Posted by Maria Dimitrova

Read this if: You have tried a million stomach crunches but still cannot see your abs.

Gain: A boost in your confidence and an increased sex appeal

Cost: Only perseverance

The summer is at its full bloom and along with the fun during the vacations season, the pressure to get fit is stronger than ever. You can actually feel how tough the competition is! Slim and muscular men and women are a “walking temptation” showing off their sculpted bodies in bathing suits and other revealing summer outfits. This stirs our primal instincts deep under our sophistication and intellectual aspirations. It’s said that “Men love with their eyes, women love with their ears”. It’s true to some extent but as the numerous studies in the book Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivations from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between) show, one of the main reasons for a woman to feel attracted to a man even after thousands of years of evolution is still the V-shape of his body determined by a certain shoulders-hips proportion. The explanation is that this shape gives a physically and socially dominant image of the man and is associated with a better health.

How important are abs in male physique for women?

A lot of men who workout focus almost exclusively on increasing the muscle mass of their upper body and they manage to achieve huge biceps, shoulders and triceps ignoring the body fat in the abs section. However, the studies in the mentioned book show that most women prefer athletic men with lean bodies, not too muscular but beautifully sculpted and with a flat stomach. Another survey done by IRON MAN magazine discovered that for more than 70 percent of the women in the survey tight six-pack abs on a guy are a turn on and this part of the body comes in third place in terms of importance after broad shoulders and muscular arms. So if you have decided to join the ranks of the male “walking temptations” and feel admiration and satisfaction every time you see yourself in a mirror, a six-pack stomach should definitely be included in the list of your fitness goals.

Is a six-pack stomach achievable for everyone?

Although genetics plays a role in the way someone looks, their metabolism and how their body reacts to exercises, this doesn’t mean that if fate has been unjust to you in this aspect you can’t influence your metabolic rate and sculpt your body. It will take more time but it is absolutely possible to achieve a six-pack stomach. Everything depends on your motivation, patience and perseverance in following certain rules.

The rules

Maybe you’ve heard some people say they do hundreds of crunches a day and in spite of that they aren’t even close to a six-pack stomach. Fitness gurus like Arnel Ricafranka explain that the fastest and most efficient way to a six-pack is a combined strategy – a healthy diet, cardio exercises and strength training.

New eating habits

Eat six times a day

This is very important for increasing the metabolic rate and keep the hormones responsible for burning fat in good balance. Another benefit of eating regular small portions throughout the day is that it diminishes the cravings for junk food.

Indulge in specific foods

For a body to function properly it has to be fuelled properly. Proper foods are essential for the effectiveness of the training because your body needs high quality material to build muscles not empty calories from junk food and beverages.

The simplest dietary rule of all time is the best one and the only one you will need: If it comes directly from a tree or an animal and it is not modified you can eat it. Do not eat food that has been processed in any way beyond simple cooking. Even though that makes a huge amount of foods available to eat some of us will still find it too difficult because it forbids bread, pizza and pastries. If you must eat bread, stick to the roughest wholemeal bread you can find. Another option is to stick to the diet  religiously for 6 days and cheat once per week.

If you plan to build muscle, put an emphasis on those foods containing a high concentration of protein, like meats, cheeses and legumes (lentils and beans).

Have a dessert every day

Eating sweet things is inevitable as it’s part of human nature. In the ancient times human tastebuds encouraged people to seek out berries and other fruits to provide themselves with all the necessary vitamins and minerals. So you can’t erase your need to eat something sweet but you can control what it will contain. Some good variants are to make a fruit smoothie or mix oatmeal, milk and honey.

Stay away from foods and drinks with refined sugar

High sugary food/drink intake can cause your blood sugar to surge causing you body to stop producing a hormone called glucagon.  Glucagon is a releasing hormone that is responsible for releasing body fat to be utilized as energy.  However, when you consume too much sugar, your glucagon production is discontinued. The excessive consumption of soda drinks is assumed to be one of the main culprits for obesity. Controlling the intake of alcoholic drinks is also important as they contain refined sugar.

Keep yourself hydrated all day

A slight decrease in the body fluid level can affect the exercise performance.  It’s recommended to drink .6 – .7 ounces per pound of body weight. If you wait to feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. So don’t wait until you are thirsty.

Cardio training

Doing abs exercises without cardio will lead to strong abs muscles but you’ll be the only person aware of their existence if they are hidden under the cover of fat. Remember also you cannot burn fat in a specific part of the body by exercising it more. You need to lose fat from everywhere, so there is not a specific need to do crunches to burn fat. Exercising your abs will make them bigger, but not burn the fat above them.

The fastest way to burn body fat is through large doses of “cardio”.

Split-training

Professional bodybuilders recommend split-training on training days – “cardio” in the morning and strength training in the evening. You can choose different types of cardio – running, swimming, riding a bike, dancing, training on an elliptical machine.

Interval training

Interval training is alternating intervals of high intensity exercising with moderate intensity exercising because it triggers the fat burning process at its optimal speed. If you do your “cardio” at the same speed every time, your body will adjust to it and you will need to constantly increase the duration of the workout to burn the same amount of calories you used to burn at the beginning. Over time it will become more and more time-consuming.

Strength training

Specialists in the area say it’s best if you aim for training 3 times per week. The following exercises are focused on your abs, but remember to include them in a balanced workout schedule:

1. Lift weights. The more muscle your body has, the more calories your body burns, even at rest.
2. Do crunches. Lie on the floor with your arms in front of your chest or with your hands lightly touching your temples (never behind your head). Bend your knees. Raise your shoulders (upper torso) towards your knees, using strictly your abdominal muscles. It is very important to not lift your entire back off the floor, as this can cause back strain, and the extended movement does not help you develop six pack abs any faster. You can also use a stability ball to do the crunches.
3. Do sit-ups. Lie on the floor, feet on the floor, knees up and hands crossed on your chest. Have someone hold your feet down, or wedge them underneath something heavy. Sit all the way up, lifting your lower back off the floor along with your shoulder blades. Keep your back straight (no hunching). Lower yourself down.
4. Do leg lifts.Lie on the floor, legs straight out, hands at your sides. Lift your legs straight up (not bending your knees at all) until they’re at a 90 degree angle (or close). Lower your legs and repeat without letting your legs touch the floor.
5. Do static holds. Put your body into the push-up position but with your elbows on the floor, and your whole body flat. This position is known as the static hold position, or the plank, and it trains your core (including your abs) to hold the body in place which is the real purpose of your abs. Hold this position for as long as possible.
6. Train your oblique muscles. There are twisting machines at gyms, you can twist while you do sit-ups, you can do side bends, you can twist side to side with a medicine ball in hand,etc.A range of abs exercises plus recovery time between series:

7. Duration of the series of exercising and breaksArnel Ricafranka recommends:
• Beginners – 30 seconds per exercise; 30 seconds break; 1-2 series
• Intermediate level – 45 seconds per exercise; 15 seconds break; 2-3 series
• Advanced – 45 seconds per exercise; 5 seconds break, 3-4 series
8. Use weightsA recent study was done to check the importance of adding weights when training abs. It featured 71 men and women, age range 19 to 40, who were divided into groups depending on how often they trained their abs. The frequencies ranged from zero to three to six days a week. The subjects did a variety of traditional ab exercises, such as crunches, for 11 weeks. The researchers found that, regardless of frequency, training the abs without adding weight doesn’t produce strength increases. Muscle grows only when resistance is added.

According to Arnel Rikafranka if you follow the rules strictly, you will have a six-pack stomach in about 16 weeks or less. Of course the time it will take a man to enjoy visible results depends on his starting point – how fit he is at the beginning of this regime. But even if you don’t have the ideal six-pack stomach in 16 weeks, your abs will be much tighter and flat from the training and the new eating habits which is a big enough reward for your persistence.

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A note from the editor: An unhealthy focus on the abs only will cause an imbalance in posture and may even damage your health. The whole body should be trained. That means the arms, legs, and back too. If you are interested in achieving overall fitness and not just abs for the beach (and you should be) I can highly recommend my personal trainer’s website which deals with functional fitness, and not only cosmetics.