If you’re on a mission to get six pack abs, it’s vital that you take the time to get a good game plan in place because this is one goal you won’t accomplish by chance. Unless you’re specifically following a set program that has been designed to help you get six pack abs, the chances are slim to none that you’ll get the ripped middle you’re after.
Being able to get six pack abs comes down to determination, dedication, along with reaching a very low body fat level so that those muscles show through.
Fortunately, when you have the right diet and workout program in place, learning how to get six pack abs isn’t all that difficult. Many people simply don’t know the key tricks they need to be doing to attain this goal, thus fail to see success.
Today we’re going to reveal those tricks to you. You’ll learn precisely what you need to be doing in order to get six pack abs and an upper body that you can be proud to sport at the beach.
10 Tips For Developing Six Pack Abs
The following are ten tips that you’ll definitely want to be including as you go about your routine so have a good look over your set-up and make sure they are in fact in place.
Tip 1: Cycle Your Calories
The very first must-do if you want to get six pack abs in a hurry is to make sure that you’re cycling your calories. One of the biggest mistakes people make who are on a mission to get six pack abs is that they adopt an abnormally low calorie diet and stick with it for weeks on end.
They think that the lower they take those calories, the faster they’ll blast fat and get ripped abs.
The problem here is that the lower you take those calories, especially for extended periods of time, the harder your body is going to fight you. It’s going to slow down its metabolism and literally cling to the fat on your stomach for dear life.
Not quite what you were going for, was it?
Instead, cycle your calories. Add in some high calorie days amongst low calorie days and you’ll be tricking your metabolism into staying elevated so that you can burn fat faster.
Tip 2: Move Away From Ab Mats and Crunches
Another important thing to do if you want to get six pack abs is to make sure that you move away from the ab mats. Crunches are going to get you nowhere. It’s the dirty secret that so many trainers fail to tell you.
If you think about how many muscle fibers a typical crunch works versus how many muscle fibers a squat or deadlift works, it becomes very clear which exercise will expend the most energy.
Since you must get leaner to get six pack abs, burning more calories is the goal. Ab exercises just won’t accomplish that, so stop dedicating so much time to them. Focus on compound movements that work as many muscles at once as possible and then you’ll be right on track.
Tip 3: Superset Your Exercises
Supersets are a key technique that you should utilize to see really fast results. With this technique, you’re going to take two exercises and pair them back to back immediately, with no rest in between.
Then once both are completed, then you can rest for 30-60 seconds before repeating the superset again.
For best results and to help get six pack abs, aim to use those compound exercises once again. So for example, you could do a squat supersetted with a bench press. Or, a deadlift supersetted with a shoulder press.
This is one of the best ways to really spike the metabolism so that you continue to burn up calories for hours after your workout is completed.
If you really want to get intense, consider doing a triset instead. Stack together three different exercises with no rest and you’ll be guaranteed to be feeling it once you’re finished.
Tip 4: Go For Timed Sets
Another quick tip that you can start incorporating in your workout to help get six pack abs by revving your metabolism is doing timed sets rather than the standard rep sets.
With timed sets, what you’re going to do is attempt to do so many reps within a certain time frame. So for instance, you might do one minute timed sets. This means you are to perform as many reps in that one minute as possible.
Now, don’t think this means rush through the reps – if you do that, you may sacrifice form. Instead, keep form perfect and just move through as you normally would.
Most people won’t get to the full one minute mark without needing to rest, so if that happens, take a rest for 5-10 seconds and then pick right back up again and continue.
If you can keep your rest periods shorter while doing this as well, you will have an extremely effective fat burning workout that will have you ripped in no time.
Tip 5: Decrease Your Stress Levels
One of the key factors that you must make sure you do if you want to get six pack abs is decrease your stress. Stress is something that impacts almost all of us and can have a serious influence on our ability to get lean.
When you’re very stressed out, your body is going to be releasing a hormone called cortisol, and this hormone will actually encourage abdominal body fat accumulation.
In addition to this, cortisol will also promote greater lean muscle mass utilization as a fuel source, so you may begin burning up the one tissue on the body that helps you burn fat faster – your muscle mass.
You must aim to avoid this at all costs, so do whatever it takes to get those stress levels down lower.
Take a kick boxing class, read a book, go for a long run, or go out with a friend to help kill stress. Learn yourself and what works best and then make sure you do some form of stress busting activity weekly.
Tip 6: Eat Some Dairy
One food that many people who want to get six pack abs often cut out of their diet entirely because they believe it will hold them back from success is dairy products. But, doing so is a huge mistake.
If you choose wisely, dairy products can most certainly be part of a fat loss diet to get six pack abs and what’s more is that those who do include dairy often typically show greater overall levels of body fat loss from the abdominal region.
Just be sure that you know your sources. Low fat cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and skimmed milk are all fantastic sources of dairy for those on a fat loss diet.
Ice cream, cheese, and cream are definitely not. If you eat those, then you will gain weight in the abdominal region because of it.
Tip 7: Add Those Carbs BACK Into The Picture
Another thing that often gets the boot as soon as you decide you want to get six pack abs and proceed to go on your strict diet is carbohydrates.
The vast majority of dieters out there firmly believe that the answer to their fat loss prayers is cutting out carbohydrates. If it has more than 5 grams of carbs per serving, it’s a no-go on your diet.
Sound familiar?
If so, you may want to rethink that strategy.
While there’s no question that using a lower carb diet will definitely help to decrease your calorie intake, get your hunger under control and help speed up fat loss progress, big problems come into play when you cut carbs for too long, especially if you’re coupling this with intense workout sessions.
Your body will stall and you’ll find that no matter what you do, you can’t lose weight.
When this happens, it’s time to add carbohydrates back into your diet plan. Carbohydrates tend to ‘stroke the metabolic fire’ so to speak so by having some in your weekly diet, you’ll help maintain a higher overall metabolic rate, and therefore move closer to your goals faster.
Don’t go low carb forever. Have some lower carb days but then also add in some higher carb days. Not only will your metabolism thank you, but you’ll find your workouts are far more productive as well since you’re actually feeding the muscles the energy they need to get those sessions in.
Tip 8: Take Time Off
The next thing that you should do to help get six pack abs is step out of the gym and take a day off. This may seem to contradict what you think you should be doing, but remember, overtraining is far more likely when using a calorie reduced diet and if you’re on the verge of overtraining, not only will you not be performing optimally anyway, but your body may also start to preserve body fat tissue and burn off muscle tissue instead.
Body fat is the tissue the body wants for survival, so when it feels threatened, it’s what it will protect the most. Overtraining will also cause general inflammation in the body, and this can also take away from how lean you appear. Basically, it’s just not a good situation to be in and one you definitely do want to avoid.
At least once per week, make sure that you have a complete day off to rest and recover. This will rejuvenate you better than anything else and ensure that you can stick with your usual diet and workout program to get six pack abs with ease.
Tip 9: Perform Intervals
When it comes to your cardio training to help you get six pack abs, intervals should be included. Interval training is the one form of cardio training that will increase the metabolism to the highest extent both while you perform it as well as in the hours following the session.
Just do keep in mind that interval training is very intense on the body, so you can’t do it daily. Instead, schedule in two interval training workouts per week mixed in with your strength training days and then you’ll have the perfect balance between cardio and strength training while still being able to get some time off for recovery.
Aim to keep your intervals short to around 30-45 seconds and push as hard as you possibly can for best results.
Tip 10: Have Patience
Finally, last but not least, if you want to get six pack abs, you must have patience. Far too many people set this goal and then expect to succeed with it in just a few weeks’ time.
While it would be wonderful to think that you can get ripped in only 10 days, unless you’re already starting at a very low body fat level and just need to shed the last few pounds, it just isn’t going to happen that quickly.
Remember, the leaner you get, the slower you should take your weight loss progress to ensure that it is in fact fat mass you’re losing and not lean muscle tissue.
If you are losing weight rapidly when you’re already quite lean, you can rest assured that you aren’t losing body fat. At this point your muscle utilization risk is greatly increased, so approach it with a slow and steady manner.
That is what will get you to the end goal looking and feeling great.
If you have more patience along with realistic expectations, you’re far more likely to stick with the program to get six pack abs and therefore get the results you’re after.
So there you have everything that you need to know to get six pack abs. Were there any points that you were missing? If so, it’s time to change your program around so that you have them all covered for maximum success.
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