Pose the question "what part of your body would you most like to look the best?" and I’d say three out of four would probably have abs up in their top two. You can turn on your television any time after 1 AM and see somebody somewhere trying to sell you a product to make your abs better. How do you get good looking abs is a question that I tend to field often. Everyone would love a nice six-pack to flaunt at the beach or anywhere else you see fit. Over the next couple paragraphs I will try and unmask the answer to this not as simple as it seems question.
"WHAT EXERCISES SHOULD I DO FOR MY ABS?"
The answer most would expect to this question would be crunches or sit ups. That is partially right (I will discuss later on), but not the best answer. The best answer to this is to do exercises that use the larger muscles of your body. Squats, bench press, and dead lifts are all simple exercises that anyone can pick up with a little research or advise. The reason I say you should focus on these exercises before crunches is because they burn way more fat than any ab movement ever could. Your body will eat up all the energy from your diet before it starts to eat up excess fat reserves. The before mention exercises will tax your body of the diet energy and force it to start using the fat (whcih by the way is an excellent source of energy) way faster than if you were only working on abs. The key to a six-pack isn’t abs of steel, rather its a low enough body fat percentage that your abs are visible. A great percentage for males to shoot for is 10 or less, but I’d be willing to bet you could start to see some ab muscles at 12. For girls I would say about 16 percent should suffice. THE LOWER YOUR BODY FAT, THE BETTER YOUR ABS WILL LOOK (please don’t starve yourself because that never looks good!). Another misconception many people make, often females but some males, is that cardio followed by an ab workout will do the trick. It may if you run cross country-runner distances at cross country-runner paces, but it probably isn’t the most effective method if your a non-competition athlete. The reason cardio isn’t as effective as lifting weights is the burn your body feels post workout. A cardio workout will burn for about an hour or two afterwards, while a weighted work out could burn up to a day or a bit longer post workout. Thats roughly 22 more hours that the fat reserves could be used. Keep in mind that you don’t have to use huge weights or even do marathon lifts, a simple 3 sets of 8 reps with sufficient (meaning you feel a struggle by the 6th rep) weight will do. In short, burning that extra fat with the help of weight lifting is the start to a solid six-pack.
"I ALREADY LIFT 3 DAYS A WEEK, BUT CAN’T GET MY BODY FAT LOW ENOGUH, WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?"
The problem here is diet. This is what I would call the main problem of the average college student my age. Of course you need protein, but you probably arn’t doing yourself a favor by asking for it fried and breaded. Many people analyze diets down to the nearest gram, and for some that may be necessary, but my method is to eat what you think is healthy. A little common sense is called for my diet. If its cooked in greise or comes in a box, its probably not that healthy. Eat grilled or baked lean meat (chicken, steak, fish). Eat plenty of vegtables. Go very moderate on the dessert and snack food (my favorite snack food replacement is almonds). Drink plenty of water, milk, and juice. Take a daily multivitamin. Control your portions by eating slow (wait 20 minutes before you go back for seconds). Drink alcohol only moderately (this will shoot down most people, but its your six-pack). Eating a clean diet can almost instantly drop weight off of anyone who doesn’t already.
Another possible fix that could be made would be to install some cardio. Personally, two days for 15 mins a peice is enough for me. Just do something to get a good sweat going and possibly get you out of breathe. I prefer High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on a treadmill, or pretty much just a bunch of short sprints. HIIT has also been proven to burn more fat than just doing a 30 minute jog at one pace. I know many people arn’t fans of cardio and I have to say I don’t really love it either, but it works. Just think of it as another exercise to help build those calves you been wanting along with the six-pack.
"I GOT MY ABS SHOWING, HOW DO I MAKE THEM BETTER?"
It only makes sense to me to work your abs at the end of your workout. You pretty much use them in every other lift and they are the perfect group to finish your work out with. They should only be worked three, at most, four times a week. They also need time to recover. My favorite ab defining exercises are slow crunches, side and regular planks, reverse crunches, laying leg lifts, side crunches, crunches on a declined ab bench, and hanging leg lifts. As you can see that is a lot of exercises, but those arn’t the only ab exercises I do. My theory to making your abs look great is that you have to mix up your ab workouts constantly. Never do the same exercises more than three workouts in a row. Always keep them guessing and push until failure (remember fast is not always better, go slow with error free form). One of my favorite things to do is to ask a buddy for a new ab workout. The days I do something fresh my abs will almost always look better than if I did the same old thing. I would suggest spending 10, but no more than 15 minutes working your abs.
In conclusion, nice abs arn’t as far off as you think. Self discipline and a little hard work is all it takes. Just remember…
1) Burn extra fat with large muscle exercises
2) Eat right and do some cardio
3) Mix up the ab workout
and you too can be that person giving this advice!
If you have any questions or want further advice, feel free to PM me.
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