In the old days, a six pack was considered as a symbol of a healthy lifestyle, physically strong and endured which was favored by the Ancient Greek. This explains why the statues of Zeus, Poseidon and Hercules often sculpted with 6 packs – an agreement for eternal perfection and the strength of the gods.
Below are 6 pieces of advice that will help you to promote the process of revealing your abs optimally!
1. Train every core muscle groups, not only rectus abdominis muscle
The majority misperceives that the core has only one muscle group in the center, yet indeed the core muscles comprise rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, external abdominal oblique and internal abdominal oblique.
These muscles have a crucial role in assisting your upper body to stand straight, stable and agile which allow you to perform sophisticated movements. If you only do crunches, your abdominal muscles will not holistically be developed. Like other muscles in your body, the core needs to be trained with the combination of various and diverse range of exercises.
2. Train with medium-intensity
Start your abs training with the right intensity and gradually increase the repetitions and volumes for optimal results. For example, your bodyweight training session for today has the rep range from 15 to 30 reps, the next day you need to lower the rep range from 8-12 but don’t forget to increase the weights and difficulty of the exercises.
3. Focus on lowering your body fat percentage
You cannot reduce the fat on a particular area of your body by training only the muscles in that area. The only way to get rid of your belly fat is to slowly burn it through doing whole body exercises. Circuit-training is highly recommended since the more muscles involved in performing the movements, the higher the amount of energy will be burnt. Remember that cardio is also one of the greatest exercises to burn fat. When you lose the total body fat percentage, your belly fat is also disappeared, then the road to finding six packs also appears to be easier.
4. Limit training your abs
Many bodybuilders typically train their abs every day at the end of a workout. However, they’ve been building their abs over the years and what’s right for the bodybuilder may not always be right for you. Your abs are actually activated when doing many other exercises such as squats, deadlifts, military press, etc. For best results, exercise your abs 2-3 times per week. As your abdominal muscles grow and get stronger, you can shorten the amount of time you spend exercising your abs and include them in exercises every other day.
5. A proper, well-planned diet
If you are having too much fat on your belly covering the abdominal area, exercises like crunches are not an effective choice in this case. The best way is to adjust your diet and eating habits scientifically. Training can help you to achieve your goal only when combining with a sensible meal plan in order to lower the body fat percentage.
6. Don’t often change your diet
Many people go through a diet and nutrition plan before a competition to get toned abs (also known as cutouts). However, after that, they started eating junk food, stopped doing cardio, consequently their six-pack body disappeared. Perseverance and persistence are the most important factors of your six-pack journey. You need to see exercising as a part of your lifestyle. If you regularly eat healthy and exercise, not just six packs but a toned body will be the result. Being slim year round means you can take all the selfies you want with a confident body without having to be tied down to a contest!
