Fitness Tip: Six-Pack Abs
Many people think that in order to get ripped abs you need to spend a lot of time doing ab exercises. This is almost completely wrong.
The real fact of the matter is that when you are lifting heavy during your squats, lunges, deadlifts, and the bench press, you will be using the ab muscles to a great degree. If your abs weren’t working during these exercises, you’d be unable to keep upright.
In fact, your ab muscles come into play for every exercise you do, to some degree.
Just as important as building more muscle mass is reducing your body fat to such a degree that they can actually be seen. The best six pack in the world is no use if it’s hidden under a layer of fat.
Your body fat percentage will have to be close to the single digits range, otherwise you’ll never have increased six pack.
Weight training exercises are one of the best ways to boost your metabolic rate, which will then help you burn off body fat all day long. Some exercises are better suited for this purpose than others. In general, isolation exercises like bicep curls won’t do much towards raising your metabolic rate, wide compound exercises that engage large muscles, like squats, are excellent for this purpose.
To utilize this principle, try your best to program your weight lifting routine so that only core, compound lifts are included. Examples of such compound exercises are dead lifts, squats, bench presses and pull-ups.
Not only will this provide you with a far better whole body workout without wasting too much time on needless exercises, but it will also help you achieve that ripped abs look that you are going for.
Lastly, keep in mind that ripped abs and strong abs can mean different things. If you do a great deal of weighted abdominal work, you may actually cause your ab muscles to grow larger, thus giving you the appearance of a wider waist. Unless the body fat levels are not low again, you’ll just end up looking bigger in the middle, rather than more defined.
So, in order to make this goal a reality for you, first focus on getting low enough body fat levels to get those abs showing. The best way to achieve this is to do a solid full-body training program, combined with cardio and a good diet. Then, if you are not happy with the shape of the ab muscles or the amount of ab muscle development, start focusing on doing more work focused on just this muscle group itself.
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