You’ve seen the ads on TV of sexy men and women with amazingly flat stomachs featuring “rippled” muscles. Those rippled muscles are often called “washboard abs” or “six pack abs”. The truth is, six-pack abs are universally admired. The reason is they look attractive; six pack abs beat flab any day! They are the mark of a good looking guy or girl.
Six pack abs are easy if you follow certain principles and as long as you put yourself into a cohesive approach of exercise and diet.
Let’s start with a simple exercise you can do to create amazing abs: crunches. Floor crunches are the most popular form of exercise to get a fast six pack. Crunches, reverse crunches, placing your elbows on the arm of the weighted ab machine, adjusting the line of action of the cable crunch and the abdominal wheel are some exercises that properly stimulate your abdominal muscles. These exercises are an isolation lower abs workout, and they work!
As you execute crunches, both how you do them and how many you do are important. In other words, you need to do crunches in the correct way, and you need to execute a lot of them to be most effective. For example, the most basic crunch can be done as follows: Lie flat on the floor, knees bent, and legs about 1-2 feet apart. Alternatively, you can place your lower legs up on a chair or bench.
So, now you need to know what kind of washboard abs workout will get you the best results in the least amount of time. Well, it can’t be done in a week, that’s for sure. At the minimum, you need to allow six weeks to build your abdominal muscles and then increase your aerobic activity to start burning the fat.
Increasing your aerobic activity is important, but let’s be clear: cardio is definitely NOT the best way to lose belly fat and reveal your six pack abs. Most people who make this mistake end up hitting plateaus they can never overcome. Cardiovascular exercise is activity involving the large muscles, such as your legs and help make your heart and lungs stronger. In activities like running, walking, cycling or dancing, you speed up aerobic metabolism, making your body spend stored and available calories.
In addition to exercise, you need to change your eating habits in order to see a flat stomach and to get a fast six pack of rippled abs. Cut out the body fat by changing what you eat and make sure you have a balanced diet instead. Again, using a 2000 calorie target as an example, Monday might be 2000 calories, Tuesday 2100, Wednesday 1900, Thursday 2200, Friday 1800, and so on to average 2000 calories for the week. Remember, dieting does not mean not eating food. Dieting means eating healthy good food.
So if you want to get started on a six pack abs program, start with floor crunches, graduate up to crunches with workout machines, and be sure to pay attention to your calorie intake. Then you’ll find yourself developing the great body you seek!