Everybody wants to know the secret to obtaining great-looking abs. Well, let me tell you: There is no secret. We've all seen abs-focused infomercials. The marketing message is always the same: If you use this machine, the fat around your abdominal area is going disappear, and all of a sudden, your abs magically pop out of hibernation.
I am here to tell you if it was that easy, everybody would have washboard abs. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Have you ever heard the saying, “Abs are made in the kitchen and not in the gym?” It means that staying lean is primarily about maintaining a clean, healthy, balanced diet.
Your abs are indicative of how lean your body is; your body has to be lean for your abs to appear. If you do sit-ups and crunches but your diet is horrible, all you're doing is building muscle underneath the fat. There's no such thing as spot reduction, which means doing ab exercises isn't going to remove fat in that specific area.
If you're really serious about obtaining washboard abs, check out these top 10 tips that will help you get there.
1) Training. OK, it sounds obvious, but you need to incorporate weight and cardio training into your routines so you burn calories daily while reducing body fat. Your cardio can be varied, and you can either incorporate sprinting, cycling, swimming, climbing stairs or using a treadmill, elliptical, etc. All will also work your abs indirectly, as these muscles and your other core muscles engage with your limbs to generate power and control force. Anaerobic and aerobic training goes hand in hand with fat loss. It's not one or the other: You have to combine both collectively together.
2) Follow a balanced diet. You must combine a high level of protein with moderate to low-carb and fat levels. The International Sports Sciences Association recommends a starting macronutrient ratio of 35 percent protein, 25 percent carbs and 40 percent fats for an endomorph (a naturally round person) who wants to lose a considerable amount of body fat.
Your diet is key to getting your body-fat levels low enough to reveal your abs. If you’re following a bad diet, it'll be hard to get those abs to come out of hibernation unless you have a naturally fast metabolism or possess great genetics. Your macronutrient ratio will always change and be maneuvered from time to time based on the plateaus you deal with in any diet. For somebody who is trying to lose enough weight to see their abs, I advocate a 10- to 12-calorie-per-pound fat-loss diet.
3) Vary your routine. Don’t stick to the same ab routine every week. Some great ab exercises you can incorporate every week are sit-ups, kneeling cable crunches, leg raises, Russian twists and bicycles. Your routine should involve exercises that work different parts of your core, whether that means working your rectus abdominis or your internal or external obliques.
I typically advise my clients to do three to four different ab exercises every other day, or two to three days per week.
4) Avoid certain foods. Stay away from sugary, high-starch/high glycemic foods and those that are very high in sodium. Also, avoid foods that are high in fat and very high in carbs. All of these can contribute to fat gain, which will prevent your abs from coming out of hibernation. Healthy foods you should consume on a daily basis for fat- and weight-loss purposes are baked/broiled chicken breasts, baked/broiled turkey breasts, baked/broiled fish, green veggies, brown rice, sweet potatoes and oatmeal.
5) Understand the truth and myths about abs. This will allow you to train smarter. Obtaining great abs isn't about how many sit-ups or crunches you can do (although that doesn’t hurt). A great six-pack actually reflects how lean you are. Guys need a body fat level of 12 percent or below in order to reveal their abs, and women need a body fat level of 14 percent or below. (Note: Women should be aware that body fat levels under 10 percent might be detrimental to their health.)
6) Be sensible. Don’t start any silly, illogical crash diets to try to lose weight. Starving yourself will force your body to go into starvation mode and pretty much shut down your metabolism, potentially doing serious damage to it. Don’t do three hours of cardio a day, either; doing that much cardio will just make you burn into your lean muscle mass and actually slow your fat-loss process, instead of speeding it up.
7) Believe in yourself. If you don’t believe you can do it, it won't happen. Your mind is much more powerful than what you do physically. If you believe you can do it subconsciously, you will do everything necessary to attain that goal. Visualize eating good, healthy food and visualize doing your cardio and lifting weights. After you have visualized the process, you now have the confidence to execute it.
8) Have one cheat meal per week. Use it as a reward for eating healthy the other six days of the week. Consuming one cheat meal will not affect your goal of getting abs, and sometimes it helps psychologically to consume a cheat meal when you're dieting. The best time to consume a cheat meal is right after a workout (aka the "post-workout window"), as your body will absorb it better.
9) Feel the exercise. When you're training your abs, make sure you feel the exercises. If you don’t feel the contractions, you probably aren’t doing the exercises right -- and you may need to readjust your technique. It's important to sense the muscle working, as that will provide additional stimulation and neural feedback. Don't rush when executing an abs exercise. Do it slowly, so you can really feel the ab muscles contracting.
10) Rest. Although it's important to train hard and be consistent, you still have to rest your body. Some people think that the more time they spend in the gym, the better their body will get. That’s not the case -- and "living in the gym" can actually be very counterproductive. You risk overtraining. Your body builds muscle when it’s resting, not when you're tearing down your muscles’ protein while training. Giving yourself two days' rest after a hard week of training will help your body recover and repair from the work, and also help you attain your goal of obtaining great-looking abs.
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