Many factors are involved in the creation of six-pack abs, but healthy eating habits and a consistent training schedule can give anyone's stomach the washboard look.
How to Get Six-Pack Abs
Who doesn’t want a nice set of abs? They look good, they feel good, and they’re fun to look at (especially if they’re your own). Having the six-pack is like walking around with a trophy – it’s a presentation of your high level of fitness, a reward for the time and effort you’ve spent working on your physique. People with the six-pack look show off their abs at every opportunity, and for good reason. The look takes an effort to achieve. It takes work, it takes time, and it takes a great deal of discipline, but the results are definitely worthwhile.
Not only does a quality set of abs look good, but there are some great health benefits too. Strengthening the abdominal muscles leads to a strengthening of the lower back, which is a perk that can save you from a painful injury in the future. In fact, most lower back injuries occur because of weak abdominal muscles. If that’s not motivation enough, strong abs can also improve your posture, which in turn can prevent even more injuries that can result from the “slouched” look (a look that’s promoted by a weak mid-section).
There’s no quick-fix when it comes to developing the six-pack. The work involved in sculpting the ideal set of abs goes far beyond a few sit-ups. Even countless sit-ups, if not part of a proper training program, will not help in the creation of a superb set of abs. The proper exercises, along with good eating habits and a proper cardio program, will lead to the look you desire.
Uncover to Discover
I really have a perfect six-pack, I just keep it covered with fat so it won't get scratched!
Everyone has the beginnings of a six-pack, but most of the time it’s covered up by a layer of fat cells. Men more so than women, simply because most males tend to collect fat around the mid-section, while women tend to collect it in the hip and thigh area. Before you can show off your abs, you’ve got to remove the fat that conceals them. How? A healthy diet and exercise program. No expensive weight loss pills (most of which don’t work anyway), no over-hyped fad diets, just well-adjusted eating habits and a little determination.
In most individuals, the abdominal muscles will start to show when the body fat percentage is at or below 10%. Measuring your body fat is a great way to gauge your progress towards the six-pack.
Most local health clubs offer free body fat tests, just ask at the front desk. If you don’t have a gym membership, your doctor can also perform the test for you. A more convenient way of measuring body fat is by using a set of calipers designed for just that purpose, these calipers can be found at nutrition outlets, health food chains, and some specialized fitness stores.
Nutrition
A proper diet is absolutely essential to the creation of a six-pack. There is no better determiner of how successful you’ll be in the development of a noticeable set of abs. A good training and exercise program will only take you so far, but a healthy diet will go a long ways towards ensuring success. Such a diet is also the most difficult aspect of six-pack creation, it is the decisive test of your dedication to the goals you have set for yourself.
Increase Your MetabolismIncreasing your metabolism is one of the most effective ways you can lower your body fat percentage. The higher your metabolism, the faster your body burns the calories you feed it. The result? Your body becomes a more efficient fat-burning machine.
A good start to any good nutrition program involves an increase in the number of meals you eat each day. That’s right, increase the frequency of your meals. At the same time, decrease the size of those meals. Instead of 3 large meals a day, aim for 5 to 6 small, well-balanced meals throughout the course of the day. Making this change is easier than it sounds, and it's one of the best things you can do to supercharge your metabolism. The longer you wait between meals, the more your metabolism slows down in an attempt to conserve energy. By keeping your body constantly supplied with healthy meals, you’re keeping your metabolism at its peak throughout the day.
Eat Healthy to Look Healthy An increase in the quantity of your meals is no substitute for their quality. Try to make sure that healthy foods are available any time that you might get hungry. When hunger sets in, your body’s basic survival instincts kick in. This urgant need for food will cause you to set your self-discipline (and your diet) aside as you race for the nearest cheeseburger.
What should you look for in a healthy meal? Aim for a good ratio of proteins, carbohydrates, and fat – 50%, 40%, and 10%, respectively, is a difficult – but achievable – goal for your daily calorie intake.
If possible, try to eat more carbohydrates in the morning and less in the evening, this will give your more time to burn them up throughout the day, and less chance that they’ll get converted to fat while you sleep. Also, keep in mind that your body will use whole-grains much more efficiently than highly refined grains, which means that they’re more likely to be used as energy, and less likely to be stored as fat.
Finally, avoid simple sugars. The old saying “if it tastes good, it’s trying to kill you” is often (and unfortunately) an accurate statement. Do your best to stay away from things like ice cream and candy bars. Instead, go for an apple or an orange when you want a snack. Hikers and backpackers often keep bags of dehydrated fruit or trail mix handy for healthy energy boosts along the trail, and you can often overcome the craving for a mid-afternoon chocolate fix by simply keeping something like this in your desk drawer.
Drink Plenty of Water The last, and by far the most important, topic in nutrition as it relates to well defined abs, is water. Drinking enough water is vital to weight-loss, muscle gain, and better overall health. Water is a great appetite suppressant; the next time you get hungry for a snack, try drinking a glass of water first. Wait ten minutes after drinking, then decide if you’re still hungry – it may have been that you were just dehydrated.
Keeping yourself hydrated is probably one of the easiest ways to facilitate fat loss. Water is an important component in the metabolism of stored fat, and is therefore an important ingredient in your six-pack diet. In addition, water intake helps to stimulate the kidneys, resulting in less water retention. Less water retention means more tightness and tone in your skin and muscles, which is just what the six-pack ordered.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Weight loss, and consequently fat loss, results from a calorie deficit. If you’re expending more calories than you’re taking in, you’re losing weight. A good cardio program will help you create that deficit. And as you know, lost weight, and more importantly lost fat, is essential to the six-pack look.
Studies have shown that reaching your target heart rate for at least 20 minutes, three times a week, can raise your overall metabolism. Simply put, participate in moderate to intense cardiovascular exercise for 20 minutes, three times a week, and you’ll burn more calories (and thus more fat) even when you’re not working out.
A good method for calculating your target heart rate is to simply subtract your age from 220, or 226, for men and women respectively. While you’re training, a heart monitor makes it easy to tell when you’ve reached your target rate. Most health clubs have accurate, easy-to-use heart monitors right on their equipment. If you don’t have access to a heart monitor, just put your fingers on your carotid artery (on the side of your neck between the middle of your collar bone and your jaw bone) and count the number of beats in 6 seconds, then just add a zero to get an approximation of your current heart rate in beats per minutes (bpm). You can also use the radial artery on the underside of your wrist for this technique.
A good cardio program for beginners will involve moderate to intense exercise for 20-40 minutes, three to four times per week. The amount of training you choose to do should take into account your present level of fitness, the speed of your metabolism (genetics makes fat loss much easier for some than for others), and any extenuating circumstances regarding your health.
Some examples of moderate to intense cardiovascular exercise include things like running or jogging, the stairmaster or elliptical machines, biking, swimming, or participating in aerobics classes. Try not to perform just one activity with too much consistency, as alternating between activities will “shock” your body into working harder, thus burning more calories. Repetitively performing just one activity will eventually result in your body adapting more and more to that one activity, and the more your body adapts, the less it has to work, and the less effective your workouts become.
Finally, be sure to perform a “cool down” after each cardio session in order to prevent injury. At the end of each session, simply perform the same activity at a light, easy pace for about 5 minutes before stopping completely. Afterwards, don’t forget to take some time to stretch. This will further ensure that your training won’t be hampered by injuries, and will also reduce soreness the next day.
Abdominal Training
If you follow the advice already suggested in this article, you’re well on your way to your very own six-pack. A good abdominal training program is the final piece to the puzzle. By now you understand that well-defined abs come from more than just crunches and sit-ups, and that concept continues when we talk about effective ways to condition the muscles that you want to show off.
Once you've disposed of the fat covering your abs, you'll want something there to show off. That’s where a good program of resistance training comes into play. When training your abs, quality is immensely more important than quantity. 20 perfectly executed repetitions will take you a great deal farther than 200 reps done with poor form. You want to shock the muscles into growing, not bore them with never-ending sets of the same exercise. Just like any other muscle in your body, your abs don’t want to grow, you’ve got to force them to. Growth is what you’re after, here – the more your abs grow, the more noticeably well-defined they’ll be when the time comes to display them.
Simply training your abs twice a week is a good place to start, using two to three different exercises per session. Remember to focus on quality, not quantity. Concentrate on doing the exercises using a moderately slow tempo: 2 seconds up, 1 second of contraction at the top of the movement, then 2 seconds down. The more you focus on making each rep count, the less you’ll have to do in order to achieve the results you want.
While training, aim for 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions each, with about 30 seconds to a minute of rest between sets. Once it becomes easy to do 3 sets of 15 reps with your own body weight, try adding on another set. Alternatively, you can also try adding some resistance to the movement for added difficulty. Whatever you do, just make sure that you’re challenging yourself during each and every workout. If you don’t make a conscious attempt to improve yourself every time, you’re not going to achieve the results you desire. Muscle growth is the result of your body recognizing a need to adapt to greater challenges, so if you don’t challenge it, it won’t see a need to improve.
Finally, make sure to allow time for a quick warm-up session before your workout, as well as a cool-down session afterwards. Doing some light jogging for 5-6 minutes before exercising limbers up your joints and gets blood flowing to your extremities, helping to prevent a work-out injury that could set you back weeks in lost training time. A brisk walk and some stretching at the end of every workout will also go a long ways towards ensuring that you’re not set back by a painful injury.
The Exercises
The Crunch
The crunch is the most basic exercise you can do when training your abs. Lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor (put your toes under a bench or weight plate for stability). Place your arms either behind your head (not with your fingers interlaced, as that makes it easier for addition strain to be placed on the neck), or across your chest. Slowly contract the abdominal muscles, concentrating intently on the muscles being worked. Pretend you’re holding a tennis ball under your chin in order to avoid tilting the head forward and injuring your neck. Stop when your body is approximately 30 to 40 degrees off the floor, going any farther than this works your hip flexors more than your abs. At the top of the movement, crunch as tightly as you can for one count, then slowly lower yourself back down – try to take no less than two seconds to return to the starting position. That’s one repetition.
For a more complete crunch, try to exhale on the way up and inhale on the way down. This empties the lungs of air and allows the abdominals to perform a more complete contraction.
The Swiss Ball Crunch
This is a more advanced form of the basic crunch. A Swiss ball is a large, air-filled ball that helps to stimulate your abs by increasing the range of motion used in exercises.
To do a Swiss ball crunch, sit down on the ball with both feet on the ground in front of you. Now walk your feet forward until you’re balancing on your back, with your legs bent 90 degrees at the knees. From here, simply perform the crunch as normal. For more resistance, move so that the balance is resting slightly lower in your back – this will facilitate a steeper angle in the crunches.
You can add more resistance to either of the above crunches by holding a weight plate (or medicine ball) on your chest while performing the exercise.
The Knee Raise
The knee raise is performed by simply hanging from a pull-up bar and slowly raising the knees up towards the chest by contracting the abdominal muscles. Hold your knees at the top of the movement for a count of one, then slowly lower back to the starting position. That’s one repetition.
A more advanced form of this exercise can be done by keeping the legs straight (or slightly bent at the knees), and raising them up until they’re parallel to the floor – again, focus on contracting the abs, holding the contraction at the top of the movement, then slowly returning to the starting position.
The Reverse Crunch
Reverse crunches are most easily done while lying on a weight bench, with your back on the bench and your feet on the floor. You’ll want to hold on to the bench at either the end above your head, or on the sides your hips. Like the knee raise, focus on contracting your abdominals to bring your knees up towards your chest. At the peak of contraction, hold the position for a count of one, then slowly return to the starting position. That’s one reverse crunch. Again, quality over quantity! Take your time, and focus on each repetition in order to get the maximum benefit from this exercise.
To add resistance to the reverse crunch, hold a medicine ball between your feet as you perform the exercise.
Bicycle Crunches
This is a very effective abdominal exercise that's done by lying face up on an exercise mat with your feet in the air and your knees bent at a 90 degree angle. Place your hands behind your head (again, don’t interlace the fingers in order to avoid injury). From this position, contract your abdominals in an attempt to touch your left knee with your right elbow. Return to the starting position, then perform the movement again, this time contracting your abdominals while trying to touch your left elbow to your right knee. Return to the starting position again. This is one repetition.
It is very tempting to try to move quickly during this exercise since the abdominals are subject to constant resistance for the duration of the set. Once again, the more focused your efforts are, the better the results will be. Try not to rush yourself, and perform every part of the exercise slowly and deliberately.
Conclusion
Concentrating on performing each repetition of each exercise with superior form and timing will separate you from those who do hundreds of sit-ups and get no results. The training is arduous, but if six-packs were easy to attain, wouldn’t everyone have a set?
Following the guidelines described above will put you well on your way towards the six-pack you desire. They’re not easy principles to follow at first, but you'll become more comfortable with them in time. Stick to it, and before you know it you’ll proudly displaying the prize you've earned through all of your hard work.
As a final note, be sure to check with your physician before making any major changes to your diet, or before beginning a new exercise program. Good luck, and enjoy your new set of six-pack abs!