness
scene, their futile ab training methods have become widely disseminated amongst the training
public. No wonder you'll never see a real six-pack from hell in any gym near you.