If you’re getting ready to bare your mid-section for the summer months or potentially escaping the cold for a warm vacation, getting washboard abs is probably something you would love to take with you. Potentially the top request personal trainer’s hear everywhere is with regards to tightening these muscles. Face it, washboard abs not only look great, but, they also signify the holy grail of fitness.

One big misconception that some people have regarding getting a washboard stomach is that you should be working all these muscles separately. Because these individuals often envision the so-called ‘6-pack’, they think that you can divide this muscle up, working on it section by section.

Without a clean diet, six pack abs will never be yours. One thing you must realize is that while exercise is important, it’s only going to take you so far. No matter how many crunches or sit-up variations you perform, if you’ve got a solid layer of fat covering your stomach, your muscles are not going to be seen.

Unfortunately, this simply isn’t true.

While the abs definitely do consist of a few different muscles, all of these muscles are going to contract simultaneously, helping perform whatever movement is being asked of it. You can definitely target certain areas slightly more than others, but overall, you cannot solely isolate any one of the muscles in particular.

So, having said that, try not to do too many isolated ab exercises during your workout. While these can be nice in a sense that you’ll likely really ‘feel the burn’, they aren’t going to work as many muscle fibers as possible – which is your primary goal with any weight lifting session you perform.

The better thing to instead, is to do exercises that decrease your balance because that is what best calls your muscles into action.

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When trying to achieve the illusive six pack, it’ easy to get confused by all the “best ab workouts” available. You’ll likely notice that there a multitude of ab workouts to choose one, so deciphering which ones will work the best can be tricky.

The thing to remember is that whenever you are trying to work your core, everything works, for a certain period of time. Everything from high reps, low reps, weighted work, bodyweight work, stability ball exercises, and BOSU ball exercises – it all works until your body adapts and says, “This is easy, I’m not going to change unless you give me a new reason to adapt.”

Your ab training should be progressed from stable floor work with your body weight to a unstable surface with weighted work. Progressing to movements that will reduce your base of support as much as possible are the best ab workouts because they will call into play all the muscles within the core, especially those really deep that stable floor work can not target.

Such examples of floor ab exercises that would do this would be crunches, sit ups and leg raises. Eventually you want to do these same exercises against gravity, then a load and then on unstable surface like a stability ball. Body weight exercises like “front planks” and “side planks” should be the foundation of a core program and progressed to one arm planks in the frontal and side planes and then eventually on a stability ball or BOSU ball for further recruitment.

The best ab workouts to make your abs “pop” would be a variety of weighted movements. I’m sure you’ve skinny guys with a flat stomach but no “eye popping” abs, which is because they have not developed the actual abdominal muscle, just like every other body part. Part of getting nicely chiseled abs is going to be developing the muscles underneath the fat, and weighted ab crunches with cables or on a stability ball with a heavy dumbbell will do this best.

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Everywhere you turn, someone’s promising the next secret to getting 6 pack abs. Some of these so called ’secrets’ have some degree of accuracy, while others, not so much. Deciphering which are the best methods to getting 6 pack abs is going to be critical to your having success with this goal.

The biggest area you need to focus on when trying to obtain 6 pack abs is going to be on your diet. Like it or not, the old saying that ‘abs are made in the kitchen’, is probably one of the most truthful statements in the fitness industry. If your diet isn’t in line, your stomach is going to show it.

So, what should you be doing with your diet?

First, ensure you are getting enough protein. Not only is protein going to form the key building blocks you need to build muscle tissue, but it’s also going to provide you with a better feeling of fullness than eating just carbohydrates alone would for example. Protein is more “expensive” than any other macronutrient meaning that your body will burn more calories breaking down protein compared to carbs and fats.

Next, don’t be afraid of dietary fat that comes from primarily monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats such as olive oils, fish oils, a mix of nuts, natural peanut butter and avocado. While it’s true that eating fat will increase your calories fast, as long as you keep it between 20-30% it can be one of the best things to get 6 pack abs fast. The important point here is that dietary fat helps keep your insulin level stable, which, when high enough can actually cause fat gain itself.

Furthermore, dietary fat will keep you feeling the fullest for the longest duration in time; longer than both protein or carbohydrates would. Interestingly, some diets high in fat can get you 6 pack abs fast because your body learn to metabolize fat for energy.

So, while you do need to watch it, be sure you are getting some in your diet.

Finally, when it comes to carbohydrate intake and getting 6 pack abs, you want to focus most of your carbohydrate intake around the post workout period.

Why?

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Should you do cardio if you’re trying to build muscle?

If so, how much?

If so, what kind?

Sick and tired of trying to bulk up but only adding more fat to your midsection?

Check out this 4 minute video lesson on how I incorporate cardio into a muscle building routine and answer all these questions.

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Recovery is your secret weapon to making consistent muscular gains.

Yes, you know that but nobody shows you specifically HOW to recovery.

Typically, after almost all of my upper body workouts, I am so tight and gorged with blood I can barely take my shirt off and bring my hands to my hair while showering!

Not good, because when you have a 12 hour shift up next!

How Muscle Soreness Occurs

If you have had a similar experience than I applaud your workout intensity. If you have NOT had this experience than I have to question your workout intensity!

There are three main theories that result in muscle soreness.

Most muscle soreness occurs immediately following an activity and than has a delayed onset effect. Immediate muscle soreness is due to a buildup of metabolic by-products such as lactic acid and a lack of sufficient oxygen (ischemia).

Delayed onset muscle soreness (D.O.M.S.), which begins 24-72 hours after an activity, is not yet determined.

There are three theories which will have an impact on the degree of muscle soreness:

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Today I want to ask you a RARELY asked question………

What motivates you to work out?

Why in the world do you bother lifting weights? Why would any person bother with going to a gym?

If you said anything to extent of “improve my blood pressure,” “relieve stress,” or “set a good example,” I’m not buying it. I call these logical motivators. There is nothing wrong with those motivators and I agree those are excellent side benefits but let’s get real.  I asked you to be frank with me. You don’t hit the gym multiple hours a week to improve your health profile.

You work out for emotional and irrational reasons.

You work out so you can attract an attractive person.  Let’s face it, sexy people date sexy people. This requires you to have a physique that looks good in clothes and even better naked.

I think every man knows that to some degree, “bigger is better” in the hunt for improving your body for physical attraction.   And make no mistake about it, the underlying message of every media message is “the better you look” the more action you get from the ladies… plain and simple.

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6 Week Muscle Gaining Workout
From my new fitness coach Vince Delmonte