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When they think about getting that perfect set of abs, most people have a mental image of the task being mainly working with crunches and sit-ups (and perhaps a few leg lifts thrown in for good nmeasure).

Unfortunately, it’s realistically going to require 4 distinct activities to get the type of results you see showcased in magazines and movies; there aren’t any short cuts, unfortunately. All 4 activities are necessary and they’re focused on creating the all-important combination – burn fat, build muscle.

Your Diet

The single biggest issue here is, you can spend the rest of your life working out with crunches but if you’re still wearing a fat suit, you’ll never have six-pack abs.

So your diet has to be one that creates fat loss. First thing being, think about calories — you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Second, you need a good balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fat – and yes, there IS healthy fat. You need the protein to build muscle and also to help muscle recover from exercise; and, protein can help you to control your appetite. You need carbohydrates for energy, of course. And healthy fat because the right types of fat – not those in a burger or ice cream, I might add – are an essential part of a balanced diet.

Cardio Exercise

So … why cardio-vascular exercise, specifically?. The answer is simple mathematics … because to eliminate 1 lb of fat you need to burn 3500 more calories than you take in, so if you want to get rid of that layer of fat that “hides” your abs, no matter how well developed, cardio is one step along the fastest path.

Strength exercises

Strength training has the biggest impact on the metabolism … meaning, if you perform strength training regularly, you’ll literally put your body in a position where the metabolism speeds up and … you’ve guessed it, your burn fat more quickly. Large muscle exercises – squats, bench presses, lunges, etc – performed regularly will have a bigger impact on metabolism even than cardio and certainly more than small muscle exercises (bicep curls, for example) although it all helps. The faster you burn the fat … the faster you get those ripped abs you’re working so hard for.

Abs-specific exercises

Finally, there are the staples – crunches, sit-ups and leg lifts. With many variations, of course.

So, this is the path for great abs; but the biggest obstacle isn’t actually associated with any of these. The biggest challenge is in your head, and it’s simply this – are you willing to pay the price?

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.