In your mission to get ripped abs, you will hear a few myths that you need to disregard if you are going to finally get what you want.

First, no piece of equipment can help you exercise your abs any deeper than you can do yourself – forget that myth.  Please do not throw away any money on such worthless machines, they are absolutely not necessary.

 The myth that you will not get a six pack unless you do hundreds of crunches is also untrue.  Crunches provide a very low level of muscle stimulation and ignore many muscle fibers that are needed to build your abdominals.

Third, while it is true that you need to slash your body fat to expose your abdominals, starving yourself is not the greatest way to lose that fat.  Starvation diets in fact cause your body to feed on the very muscle you are trying to build.

The final untrue myth says a pill can help you lose fat and get toned abdominals.  Thousands of people have squandered thousands of dollars following such dreams – please don’t waste yours.  Only healthy practices -  eating, sleeping, training – will get you the body you want.

Now that these myths are debunked, how do you get the abdominals you want?

There are a lot of muscle building and/or fat loss plans that will help you lose your belly fat and build your abdominals.  See these reviews for The Truth About Six Pack Abs and Craig Ballantyne’s program.  There are many other programs available – if you feel you need some guidance beyond this article, find a program that is right for you.  The most important thing in any program is that it goes well with your lifestyle so you will do it.  For right now, let’s concentrate on the main components of a six pack ab routine.

You should realize that no matter how much body fat you lose no abs will be seen unless you grow those abs using a good workout plan. To grow your abdominal muscles, like any other muscle, you have to exercise the muscle fibers then allow them to recoup and grow.  Then you exercise them again.  You will get the best results if you do this routine in the proper sequence and frequency.                                         

Sequence

The muscles that are priority to you should be trained first in your program.  Your abdominal exercises should be first in your routine if you want to build a six pack.

Frequency

Muscles need more rest when they have been trained more intensely.  To make your abs bigger, you need to do high intensity workouts fewer times a week.  Plan to do two to four intense workouts each week, the rest time in between those workouts will give your muscles time to recouperate and grow.  Be sure to work upper abdominals, lower abdominals and obliques or you will end up with only a two pack.

For more information on which body movements exercise each group of muscle, see this article.
 

Tags: six pack abs, washboard abs
Filed under: Fat Loss