Pack Your Abs. We're Going on Holiday.

If your goal is to see your abs, then no matter how much you crunch, it's just not going to happen until your body fat is at a level that will allow them to peep through. That's not to say they are not there, it's just that you are covering them with a nice layer of fat. You will though get strong abs and if this is what you are after then go for it.

So the main thing for you to do is lose some fat. Fortunatley I have a lens that might help in this.

This section is very brief yet it is also very important. I do cover it in more detail in one of my other lenses. I also think that if you are serious about doing this, then you need to learn about diet and nutrition. I have bought two books that have a lot of excellent, easy to read advice in them. If you want to see a noticeable difference in your abs and you don't want to waste a lot of time doing ineffective exercise and following ineffective diet plans then you really should invest in them too.

I can recommend these books because I have read them - more than once - and I do think that they are really good. They most definitely get the dad-the-lad seal of approval. Both, if I am not mistaken come with a money back guarantee (at time of writing) and both can be downloaded instantly to your machine so you don't even need to wait for delivery. Can't be bad eh?
You will note I don't promote books willy-nilly. There are lots of other books out there on the market, but either I haven't read them personally or I just don't rate them.

The books I recommend are:

• The Truth About Six Pack Abs


• Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Check them out, then come back.

As Promised, here are some diet tips for you.

• Eat 5 to six small meals a day. Eating regularly keeps your metabolism high, and prevents overeating.


• Watch your calories. If you eat more calories than your body needs on a regular basis, you will put on weight. Eat less and the opposite will happen.


• Cycle your calories. See my Yes You - Lose Some Fat Now lens.
  
• Eat some protein at every meal


• Don't starve yourself, it will lead to overeating in the end


• Drink a lot of water


• Drink coffee and Green Tea - Unsweetened of course

These points are all covered in detail in the books above. I am following this at the moment and have seen some impressive results so far.
Once your body fat levels drop low enough your abs will start to show. For an impressive six pack you will need to exercise as well. Well no one said it would be easy did they? Read on...

Ever wondered why you deposit fat around your middle. I wondered. So I looked it up.

The explanation I like best is apparently that if the body is going to store fat, then the best palce to do this is in an area that it is easiest to carry.

Think about it, if you had pounds of fat around your wrists, amongst other things it would make lifting your arms the same as lifting a set of dumbbells. It would be a cheap way to work out mind you.

Talking of working out...

So what exercises should I do? Is doing just cardio enough? Should I train my abs everyday? What time of day is it best to do cardio? What Ab exercises should I do? Are you going to answer these questions?

OK well I will answer them as best as I can. This is what works for me. It might not be 100% scientific, but what is? There are so many different theories out there. What I do just seems to make sense for me. Hopefully it will make sense to you too. Now before I go on, I should explain that I am not going to give details of how to do the exercises that follow. You can probably find these by using a search engine. I know I have already mentioned the books, but

• The Truth About Six Pack Abs
has some great details on exercise regimes and some very good instructional pictures, likewise you will also benefit greatly from reading and of course then following the advice in
• Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
as well.

You should try to train intensly and do multijoint exercises such as the deadlift, squat, bench press etc. Anything that involves using a lot of muscle groups in one exercise is good. You will be burning more calories whilst you do these moves. By intensly I mean take small, 30 seconds to one minure rest periods between sets. Do the moves fairly slowly really focusing on feeling a burn in your muscles.

Occasionally however I like to do the moves explosively. A favourite of mine that really gets me out of breath is explosive bench presses using the Smith Machine. I set the safety catches just above neck height to prevent me from being guillotined and then explosively push the weight up releasing at the top and trying to throw it as high as I can before catching it again. Don't go to heavy with this and be carefull not to damage your wrists.

I think the key is to keep your body guessing and don't just do the same routine at the same intensity using the same weights in the same rep range all of the time. Mix it up.

Another technique I use is to do exercises back to back. For example I might squat and then immediately pick up a barbell and do arm curls instead of resting. This cuts down on my gym time and really tires me out.

I think you need to do more than cardio. I weight train and then do my cardio immediately afterwards. I think this way I burn more fat. Why?- because I can weight train hard, use all my stored carbs and then switch to fat as my fuel of choice for the cardio session. I have tried doing it the other way around, and I just feel too tired to do the weight training any justice.

You do need to do weights if you can. This prevents your muscles from breaking doen. Will burn more calories during exercise, and will burn more afterwards. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn even when you are resting.

I will however every couple of months take a week off from weight training and just do cardio or even better, sports instead. This I believe is good as it gives my muscles a chance to rest and I hope prevents me from getting injured.

Research says no you shouldn't train your abs every day. You should treat them like any other muscle group and allow them adequate time to recover. I have trained them every day for a couple of weeks and they do feel firm when I do this. I have also trained them 3 times a week and seen ood results. I tend to believe that if i am training them without using added weight i can do this more often. When I use medicine balls or cables I give them longer to recover.
How long should I train my abs for?

In The Truth About Six Pack Abs the claim is you need to spend no more than 10 minutes training your abs. I am currently giving mine a good half an hour, followed by half hour cardio on days that I don't do weights. I will only do this for a few weeks though before returning to a 10 minute type session. You will have to see what works best for you.

Some claim first thing in the morning after consuming a small amount of whey protein will cause you to burn more fat. Maybe it will but unfortunately, i am not a morning person, and my circumstances won't allow me to train early. I also have higher energy levels at night (I am writing this at 23:15)and so feel I get a better work out in the late evening. For me the key is that you work out and give it 100%. I also try to do High Intensity Interval Training around 3 times a week for 20 - 30 minutes. My favourite way to do this is in a spinning class, but i also like using the cross trainer. I have also been known to do the odd fartleck. To see more details on my workouts take a look at my Exercise Plan for the Busy (wo)Man page. I try to be in and out of the gym within one hour.

You don't need a gym to exercise either. You can buy loads of home exercise equipment. I recommend a good exercise bike a set of dumbbells and a swiss ball Or like me you can walk for one to two hours a day (I have an excuse- I am pushing a push chair).

My routine consists of a variety of ab exercises. I try to make sure that I exercise my lower abs, upper abs, and obliques. I try to also include my transversus abdominus and something for my lower back. The exercise I do change depending on what is available at the gym at the time.
Here is a typical 30 minute routine:

I do all exercises to failure.

• Hanging leg raises (remember to arch your back) 3 sets .


• Hip thrusts lying on my back (not sure if correct name) 3 sets. I put my legs in the air and raise my lower back off the floor.


• Cable wood chops - 3 sets


• Inlcine twists with a medicine ball. 3 sets


• Incline crunches -3 sets


• Cable crunches - 3 sets


• Plank and side plank.


• Back extensions.

For my short version of this I just pick out some of the exercises. The sets are just a rough guide.

I also try to suck my stomach in during the day whenever I remember and I think this has made my waist appear a lot smaller and my stomach flatter. I remember Arnold talking about doing vacuums years ago, and I tend to think he knoew his stuff. When I was in paid employment I used to try to do this every time I finished in the bathroom. I would do 3 sets for around 30 seconds each. This meant that I did this a lot in the day (I sat next to the water cooler and so I drank a lot of water). Only once did someone walk in on me looking red in the face and out of breath.

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