We hear all the time, working your legs will give you a fine pair of sexy toned legs, working your arms will give you nice strong muscular looking set of arms- working your chest will give you a defined, cut sexy beach ready set of pecs. So working your abs should surely give you that sexy 6-pack you’ve been dreaming of since your late teens right?
Unfortunately doing 1000 sit ups day and night is unlikely to give you that flawless magazine ready set of abs. The trick to getting that much sought after 6-pack is in fact no trick at all. It really is just hard work, dedication and a lot of patience.
Sadly for a lot of us our 6-pack is there, it is just sitting comfortably, protected by layers and layers of fat, just waiting to make its grand entrance. To get our 6-pack to make its long awaited appearance requires quite a bit of effort, a will to achieve it, combining diet with exercise, but not just any exercise. You would need to do cardio, which of course is everyone’s worst nightmare, but who ever said reaching your goal would be easy?
In order to burn the fat around your stomach cardio is essential to your training program. It is the most efficient way to burn the most calories in the shortest time frame; this is because cardio workouts generally use large muscle groups like your legs and also force you to bear weight. The type of cardio exercise you do doesn’t matter so much, ideally you want to select an activity you enjoy doing such as swimming, walking, running and to ensure you are able to make it a part of your daily routine.
To get our 6-pack to show, we should be doing our cardio sessions for about 45 minutes to an hour most days of the week at a high intensity. Of course if we aren’t able to work out consistently for the whole hour, building our way up to it would be the plan, but make sure you are pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone is a must to get the results we desire.
If we are serious about getting this 6-pack, and I believe we are this is where the hard part, dedication and immense will power comes into play. Yes, I am talking about our diet. The days of sitting down on the coach pigging out on potato chips, or going out with our friends for ‘one drink’ that sneakily turns into 12 are over!
To get this much sought after 6-pack, major changes to our diet are required. To increase our metabolism and keep our appetite under control, small, balanced meals should be eaten approximately every 3 hours throughout the day. Any food that is high in calories and fat needs to be burnt, thrown away or forgotten about. So basically anything fried needs to go, fast food, processed meats and refined carbohydrates are all a thing of the past. Now, I’m not saying you will never achieve your 6-pack if you do include these food items into your everyday diet, BUT it will make it that much harder and make it take that much longer.
The foods that need to be included in our new 6-pack focussed diets are nutrient dense foods, anything that is a good source of protein, carbs and healthy fats, such as vegetables, lean meats, fish, beans, whole grains or nuts.
If after our delicious meal of baked skinless chicken breast, quinoa, a side of veg, and nuts for dessert leaves us feeling a little thirsty, our new beverage of choice is of course a glass water, it is functional, not pleasurable- has no calories and it helps to keep you hydrated.
So if you want to get that 6-pack you’ve been asking for before the Crop Over season, I suggest you start working now.
Become the face of fitness you’ve always wanted and realise the secret to a successful 6-pack is no secret at all.
