My Way To Get A Six Pack

[Jerry Maguire]

How to get a six-pack.

There are two things that you must do in order to have a great 6-pack

1) Do exercises which work that area (obviously)

2) Keep a reasonably low % bodyfat - obviously your great abs aren't going to show through a beer belly!

Exercises

There are 4 key components to a good ab workout

1) Contraction, using your abs by pulling them closer together.
2) Extension, using your abs by pushing them further apart.
3) Rotation, using your abs to rotate your upper body, working your obliques (or sides of abs)
4) Holding, using your abs to maintain a pose.

Here is my tried and tested ab workout encorporating all 4 of these. (I do 7 seperate exercises, feel free to cut out ones you feel are uneffective, but at least have one of each group!)


Contraction;
Situps
http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1997/06jun/sit_up.htm

Jack-knives
Lie flat on your back with your legs straight out together and your arms extended on the floor above your head. Raise your upper and lower body simultaneously, extending hands to feet. Concentrate on using your abdominals to raise your upper and lower body. Pause at the top of the exercise, when your abdominals are contracted, then slowly lower to the starting position.

Crunches with legs up, knees at 90 degrees


Extension;
Back extensions
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/ErectorSpinae/WtBackExtension.html
Do these, but face down on a mat, using your lower back muscles to lift your upper body up, with your face 4-6 inches off the mat

Leg raises
http://www.leehayward.com/pics/legraise1.gif
Do this, but on a mat, on your back, with your arms out at 90 degree angles from your body, palms up.


Rotation;
Situp position, move your legs in a cycling motion, moving your elbows to opposite knees


Holding;
The plank
Lie face down on mat with elbows resting on floor next to chest. Push your body off the floor in a pushup position with body resting on elbows or hands. Contract the abs and keep the body in a straight line from head to toes. Hold for 30-60 seconds and repeat as many times as you can. For beginners, do this move on your knees and gradually work your way up to
balancing on your toes.





Losing fat

For some lucky people, part 1 (Exercises) may be enough, that is if you're pretty lean.
For those not so lucky, losing weight can be fun, but never easy.

1) Diet
- 6 small meals a day is better than 3 large ones, it speeds up your metabolism.
- Aim to eat 5 pieces of fruit or veg a day, replacing chocolate or crisps/potato chips with a healthy banana.
- Drink 2-3 litres of water a day, this helps speed up metabolism too, and is a lot better for you than fizzy drinks.
- Try grilling meat instead of always frying it, it tastes just as good and is a much healthier option

2) CV (Cardiovascular exercise)
-Running, the most effective way of burning calories, for maximum effect run in the morning when your stress hormone is at its highest.
-Swimming, in some circumstances can be as good for you as running, plus it tones your whole body!
-Cycling, for those of you that have bad knees, cycling is good for you and takes the impact out of your legs that you take when running
-Sports, the best way to burn calories, when you enjoy a sport and it provides you a good workout, this is the best way because you don't feel forced or pained to do it.

 

[semag]

My thoughts:

- Simplistic post, it breaks down the necessary steps, but doesn't give people enough emphasis on what is really needed, lets them draw their own stereotypical conclusions. In essence, it's not going to change anyone's preconceptions, and if they didn't have preconceptions, they'd already have a six pack.

Quoting Jerry Maguire:
1) Diet
- 6 small meals a day is better than 3 large ones, it speeds up your metabolism.
- Aim to eat 5 pieces of fruit or veg a day, replacing .....

90% of your work will go into this!

Quoting Jerry Maguire:

All that other shyt...

10% of your work will go into this

 

[Alpine]

Great stuff, so let's see a picture of your washboard abdominals then.

 

[harwell]

semag's got it on straight...

 

[mentalwealth]

really with the 6 small meals? I do better with the stretched out 3 meals, or so it seems.

 

[Climax]

My 2c...

Originally posted by mentalwealth
really with the 6 small meals? I do better with the stretched out 3 meals, or so it seems.

yeah.. 6 meals is better, i have noticed a difference... But remember, each one of your 6 meals should be about a hhandfull or 2 in size, no more than that. And obviously the food that you eat needs to be as fat free etc as possible.

Fruit is good, so if u are hungry after a meal, grab a fruit or two and "fill up". Excercises like crunches and situps about 3 - 4 times a week does the job for me... Within about 3 months of doing just that my abs are starting to show, and i can see an improement by the week now. I do 200 crunches, and about 100 situps, about 3 times a week (if i feel like it, i'll do 4 times a week)

Keep away from things like potato chips and all that junk food. I allow myself ONE "junk food" item a day... So I'll have 1 small packet of potato chips the one day,and then maybe a small chocolate the next, etc.

Besides for the ab workouts etc, u need to te a low body fat %, which i am getting through my soccer and surfing. I plat soccer about 3 - 4 times a week, and i surf when i get the chance (normaly on week ends) Your muscles "work out" while u sleep too (when ur body is at rest) so try get enough sleeep. I for one am not fond os sleeping too much because i think life is short enough as it is, so i sleep the minimum, about 6 hours a night (go to sleep at about 12, wake up at 6am)

Now the food that u eat... Try have at least one portion of chicken a day (protein), then just try eat "ealthy" food that give your body what it needs, without the excess fat. I also make myself a shake that consists of 1 banana and half a cup of milk, blended togeather (i have 2 servings of that a day)

Whenever i eat something that might be "not good" like a nice fat hamburger, then I'll do excercise right afterwards, i normally run about 2km on a tred mill, or I'll go play some soccer, etc, just burn the calories/fat.

Well there is MY diet which seems to work fine for me, so try it


Laterz...

 

[Jerry Maguire]

Originally posted by semag
My thoughts:

- Simplistic post, it breaks down the necessary steps, but doesn't give people enough emphasis on what is really needed, lets them draw their own stereotypical conclusions. In essence, it's not going to change anyone's preconceptions, and if they didn't have preconceptions, they'd already have a six pack.

90% of your work will go into this!

10% of your work will go into this

I wouldn't say it's 90/10, nor would I feel the need to express it as a ratio.

Without one, the other is useless.

Originally posted by Alpine
Great stuff, so let's see a picture of your washboard abdominals then.

http://www.faceparty.com/member_zoo...name=cky_robbie&img_id=11892341&acstr=Z772596

I've been doing ab exercises for around 6 months and eating properly for around 3 months.

The workout I've posted above has been developed through time and testing so I've only really been using it for about a month or so.

 

[MindOverMatter]

good job man, keep it up!

 

[semag]

I wouldn't say it's 90/10, nor would I feel the need to express it as a ratio.

Without one, the other is useless.

I agree partially. I was a little aggressive in my 90/10 explanation, but diet is the key factor. In fact, if you're lifting correctly, you can do it without any ab work really at all - squats and deads will give you a strong enough core to give you a visible six pack.

 

[Alpine]

Good job Mr M.

The abs are a perfect example of muscles that irrespective of training, vary emmensely between individuals.

For instance you have a wide gap between attachment points and they are closer to the final insertion point making their size appear irregular.

 

[Double]

do you all want a six pack no matter how skinny you are. yeh his six pack looks great but i would rather have a gut and some muscles. each to his own, just asking i know this is not a bodybuilding forum

 

[Alpine]

I want muscle AND a six pack, but then I'm greedy.

 

[Jerry Maguire]

Originally posted by Double
do you all want a six pack no matter how skinny you are. yeh his six pack looks great but i would rather have a gut and some muscles. each to his own, just asking i know this is not a bodybuilding forum

I'm going for the Bruce Lee physique.
There's no point in me bulking up and going for lots of muscle because I have a small build.
Whereas if you have a bigger build it'd be better to go for the muscles with a bit of a gut.

 

[Jerry Maguire]

Bump. Useful thread.

 

[reyalp]

i'm in agreement with semag here.

if you really want exercises to build up a good six-pack, start with the combination lifts: squats, deads, rows, bench. Then, if you're out of proportion, add isolation exercises to bring additional hypertrophy to those muscle groups.

but as has been said before in other threads, six-pack abs start in the kitchen.

 

[shydude]

Great post!! My diet is to eat nothing at all!i eat like once a day then for the rest of the fday i eat fruits and drink water@!!!! WORKS GREAT!!! U LOOSE LIKE A POUND A DAY!!! SERIOSULY I LOST 6 POUNDS A WEEK!!!

 

[Cloud-uk]

I agree partially. I was a little aggressive in my 90/10 explanation, but diet is the key factor. In fact, if you're lifting correctly, you can do it without any ab work really at all - squats and deads will give you a strong enough core to give you a visible six pack.

Mind you if someone is just starting out with weights I'd reccomend doing a could of weeks abbs training just so that they have some muscle to stabilise the squat/deadlift. I think the key words here are 'lift correctly', lest someone snaps themselves.

Great post!! My diet is to eat nothing at all!i eat like once a day then for the rest of the fday i eat fruits and drink water@!!!! WORKS GREAT!!! U LOOSE LIKE A POUND A DAY!!! SERIOSULY I LOST 6 POUNDS A WEEK!!!

Oh just shut up :cuss:.

 

[semag]

True... one set of heavy ab work to about 10 reps should do ya every week... that's what i meant. I was trying to go to the extreme to get the thought out of people's heads that they need to do 180000 crunches every day

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

My philosophy is this:

Train your whole body. Only emphasize what you care about though. If you want ripped abs, work in an ab routine no more than three times per week.

I personally work my ab stuff in between sets. It saves time and keeps my heart pumping.

A girl once told me (two years ago about 6 months before the peak of my training) that if she had seen my abs while she was standing, that she would have fallen over. I do the following.


Do 2 sets of each of these exercises, it doesn't matter if you do 2 in a row or rotate through twice.

Crunches with feet straight out.

Crunches with knees bent at 90 degrees

Crunches with feet straight up in the air.

Smurfs: balance on your ass, bend legs and cross them in front of you. Lean back while balanced on your butt and rotate about your spine from side to side quickly for as many times as you can stand. It burns so good!

Skulls: balance on your butt, and extend your legs and lean back until your shoulderblades almost touch then ground, then crunch your legs in and sit up while balancing. Like the rowing motion.

Bicycles: Do half like you're pedaling a bike, and half like you're pedaling a bike backwards.

If you've got access to a hyperextension bench, then you can have the sexiest back and obliques ever sculpted. Simply grab a 10 lb weight, cross your arms over your chest with it, get on the bench so that your right or left hip is against the pad, and do crunches for your sides.

Without that I do the standard side crunch by pressing my knees to one side, keeping my shoulders fairly square to the ground, focusing on my obliques, and crunching up.

Work up to the whole routine gradually, and keep your body guessing about what's coming next. Don't do them in the same order so it fatigues everything differently, beacuse certain muscles will get worked harder depending on the order you do those in. The above exercises are what I've compiled over years of competetive swimming and rowing.
I have had a series of unfortunate events over the past year that have led to a weight reduction of 20 lbs from 155 to 135, but in 1 month I've regained 10 lbs and I've already got the 6-pack back thanks to the workout I've listed above.