One of the most frequently asked questions in fitness is how to get a six pack. Many people want to get a six pack but don’t want to put the work in to get one. On the other hand there are others who want to get a six pack but don’t really know how. Let me tell you right now that the concept of getting a six pack is simple. All you need to do is lower your body fat and exercise your abdominal muscles. For some, lowering your body fat will be all that’s required to get a six pack whereas others will need to build muscle in the abdominal region to strengthen the ab muscles and increase them in size.
How to Get a Six Pack
Unfortunately this is beyond our control as some people will have more natural appearing abdominal muscles than others and will only need to lose the layer of fat that’s covering them to reveal a six pack. Genetics are to blame for this. Now, we will talk a little more about genetics a little later on in this article but for the time being that’s focus on learning how to get a six pack and what is required to get a six pack. You will probably have heard this phrase before but it is true that abs are made in the kitchen.
What this basically means is that whatever you are cooking up in your kitchen for your day’s meals will determine whether or not you are likely to achieve your goal of getting a six pack. If you haven’t got it yet, revealing your abs is all about good nutrition and a healthy diet. You cannot expect to get a six pack if you are constantly eating unhealthy food and not sticking to a healthy diet. Obviously the odd treat here and there will be fine but your diet is what will make or break you. Getting a six pack will require a lot of patience, dedication and willpower so if you think your still up for the challenge read on.
Lose Fat to get a six pack
Losing fat is going to be your main focus when looking to get a six pack. As I mentioned earlier a lot of people already have six packs, but what they also have is a big layer of fat covering their abdominal muscles. Your goal is to lose this fat in order to finally reveal your six pack. Now, to lose fat you need to cut calories and eat below your body’s maintenance level. Your body requires a certain amount of calories a day to maintain what it has and carry out important bodily functions. This is known as your maintenance level.
Once you eat above your body’s maintenance level your body has no choice but to store the extra calories as fat. On the other hand, when we start eating below our bodies maintenance level the exact opposite happens. You lose weight. Since your body doesn’t have enough calories to maintain what it currently has it will draw upon additional energy stores in the body to use as energy. These energy stores can come from two places. They can come from fat or muscle or even a combination of both. To ensure we don’t lose muscle when losing weight you should do the following:
Do Not Cut Calories Too Drastically. Cutting calories too drastically can cause your body to go into starvation mode where it will hold onto fat stores for as long as possible. Since it doesn’t know for sure when more calories and nutrients are going to be available your body will cling onto its fat stores and burn muscle tissue instead. The reason it does this is because your body is simply not use to consuming such few calories after years of constantly consuming thousands of calories a day.
It will therefore sense something is wrong and will keep hold of fat for backup. Drastically cutting calories may also affect your abdominal muscles if your body is burning muscle tissue as well as fat making them look less defined and smaller. This will not help you on your way to getting a six pack so don’t cut your calories too much.
Consume 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. If you weigh 170 pounds, make sure you are getting around 170 grams of protein a day. This will go a long way towards maintaining what muscle mass you have and allow the body to focus more on burning fat rather than muscle. You don’t want to be losing weight while your muscles are also shrinking making you look smaller and weaker. Keep your body composition in tack while you’re losing weight and you won’t regret it. If you’re wondering how you are going to consume all this protein it really isn’t as hard as it sounds. With each meal ensure you are consuming a lean meat such as tuna, chicken, turkey or even lean cuts of beef/steak.
Consume around 100 grams of these lean meats in each meal and you will be getting at least 30 grams of protein along with a reasonable and safe amount of calories. Low fat cottage cheese is another great protein food. 1 tub will give you around 36 grams of protein with as little as 250 calories. If you are still finding it difficult to hit your daily protein intake try purchasing a whey protein shake. These shakes are great and have 24 grams of protein in one scoop with only 120 calories. You can mix the powder in milk or water in a matter of minutes and is a great quick and convenient way of adding more protein to your diet throughout the day.
Hit the weights. Lifting weights is another effective way of maintaining what muscle mass you have. Obviously if you have been participating in weight lifting and aiming to build muscle this is going to be an absolute must in order to keep your hard earned muscle while dropping the fat you may have gained and revealing those six pack abs. Even if you are not a weightlifter and are just looking to drop fat in order to get a six pack lifting weights is a great hobby/sport to get into. We will go into more detail about this later but the bottom line for both weight lifters and non weight lifters is that lifting weights will send out signals to the body that it needs to maintain the muscle mass it has in order to carry out daily tasks so the chances of burning off muscle tissue are greatly reduced. If anything you will become stronger and may put on some more muscle in the process.
Ok, so you should now have discovered how to keep hold of muscle while on your quest for a six pack. Next you need to put this into practice so first you need to find your body’s maintenance level. Use this Calorie Calculator to work it out. This should be roughly correct give or take a hundred calories or so. Now you have an idea of your maintenance level, subtract 500 from this number and you will be left with the number of calories you need to be consuming on a daily basis to lose fat. The majority of work that goes towards getting a six pack is all down to watching what you eat and the number of calories you consume so your next job is to design a daily eating plan along with all your meals and the time you are able to consume these meals.
Remember to try and fit them in around work and family commitments and try to consume foods that are convenient at the time. For example, if you’re out and about at work you can bring in a chicken salad sandwich as your obviously not going to have access to a kitchen to cook a full blown meal at this time. Planning is a major factor in the success of your nutrition and diet plans so make sure you have planned meals that are suitable for you to consume throughout the day and fit in with your daily calorie needs.
Workout to get a six pack
We have now covered how to lose weight and burn fat in order to get a six pack. The next step is to actually workout your abdominal muscles to make them stronger, more defined and bigger. Ideally you want to be incorporating ab exercises and workouts into your routine around 3 times a week whilst dieting. Now although many argue that losing weight and building muscle at the same time is not possible there are many people that claim to have done it and their results can help prove this.
I do however believe that building muscle and losing weight at the same time is impossible for a ‘normal’ trained athlete. If you are not genetically gifted and gain or lose weight at a normal rate then you are not going to be able to build muscle and lose weight at the same time unless you are a beginner and are completely new to the world of fitness and exercise. The reason I mention about being a beginner is because beginners will experience faster results to begin with. This can also be known as ‘noob’ gains.
As mentioned earlier on in this article, a lot of people who lose the weight and burn the fat covering their abdominal muscles may already be able to see their abs. This doesn’t mean however that you should neglect working them. Imagine how much better they will look once you train them for a few months. Before you dive into doing 100s and 100s of sit-ups to get a six pack let me stop you right there and explain to you that performing all these sit-ups is not the correct way to obtain a defined strong looking six pack.
Your abdominal muscles are actually made up of 4 main muscles. These are known as the external oblique, internal oblique, rectus abdominis and the transverse abdominis. In order to fully develop your six pack you need to be hitting each of these muscles effectively during each of your workouts. Let me now explain to you the best ab exercises to perform to get a six pack.
Best Ab Exercises to Perform to Get a Six Pack
Crunches. To perform a crunch you will need to lie down on the floor and bend your knees as far as they can go whilst remaining comfortable. Place your hands across your chest. It is important not to place your hands behind your head as this can cause unnecessary strain on the lower back and neck. Alternatively you can place them alongside your ears (lightly touching) if this feels more comfortable for you. Now focus on contracting your ab muscles while lifting your shoulders up off the floor towards your knees.
Ensure that you do not completely lift your back off the floor when performing the crunch. Once you do this you are turning the movement into a traditional sit up. Raising your entire back off the floor means that your hip flexors play a part in lifting your body up near the end of the movement and the stress is therefore taken off of the abdominal muscles. This extra movement near the end is unnecessary and does not help to develop your six pack. As a result you should raise yourself about three quarters of the way up and then lower yourself back down in a controlled manner. When raising yourself up you should be able to feel when your ab muscles are no longer contracted.
Once you get to this point lower yourself back down as you are getting no extra benefit from raising your entire back off the floor. You should also make sure that when lowering yourself you do not let your head go all the way down to the floor. Let your shoulder blades brush the floor so your ab muscles are still contracted and then raise yourself back up.
Vertical Leg Crunch. The vertical leg crunch is similar to that of a normal crunch except this time you start with your legs up in the air at roughly a 90 degree angle with your knees slightly bent. Place hands near your ears and contract your abs. Raise your shoulder blades off the floor as far as feels comfortable while keeping your chin up at all times. Try to raise your shoulder blades up towards your knees and lower yourself in a steady manner. You can then repeat for the desired number of reps.
Bicycle Crunch. The bicycle crunch has a good reputation amongst a lot of athletes with many voting for the bicycle crunch as one of the best ab exercises you can do. The bicycle crunch is one of the best exercises you can do to work your rectus abdominis as well as your external and internal obliques. The bicycle crunch is performed pretty much how it sounds. Start off in a traditional crunch position but instead of placing your feet on the floor you will place them at a 45 degree angle whilst in the air. Make sure your lower back is pressed to the floor and place your hands alongside your ears slightly touching.
Now perform a bicycle pedal motion trying to touch one elbow with the opposite knee. For example start off bringing your left elbow to your right knee and then your right elbow to your left knee. Once your left elbow is coming towards your right knee, your opposite leg should be extended and out straight. Then you do the same for the other side. The right elbow comes towards your left knee while you straighten the opposite leg. Take a look at this video to make things clearer.
Captains Chair. Another great ab exercise. The captain’s chair works your lower ab muscles to a greater extent than any other ab exercises but will require some form of gym equipment to complete. Simply take your position in the chair and let your legs hang down straight. All you then need to do is slowly bring your knees up and in towards your chest. The motion should be controlled and once completed return your legs back to the starting position. Imagine the motion you would go through if you were jumping on the spot with your knees coming up as high as possible towards your chest. The exercise is exactly the same except you are sitting down on gym equipment and controlling the movement, focusing on using your lower abdominal muscles.
Oblique Crunches. These are great for targeting the side part of your abs also known as the obliques as well as the upper abdominal muscles. The best way to perform an oblique crunch is to lie on your back and get into a normal crunch position with your knees bent and feet planted on the floor. Cross your right foot over your left knee so the bottom of your foot is aimed towards your left hand side. Put your hands up towards your ears (lightly touching) and keep your lower back pressed into the floor.
Lift your shoulder blades off the floor and curl your upper body up towards your right knee. Lower yourself back down to the starting position and repeat. Alternatively you can perform the oblique crunch without crossing your legs over. Just plant them on the floor and bend your knees as you do for a regular crunch. Crossing your legs over can make it feel more of a natural movement and can make it easier to perform. See which method suits you and use it. Check out this video for more details
Ok we have now covered the most effective ab exercises you should be performing to help you get that long awaited six pack. You should try and perform around 12-15 repetitions for ab exercises and once you hit this rep range start adding weight to your exercises. For example, once you can perform 3 sets of crunches for 15 reps add a 5 pound plate to your chest and try and hit the same rep range. Once you hit your rep range keep adding weight. This is the only way to build and strengthen your muscles and your abs are no exception. Eventually there will come a time when losing the fat around your midsection becomes harder and results will begin to slow down.
Eating a clean healthy diet that is below your maintenance level of calories no longer yields the results it once did so what has happened? It’s hard to tell. Maybe your sneaking unwanted calories back into your diet so make sure you check this. If your diet is all on track you might need to lower your calorie intake a little bit further. If you feel you can’t comfortably lower your calorie intake anymore it’s time to put in some real work and work for your six pack. Let me now introduce you to the wonders of cardio.
Performing Cardio to Get a Six Pack
When results begin to slow as you attempt to burn the fat away from your midsection cardio can help speed them back up. Cardio is great for your body and will help you burn off calories, strengthen your heart and lungs and raise your body’s metabolism. Burning off calories during cardio and raising your body’s metabolism for hours afterwards is a sure fire way of losing more fat. If you didn’t already know, your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. Some people are blessed with an extremely high metabolism which allows them to pretty much eat whatever they want without putting on an ounce of weight. Others have a slow metabolism and are more prone to putting weight on.
Regardless of the type of metabolism you have, performing regular cardio will help you burn off more calories and help you lose fat around your midsection. Now if you’re new to cardio and are physically unfit take a look at cardio for beginners to help you get started. If you are in good shape I would highly recommend performing HIIT Cardio training. HIIT Cardio training is a great way to lose fat and burn off a lot of calories. Click here to learn all about HIIT Cardio training and how it can help you on your way to getting a six pack. Performing cardio for around 20-60 minutes a day for at least 3 times a week should be ideal for you to start reaping the benefits and results from cardio.
When you’re new to cardio you aren’t going to be able to carry out 60 minutes of cardio work each session. You are unfit and only just beginning to add cardio to your daily routines so be patient. The main thing is that you do it and perform it to the best of your ability. If you can only last a few minutes jogging before you’re out of breath take a few minutes break and perform another few minutes. Always look to improve on your previous workouts and you will get fitter and stronger in no time.
Hit the Weights to Get a Six Pack
Weight lifting is another aspect of your program you should not neglect when aiming to get a six pack. Lifting weights was discussed briefly earlier on this article and the benefits are similar to that of cardio. Lifting weights may actually raise your body metabolism (the rate at which it burns calories) for longer periods of time than cardio according to a number of studies. Weight training is not only good for raising metabolism and helping burn more calories at rest but it will also help you keep hold of muscle tissue when in a calorie deficit and may even build muscle mass when you first start.
Even though you are in a calorie deficit and need over maintenance calories to put on weight and muscle, it is possible for some beginners to put on muscle if they are completely new to weight training. Note that these results wont last and are only temporary as there is only so much muscle you can build whilst in a calorie deficit. Some people wont build any whereas others will. This takes us to our next point. Genetics.
Effects of Genetics on Getting a Six Pack
Unfortunately genetics are beyond our control and we cannot alter them. We all have unique genetics and some people will therefore be unable to get an amazing toned and well shaped looking six pack like many fitness fanatics have. This however does not mean you can’t get a six pack. You are still going to look ten times better than you did if you clean up your eating habits, workout and focus on getting a six pack.
Genetics will determine the shape size and growth potential of your muscles which will mean one six pack may look different to another. This is down to genetics. Genetics can also determine the rate at which results are achieved. For example, a person with good genetics may lose weight a lot faster than somebody else with average genetics. They may also be able to put on muscle and lose weight at the same time due to their genetics. All of this will of course help get an athlete into shape a lot quicker than a person with normal average genetics but this does not mean you cannot get into good shape as well.
It may take you a little longer but if you really want to get in shape and get a six pack then you shouldn’t worry about genetics. Concentrate on your training and your diet and remember that each day you are getting closer to achieving what you have set out to achieve. Hard work, perseverance and motivation will get you there regardless of your genetics.
Final verdict on getting a six pack
There should be more than enough information on this page to help you on your way to getting a six pack. The important thing you need to remember is that a calorie deficit, an effective workout program, cardio and consistency are the 4 main ingredients you will ever need to achieve a six pack. If all these are in place you can’t go wrong. That being said, you will need a sufficient amount of determination and willpower to make it happen. If a six pack is something you truly want put your mind to it and be prepared to make a lot of sacrifices. Good luck to you all!
