(the workout program is at the end of this post, so if you don't want the diet information, just skip to the end)
Having good abs requires two things: low body-fat percentage and well-developed abdominal muscles. To achieve the former, you must have a proper diet and you must burn more calories than you take in (caloric deficit). To achieve the latter, you must do ab-specific exercises (crunches, knee raises, etc.). It's as simple as that. However, because of old myths about the midsection, strange exercise gadgets that don't do much, and a variety of nutritional nuclear bombs like McDonalds and processed foods, a six pack is very hard to come by these days.
A few months ago, in January, I started lifting weights, and my main goal was to get a six-pack. I wanted well-defined abs, because I thought that, when well developed, the abs are the most visually impressive muscle. I started picking up every fitness magazine I saw that even mentioned something about abs. I just started gathering loads of information on how to develop abs. About three months ago, I finally got on the right track. Everything just clicked, including my diet. Now, I have a truly cut and well-developed six-pack. You can see the before and after pics over at Post Your Pictures.
Right now, I'd like to share the best information that I know in relation to cutting body fat and developing the abs.
DIET
You've heard it before, and I'll tell you again: diet is your most important concern if you want to lose fat and sculpt those abs. Just creating a caloric deficit will not by itself make your abs shine through. By doing tons of cardio, you may lose fat, but you may not lose it around your midsection, and you will lose some valuable muscle in the process. The key to losing fat is not to starve yourself and run for miles a day on a treadmill.
Having a proper diet can seem like a daunting task. Most people make it very complicated. You have to count your calories, count your carbs, count your fat, count everything you take in. You also have to worry about when you eat what.
I'm going to give you a simple eating plan that incorporates ALL the latest dietary research that's out there. You don't have to count calories, carbs or anything. All you have to do is focus your diet as much as possible on the following twelve foods:
Almonds and other nuts
Beans
Spinach and other green vegetables
Dairy (low fat)
Instant oatmeal
Eggs
Turkey and other lean meat
Peanut butter (natural)
Olive oil
Whole-grain bread/pasta/rice
Extra-protein whey powder
Raspberries and other berries
If you look at the above foods, you'll realize that they incorporate a LOT of foods. "Lean meat" could be turkey, chicken, fish, roast beef (my fav), ham, etc. Dairy includes milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. "Green vegetables" includes all sorts of vegetables, actually: brocolli, bell peppers, onions, etc. So building a diet around these twelve power foods is actually very easy. Personally, I don't eat anything that's not on the above list.
Also, if you look carefully at all those foods, you'll notice that each one is loaded with at least one nutrient that's incredibly important to fat loss/building muscle. These twelve foods cover almost all the nutrients you could possibly need, and they cover them well.
Now, many of you may say, "Yeah, I know these foods are good for me. This is nothing special." But the brilliance is in how easy this is. I can randomly put together a sandwich using these foods. I'd take two pieces of whole-grain bread, and put on a couple slices of roast beef, two slices of cheese, at least a half cup of spinach, a tablespoon or two of peanut butter, and some mashed berries. Right there I have five power foods. This sandwich contains at least 25 grams of protein, 8 grams of fiber, and at least 5 grams each of monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat. It also has a whole bevy of vitamins and minerals from the spinach and berries. In addition, this sandwich is completely devoid of trans fat, high fructose corn syrup (or any processed sugar), or processed carbs. It also has almost no saturated fat. This sandwich is a thermonuclear missile of powerful nutrients, and it only took me a few seconds to put it together, because all I did was think of a few power foods to put on it.
So use these foods to build your diet. You can have a couple non-power foods in a day, but focus on the ones I listed above. They are the best things you can eat. Once a week, have a cheat meal where you can eat whatever you want (sound familiar?). Also, eat six times a day (three meals, three snacks). I recommend getting a blender and making smoothies as your snacks, because they take up a lot of room in your stomach and are good at keeping hunger away. Eat at least 1-2 power foods in each snack, and at least 3-4 power foods in each meal. It's easy to get even more, though, and that's good. I eat 6 or 7 power foods in a meal, and 4 or 5 in a smoothie.
There is no real portion control on this diet. The brilliance of it is that you will be getting all the fiber and monounsaturated fat you need, both of which help regulate appetite. Thus, your body will count calories for you and regulate its intake via hunger/appetite. In other words, you shouldn't get hungry while following this eating plan. There is no portion control, but use common sense. If you eat eight eggs and a jar of peanut butter every day, you'll get fat. Try not to eat more than one serving of each food in a meal.
Believe me, this eating plan works. I didn't start seeing results in my abs until I started following it. Three months later, I've got an enviable six-pack. I told my friend Megan about it a little over a week ago, and she started following it religiously. She's lost 12 pounds in the first week, and her stomach and butt are a LOT tighter and more toned. It may seem counterintuitive to not count calories or carbs, but it works. The results speak for themselves.
One last note: whatever you do, AVOID the following "nutrients": saturated fat, trans fatty acids (look for "hydrogenated vegetable oil" on the ingredients list), high fructose corn syrup, and processed white bread/rice.
EXERCISE
There are a lot of different approaches to losing fat. I recommend weight-lifting. Cardio is optional.
There are two ways that exercise burns calories: it burns calories during the workout, and it burns calories by raising your metabolism for a period of time afterward, which is called the "after-burn". Considering that at least 22 hours of your day is spent doing something other than exercising, the number of calories burned when you're at rest is far more important than the calories burned during the workout.
Now consider this: recent studies have shown that medium-intensity cardiovascular exercise, like jogging, will raise your metabolism for 30 to 60 minutes after the workout. Weight-lifting, however, will raise your metabolism for up to 48 hours after the workout! After weight-lifting, you're burning fat at an elevated rate for two whole days. Therefore, for losing weight, weight-lifting is the far superior option.
Consider also that muscle is your best ally in losing fat. For every pound of muscle you gain, you burn an extra 50 calories a day just doing nothing. If you gain five pounds of muscle, that's an extra 1750 calories you're burning each week. Assuming your diet stays the same, you'd be losing a pound of fat every two weeks.
The big problem with medium intensity cardio, however, is that not all the calories you burn are fat. Many of those calories are protein, and your body gets it from your muscle. If you stimulate those muscles with weight-lifting or HIIT, your body is less likely to break down your muscles for energy.
For optimal fat loss, I recommend the following workout program:
Monday: Circuit workout
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: Circuit workout
Thursday: rest
Friday: Circuit workout
Saturday: HIIT (high intensity interval training)
Sunday: rest
With this workout, you're metabolism will be elevated 24/7, so you'll burn a lot of fat. You'll also build muscle while you're at it.
ABDOMINAL EXERCISES
The abdominal muscles are not difficult to develop. The hard part is getting what's there to actually show. All you really need to build a nice midsection is one or two exercises for each muscle group. There are five different parts you have to train for a great midsection.
Rectus Abdominus - the actual "six-pack" is actually just one sheet of muscle
Upper abs: Swiss ball crunches, crunches, vertical crunches, cable crunches
Lower abs: Hanging knee raises, reverse crunches, roman chair knee raises
Transverse abdominus - the muscle running underneath the rectus abd.
Bridges, side bridges, swiss ball reverse crunches
Obliques
Side crunches, wood choppers, side bends with dumbell
Lower back
back extensions, supermans, deadlifts
All you really have to do is one exercise for each of those muscles, which comes out to five total. The exercises I listed are some of the most effective exercises for developing those muscles. Do 8-15 reps of each, and 2-3 sets. When doing a crunch-type exercise, make sure you really feel that contraction at the end of the motion. It should feel like you're squeezing the snot of your abs. Hold that contraction for a moment, then go back to the starting position. Do all these ab exercises with a slow and controlled motion, to make sure momentum doesn't help you along. As you get better at these exercises, you can start incorporating ballistic-type training where the concentric part of the motion is done as quickly as possible.
This is what worked for me. The book The Abs Diet was my greatest ally, and is what put me on the right track. I hope you try this out, and get the kind of results I got.
|
Thread: How to get ripped abs
-
06-04-2005, 11:15 PM #1
How to get ripped abs
-
06-04-2005, 11:17 PM #2
-
06-05-2005, 02:11 AM #3
-
06-05-2005, 02:19 AM #4
-
-
06-05-2005, 02:30 AM #5
-
06-05-2005, 03:22 AM #6
-
06-05-2005, 03:51 PM #7
-
06-05-2005, 04:06 PM #8
-
-
06-05-2005, 06:57 PM #9
-
06-05-2005, 08:49 PM #10
12 pounds in a week? Did this girl by chance give birth?
That's not healthy weight loss. The program looks good, but then, we all know what ripped abs require -- diet + cardio + weights = low body fat = ripped abs.
It ain't rocket science.
But thanks for the post.
SunnyI'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of bubble gum.
1 January 2017: 175.0
1 June 2017: 154.4
Goal Weight: 145.0 (by 1 August)
Week 1: 154.3 (6/2/17); Week 2: 154.4 (6/9/17); Week 3: 152.4 (6/16/17); Week 4: Friday 23th June; Week 5: Friday 30th June
-
06-06-2005, 06:10 PM #11
-
06-06-2005, 07:48 PM #12Originally Posted by SprtNvolcoM00On a bulking mission to reach 200lbs! Nickdawg's post are only that of my personal opnion and are for entertainment purposes only.
--why cut? When your arms could be bigger than a tree!
---Who cares if you can see Abs, If you can barely see your Arms!!
Bookmarks