If you like the idea of having a great six-pack, get ready to commit to doing the work to get there. This means doing cardio fitness, monitoring your diet to lose weight, and doing specific exercises to target the muscles in your abdominal area that will make up your six-pack.
Step 1
Run three to five days a week and concentrate on drinking more water and eating less fatty foods to start losing weight. Research findings published in Obesity journal showed that drinking more water helps you lose weight faster, plus being hydrated makes you feel healthy and fresh. If you want your six-pack abs to be able to be seen by the world, you'll have to make sure they aren't blocked off from the rest of the world by a layer of fat.
Step 2
Work your lower abs by doing V-sits, vertical bench bent-knee and straight-leg raises, and incline leg raises. You'll have to go to the gym for the exercises involving benches. But if you're serious about systematically targeting each area of your abs for maximum impact, you might find the extra effort of going to the gym is worthwhile in the end.
Step 3
Target your upper abs by doing trunk curls, reverse curls, and trunk curls with a twist; in a study on which common ab exercises target different areas of the abdomen, these three exercises were shown by research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning to have the same levels of activation of your upper abdominals.
Step 4
Build core strength and awareness of the role your abdominals play in your movement and well-being by joining a yoga class. Exercises such as navasana, where you balance on your sit-bones with your upper torso and legs extended at 45 degree angles to the ground, will build solid strength over time.
Step 5
Define your abs further by doing Pilates exercises that strengthen your abs and your "powerhouse," the Pilates term for your abs, your back, and your glutes. Exercises such as "the hundred" and the many variations of drawing circles in the sky with your toes using your anchored abs as the source of this movement will have you wincing in pain during class, but admiring your toned tummy in the days and weeks that follow.
References
- RRDS Clinical Guide. Physical Fitness: A Guide for Individuals with Lower Limb Loss: Abdominals - Abdominal exercises
- Yoga Journal: Forget Six-Pack Abs
- "Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research"; Relative Activity of Abdominal Muscles During Commonly Prescribed Strengthening Exercises; Willett, GM; November 2001.
- "Obesity"; Drinking Water Is Associated With Weight Loss in Overweight Dieting Women Independent of Diet and Activity; JD Stookey, 2008.
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