A six-pack is top of the list when it comes to desirable body parts for men and women, yet the abs muscles often cause confusion when it comes to training. Here, we outline the science behind the six-pack.
Solving this problem means first fully understanding what you are trying to accomplish. Most miracle abdominal products on the market fail to advertise the many contributors to an undefined mid-section. Instead, they focus on selling a product designed only to work the muscle.
By regularly using these products, you may develop great abdominal muscles. Unfortunately, hidden under layers of belly fat your 6-pack will go unseen.
The answer to this mystery is actually quite simple. This is a three-phased approach involving the cardio and weight training you may already be focusing on, but relying heavily on your diet is the answer.
Eating the wrong foods can be very counterproductive to all the hard work you are already doing. (Refer to the Nutrition section to understand why we put on excess body fat in the first place.)
The Three Keys to Success
Diet - focuses on reducing the amount of fat that gets stored on the body, repairs muscle tissue, and helps you get LEANER!
Weight Training - helps build muscle, speeds up your metabolism, and helps you burn calories 24/7, even when you are not active.
The first mistake a lot of men and women make is thinking that more is always better. They crank out hundreds of crunches a day and wonder why those squares of muscle aren't developing properly. The reason is that, like any other muscle, the way to build your abdominals is to keep the reps per set fairly low - in the region of 10-12 - and increase the resistance when you find it too easy, not the number of reps. That means adding weight when doing crunches or using a cable machine.
Cardio - methods used to burns excess body fat, helping to speed up results.
The other mistake that men and women often make when hunting for abs is to forget about the layer of fat that covers them. Men tend to store fat around the gut, so you really need to work hard at lowering your overall body fat percentage if you want to see your abs. This means watching your diet and doing plenty of big muscle moves, such as squats and deadlifts, that torch calories.
The 6-pack comes about by reducing your body fat, which is accomplished most effectively through your diet. Think about how you train your other muscles. You do not lift a 1000 times on the bench. Nor do you perform a thousand curls while working your chest or any other muscle group. It is still important to train the abdominal muscles regularly, but the best results come after the body fat is removed, revealing your stunning 6-pack.