November 14
The Truth in Getting Six Pack Abs!
Before you understand the quickest way to get a ripped six pack, you must first understand truth. Once you have separated truth from misconception, lies, myths, and rumors you can then get the ripped six pack you are looking for. Let me clear things up for you.
Even fitness experts are out to get you with their "equipment" or "supplements". So lets learn how NOT to get a six pack.
Here are some things to avoid when looking to get that ripped six pack!
1. Special abdominal machines. Your watching a show and that ad comes on about the best abdominal machine in the world. Just 10 minutes a day to ripped abs. Nothing could be further from the truth. The quickest way to get a ripped six pack is dieting!
2. Doing countless crunches and ab work in the gym. Crunches are a decent exercise to build a decent midsection. However, they are not the most affective way of building your abs and can lead to injury if you perform hundreds the wrong way! People often tend to use their hip flexors to often while doing crunches, which has been shown to decrease muscle activity.
3. Starving diets. This is the biggest gimmick out there. Starve yourself? This slows your metabolism down and instead of burning carbohydrates your body looks to your burn your muscle tissues. Yes, you will lose weight but most of it will be muscle. Your body will then start holding on to fat cells because it senses that it is not getting the nutrients it needs. Muscle tissues burn calories, which in turn burns calories and fat. Why would you want to use your muscle for energy? I know I would not want to! Not to mention starving yourself puts you at risk for diabetes.
4. Diet pills. Sorry. THIS is the biggest scam out there. Diet pills are horrible for your health with no results! Usually they are loaded up with dangerous amounts of caffeine. They waste your health and empty your pockets. Diet and nutrition are your best friends to get a ripped six pack. Rely on diet pills and you’ll be further away from your goal then ever!
Here is how you can get that 6 pack abs:
There can sometimes be a misconception that abdominals are not proper muscles (I assume they are mistaken for tendants because of the way they function). So knowing that the same fundamentals apply for building abdominal muscle size as with other parts of your body.
- You need high intensity (overload), low repetitions and proper recovery time.
So increase the difficulty of your abdominal routine whilst reducing the repetitions and avoid working your abs on consecutive days. Also you should separate your ab workouts to be on different days. So target your lower abs, upper abs and obliques individually on separate days.
Fat loss. Let me repeat for emphasis you need to reduce body fat.
Everyone has 6 pack abs, the problem is the layer of fat covering them up.
Unfortunately for most people the body generally stores fat around the stomach first and loses it around the stomach last. So to have a chance of seeing your abs you will need to drop your body fat percentage below 12% and for that model-esque look you will need to be around 8%. So the question becomes how you drop that body fat? Well in short you will need to:
- Reduce your saturated fat intake (Deep fried foods, any fat that is solid at room temperature) and eat plenty of healthy food.
- Stop drinking sodas and drink plenty of water.
- Increase your cardio routine to burn more calories (as well as other benefits such as boosting metabolism). Dancing and boxing are two excellent high intensity cardio workouts that will also build strength and flexibility for your abs.
- Build some muscles, they are a boost for your metabolism.
- Ensure you are not eating more calories than you need.
- Have enough sleep.
Now you know the basics of getting a 6 pack. It is time to put it into practice and develop a program that will suit your needs but will successfully lead you to that 6 pack you want.
If you are serious about getting 6 pack abs, get this: The Truth About Abs
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I read an article recently that had an interview with natural bodybuilder Hugo Rivera. He recommends systematically increasing cardio and then reducing carbs when you’re really trying to lean up.
And I really do have to agree with you when it comes to diet pills. Have some discipline and make changes to your actual lifestyle. Don’t try to rely on a pill!
Hi,
Thanks for clearing my doubts about abdominal workouts .
I think i need to get my basics straight about the abdominal workouts.
-Nancy
What makes a man perfect? These are constant efforts, proper coaching, a life long learning and hard work. Perhaps we don’t know everything in beginning even in presence of experts. So it takes time to read all that good information just like your site. It might be another difficulty to find all good sites and blogs because majority of creepy blogs hold top positions.
Hi,
I agree, nothing better than high intensity exercise, like weighted crunches. Using weight to increase the intensity is easy and effective. Weight increases the strength building aspect of your workout and more strength means more muscle…Add this to a well balanced diet and everything should be ok.
Completely agree with all your points, I think the most important thing is making the decision that you are going to change. A lot of diet products and guides pretend that it’s going to be a walk in the park, no effort required.
Its so good to read some real advice and tips and advice on getting six pack abs. So so many people I know are still convinced that countless amounts of sit ups are going to give them a six pack, what they fail to realise (and like you said) is that they already have a six pack and they simply need to follow their body fat levels for them to be visible. Dont get me wrong, its important to have strong and developed abs, but diet is without a doubt the most important factor for them being visible.
Excellent article, I have written a similar one on my blog today, you’ve covered the all important points that are:
1. everyone has abs, it is the layer of fat above them that determines whether you can see them or not.
2. doing endless sets of crunches will not reduce the fat in the midsection, spot reduction is NOT possible.
3. Starving yourself is a very bad idea when it comes to weight loss, and is infact the opposite of what you actually want to do.
Nice article here. I was a victim of doing too many crunches the wrong way
, and then I found this system thanks to a lot of friends.
And, I believe pills can have a harmful effect somewhere down the line, so it’s just not worth it to me.
-Rob
When I have a client who is a hard gainer that wants a six pack I use a three step process:
1. New nutritional profile including bodyweight in kg x .03 to get the water intake in litres.
2. Cardio, cardio and cardio for the first 2 weeks, then alternate with full body plyometrics day on day off with sunday as a repair day.
3. Complete ab program (a whole 7 minutes per day lol)
They get fantastic results really fast.
Hard training and cleaning up yout diet will acheive everthing as far a 6 pack abs. Use the mirror, it will tell you what you need to do.
Hi,
The things you say are very accurate.
Using weight to increase the intensity is easy and effective. Weight increases the strength building aspect of your workout and more strength means more muscle…Add this to a well balanced diet and everything should be ok.
In my experience there are 3 important factors in achieving that ultimate six pack:
1. Strength exercises using weights
2. Aerobic exercise in short bursts of maximum effort such as sprints.
3. Correct diet.
Why do you think professional 100m runners have the physique they do?
I couldn’t agree more with the faddy machine comment. I have fallen for that myself. Most of the time the machine just ends up in the garage or something.
Great article particularly #3 starving diets and #4 Diet pills, i used to weigh over 127 kilos and tried doing both of them to lose weight and you are spot on with what you say.
I am glad to say i now weigh under 95 kilos and the best thing is i have toned my body up along the way and i now look awesome (i actually have ripped abs)and the best thing was it was fast abs,i actually achieved it in under six months.
I have written my story about how i achieved it and the reason why i had to do it pop over and take a look fast abs
keep up the good work.
Graham.
Finally a blog that busts the myths of the ab equipment you can get from those infomercials. I always thought the only equipment you should ever get is an exercise ball which really helps because doing crunches on one gives you more range without straining your neck and back.
I have some great tips on my blog as well about how to get good abs.
Great post mate,
i remember back when i first started on my quest to achieve my dream male abs i wanted results asap and would get really depressed if i could not see results straight away.
I was so overweight back then but i have to say i now look awesome and i have the male abs i had always dreamed of having.
Take a look at my site mate and let me know what you think male abs
Speak to you soon mate and keep up the great work,
Shaun.
Fantastic post on the core elements of training and nutrition. It wasn’t until I understood both that I got the results I really wanted. The hardest part for me was the motivation to get started. Once I started to see results and got my body fat to around 10%, it was much easier to maintain the routine and the lifestyle. Don’t ever want the beer belly now that I have a great set of abs. Would have been impossible without The Truth About Abs
Thanks for the great post. I’m someone who has struggled with “losing those last 10 pounds” and tried a lot of different abdominal fat reduction techniques. You hit the spot with your recommendation that leverages full aerobic exercise in addition to ab sizes.
It wasn’t until I added jogging to my routine that I made a real impact on my abdominal muscles. I was doing crunches and felt that my abs were strong but they were difficult to see. After I reduced my body fat percentage, I finally reach my goal of a great set of abdominal muscles. Thanks!
Great article, very informative. Getting that beautiful six pack is very hard if you are doing the wrong things! The day that you realise what nutrition and excerises you need to do is the day you will start seeing results.
Hey there,
What an excellent article. You are so right, when you say that everyone has six pack abs, and you’re also so right, when you talk of over training that often results from “cardio workouts”, when it’s focused, intense workouts that are required, plus set recovery periods.
For years now, we have told of the importance of working different muscle groups at different times, to allow for recovery time, however, this never normally includes the abdominal muscles.
Great job.
ReviewTruthAboutAbs
This is an amazing article, and you’re right. Dieting is an essential part of getting the perfect six back. Here you will find ways to reduce junk-food cravings, and find foods that will actually help burn belly fat. Check it out, it helped me to the 6 pack I’ve always wanted!
Lucky I found you blog post, if not I would have bought the ab king pro. Thanks for your great info.