How To Get That Six Pack Abs Look. What do I mean when I say that? It's simple the six pack abs look is just what we talk about here. Tight fat free abs, a firm and shapely butt, slender thighs and just a gererally firm toned healthy body.
Today we are talking to Mike Geary of The Truth About Six Pack Abs program. So this is just about getting six pack abs? Yes and No. Mike teaches total body workouts which I love. Why? If you are looking to lose fat( how to get that six pack abs look!) or looking to add more muscle total body workouts are not only Efficient but highly Effective.
Okay hopefully I cleared up what how to get that six pack abs look means so lets talk to Mike.
JG: Let's get right down to it. Everyone wants a flat set of 6-pack abs, yet very few people ever achieve that goal. Why do you think there's so much confusion on the subject? Is it really all that complicated of a process?
MG: You know, it's really NOT that complicated... However, with that said, to get your body fat % low enough to really see a nice set of abs, it does take a decent amount of discipline with your food intake as well as a whole new level of intensity with your workouts than what most people are used to. The thing is, most of my clients always comment that the style of eating that I recommend is actually fun, and they feel more energy due to the more natural unprocessed healthy foods they're eating and more balanced blood sugar and hormone levels in their body.
The problem is that there's so much conflicting advice out there these days, it leads the average joe or jane to over-complicate things and end up totally confused about what's the best way to train and eat for six pack abs.
JG: You've said before that abdominal exercises such as crunches and situps are extremely ineffective when it comes to achieving a flat stomach, and that they can actually make your stomach look WORSE. Can you elaborate on that?
MG: Sure... First of all, let me make clear that I'm not saying that you shouldn't do any abs-specific exercises. Rather, my point of contention is that most people spend WAY too much time focusing all of their efforts on abs-specific exercises, instead of focusing their efforts on more effective total body workouts and exercises that stimulate a much greater fat-burning and muscle building hormonal response, burn more calories, stimulate the metabolism to a higher extent, and also indirectly work the abs to a decent degree anyway.
Let me give an example of how many people typically waste too much time on abs-specific exercises...
A lot of times I see the average joe or jane spending about 15-30 minutes of their total workout just doing tons of pointless repetitions of crunches, situps, leg raises, or some other "abs pumping" exercise. Many times this comes out to almost HALF of their entire time working out.
My point here is that this type of excessive abs training is really a waste of time training a relatively small muscle group such as the abs, when that time could have been better spent on total body workouts using exercises such as squats, deadlifts, clean & presses, lunges, upper body presses and pulls, dumbbell swings, snatches, etc, etc. Compared to spending that time doing abs exercises, all of the above types of exercises will give you magnitudes more results in terms of hormonal response, metabolism increase, calorie burning, etc... all while indirectly working the abs to an extent anyway.
After focusing the majority of your workout efforts on those types of more effective total body workouts and exercises, then it's ok to spend about 5-7 minutes directly training the abs with abs-specific exercises... but the point I'd like to make is that abs training should only be a small portion of your training program as a whole, and not the majority of it.
Also, back to the topic of crunches and situps in particular... Once you've got a decent amount of abdominal training under your belt, crunches tend to be one of the least effective ab strengthening exercises since they are actually a fairly low-resistance exercise. An example of a higher resistance abs exercise would be a hanging leg raise with a proper pelvic curl-up (different than what you see most people doing in the gyms, where they only raise their knees up).
JG: How often do you recommend an individual train their abdominals on a weekly basis? Is basic, straightforward training the best protocol, or are there advanced ab training techniques that will yield better results?
MG: I usually recommend incorporating abs-specific training into your routines about twice/week, and 5-7 minutes per workout. Remember though that you're also getting indirect ab work through most of the total body workouts that should be comprising the majority of your workout time.
Beyond the typical leg raises, ab bicycles, hip thrusts, ab pikes, crunches, etc... there are definitely ways that you can take your abs to a new level that most people don't even think of. For example, some of the best abs exercises aren't usually viewed as abs exercises at all...
A couple examples that come to mind are front squats, renegade dumbbell rows, mountain climbers, 1-arm snatches, and others. Front squats are typically viewed as just a leg exercise, but if you've ever learned to do a proper front squat, you'll feel a tremendous stabilization tension required in your abs due to the weight being shifting more to the front of your body compared to the back as in back squats. If you haven't done front squats in a while, or are just learning them, I guarantee if you do a few sets of them, your abs will be feeling it big time the next day!
Renegade rows are another example of an exercise that's typically just viewed as an upper back exercise. However, while you're rowing a dumbbell up from a pushup position while stabilizing your body with your other arm, there is an insane amount of tension and stabilization strength required in your entire abs/core area. This is another exercise that really surprises people at how much they feel it in their abs.
So there you have it How to get that six pack abs look. Total body workouts not only to tighten up those abs but lose body fat, get a firm butt, slender thighs and add some lean muscle.
