how to get pack abs

We all want to possess killer abs – male or female, young or old. What myths are out there about developing athletic abs and what do you really need to do in order to develop a lean and defined midsection?

Below I have listed the four key ingredients you will need in order to develop a killer midsection and I have listed them in order of importance. You might be surprised to see that ab training is listed last. The four key areas that need to be addressed are:

1. Nutrition

2. Resistance Training

3. Metabolic Training

4. Abdominal Training

Ingredient 1:

The Importance Of Nutrition In Developing Lean Six-Pack Abdominals They say that your abs are made in the kitchen. Well I like to think that the recipe for developing lean abs begins in the kitchen. However, there are other ingredients you will need in order to cook you up a set of lean abs, but let’s focus on the importance of nutrition here.

You cannot get your abdominals to stand out and trim your waistline, unless you address the area of nutrition. The only way to get your abs to stand out is to remove the layer of fat that’s keeping them from being exposed.

You can do all the abdominal training in the world, but it will do nothing to remove the fat that’s covering your abs. You must look carefully at your nutrition, addressing your eating habits and meal planning. Even if you are performing the perfect training program, it won’t matter if you are eating poorly. There is no training program that I know of that is powerful enough to overcome a poor diet.

Ingredient 2:

Resistance Training is of the utmost importance when Developing Lean Six-Pack Abdominals. Remember the primary objective is to get your bodyfat levels low enough to expose your abs. Resistance training will help you enormously in getting your bodyfat levels down to a point where your abs will be able to be seen while helping you to maximise the development of the muscle itself.

The BIG Lifts!

Focus on the BIG lifts and bodyweight exercises. The BIG lifts are exercises such as the barbell of dumbbell bench press, squats, lunges, dead lifts and Olympic lifts. These exercises will do more for your abs than any isolation abdominal exercise or abdominal gadget could ever do.

Unilateral Training!

Unilateral training (single leg or single arm exercises) of ANY description requires the abdominals to perform anti rotation movement and stabilization of the entire body. These actions are the primary function of the abdominals. The idea that abdominals are for trunk flexion is a massive misconception!

Bodyweight Training!

People have developed the notion that bodyweight training is easy and they MUST do weights in order to tax themselves. I beg to differ. Just because you can do 10 half arsed push-ups does NOT mean you can master your Bodyweight!

Bodyweight exercises such as push ups, chin ups, parallel bar dips, inverted body rows, bodyweight squats, single leg squats, jumps, burpees and plank exercise variations all have progressions and they can all create a VERY effective workout that EVERYONE can benefit from. Supporting your body in all these positions not only taxes the abdominals, but it’s functional as well! You should always have the goal of been able to perform these exercises and it’s never too late to learn how to master your own bodyweight. Not only that but once you master these bodyweight exercises you can always start adding additional load in order to further challenge yourself and keep progressing.

Ingredient 3:

The importance of metabolic training in developing lean six-pack abdominals. We just told you that you have to remove the layer of excess fat from your midsection in order to get your abs to show. So how do you do that??? Well you primarily want to be using fat loss training principles and protocols. thats where the problem originates. They DON’T KNOW how to properly train for fat loss.

Way to many people train like endurance athletes when it comes to fat loss. since when did endurance equal fat loss??? Just because endurance athletes are skinny or slightly built does not mean that it is the way to train to get lean and burn bodyfat. Sprinters are much better built and leaner than endurance athletes, and sprinters DO NOT perform endurance training. They train metabolically and to increase work capacity, not endurance. Remember you are training for fat loss, not to increase your endurance or become an endurance athlete.

You need to HIT the fat loss accelerator and you do that by performing HIT (High Intensity Training). This means you should be doing full body resistance training routines, various bodyweight or weight training based circuit training protocols, and interval training protocols.

All these training methods have a metabolic component to them. They not only attack the muscle, which is metabolically active, but these training methods also create EPOC. EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption is your friend. I like to refer to this as ABE (After Burn Effect). ABE is your fat loss friend. Performing metabolic type work will not only allow you to burn a load of calories whilst you train, but due to the elevation in your metabolism post exercise, you will continue to burn more calories post exercise. This is why we say you need to think outside the workout. You must not only be concerned with what impact the training you do has on your body and metabolism during training, but also what impact your training has on your body and metabolism after you complete your session (POST EXERCISE).

Sprint Training!

Sprinting has shown exciting results for both abdominal development AND spot reduction. This is simply an observation that I have made, but I DON’T think it’s in any way a coincidence that SPRINTERS have highly developed and LEAN abs. I very much doubt it’s from the crunches they do before they go to bed every night. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think it just MIGHT be the sprinting!

So remember to train METABOLICALLY for fat loss, not aerobically. Train like the sprinter, not the endurance athlete.

Ingredient 4:

The Importance Of Abdominal Training In Developing Lean Six-Pack Abdominals. How important do you think ab work actually is in developing a lean set of abs??? Most people tend to give the right answer, but the amount of ab work they tend to do doesn’t line up with what they say. The fact is that you don’t need to do endless amounts of ab work. The priority is getting your bodyfat levels down.

However, everyone seems to love doing ab work. Problem is that most people perform the most ineffective ab exercises possible. Multiple repititions of crunches, oblique work and leg raises. You may need to adjust the way you think about training your abs. Don’t forget that the big lifts and the big movements, such as sprinting, will do more for your abs than any isolated or direct ab exercise.

Here’s are the main problems I see with people and their abdominal training routines:

• Too much direct or isolated ab work
• Too much ab work, performed too often
• Too much emphasis placed on trunk flexion (crunches)
• Too many exercises performed in a lying supine position (crunches, oblique crunches, etc)
• Too many total repetitions and not enough load/stress placed on the abs

Instead you should focus on performing the following:

Perform ‘ab work’ no more than 2 times per week. Perform stability based, anti-rotational and anti hyperextension exercises

Perform exercises that require transfer of energy through the midsection; back muscles and the abs through full body movements. Perform exercises in various positions. Supine, prone, side positions and grounded.

Abdominal Training Tools and Gadgets! There are numerous abdominal training tools and gadgets on the market today. Tools are useful. Gimmicky ab rollers and other gadgets are a waste of money. These gadgets do sell but they do not work and they are most certainly not needed.

Just thought you may be interested in reading this guide: Weight Bench and Female Bodybuilders

how to get six pack abs

The abdominals are a favorite area to train for many people may it be a man or a woman, middle age person trying to tackle back pains or a bodybuilder longing for that ripped midsection or lastly of course the average Joe showing off his six pack on the beach.

These muscles however small they maybe are a must for any guy. So here’s presenting the guide to a great six pack (or 8 whatever you want to call it!)

But Why Should I Develop My Abs? And How Do I Do It?

Benefits Of Exercising Abs. Well developed abdominals are not only aesthetically pleasing – they act as a support system for most exercises. For example, when performing heavy shoulder presses, strong abs help protect the back. While great abs are no substitute for a weight belt during heavy lifts, they do go a long way in helping prevent injury.

Importance Of Diet

Unless you eat right, you can do hundreds of reps of every ab exercise ever invented without seeing any significant results. Nine times out of ten, the reason why most people don’t have great abs is because of their diet. You must adhere to a sensible diet with low fat, moderate carbohydrates and high protein in order to get results.

Cardiovascular exercise. A few lucky people can develop great abs without having to do any cardio, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Cardio plays a big role in helping shedding off the fat covering the abdominals.

I would advise doing your cardiovascular workout first thing in the morning before any meals, because your body is more apt to burn fat at that time. You can do any cardiovascular exercise, although personally, I prefer cycling and swimming. It is low impact so I don’t put any undue stress on my joints.

A high-impact exercise such as running puts quite a bit of stress on the joints. As you get older, your joints will be able to tolerate lesser stress – which makes high-impact exercises less desirable. I also use the stationary bike, especially on days I don’t train legs.

I find that biking is not as heavy on the legs as the stair climber, so it allows me to fully recover from tough leg training sessions.

Training the Abdominals

There are many different exercises that target this area. The abdominal region is composed of the upper and lower abs, as well as the obliques. You should train each of these areas with different exercises. The following are exercises that help to develop and strengthen the lower abdominal region. Perform each repetition slowly, speed is not the key. Each rep should take about 2-3 seconds to complete. To start out, complete 2 sets of 15 repetitions. After 2-3 weeks, increase the reps to 20 repetitions.

Upper Abs

Ab Crunches

Ab Crunches

1. Lie on the ground with your knees bent at 90 degree level
2. Interlock your fingers behind your head ,take deep breath
3. Now slowly curl your torso towards your knees, contracting your abs intensely. Exhale as you do it.
4. Come back to starting position with a smooth motion. Inhale air again.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for 20 repetitions. Do 3 sets.

Situps

Sit Up

Of course everyone must know how to do that!

Lower Abs

Bent Leg Vertical Pelvic Thrusts

1. Lie flat on the floor and lift your legs and bend your knees so that your upper legs are perpendicular and your lower legs are parallel to the ground.
2. Slowly thrust your pelvis towards the ceiling, lifting your rear and tailbone off the ground about 2-3 inches. Pause at the top position.
3. Slowly lower to starting position and repeat.

Roman Chair Sit-up

1. Using a vertical bench, support your arms on the arm pads and back against the back pad. Your legs should now be hanging in the air.
2. Bend you knees and lift as high as possible, almost to your chest.
3. Slowly lower legs to the starting position. Hanging Straight Leg Raise
4. Starting position is hanging from a pull-up bar.
5. Straighten your legs out in front of you as high as possible, keeping the movement slow and steady. Try not to use momentum or sway.
6. Slowly lower back down to starting position.

Obliques

Twisted Crunches

Twisted Crunches

1. Lie on the ground with your knees bent at 90 degree level
2. Interlock your fingers behind your head,take deep breath
3. Slowly curl your torso up. Midway twist it towards right ,back to starting position and then towards left.
4. Repeat step 3 for 22 repetitions. Do 3 sets

Extra Exercises

The following are some exercises not really heard of but they work wonders. Try to add variety to your ab workout by including the following. For instance if you train your abs 4 days a week, devote at least one day to these exclusively.

Body Tighteners

Begin by lying on the floor on your back, with your arms above your head and legs straight out. Then pull your arms down by your side and lift your legs an inch or two above the ground.

Your back should be the only part of your body touching the floor, and your lower back should be rounded and in contact with the floor. Do not let your lower back arch and come up off the floor; this would place harmful stress on your back.

Hold this position for a set amount of time (between 15 and 30 seconds). Rest and repeat for the same number of seconds as before.

V-ups

V Up

Begin in a body tightener position, but with your arms above your head. Then using your stomach muscles, bend at the hips and bring your chest and legs up simultaneously into a V-position.

Drop your arms in front of you. Then drop back into a body tightener, but do not let your arms or legs touch the ground. Repeat.

Tuck-ups

Begin in a body tightener position with your arms above your head. Use your stomach muscles to lift your chest and pull your knees to your chest simultaneously. Drop back into a body tightener, without touching your arms or legs to the ground. Repeat.

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best abs

Abs is widely debated by experts. In reality, what works for someone else may not work for you. Since everyone has a different body type, results will vary from person to person. Abs workout tips. There are several exercises you can do for abs. Many of the people do not realize that most abdominal exercises are either ineffective or not needed.

There are some so called fitness experts out there who say that you can have one “cheat day” where you basically eat anything that you want all day. Don’t believe it. Six pack abs are a result of applying what I call the mathematics of weight loss a part of which means staying within your daily caloric requirement. A full day of cheating, where you stuff your face with all kinds of garbage, can add so many calories that it ends up ruining all the progress you made from 6 days of adhering to a strict diet. If you must cheat, have no more than one cheat meal a week which can include a nice desert. And if you are really serious you should offset that cheat meal with enough aerobic exercise to burn all the extra calories that you put into your system.

Six pack abs don’t come in a box or a bottle.

You don’t need fancy fat burners, dangerous diet pills, expensive equipment, or anything else they try to sell on television; if those things worked every couch potato in America would have six pack abs and the body of a fitness model. What you need to develop six pack abs are knowledge and discipline. You need the knowledge to know exactly what to do and the discipline to get your self to do it day after day until you reach your goal. And if you have the knowledge and the discipline it doesn’t matter how old you are or how much fat you have to lose or what type of genes you have. EVERYONE CAN HAVE SIX PACK ABS!

First let’s start with some basic anatomy. Abs are short for the abdominal muscles. The abdominal muscles are composed of 3 separate muscle groups. The main muscle group in the front of the torso is called the rectus abdominis and if you look closely you will see that it is split into 8 blocks. The next group of muscles on the lower sides of the torso just above the hips is called the obliques. And the muscles that tie into the rib cage are called the seratus. Everyone has a six pack. If you can’t see yours its not because they’re not there, they are just hiding underneath a layer of fat. Not thick skin, not loose skin, but fat.

Abdominal Muscle Anatomy

The secret to six pack abs are Discipline and Patience.

Everybody wants to have six pack abs, but so few are willing to do what it takes. Most people don’t have a clue about what it really takes to develop well defined abs. Most people think that developing six pack abs requires thousands of stomach crunches or situps. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is you can do crunches all day long and still never achieve the low body fat level definition required to sport the well defined abs that everyone desires. Stomach workouts are one of the least effective ways to develop washboard abs. Yet most people begin the search for six pack abs by searching for an ab workout.

Abs are like buried treasure. The treasure is there, you just have to find it. To find the treasure you only need to understand one thing…

Bodyfat Percentage

Whether or not you can see your abs comes down to one thing and one thing only…

Is Your BodyFat Percentage Low Enough?

Understanding your body fat percentage

and its relation to uncovering your six pack.

Bodyfat percentage is an expression of how much of your body is fat, and how much is lean body mass (LBM). Bodyfat is both subcutaneous (under the skin) and visceral (around the internal organs). As you age, more fat is deposited around viscerally, so that a 20-year-old woman may have much less total bodyfat than a 60-year-old woman, even if they appear to have the same subcutaneous fat measurements.

Abs don’t even start getting defined for most people until you are at less than 10% body fat for men and 15% body fat for women. So the goal becomes to reduce your body fat percentage to that level or better. Getting 6-pack abs is quite simple but requires a lot of hard work and dedication. Two things you need to do to get 6-pack abs. The first is to do ab exercises but that isnt as important as you might think. The second, and most important thing you need to do to get 6-pack abs is to lose weight.

Much of the frustration surrounding the abs is due to misinformation and unrealistic expectations. Despite the hard work of trainers everywhere, people still cling to outdated ideas on the proper way to work their abs and get the much-desired ‘six-pack.’ Examining the myths surrounding your abs is the first step towards setting reasonable goals for yourself.

Ab Myth No. 1: Doing Ab Exercises Gets Rid of Abdominal Fat

Unfortunately, spot reduction doesn’t work, either for the abs or for any other body part. The fallacy of spot reduction assumes that, if you have fat over your abs then exercising the ab muscles will make that fat go away. While exercising the muscle may increase endurance or strength, it won’t burn off the fat in that area.

The only way to burn fat from your belly is to reduce overall body fat by creating a calorie deficit. The healthiest way to do that is with consistent exercise (cardio, strength and flexibility workouts) and a healthy, low-calorie diet.

Ab Myth No. 2: Ab Muscles are Different From Other Muscles of the Body

Do you work your abs differently from other muscles in your body? If so, you’re not alone. Too often people work their abs every day without rest, hoping to burn the fat off with more exercise. But, your abdominal muscles are just like every other muscle in your body, so you should train them the same way you would train, say, your biceps or your chest. That means strength training 2-3 times a week, with rest in between and a variety of exercises to target different areas of the abs.

The trick to your abs is to realize that strength training is important to keep your belly strong, but ab exercises aren’t magic. Incorporating ab exercises into a complete routine is the only way to the wonderful world of six-packs. And, even if you don’t make it there, don’t worry. The rest of us haven’t either.

Do you ever do zillions of reps to work your abs? Haven’t we all? As you’ve read in the last few pages, your abs are just like every other muscle in your body. That means, you should train your abs the same way as the rest of your muscle groups. Ask yourself this question: would you do 100 bicep curls? Of course not, right? That makes no sense! Same thing applies to your abdominals. To make strength gains with your abs, you have to follow the same principles that apply everywhere else. That means you have to overload your muscles. The reason we feel the need to do so many reps is that we’re not working them hard enough, usually because of improper form. If you have to do 50 or more crunches before you feel fatigued, slow down and concentrate on your technique and having good form.

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