Our Obsession with the Six Pack and how to be Smart about Achieving them

The “Ab Trend” that Never Ends

Our society expects us to maintain our figures and the six pack abs have become the standard by which a good body is judged. Most fitness professionals and personal trainers will tell you that the abdominal area is the one that people are most fixated with. Having a healthy and toned core make the entire body look fit, unlike just focusing on your arms or legs. Because of this “ab obsession” in our society, people think that just doing ab exercises are the answer. Many people don’t realize that ab training must be combined with an ideal diet and other exercises in order to maintain the much sought after six pack abs.

Abdominal training alone will build your core muscles, but it not give you a healthy waistline. Aerobic exercise is best for trimming body fat. Aerobic exercise is exercise which cause the heart and lungs to work hard for a maintained period of time in order to supply your body with the extra oxygen it is demanding. This type of exercise burns the most calories while strength training exercise will help tone your body.

Diet is also important when it comes to revealing and maintaining your six pack abs. You will want your diet to focus on lean proteins and healthy fats found in chicken breasts, fish, beans and nuts. You will also want to lower the amount of carbohydrates you consume and make sure that the ones you do consume are whole grains and high in fiber. Fruits and vegetables are a great way to full you up for fewer calories while making sure you get all your nutrients. This diet will make your body an overall higher-quality fuel where it can get more energy out of less food.

Ab training focuses mostly on the rectus abdomens, the muscle widening above the ribs down to the abdomen, this is where the six pack is located. The obliques, the muscles that run along side of the six pack, are also focused on in ab exercises. Beyond just the drive for the beautiful body, having a strong core makes your overall body stronger, reduces back pain and injury, and helps you enjoy a better quality of life.

Because a strong core can improve your life on so many levels, here are three tips to follow to help build and maintain your six pack:

Diet, not exercise, is the Key to remove unwanted Fat

A common saying among health professionals is: “Abs are prepared in the kitchen, and not in a gym”. Instead of focusing on how to get rid of the fat you may already have through burning it off, go right to the source, that is, what you eat. Improving your diet and reducing the number of calories that you consume will get you closer to a leaner stomach than through exercise alone.

Work(out) Smart, Not Hard
Many people falsely believe that they need to jump right in and do ab exercises, any ab exercises at all, as much as possible and as hard as possible. This is a great way to either injure yourself in the beginning because your body has not built up to this level of work or to injure yourself in the future because your body gets strong in one area while other areas are ignored.

Always start out with a cardio warm-up before moving into strength training. Lifting weights using cold muscles increases your chance for injury while decreasing the effectiveness of your workout. Many people do their full cardio workout, 20 to 60 minutes, before their strength training. This idea works but if you plan to separate your cardio and strength workouts, aim for a 5 minute cardio warm-up to get the blood moving and to warm-up you muscles.

Once your body is warmed up and ready to get the most out of toning, be smart about your strength training. Pushing your body to the limit by focusing on just five or so moves is not a good use of your time. Research a good strength training workout or work with a personal trainer to develop one. This way you will be working out your entire body and your time will be used more effectively. In the end you will feel stronger overall, will not have long lasting injuries, and you will be encouraged to keep up your strength training which will help you maintain life-long six pack abs.

Smart Workouts start with Smart Eating

Many people don’t consider what or how soon before a workout they eat. Most fitness professionals will tell you that by working out on a mostly empty stomach, you will be burning your body fat directly and not just the hamburger you had for lunch one hour ago. This is an easy way to get the most out of your workout. About two hours before your workout, have a light snack of no more than 250 calories containing a lean protein. This will ensure that you have fuel to burn to get you through your entire workout while still burning off body fat.

By being smart about your diet (and when you eat), and your workout, you can achieve optimal results without putting in the most effort. Remember, it wasn’t the kid who wrote the longest book report in school who got the A+, it was the kid who wrote the best book report and used their resources effectively.