How To Get Six Pack Abs In Time For
Summer
Dax Moy
Open just about any magazine even slightly related to health
and fitness and you'll find some variant or another of 'six
weeks to a six-pack' or 'awesome abs' or 'core training secrets
of the stars' or the like.
It's amazing!
It's as if the whole world is fixated with the abdominal
region and will happily sit through pages and pages of 'samey'
information just to get to the one or two 'secrets' that'll
miraculously turn us from fat and flabby to fit and fabby over
night.
Well, as much as you'll hate hearing it, the truth is that
most 'celebrity sixpacks' have very little to do with the
special core routine of their favourite personal trainer with
their multitudes of crunch variations or 'secret' exercises.
Likewise any well conditioned track athlete, martial artist
or gymnast.
You'll rarely, if ever catch one of these well proportioned
and highly defined athletes even entertaining the idea of
crunches, let alone doing one, yet they all get to sport
year-round leanness and definition that most people would kill
for.
Why is that?
Why when some of us are spending HOURS every week hitting our
waists from every angle are we still looking soft around the
middle when these abdominal training atheists are able to
achieve such great results?
I can tell you up front, you're not going to like the answer
I have for you!
First though, some basic anatomy.
That muscle you think of as 'the six pack', the one that runs
from your groin all the way up to your ribs is called the Rectus
abdominis and is just one of several very important muscle
groups that create your waist or 'core' as is now popular.
Every single movement you make, from standing to sitting,
walking to running, bending twisting, pushing and pulling all
originate here and so, far from requiring even more training,
your core muscles are already there and already looking like
that sixpack you've got your heart so set on.
Right there, buried under all of that fat you've worked hard
all winter (maybe longer) to lay down is a sixpack that any
bodybuilder or gymnast would die for. The only reason you can't
see yours is because it's buried!
(I told you it'd be basic)
The only thing stopping you from 'un-burying' your six-pack
is the lack of discipline required to control what goes into
your mouth on a daily basis along with the dispelling of a few
myths that are conspiring to keep you soft around the middle.
Myth Number 1 - You CAN'T Spot reduce
It's a weird one this, as most of us seem to know this
already, on a surface level at least, yet still it's common to
find six-pack seekers grinding out rep after tedious rep of
myriad variations of curls and crunches.
Listen up. The body just doesn't work that way!
If it did, the people who did the most crunches would have
the most visible abs and this is clearly not the case. In fact,
it's probably the other way around!
Once and for all let's get this straight. When the body burns
fat it takes it molecule by molecule, gram by gram from the
whole body, not just from the area you're exercising. What's
more, by performing such small, isolated exercises you're not
burning many calories or much body fat anyway!
The answer is to get off of your back and carry out more of
your exercises from a standing position and using many more of
your muscles each time you train. That way, without even
directly targeting the abdominals you'll be burning many, many
more calories AND conditioning your core at the same time.
You're far more likely to see your sixpack this way.
Myth Number Two - Cardio is king if you want to get lean
Not so. Especially if you do it the way most people do.
Just look around the gym next time you're there. How many of
the cardio junkies that are glued to the treadmills, rowers and
crosstrainers are sporting the look you're after?
Not many I'll bet!
And the reason is, they're doing so much cardio that the
hormones that keep them going for those extended periods are
actually commanding their bodies to give up muscle more rapidly
than fat. The net effect is that they end up slowing their
metabolism way down and creating bodies that are potentially
fatter than before.
Not what most exercisers are after but nevertheless, what
YOU'LL get if you insist upon training the way that most gym
goers do.
No, to get lean you need to work harder for shorter duration.
Short circuits, intervals, relays that get you breathing hard
then rest. 5 mins at a time are all you'll need if you train
this way.
Better yet, skip those boring machines anyway and use
strength exercises with bodyweight or free-weights in to send
your metabolism into warp drive.
I call this type of training my 'six hundred rule'.
In short, you've six-hundred or so muscles in your body.
Incorporate exercises and movements that challenge as many as
possible at once. Exercises like pushups, pull-ups, squats,
lunges, jumps forward bends, deadlifts. Y'know, those honest to
goodness 'old fashioned' exercises that people used to use
before gyms got hi-tech.
Myth Number 3 - you've got to cut calories to get lean
Well, I've got to admit, this is partly true, especially if
you overeat often, but much more important than cutting calories
is to cut the rubbish foods out of your diet altogether.
You see, your body fat is used as a 'toxic dump', a
waste-ground when your system is overburdened by foods it can't
handle. When too many toxic foods find their way into your body,
regardless of the calories you eat, your body will dump these
toxins into wherever you hold your fat. Your waist among other
places.
So if you truly want to get lean, you've gotta get clean!
That means removing many of the foods that your body
considers toxic like:
Alcohol, Caffeine, Processed foods,Sugar (or substitute),
anything with a number or unpronounceable word in it and most
wheat products.
These foods are KNOWN to create either allergies or
intolerances in increasingly larger numbers of people and should
be avoided for good health as well as for the aesthetic goal of
seeing your abs.
Replace these foods with wholesome, nourishing foods that
offer support to your body and you'll almost immediately see fat
beginning to strip off. Foods like:
Fresh meat, fish and poultry (especially organic), Fresh
fruit and veg (organic where possible), Nuts and seeds, Olives
and Fresh, filtered water.
These are basic fundamentals of any healthy diet yet few
people come anywhere near these basics within their own eating
and lifestyle plans opting instead for quick-fix, processed,
toxic foods.
You can cut calories all you want but if you're still eating
foods from the top list and not enough from the bottom then
you'll ALWAYS end up back where you started.
See, I told you that you wouldn't like what I had to say!
But will you listen?
No, more. Will you actually follow this advice and make some
of these changes to your diet and lifestyle for the next 30
days?
If you do, I GUARANTEE you that you'll lose more fat, gain
more firm, lean, shapely muscles where you want them and look
and feel better than you have in ages. What's more, you'll have
put into place a habit that will serve you long after those 30
days are over.
And when you walk onto the beach this summer you'll look down
to where your new-found waistline is on proud display for all to
see and know that you finally did it. You achieved what only a
tiny percentage of people ever do.
About the Author
Dax Moy is a performance enhancement specialist and master
personal trainer with studios in and around London. Voted one of
the UK's leading fitness experts, Dax is a regular guest on TV,
radio and print publications on the subject of health, fitness
and the performance mindset. To download a free copy of Dax's
Elimination Diet which has been downloaded by over 24,000 people,
visit http://www.daxmoy-pts.co.uk/elimination.asp
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