The Elite Physique

6-Pack Abs

6 pack abs

Tips and Secrets for Getting 6-Pack Abs

Get ripped 6-pack abs in just 30 days or your money back!  That’s one of the many sweet catch phrases you can hear on the late night infomercial’s and fitness magazine headlines.  Abdominal training information and gadgets are everywhere, yet very few people possess those dreamy 6-pack abs.  Walk into any gym and you will see countless members tearing away at every possible ab exercise known to man.  With so much ab training taking place, why do so many people still have distended bellies, rolls, and pouches?  Is it an information overload, or simply an overload of misinformation?

Getting that tight midsection takes desire, commitment, and work.  As you’ve come to realize, it takes more than daily crunches to get an etched 6-pack.  Let’s review a few of the important, and perhaps sometimes overlooked, aspects of acquiring 6-pack abs.

Nutrition is Everything

Nutrition is the key factor in developing 6-pack abs.  Not only is what you eat important, but also the quality of the food you eat.  For a sexy midsection you should be eating a high-protein diet with moderate carbs and some essential fats.  Your body is a unit and it needs nutrients from all the macronutrients.

A variety of chicken, turkey, fish, steak, and eggs are wonderful complete protein sources to build muscle.  Brown rice, baked and sweet potatoes, and oats make great complex carbohydrates to fuel activities.  You can get some good fat from your complete protein, but it doesn’t hurt to eat quality fats either such as various nuts and seeds, avocados, natural peanut butter, flaxseed oil, etc.  Generally, breads, pastas, and dairy won’t help define a tight midsection.  These items can bloat you and make definition a blur.

Establish a base caloric intake with balanced macronutrients.  Whatever you plan out, follow it through entirely for a week to see how it worked for you.  Make changes based on updated status results.  This can mean anything from a carb deduction, protein increase, or even changing your calorie intake.

Water is an Essential Element

Being dehydrated can make fat loss difficult.  Hydration is an overlooked factor for 90% of the people trying to lose fat.  Keeping your body properly hydrated removes toxins and flushes out sodium and fat.  Without enough water flowing through our systems to carry out wastes and toxins, we would literally drown in our own poisonous metabolic wastes,” says Alex Jamieson at www.vegkitchen.com.  Mark Hyman, MD at www.drhyman.com further tells us, “The kidneys are responsible for flushing waste from the blood. Make sure you give them what they need by drinking plenty of water. Humans are predominately composed of water (about 66 percent by weight for men, about 60 percent for women)”

Water also nourishes the organs, rejuvenates your metabolism, and curbs your appetite. Not only does water flush toxins from your body, but it also hydrates the muscles and improves muscle definition, giving you better workouts.  Properly hydrated and developed muscle burns more calories and makes getting those 6-pack abs easier.

Cardio Exercise

Although cardio itself won’t produce those wanted 6-pack abs, it will help burn off fat stores if it’s coupled with a balanced eating plan.  You need to be doing some type of cardio to help expose your abs.  If you aren’t currently doing cardio, begin by adding HIIT 4 times a week for 20 minutes and increase your time by 5 minutes each week.  If you are currently doing 6 days of cardio at 45-60 minutes and seeing little results, then you need to cut your cardio back and rebuild it.

Other ways to break through a cardio plateau is to change your cardio type, ratio, intensity, etc.  Once you get the body fat burned off, those 6-pack abs will be visible.

Training Your Abs

Training your abs doesn’t need to be rocket science and you don’t need 20 different ab exercises for countless reps either.  The idea is to simply stimulate the muscle.  The key factor is quality, not quantity.

Generally, the abs can be trained every other day.  However, if you are still sore after two days or more, that’s a key sign that your abs still need to recover. You won’t make any progress without proper abdominal recovery.

Ab training tips for 6-Pack Abs:

1. Begin your training with the stomach vacuum. This is an exercise you can implement anywhere, the gym, home, driving, etc. It’s simply sucking in your stomach as hard as you can, for as long as you can, without holding your breath.

2. Add resistance to your crunches.  Adding weight to your abdominal training won’t make your waist thicker.  It will help build the abs stronger.

3. Avoid leg raises, as they are useless for lower ab training.  Leg raises target the hip flexors.  If you want to train the lower abdominal area, you are better off doing the lying pelvic lift.  Simply lie on the floor and put your feet in the air.  Your body should be in the “L” position. In this position, lift your hips off the floor, as if you are pushing your feet through the ceiling.  This is a small movement, just a few inches.

4. Don’t do any side bends or twists.  These can thicken your waist, weighted or not.

Testimonials

Karen,

I am excited and wanted to share this with you. I listened to you and cut way back on the processing in my diet. I added more veggies and less cereal, I cut fat except for the good fats I am adding udo’s oil blend to my protein shakes. I measured this morning and lost 1 inch from around my belly, not the waist or hips, I measured around the belly button. This made my BF% go down more. I went from 32.48% BF to 31.38 % BF in just 4 days, I think it’s true, abs are made in the kitchen not the gym. Anyway my lean body mass went up from 97.23 to 98.81 and my fat mass went down from 46.77 to 45.19 This is all according to the way fit together calculates everything.

Thanks for your help, I feel like I am back on track! My Husband surprised me with an outfit for our cruise this June, he bought a size 12 and it’s loose!!!! ((((smile)))))

Thanks Again,
Linda Ann Smith


Hi Karen,

I want to say how much I appreciate the honesty and openness in your approach to your newsletter. The no BS, tell it like it is, method is very much appreciated.

Take Care,
Kelly

 

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Now that you have some of the fundamentals of how to zone in on developing a 6-pack, you can better utilize your time and training techniques when you engage in ab training. Click below to get your own set of Killer Abs...

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Karen Sessions NSCA-CPT

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My name is Karen Sessions and I am a life-time natural female bodybuilder, multi-certified fitness instructor, author, specialist in performance nutrition, and a success coach. I've been in the fitness industry since 1988! I teach people Just Like You how to transform their bodies, get in shape, build muscle, lose fat and compete in Bodybuilding, Physique, and Figure Competitions. When you have the CORRECT information you can have total confidence and turn your dreams into reality... and I can help transform YOUR body. I have helped THOUSANDS of clients reach their goals and I can help you, too. Be sure to grab my free gift above so you can start moving toward your goal.

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