Struggling to reveal a six-pack despite your best efforts in the gym? Genetics may be holding you back, or you may be doing the wrong exercises. Here’s everything you need to know about crafting perfectly-sculpted abs.
What is A Six-Pack?
The abdominal muscles actually comprise four distinct muscle groups, each with a different function:
Rectus abdominus is a paired muscle that runs vertically down either side of the front of your abdomen. It flexes the spine, aids breathing and protects internal organs from impact.
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Transversus abdominus runs across your torso from side to side. Functionally, it holds the ribs in place and keeps your pelvic area solid.
Internal obliques sit on top of the transversus abdominus and provide forwards bending and rotational movement.
External obliques run the opposite direction to the internal obliques and provide counter-rotational movement.
The rectus abdominus muscles are split down the middle by a band of connective tissue called the linea alba. This central line, together with those that run horizontally across the core abdominal muscle groups, create the distinctive segments of the six-pack.
Why Don’t I Have One?
You do have one; everyone does. But, most people can’t see theirs because it’s hidden under a layer of fat. Men, in particular, are predisposed to storing body fat around the stomach, which hides the abs from view, no matter how many crunches you perform.
How Do I Lose the Stomach Fat?
The age-old advice for ditching belly fat is endurance-based, fat-burning cardio – something like long distance running. This advice is wrong. In fact, too much constant-state exercise actually decreases levels of testosterone in the body, and testosterone is essential for laying down muscle and burning fat.
What’s more, endurance training encourages your body to release the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol prompts the body to store energy as fat, and to break down muscle for energy, so the body can keep going for longer: great if you’re a marathon runner, not so great if you’re trying to get ripped.
Cardio is essential for fat-loss, but to effectively burn away excess stomach fat you need to focus on high-intensity workouts. Sprints (running, cycling or swimming) work well, but any short bursts of intense activity that significantly increase your heart rate will burn off your fat stores as fuel. Combine with a high-protein, restricted carb diet, and you should see an improvement within weeks.
Which Exercises Should I Do to Boost My Six-Pack?
Don’t fixate on the crunches. Exercises that directly target the abs are crucial to a six-pack boosting workout, but sit-ups, despite popular opinion, allow the hip-flexor to carry most of the load. Your abs get a peripheral workout at best, and will never be worked hard enough to build a six-pack, no matter how many reps you do.
Exercises that drill deep into the core include:
· Planks: great for building stability and core strength. Tax the muscle fibers by elevating your legs or placing your elbows on a stability ball.
· Heavy compound lifts like squats, dead lifts and shoulder presses force the abs to work hard to keep you stable when you lift or move the load. The heavier the weight, the harder the abs work to lock your torso in a stable, secure position.
· Hanging leg and knee raises target the lower abs. Hang from a dip bar or use elbow straps to take your weight.
· Jack knife crunches a reasonably advanced move that builds up muscle while increasing flexibility. Lie on the floor with your arms and legs extended and, contracting your abs, jack knife sharply up so your arms touch your legs. Lower slowly. As to reps, the abs are fast-twitch muscles, which means they respond better to low-rep sets at heavier weights.
What Supplements Should I Take To Boost My Six Pack?
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White Kidney Bean Extract is a carb blocker that can help you build your six pack by lowering your carb intake. They work best when on a low carb diet as the bean extract binds to the carbs while in your gut thus preventing them from being broken down into sugar.
CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid). CLA assists in the body burning existing fat for energy. CLA interferes with the fat storing processes and also has been shown to increase lean muscle mass. More muscle as we have discussed earlier results in more body fat burned.
L-Carnitine has two great benefits for working out. First it helps you physically by shuttling fat into your muscles, the fat is then burned to fuel your workouts. It also helps shuttle toxins out of your muscles while working out, which lead to less fatigue and better recovery from one workout to the next.
Beta Alanine is a non essential amino acid that helps in the production of carnosine. Carnosine is found in fast twitch muscle cells. Its main function for us weight lifters is buffering hydrogen ions. Too many hydrogen ions in the muscles will lead to low pH levels or an acidic environment.