Getting Ripped Abs! – By Tim McBurney

Here is yet another article on getting abs, so I hope you enjoy, any comments or things you disagree with or want to add please feel free to do so. I just felt as though I should write down what I know and put it out for all to see!

It is every man’s dream to get rock solid abs and a ripped six pack but not many know how to achieve this. It can be done in three steps but don’t think that’s going to be easy!

First you must lower your calorie intake and increase the frequency of your meals. It is best to have 5-6 or even 7 small meals a day instead of 3 large ones. Doing this will increase your metabolic rate which in turn will burn more fat. In addition, lowering your calorie intake can make an enormous difference. This means cutting out lollies, soft drink and most fast foods. Search the internet and find out how many calories you need in a day and make a calorie deficit and decrease that by at least 500 calories, if after a few weeks this is not working well, decrease your calorie intake even more.

Second is cardio (aerobic exercise). Cardio, along with diet, plays a crucial part in getting a six pack, but keep in mind that diet is still far more important. If you are just going to eat whatever you want to without some form of cardiovascular exercise, you’re most likely to stay the same or even gain weight. By doing a brisk walk, jogging or HIIT you will get fit and burn away those extra calories and fat. Start off small, maybe with a brisk walk once a day. Once you are able to do that with ease, switch to jogging. Start with only doing 20 minutes 4-7 days a week and work your way up to 45 minutes.

What is HIIT? HIIT is High Intensity Interval Training. This should only be done by people who are already at a fairly high fitness level. In doing HIIT you start off with a 5-10 minute warm up jog. Then stop and stretch. Once you think you are ready, you can begin. Sprint for 15 seconds then jog or power walk for 45, then sprint for another 15 seconds, power walk for 45 seconds and REPEAT. Do this 15-20 times and you’re done. If that doesn’t take long try and increase the amounts of time you do it and work towards doing that for 20 minutes and no more. I only recommend doing HIIT twice a week because it is a fairly intense exercise. HIIT is a great way of burning that fat fast and efficiently.

And lastly, abdominal workouts. It will surprise most people that working your abs hardly plays a part in getting a six pack because even if you had great abs you wouldn’t be able to see them if you had a layer of fat covering them. There are hundreds of ab exercises out there but there are only a few that are really efficient.

Choose 3-4 exercises that you can do no more than 10-20 reps of. If you are having trouble finding one, try adding weights to add more resistance. This will increase your abs size giving you more bulky abs. Some exercises I recommend are weighted crunches, reverse crunches and hanging or lying leg lifts. Try doing each of these exercises in your workouts doing 2-3 sets of each. But remember, like every other muscle in the body, abs need rest to grow, so only do these exercises 3-4 times a week and if intense enough only 2 times. Keep in mind that you cannot spot reduce, which means you can’t pinpoint the area you would like to lose fat except with lipo suction. So if you only do ab exercises you’re not going to get anywhere too quickly.

All of the above are the secrets to getting a fully ripped six pack and a well built beach body for the summer. So keep at it and I’m sure you will get there!

Excellent! That covers all the basics and you kept it simple and easy to understand.

good read

good article, thanks tim

Very Nice!

Here's a calculator you can use if you want for RMR, EER, etc...
http://www.apexfitness.com/html/tools/fit_calc/calorie/

Don't you think you should add something about resistance training overall? Because alot of people are going to read that and take it word for word... so all they'll do is ab exercises, when if they do a total body exercise, they'll burn more calories, get more toned, which then will make cardio easier to do and burn more calories there, etc...

Also as far as the nutrition... may talk about the macronutrients?? because I could eat 2000 calories of ice cream and gain weight but if I eat 2000 calories of 60/20/20 I'll lose weight..

Just a couple of ideas

Nice thinking Dex!

Very good points u brang up there.

The problem is i dont know anything about 'macronutrients' lol and about writing up that other stuff, might take a while for me to get round to it, being in high skool i got exams coming up and i gota study hard, so ill be hitting the books for the next few weeks, from then on im relaxed and im sure ill get round to wirting another article on this thread about those points.

But the improatnt thing now is that people know not to take it ALL word for word by the stuff you have added. Thanx

yeah different thinks suit different people but that's one of the best 8-pack guides I've seen. I want to jog about 4 times a week but school finishes at 4, I'm home at 4.30, then its too dark to go for a jog really. I'm going to do it anyway but it would be best to do it in the light (and heat).

and how do you do weighted crunches, reverse crunches and hanging and lying leg lifts?

You could always go jogging first thing in the morning before you eat..thats what i do.

Weighted crunches:

Just basically do a normal crunch but hold a weight on ur chest or behind ur head.

Reverse crunch:

Lay on ur back with ur hands by ur sides and put ur legs on the floor with ur knees at a bend, now bring ur knees slowly to ur chest with ur legs bent, once u hit ur chest really squeeze those abs, now slowly lower urself back to the starting position. You could add weight to them to by putting a dumbell between ur feet.

Hanging and lying leg raises:

Hanging: hang ur arms from a chin up bar, with hands shoulder width apart. slowly bring ur knees to ur chest, sqeeze those abs, and slowly lower again

Lying: lay or ur back with ur hands under ur butt, ur legs should be almost straight with a slight bend, lift ur legs off the floor, and by using ur lower abs lift them to about 60 degrees. Hold and slowly lower.