Six Pack Abs: Reality Check

This is true – if I get my body fat below 10% I can see my abs – if not I need an MRI to see them. In addition I need to work my abs about three times per week along with general strength training and aerobic exercise.

These fitness models that sell exercise equipment typically utilize full gym workouts and strict diets to become fitness models – that is how they get the job of selling this junk to the consumer.

Use your money to join a good gym instead.

http://www.antiagingatlanta.com

The thing is, the fitness model has nothing to do with the product whatsoever. They are just hired by an agency to come and do the ad spot for an afternoon. They get paid their money and they go. The consumer is duped into thinking that ab gimmick was the cause of their physique.

I have been on a health regime for the past 3 months. low carb, high protien, low fat, low sodium diet, with plenty of exercise, 3-4 days a week consisting of cardio, strength training and lots of walking. I have dropped aobut 15 lbs, and have started to see my abs coming through! all i have to do is keep it up. i don't use any gimmicks, just determination. :)

I have read up and talked to people doing strength training. The most important thing i have heard is to REST. Working out doing weights and training is pretty much breaking down the muscles. it is the time in between the workouts that will allow the muscles to rebuild themselves. thus a high protein diet will help here. so you should work out one area per day, and leave enough rest days in between before you start working out that muscle group again. but when you do workout that group, go hard. then take a few days to rest it.

Excellent advice all around, Mike.

Don't get taken over by (useless) machines - it's YOU, NOT the MACHINE, doing the job. I served for 5 years as an instructor with the special forces in my country and managed to turn couch potatoes into fighting machines within 3 month. They all could have modelled for "Beach-wear" or "Pro Ab King" after I was through with them.
We all did it without Pro Ab King or any other "device"!!!!
Ask any professional soldier in your neighborhood.
But, Pro Ab King would be a great bargain with the chisseled, perfect hair, perfect teeth TVbabes comming along, for the same throwaway price. :-)

how often do you have to work out and wat should you eat in order to be able to see your abs ?

im only 14 almost 16 and i do atleat 500 situps over a period of 3 days right, i say to my friends that i do that amount and they are sayin well why dont you have a six pack. well is it because my body fat is over 10 %. what can i do to make my abs come through and have a six pack because i hate seeing all the skiny kids at skool with the 6 packs hanging out just because they are skinny and they just poke out. could you email me a plan or a diet type thing if its possible??
thank you very much
luke

Even if the machines work, or not you still have to feel the burn. You cant expect abs by being lazy. The key for me was drinking lots of water and staying away from the simple sugars, like cake and cookies

luke,
try doing the dance dance revolution game for play station.. if you already do ab work outs alot then you probably have a six pack under a layer of fat... you need cardio to burn the calories and fat.. it is hard to target an area if this was the case then fat people would have skinny faces becusae they exercise there mouth by eating.. so you need to do cardio to burn fat and you need to eat a strick diet also .. so people are naturally skinny but for those who are not... some need to do a diet of low sugars.. more protein like chic and fish and brown rice and veggies and lots of water but DO NOt cut out carbs.. i am in medical school and i know that by cutting out carbs u cut out oxygene to ur brain

Yeah good advice... although I still bought this equipment. I never took any notice of the models and all that bull****. This thing is like a lazy way of exercising cause you do it all in one spot. Yes I did get a sixpack but only cause i trained 3 times a week strength training and 4 times a week cardio like a game of football/jogging/etc... I eat normal healthy food, and i don't care about eating less carbs and stuff, eat healthy with enough proteins, vitamins, etc... just don't eat junk food too often, and if you really wanna stay healthy and have a six pack, try using the stairs and don't get lazy

It's quite ludicrous to read this thread when the ads returned by Google is showing "How to Get Six Pack ABS".

hey everyone. i am an 18 year old active male. i run atleast 3 miles a day, and mix in some speed training through the week. i want to get a six pack and was wonderin if anyone can tell me a diet and ab workout to get me there thank you soo much. if you can e-mail me that would be great.

hi. my names lexi im 14, bout 5'5 in height, slim bodied. but there's this one problem, my tummy. my legs, arms are slim. how can i slim down my tummy , like 5 inches slimmer? prom is comming up. my tummy is really fat. like 28 inches. can you pls send me an exercise for the tummy , so my waist would be trimmed down. im gonna wait for your reply. thanks a lot!

To all who read this:

Ab training is THE hardest muscle group to obtain results. It's a frustration for a lot of guys. I hit a patch of time where I really started gaining muscle size and power. I made the mistake of getting into a routine of weighted ab training. It makes common sense but I didn't realize before how they are muscles just like all the others in your body. Now, my waistline has grownto about 36 inches however, I can still see the top four and general outline of the bottom ones. I'm very frusrated, and need any help or advice anyone can offer about dieting to still maintain this rate of growth but shed some more body fat. It sort of feels like the opposite happened of what I wanted to happen. I'm more than willing to trade resistance training tips for ab/dieting tips. Please help! EMail me!

I'm 17 and currently at 7.2% body fat and can clearly see my abs, but my main concern is my eatign haha im terrible, only have loads of tips that arnt mentioned here, or exercises that can help me more...

i know i already have a "6-pack" but i want to make it more solid and stand out even more.

hey, i starting modeling and i need a sick pack. i already have pretty good abs its just a thin layer of fat on top of them. so i was wondering if u could send me a diet plan that could help me. i dnt want to b to extreme just somthing that will help the fat layer go away

Hi, I am in the same position as robert. I know I have a 6 pack it just cant be clearly seen. Would be great if you could email me a diet plan or something along those lines. Also...what kind of cardio exercises would you say are best?, Thanx, Gav

Baseline Diet Fundamentals

1. Eat fewer calories than you burn
2. Properly balance your macronutrient ratios (start with 60/30/10 carbs/protein/fats then adjust later)
3. Eat five or six meals per day, properly timed
4. Eat lean proteins with every meal
5. Eat the right types of carbohydrates and avoiding refined sugars
6. Eat low fat and choosing the right types of fat
7. Drink plenty of water
8. Eat natural, unrefined foods

hi i just started working out i do use billy blank boot cump DVD but i'm over weight i'm 200 pounds do you think i could really lose weight? and i eat huge portion sizes and i love very sweet cofee wich i drink a;; the time any advice thanks

Hey how ya all doin

my name is Gibo and i hav a 6 pack. i no i do because when i tense, i can c it. I also need to pull down the fat. Its a BUMMER! I hav the muscliest arms, biggest legs, wide shoulders and then too much AB FLAB!! I WANT IT GONE!! Please help me PLEASE!!

I hav the best 6 pack hiding behind this layer of fat.

Just sum help and an eating plan of whats best and whats not would be GREAT!

Muchly appreciated

Gibo

Want to see those abs? 70% or more of the effort required to see your six-pack abs involves what goes in your mouth, not on the amount of sit-ups you do. Everybody has abs beneath the fat layer of the stomache, so what you need to do is get rid of the fat -- easier said than done. You must BURN off that fat through cardio exercises such as cycling, brisk walking or running. During this period your total amount of calories burned must be greater than your total amount of calories consumed. To put it another way, the BIGGER NUMBER must be what you burn and the SMALLER NUMBER is what must go down your throat. Simple. First step is to not ingest any liquid that has been naturally or artificially sweetened. Just drink water. Eat lots of protein, veggies and some carbs of course. Lower your gross number of calories per day consumed and increase your gross number of calories burned. Yes folks, you are now officially on a diet! Continue exercisiing and you will shed that layer of fat hiding your abs.

IM 15 GONA BE 16 SOON AND I HAVE A EIGHT PACK AT FIRST I HAD A FLABBY BELLY BUT WITH HARD WORK AND DETERMATION I HAVE REACHED MY GOALS MY TIPS ARE TO JOIN A THAI BOXING(MUAY THAI) CLASS WITH ALL THE SKIPPING AND PUNCHES IN THE STOMACH AND SIT UPS U WILL ACHIVE GREAT ABS THE SECRET IS 2 BE PATIENT.

Ok I'm 24 years old I'm 5'11" I take Martial Arts so I get in a lot of Cardio. I'm about 155 lbs and I beleive my body fat is about 6%, I work out with strenth training 3 days a week and I do Karate about 3-4 days.

I know I already have a "6-pack" but I want to make it more Visible and stand out even more. A good picture of me here http://myspace-808.vo.llnwd.net/01188/80/83/1188313808_l.jpg shows how I look now.

I just want them to be more defined, I take Vitimins and I take rallax Flax oil with omega3 I think it's about 1200mg. I take that with each meal, I also eat oatmeal in the mornings and I do eat a pizza or something unhealthy in the evenings. But only maybe 1 or 2 times a week.

I have been trying so hard for a long time to get better results but nothing seems to work.

Any help you can offer would be very welcomed.

Sean - you look like about 10-11% body fat. You will need to make sure you are eating enough - so that you may maintain or even grow muscle.

Sean: You look like an ectomorph, and so you should be getting advice from an ectomorph. I myself am a bad source of information for you. I'm 5'9" and had a lean mass alone of 165 lbs after 2 whole years of not exercising. You do indeed look like 10% body fat. Adjusting for height, I started out with 30 pounds more lean mass than you have now being in shape, so we have very different genetics.

There are, however, two ectomorphs who have written great books for your body type. They can be found at www.musclegaintruth.com and www.fastmusclegain.com. Either of these will pack on quite a lot of muscle onto your frame, perhaps 30-50 lbs within half a year.

Sean,

The answer to your question is in muscular hypertrophy. Abs are not different from other muscle groups. Due to your current training, you may have muscular endurance, but to get your abs to pup, I recommend adding resistance to your abdominal exercises.

However, isolation exercises are not for you. You need to gain overall size first. Still, when it comes to abs isolation, one of my favorite exercises is a cable kneeling crunch.

By the way, I don’t think you are an "ecto", unless you have been lifting hard and eating even harder. Vitamins and flax/fish oil are great, but they do not build muscle mass.

Hanging leg raises and "knees-to-shoulders" are a real kicker for abs.

"Hanging leg raises and 'knees-to-shoulders' are a real kicker for abs."

Every time someone says that sit-ups and leg raises are good ab exercises, an angel dies. When will this idea ever die? We in this country seem to have confused our abs and our hip flexors. The job of your abs (and this is assuming we're talking about the rectus abdominus muscle) is to shorten the distance between your hips and your rib cage. That's it.

When you're doing a sit-up or a leg raise, your hip flexors (the iliopsoas) are doing the job of bringing your thighs to your abdomen. So why is it that the abs feel tight and eventually "burn"? Because the abs are acting as a stabilizer; they are being worked isometrically. This is not ideal though by any stretch of the imagination. Vince Gironda used to literally throw people out of his gym for doing sit-ups or leg raises after he told them not to.

So, what do you use to build your abs? Good question! Google for frog sit-ups. This is a true isolation exercise, and all of the work will be done by your abs.

Now, there's another muscle in your abdomen you should be paying attention to but probably aren't. It's called the transversus abdominus, and it's actually located inside your body. However, it acts as opposition to your outer abs. If you never work this muscle and heavily work your outer abs, you will get a sort of pot belly. To work this muscle, google for the vacuum exercise. This will give you a flat, tight stomach.

Also, to avoid the pot belly, I wouldn't work your abs with weights. Pro-bodybuilders these days do that and have gross, distended stomachs. Check out this photo of Steve Reeves:
http://www.schwarzenegger.it/mro/reeves/sr38.jpg
Great midsection, built without weights.

So, remember, frog sit-ups and vacuums.

"Also, to avoid the pot belly, I wouldn't work your abs with weights. Pro-bodybuilders these days do that and have gross, distended stomachs."

Sorry Ryan, but that is just "bull". Pro bodybuilding these days have the so-called pot belly, because they use too much GH and other AAS gear. It is a common knowledge...

There is no way Sean can have a pot belly. Working your abs with weights is very old school. Virtually all old-school pros did it, including Arnold.

Hanging leg raises is an excellent exercise for abs. I personally have used it (with added weights) and had great results.

iFitandHealthy: The GH and AAS don't help, but the fact is they could combat it by working the transversus abdominus. The vacuum exercise is referred to by some as the "forgotten exercise". Actually, I'm not even sure if it is the GH and AAS itself or the focus on sheer size rather than real, tasteful development. Take a look at Skip La Cour. He has the same distended stomach with none of the drugs.

I've seen plenty of men at less than 6% body fat or women at less than 15% body fat with pot bellies. Once you teach them the vacuum exercise and have them do it consistently, it goes away. Whenever you have two opposing muscle groups, the stronger one pulls harder when you're relaxed. This is why people who do bench presses but have never done rows have turtle back. Granted, it takes a significant imbalance to create a significant pot belly.

Arnold is not an old-school pro. It's sad that Arnold is referred to as old-school, as if nothing happened before then. Sandow, Reeves, and Grimek are old-school bodybuilders. Arnold may have used weighted ab work, but he offset it by working his transversus abdominus. You can tell he was no stranger to the vacuum exercise, as is apparent in this picture:
http://www.schwarzenegger.it/gallery/musclegallery1/m15.jpg

Leg raises may be enough for some people, but you can't argue that the main muscle being worked isn't the hip flexors. Saying that leg raises are a good ab exercise is like saying the deadlift is a good trapezius exercise. Now, if you add some action in the exercise where the hips are being pulled toward the rib cage, then it also becomes an ab exercise. Try this experiment: stand against a wall and keep your back firmly against it. Do a one-legged leg raise, and you'll find your abs loose.

"The GH and AAS don't help, but the fact is they could combat it by working the transversus abdominus."

They can combat what?...and exactly how? What in the world are you talking about? Do you know what GH and AAS are?

I did not say they helped. I said they are the reason pro bodybuilders today have a potbelly. Now, you can argue all you want, but it is a common knowledge. Hence, your claim that the pros have a potbelly, because they do ab work with weights is a joke.

Now, nobody said that the vacuum exercise is not valuable, it is. However, there is no way, one can build abs with it. Nor it is an appropriate exercise for someone like Sean, who does not have any visible abs to begin with.

Oh, and Arnold is not old-school? That is also quite funny. It has nothing to do with what happened before. The bodybuilders from his era are commonly referred to as “old-school”. Again, it is just common knowledge.

iFitandHealthy: Doing the vacuum exercise combats the distended stomach, just as the bent-over row combats turtle back. GH is growth hormone and AAS is androgenic/anabolic steroids. They enlarge internal organs, encouraging a distended stomach.

You misunderstand me. The vacuum exercise is not meant to build abs; it's meant to keep your waist size down. Ab work with weights doesn't necessarily create the pot belly. It just encourages an imbalance between the rectus abdominus and the transversus abdominus, which will increase a distended stomach. Arnold used AAS and maybe GH, but he developed a good-looking stomach anyways. However, no one values a slimmer stomach in bodybuilding anymore, as the focus now is sheer size, so the pros today have no reason to work on their vacuum. This other thing to notice is Skip La Cour, who used neither GH nor AAS but still has a distended stomach.

People call Arnold old-school because they don't care about bodybuilders before his era. As far as they're concerned, bodybuilding started with the coming of steroids. I know it's common knowledge, but I'm not a lemming. I'm challenging the use of that term, but I suppose I didn't make that clear.

You said, “The GH and AAS don't help, but the fact is they could combat it by working the transversus abdominus.”

So how can they (GH and AAS) combat anything? In bodybuilding, the vacuum exercise is used primarily for aesthetics. It helps to master it, because you can use it (as Arnold did in that picture) when posing on stage. Other than that, its effectiveness is limited. It is certainly not effective to combat huge doses of GH and AAS that the pros use today.

Sean is not a bodybuilder. He asked to help him develop his six-pack. For him to worry about a potbelly is like saying that, Pauly Shore should worry about having 22-inch arms, if he starts lifting weights.

“Ab work with weights doesn't necessarily create the pot belly. It just encourages an imbalance between the rectus abdominus and the transversus abdominus, which will increase a distended stomach.”

Sorry, but you said it did and actually suggested to avoid working abs with weights because of it.

So how come I don’t have this imbalance and hundreds of people I have personally worked with do not either? Yet, they have great abs and used weights. Not to mention thousands of bodybuilders who all use weights when doing ab work.

The abdominal muscle is one muscle, there is no “upper” or “lower” abs, it is myth. Unless you are training to win a crunch contest, you have to add resistance to build great abs.

iFitandHealthy: The vacuum works to decrease your waist size even when you're relaxed. The rectus abdominus and the transversus abdominus are opposing muscle groups. Ever heard of balancing the strength of your biceps and triceps? If your biceps are much stronger than your triceps, your arm will tend to be more bent when relaxed. If your triceps are much stronger, your arm will tend to be straighter when relaxed. If your rectus abdominus is much stronger than your transversus abdominus, your belly will round out. If your transversus abdominus is much stronger, your belly will be pulled in.

Whether this is enough to offset the GH and AAS is debatable. However, we won't know since none of the bodybuilders today really practice it.

I suggest not working with weights because it can potentially cause an imbalance. The reason you don't have that imbalance is because you're not actually doing ab work with weights; you're doing hip flexor work with weight. You're not targeting your abs at all. It's your hip flexors that are lifting the weight; your abs are just stabilizing your body as you do the leg raises. Do you not get this at all?

When did I ever say upper and lower abs? I said outer, by which I mean the rectus abdominus. I say outer because the rectus abdominus can be seen, as it lies just under the skin. The transversus abdominus can't be seen though. It lies inside the abdomen.

"I suggest not working with weights because it can potentially cause an imbalance."

How? Imbalance of what? You started by saying that weights create a potbelly. You also claimed that this is the reason why pro bodybuilders have the potbellies, which is bogus.

Now you’re changing your story...and frankly not making any sense. If I don’t have an imbalance, because according to your imagination, leg raises don’t even work the abs (which is also bogus), than how can anyone have a potbelly or have the imbalance?

It just does not make any sense Ryan.

iFitandHealthy: I'm not sure if I'm being unclear or inconsistent (I am getting sleepy) or whether you're just not reading carefully. Anyways, I'll take more time to say what I really mean. What I really mean is that pro bodybuilders could do more about their distended stomachs. Obviously, the need to do so is caused by the GH and AAS, but they don't do anything to fix it. This is because we don't value the small stomach anymore. If they started practicing the vacuum, it wouldn't be as bad as it is now. It's the combination of GH/AAS, the ignoring of the vacuum, and the heavy work on the outer abs *combined* that causes distended stomachs in the pros.

Working your outer abs with weights will create an imbalance of strength between your rectus abdominus and transversus abdominus. Because your rectus abdominus rounds out your stomach when relaxed and your transversus abdominus pulls in your stomach when relaxed, your stomach becomes more distended as your rectus abdominus becomes stronger in relation to your transversus abdominus.

Now, let's look at the leg raise. In the leg raise, you are merely bending the joint between your abdomen and legs. Both your abdomen and legs are straight. This motion is not done by the abs at all. This is done by the iliopsoas. However, in order to keep your abdomen straight, your abs work as a stabilizer. The abs are being worked isometrically and not isotonically. You know what that means, right? So your abs are technically being worked, but only to keep your abdomen straight.

As you increase the weight though, it really doesn't take that much more work by the rectus abdominus to keep the abdomen straight, but it does take more work by the iliopsoas to lift the "heavier legs". So, as you're increasing the weight, you're actually just increasing the work put on the iliopsoas. The work on the abs remains pretty much unchanged. So, as you move up the weight, the abs don't get worked any harder. This means that you don't gain ab strength as you increase the weight, at least not in any significant amount.

However, the frog sit-up, which is actually more like a crunch, does work the rectus abdominus isotonically. If you increase the weight on the frog sit-up, which is what I'm recommending against, you will put an increasing amount of work on the abs, not the iliopsoas.

It makes sense if you know about your muscles and their functions.

This page will tell you about your abs:
http://www.fitstep.com/Advanced/Anatomy/Abs.htm
This page will tell you about your hip flexors:
http://www.fitstep.com/Advanced/Anatomy/Hip_flexors.htm

iFitandHealthy: My next comment is apparently being held for approval, so be patient.

You guys now of anything that really does work for someone like me? Since I am slim and slender I guess I need to gain some Weight, I went to them sites but the only problem is they are just books. It seems like all the others send me X ammount of money get my book and follow what I say. I would really like to know of something that really works. I would love to do more then just get my abs to show, I just started taking Novex Biotech Endothil-CR begining last weekend and i'm trying my best to do like it says. I just want to get that ripped look, I just get worried about gaining fat. I have been 155lbs for about 3 years and it goes down to 153 but normally it stays 155-157. My Abs are hard I can take kicks and punches and I don't feel anything so they are strong just not developed. I can see them pretty good if I flex them in the right position but I would like to see them better.

Sean: If you want to gain muscle, it's best to find a tried and true program and just follow it to the letter. You can't just eat whatever you want, take some pill, and throw weights around and expect to gain muscle. I recommended those books because they consistently turn out great results and are especially suited for the naturally "slim and slender" person. They will work, and work well, if you follow them. The secret to bodybuilding is there is no real secret, just a few simple principles applied consistently. Advanced trainers homing in on their genetic potential may need some weird tricks, but very few are near that point.

Don't waste your money on miracle supplements. You could have just burned the money you spent and that would have done just about as much for gaining muscle as those pills you bought. If you want, I can give you a list of supplements that definitely work, some that may work, and others that could possibly work. However, they are all very basic supplements, and you probably won't be happy that there isn't some magic bullet. Probably the most effective supplement is a good multi-vitamin. There is only one thing you can put in your body that will work miracles, which would be steroids. Good food (not pills or powders) is at least 80% of building muscle in natural trainers!

That ripped look you're talking about is all a function of how much body fat you're carrying. You have a ripped body right now; it's just covered up by fat. Once you lose enough fat, you will see all the definition you want. Your skin without fat is about 2mm thick. If your skinfolds (2 layers of skin) are more than 4mm thick, you can still enhance your look by losing fat. Just try losing fat first; it sounds like you don't even need additional ab work. Some people who never train their abs can have a six-pack if they're lean enough.

I'm going to let you in on another secret of bodybuilding. It's highly unlikely that you will gain a significant amount of muscle without gaining some fat as well. It's just a fact of life that you just have to deal with. You may be able to pull it off as a beginner, but it will become impossible as you gain more muscle. Bodybuilders have two modes: bulking (gaining both muscle and fat) and cutting (losing fat while trying to preserve muscle). They alternate between those two modes.

This blog is great, I laughed very hard at the 'quad' reference - that is soooo true and nicely observed!

Ryan also I am impressed - I am surprised at the depth of your knowledge; it's accurate. That's rather rare, you also have a solid grasp of anatomy and the role of muscle balance.

Sadly, it is quite rare to find people who understand the difference between transvere, rectus and psoas.