Getting a six-pack

[Myweponsg00d]

The 5 minute crash course to getting a six pack:

 

1.) Eat right. You wont burn fat unless you eat right. Eat high protein, low fat, low carb, high fiber. Make sure to get SOME fat though (healthy fat like some nuts or olive oil or avocados) NO SODA, NO SUGAR, NO WHITE BREADS. ALWAYS get some protein after a workout. Eat a banana or something too. (providing that your source of protein didnt already have carbs)

 

2.) Strength training. All you need really is two 15-25 pound dumbells. Do any excercises you feel like. Work out your abs first, then legs, back, shoulders, arms. (This is from biggest muscle group to smallest) If you have no muscle anywhere else on your body, you probably wont get a 6pack. If you can find a bar to do pullups on, do those. Also do the traditional "body weight" excercises. Pushups, situps, squat jumps, etc.

 

3.) "Cardio". Dont "jog". Dont go out and leisurely jog for 60-90 minutes. If you are trying to build muscle this is one of the worst things you can do. Your cardio should take 20-30 mins maximum. Start with a 5 minute warm up jog, then SPRINT as fast as you can for 1 minute. Then slow down but do NOT jog, you need to keep the pace a little above a jog for 2 minutes. Then another minute sprint, followed by another 2 minute fast-jog. Reapeat once more then cooldown 5-10 minutes on a slow jog. As you get better you can lengthen the intervals of sprinting, but the whole workout should never really go past 30 minutes. After that point you are doing endurance training and it is mainly working out your circulatory and respiratory system. This isn't what you want. You want to send your muscles into overdrive and burn off all your fat stores. Oh...and you can do other things for this too. Swim, bike, etc...just apply the same philosophy. If you are on an excercise bike, you don't have to do "fast peddling" you can do "higher resistance/incline" pedaling.

 

Thats really basically it. All it takes now is time and determination. DO NOT strength train two days in a row if you can possibly avoid it. If you end up having to strength train 2 days in a row, focus hard on areas you didnt work the day before. Do different excercises for sure. Get in 3 strength training sessions per week, and 2-3 fat burning sessions per week. DO NOT do strength training after doing your intervals. After doing this running your body is in fat-burning mode and if you lift weights, you could be burning up some muscle instead of fat. You CAN do your intervals after doing strength, but ideally you should be doing them on your days when you arent strength training.

 

 

THE MYTHS: Fat does not come off in targeted areas. You can't tell your body where to burn fat. You can't get a 6 pack just by doing ab workouts (this will just make your ab muscles larger, and the fat will still sit on top of them)

 

 

Good luck! If anything doesn't feel right to you, consult your doctor. The hardest part about getting into great shape is LEARNING HOW TO WORK OUT. It takes a lot of practice before you learn how much strain your muscles can take, and how much fatigue is normal to get a "hard" work out. Many people dont see results simply because they dont realize the power their body actually has. They dont push their limits because of the pain. Well, you have to push through the pain (SOME pain). You cant teach anybody this because everyone has their own level of pain. Some people feel like theyre gonna tear a muscle, but in reality they could lift 50 pounds more. Some people feel like they aren't hurt, yet their muscle just tore. You need to find out where you lie and learn what ammount of pain gives you a "good" workout.

 

EDIT: I forgot....WATER. Drink plenty of water. Drink it when you are not thirsty (but not TOO much...youll know when to stop) If you ever feel "thirsty" this means you have waited too long to drink. Dehydration sets in long before people "feel thirsty"!

[Rebdragon]

You realize you wrote an entire essay of a post that essentially says nothing more than "eat right and exercise"? I mean, your tip on "cardio" is bs as far as I know and you lifting info isn't really helpful in any way whatsoever.

 

I'm kinda being a [bleep] (sorry) but you really didn't say anything. Everything else is either fluff or an obvious already stated point.

[Tribal]

Do 6 inches

 

Lay on your back put your hands behind your head and hold your legs 6 inches off the ground hold it fo 30 seconds a rep do as many as you want.

 

Also bicycle kicks/scissor kicks

 

Lay on your back and with your legs kick in the air as if you were pedaling a bicycle.

 

You'll feel the burn son'

[Myweponsg00d]

You realize you wrote an entire essay of a post that essentially says nothing more than "eat right and exercise"? I mean, your tip on "cardio" is bs as far as I know and you lifting info isn't really helpful in any way whatsoever.

 

I'm kinda being a [bleep] (sorry) but you really didn't say anything. Everything else is either fluff or an obvious already stated point.

 

Sorry, but you're wrong. Doing extended periods of medium intensity cardio is going to do nothing for fat burning. I know, its hard to believe that so many people are wrong, but they are. If you jog at a 5-7 intensity for an hour or more, all you are doing is endurance training. When you do steady-state cardio all that is getting stronger is your heart and your lungs. Also, your body just "learns" how to burn off energy better. If you, an unprofessional athlete, for for a 60 minute run, you might burn off 200 calories of your fat stores. But, a marathon runner, his body has learned to make better use of his energy stores, so it will burn off calories at a much lower rate so that he can run for 5+ hours without harming his body. If you just job for longer and longer periods of time eventually you start burning calories at a slower and slower rate. Also, a long term medium intensity cardio workout will only burn calories during the workout.

 

When you do high intensity interval training, you burn during the workout, but more importantly it also gives a kick start to your metabolism. If you train effectively in intervals, you will turn your body into a fat burning machine, even when you arent working out.

 

Think about it this way: imagine the body of a marathon runner, and imagine the body of an olymic sprinter. The marathon runner sure is skinny, but his muscles are not large or well defined. Running for long durations just trains your body to survive on burning all of its energy, INCLUDING your muscles!

 

Olymic sprinters train in short burts of extreme intensity. These athletes are typically very muscular. Why? They burn the fat without losing muscle. If you do tons and tons of jogging you might be able to see a "six pack" in the form of being able to see your ab muscles. But in my mind I dont think this is what most people think of when they see the words "six pack". They think of a well defined, huge set of muscles. In order to build these muscles AND lose fat on your body, you really cannot be doing long-duration running.

 

Also I know I restated things that other people already said, but really I just wanted to sum up in one post what the OP wanted to know.

 

As far as saying nothing but "eat right and exercise" well, sorry, but this is the truth. There are no tricks to "getting a six pack". You wont have large muscles in your abs and small muscles everywhere else. You cant burn fat on your stomach by doing tons and tons of crunches. Its just a blatant lie. Your body decides where to burn fat off, not you. Also "lifting" does not help give you a six pack? Yes it does. You use your abs in basically every exercise you do. If you do nothing but a few "ab specific" exercises, you are gonna end up with a pretty weird set of ab muscles. Doing a wide variety of excercises helps define every part of your ab muscles. Also, if you are building muscle in all parts of your body, your body is going to be burning more calories and this will help get rid of your body fat. The biggest part of being able to see your ab muscles is just to burn off the fat. Everybody has a "decent" set of abs as long as you are not someone who has been in bed for 5 years. If you walk around every day, you have a set of ab muscles that can be seen if you had no fat on your midsection.

 

Merged posts ~ Jimmy_Jim

 

I forgot to mention that when you are doing something like jogging, your body must first burn the carbohydrates you ate today as part of its energy before you can start burning off fat stores. When you are sprinting, you are doing anaerobic exercise which can cut directly into fat stores without having used up your excess carb energy.

[bedman]

Hmm, I always thought you needed loong running/swimming/... to burn fat since you first need to use your calories, but if what you say about the anaerobics is true, then I guess you are right. Not that this is a big concern of me anyway, I've never had problems with overweight, even though I eat quite a lot and not always the most healthy (started changing that recently though).

 

I've been wondering. All these years, I've been doing athletics training, 3-5 times a week, and eating whatever I want. I never had overweight problems. Does this mean it wasn't a problem with the current training, or that I could have been better if I ate right. Note that in this athletic training, nearly no lifting training has been involved. It's all warm up, stretching, doing drills, and jumping exercises and doing the final form (sprints, jumps, hurdles, since I'm a highjumper/hurdle runner).

[Rebdragon]

Point taken. The cardio makes sense.

[Myweponsg00d]

Hmm, I always thought you needed loong running/swimming/... to burn fat since you first need to use your calories, but if what you say about the anaerobics is true, then I guess you are right. Not that this is a big concern of me anyway, I've never had problems with overweight, even though I eat quite a lot and not always the most healthy (started changing that recently though).

 

I've been wondering. All these years, I've been doing athletics training, 3-5 times a week, and eating whatever I want. I never had overweight problems. Does this mean it wasn't a problem with the current training, or that I could have been better if I ate right. Note that in this athletic training, nearly no lifting training has been involved. It's all warm up, stretching, doing drills, and jumping exercises and doing the final form (sprints, jumps, hurdles, since I'm a highjumper/hurdle runner).

 

How old are you? If you are a male with no health problems and under 20 years of age, theres a very good chance that you can just eat whatever you want and never see bad effects.

 

Also, "whatever you want" could very well be within healthy limits. The whole "watch your carbs" thing is for people who just want to build muscle and cut fat. Athletes such as yourself need a diet that is more like 60 or even 70% carbs, or else you won't have enough energy to compete. Just because you aren't watching your diet doesnt mean you are necessarily eating unhealthy for your body. Also, if "whatever you feel like" eating is delicious stuff like strawberries, bananas, graps, etc...then I would say you are a normal case and I wouldn't worry about your diet. If you are eating "whatever you want" and your diet is full of chips, cookies, saturated fats, etc...then my bets are that your metabolism is just very high at the moment. As you age, you might need to start watching what you eat.

 

But, if you keep involved in athletics, you will never have to worry about eating a few cookies every day or anything like that. As long as the majority of your diet consists of whole grain carbs, fruits and veggies, and low fat proteins (and a smaller ammount of healthy omega rich fats) your body SHOULDNT put on weight.

[AnthonyWL]

If you are only 14 mate don't worry about a 6 pack.. Just go for a few runs around the block or if you have a treadmill run 1-2k ]'s a night to keep healthy and active.

Now i ain't healthy. But im fit.. There is a difference. I can run 3k's (almost 2 miles for you Americans which is not much but still decent) without stopping and at a pretty decent pace.

 

I am 18 years old. 6 foot 5, fit, little bit of fat (but hey, its natural), pretty decent muscle although i never really train strength and i also have absolutely terrible family genes seeing my Father, his Father, my two Uncles and my cousins grow beer guts into their 20's :ohnoes:

 

My advice:

Just keep fit. Make sure you can run a little bit and that you don't eat toooo much junk. I always make sure i drink at least a Litre of Water a day, have an Apple and a Banana (healhiest fruit.. EVER!) eat Veggies for your dinner and that is pretty much it man. You don't need a 6 pack to live life. Just be who the hell you wanna be.

[llamster]

PLEASE READ THIS

 

I do these fairly infrequently and can notice the difference in my abs without even aiming for a six pack, they're far superior to situps.

 

I just went and did about 25; I felt kinda foolish, but hopefully they work.

[Vulxai]

PLEASE READ THIS

 

I do these fairly infrequently and can notice the difference in my abs without even aiming for a six pack, they're far superior to situps.

 

I just went and did about 25; I felt kinda foolish, but hopefully they work.

 

If you do only those, you won't see any results. After a short period of time, you're body will get used to it, resulting in a plateau effect. You need to confuse your body's muscles and switch up the routines, amount of reps per set, amount of sets per exercise, the order of the exercise, etc. Do all kinds of core exercises (In and Outs, Pulses, Rockers, etc) for the muscle building portion to tone and strengthen those muscles, but incorporate a whole lot of cardio to burn that fat away revealing your abs. You can do, as stated, running, swimming, biking and all that, but something I find even more effective is Plyometrics and Kenpo Karate. Just make a plan and stick to it. As far as the diet, I have a copy of the P90X nutrition excel guide, it can give you some sort of path to go one, and I find it effective. You can download the excel file and word docs here: http://www.thefitclubnetwork.com/2009/01/p90x-nutrition-plan-made-easy/, beneath the videos you'll find the excel sheet link in the text, and then the word docs for the 3 phases below that.

[assassin_696]

If you do only those, you won't see any results. After a short period of time, you're body will get used to it, resulting in a plateau effect. You need to confuse your body's muscles and switch up the routines, amount of reps per set, amount of sets per exercise, the order of the exercise, etc. Do all kinds of core exercises (In and Outs, Pulses, Rockers, etc) for the muscle building portion to tone and strengthen those muscles, but incorporate a whole lot of cardio to burn that fat away revealing your abs. You can do, as stated, running, swimming, biking and all that, but something I find even more effective is Plyometrics and Kenpo Karate. Just make a plan and stick to it. As far as the diet, I have a copy of the P90X nutrition excel guide, it can give you some sort of path to go one, and I find it effective. You can download the excel file and word docs here: http://www.thefitclubnetwork.com/2009/01/p90x-nutrition-plan-made-easy/, beneath the videos you'll find the excel sheet link in the text, and then the word docs for the 3 phases below that.

 

Well, that's not entirely true. I'm all in favour of changing up a routine but with the abs (depending on physiology) you can keep it simple and it will still work. You can often add resistance by gripping stuff with your legs and it'll work.

 

All this P90X stuff is great if it works for you and you have the equipment but the old ways still work you know. Squatting heavy three times a week is still a pretty damn good way to build legs, same principle. It's easy to overcomplicate this stuff, it doesn't have to be.

[LegendaryStu]

If you do only those, you won't see any results. After a short period of time, you're body will get used to it, resulting in a plateau effect. You need to confuse your body's muscles and switch up the routines, amount of reps per set, amount of sets per exercise, the order of the exercise, etc. Do all kinds of core exercises (In and Outs, Pulses, Rockers, etc) for the muscle building portion to tone and strengthen those muscles, but incorporate a whole lot of cardio to burn that fat away revealing your abs. You can do, as stated, running, swimming, biking and all that, but something I find even more effective is Plyometrics and Kenpo Karate. Just make a plan and stick to it. As far as the diet, I have a copy of the P90X nutrition excel guide, it can give you some sort of path to go one, and I find it effective. You can download the excel file and word docs here: http://www.thefitclubnetwork.com/2009/01/p90x-nutrition-plan-made-easy/, beneath the videos you'll find the excel sheet link in the text, and then the word docs for the 3 phases below that.

 

Well, that's not entirely true. I'm all in favour of changing up a routine but with the abs (depending on physiology) you can keep it simple and it will still work. You can often add resistance by gripping stuff with your legs and it'll work.

 

All this P90X stuff is great if it works for you and you have the equipment but the old ways still work you know. Squatting heavy three times a week is still a pretty damn good way to build legs, same principle. It's easy to overcomplicate this stuff, it doesn't have to be.

 

Squats

Miltary Press

Bench Press

 

and of course, the Deadlift.

 

Is it even possible to have a more effective strength training than tthat?

[Skeptical]

It's actually fairly simple. (I have visible abs with 0-effort though, so this might be easier for me than some)

 

- NO CRUNCHES: Russian Twists are my favorite.

- Eat better. Paleo Nutrition

[manitstinks]

What if you do cardio and the fat burns off the wrong places of the body?

Every time I lose some weight, I lose weight in my upper torso but my abs are still not visible.

I'm already skinny for my height but should I be worried?

[Myweponsg00d]

What if you do cardio and the fat burns off the wrong places of the body?

Every time I lose some weight, I lose weight in my upper torso but my abs are still not visible.

I'm already skinny for my height but should I be worried?

 

There is no way to tell your body where to burn fat. No need to worry, abs are usually the last place for everyone. To have a clearly visible "six pack" youre probably gonna need to go below 9% body fat.

[gremmy]

Drink water, plenty of water. Eat tons of vegetables, fruits and nuts. Eat somewhat healthy breakfast. Cardio. There you go :D

[OwnagePie]

Weighted ab exercises on your off days.