The Ultimate Six Pack


The topic is everywhere. It is in every health magazine and every fitness site. You can barely escape the grocery store without seeing magazine upon magazine of the fastest and newest way to get ripped abs. Unfortunately, like every other fad diet or exercise, there has only been way to get the results. Sweat it out and stick to it. Fortunately, there are many ways of to go about it.

Lesson One: The big fat skinny lie

Sit ups and muscle workouts will not make you skinny! It’s one of the biggest and most mass produced ideas in the fitness market. Muscle works muscles. It does not touch your fat! You burn very insignificant amounts of calories doing sit-ups. You need to do cardio, eat better, and lose weight if you expect to lose your midsection. I have seen countless examples of people doing a grueling amount of sit-ups with no real results because they never lost their stomach fat. However, it is true that the more muscle content on your body, the more natural calories lost. In other words, you have to do your abdomen and muscle work with cardiovascular work and eating healthy for the results you want.

Lesson Two: Frequency

I think that anyone who has ever been on a sports team or even paid any attention to their fitness knows the “muscle workout frequency rule”, but it is crucially important that I stress it anyway. If the abdomen muscles are “endurance” muscles, I should be working them each and every day, right? Wrong! I have never seen a concept more opposed by coaches and trainers. The reason for this, as many people think, is not to give you some over exaggerated safety tip, but is purely for the purpose of your strength building. The reason for this is that your muscles do not get built up during your workout; instead they are actually torn apart. They build up in the next 24-48 hours. If you exercised daily, imagine the hindrance you would do to your abdomen strengthening! Instead of building twice the muscle, you are getting half the build in double the work! Most professionals suggest you work one specific muscle group every other day.

Lesson Three: Intensity and Exercises

This third section is where you come in. This is where the guidance varies from person to person. The problem with most ab workouts is that people tend to have their set exercises, with their comfortable amount of reps. If you’re like me, a more “cardioholic”, you look forward to your strength workout as your resting time. NOT GOOD! You should be taking every last repetition to the maximum and clinching your teeth as you squeeze out your last rep. Another big no-no is the “I’m going to set up the weights real high and cheat on every single exercise.” You know who you are. Set the weights to a reasonable height and concentrate on form. If you do this, everything else will fall in place. Good luck on your endeavors and don’t get discouraged if you don’t see your results right away.



This site is originally found at and written by Bryan Picchiottino.