Consider the object of your admiration: a chiseled six pack of abs glistening with sweat, the kind of abs that plaster magazine covers and appear in movie scenes. If you do 300 sit-ups a day and wonder why your stomach falls short of Hollywood standards, you may not be taking diet, genetics, cardio and intense abdominal exercises into account.
Steps to a Six Pack of Abs
Step 1
Evaluate and change your diet. Building a flat stomach is a combination of diet and training, with diet being more important. Keep track of what you currently eat in a day and the times of day you eat. At the end of the day, evaluate how many calories you consume, how many times you eat and how many nutrients you receive. To keep your metabolism going throughout the day, consume five to six mini-meals a day. Try to receive 45 to 65 percent of your daily calories from carbohydrates, 10 to 35 percent from protein and 20 to 35 percent from healthy fats, states MayoClinic.com. Avoid saturated and trans fats. Focus also on eating whole, natural food products.
Step 2
Do more cardiovascular exercise to burn calories and shed body fat. It is a commonly known fact that cardio burns calories. Most individuals would benefit most from a variety of cardio workouts a week, including circuits, sprints, long exercise sessions and intervals.
Step 3
Perform intense core exercises to strengthen abdominal muscles. You wouldn't do 100 reps of a bicep curl to get big biceps, so don't do 100 sit-ups to get ripped abs. Instead, focus on ab exercises that leave your muscles fatigued after several sets of 15 repetitions. You may increase the difficulty of many common ab exercises by incorporating a stability or medicine ball. Exercises such as a V-sit-up while holding a medicine ball over your head and elevating your feet throughout the exercise will give you an idea of what an intense ab exercise feels like.
Step 4
Don't forget about your lower back muscles. To prevent muscle imbalances and to stretch out your ab muscles, perform lower back exercises a few times a week.
References
- "Athletic Abs"; Scott Cole and Tom Seabourne; 2003.
- Mayo Clinic: Dietary Guidelines
Member Comments