How You Can Get
6 Pack Abs !

6 pack abs are probably the most revered of all body parts. 'Washboard' abdominal muscles on men or a flat, toned midsection on women are the best indication of good physical condition and health as well as being the hallmark of athleticism.

It seems that when most people are asked, 'What's the body part they would most like to achieve as a result of their training?' The vast majority say 6 pack abs, a flat stomach or something along those lines. Unfortunately though, most people never achieve their goal because they approach it from the entirely wrong direction.

Despite performing a range of abdominal exercise and spending money on worthless home exercise machines that promise so much, they never even comes close to attaining the midsection displayed by some of the world's greatest athletes and fitness models.

Despite the seeming difficulty in achieving such a goal as 6 pack abs, it is not particularly difficult once you find out what the correct principles are, make a commitment to incorporate them into your lifestyle and then allow enough time for the principles to take effect.

In order to achieve 6 pack abs there are only two physiological changes you need to promote in your body. Firstly, you need to promote hypertrophy (muscle growth) in the rectus abdominis- the front abdominal wall, and you need to burn off the fat that overlies your midsection. By doing so, you will be able to achieve the elusive 6 pack abs that so many people desire.

In order to achieve these physiological changes, you need to incorporate the correct principles and the correct principles for attaining 6 pack abs involve a combination of exercise, nutrition and supplementation. In this article we will cover the specific principles in each of these three areas. We will briefly cover the 5 best ab exercises and where you can get more specific information about how to perform them, how to structure your ab workouts as well as the nutritional plan and supplementation plan you need to follow in order to make your abdominal muscles become more prominent.

Here Are The 6 Pack Abs Principles:

1. Exercise all of your abdominal muscles
2. Apply the best ab exercises training principles
3. Use standard rep ranges in your ab workouts
4. Train to a point of momentary muscular failure (MMF) on every set
5. Use 'progressive overload' on the muscles
6. Train abs a maximum of twice a week
7. Perform 2-3 sets of 3-5 exercises in each of your ab workouts
8. Perform regular weight training exercises for all your major muscle groups
9. Perform aerobic exercise 3-7 times a week
10. Use a suitable nutritional plan and supplementation plan

1. Exercise all of your abdominal muscles

In order to get strong, functional and great-looking 6 pack abs you must train all of the abdominal muscles. There are four abdominal muscles: rectus abdominis (the muscle at the front of your abdomen), the internal and external obliques (the muscles at the sides of your body) and the transversus abdominis (the inner-most layer of muscle tissue with fibres running horizontally).

There are plenty of abdominal exercises that work these muscles. Here are the 5 Best Ab Exercises to use in your ab workouts. Select all or some of the exercises and incorporate them into your ab training routine and prepare to be amazed at how effective they can be.

2. Apply the best ab exercises training principles

The best ab exercises training principles should be applied when any abdominal exercise is performed. The principles are:

Perform all abdominal exercises using a slow movement speed

Work the abdominal muscles through a full range of motion (ROM), ideally from full extension to full contraction

Try to stretch the muscle against resistance where possible

Breathe out during the lifting (concentric phase) and breathe in during the lowering (eccentric phase)

As you perform the movement concentrate on squeezing the muscles being worked

3. Use standard rep ranges in your ab workouts

When training your abdominal muscles there is no need to perform more than 20 reps per set. Higher rep ranges tend to work the muscle more for endurance than hypertrophy (muscle growth). If you find that you're able to perform more than 20 repetitions on any given ab exercise then you may want to find ways to make the exercise harder for you to perform. Ideally, try to ensure that you reach a point of momentary muscular failure (MMF) somewhere within the 8-15 rep range.

4. Train to a point of momentary muscular failure (MMF) on every set

When performing your abdominal exercises it is best to try and reach a point of MMF, or as close as possible, on each set. Since the abdominal muscles are just like any other muscle group in your body, they respond to the same stimuli. Therefore, it simply makes sense to work your abdominal muscles as hard as you can on every set you perform.

By doing so, this will provide the necessary stimulus to induce muscle growth in the abdominal muscles.

5. Use 'progressive overload' on the muscles

There are several ways to continually 'overload' the muscles to make them stronger and induce the necessary growth stimulus. You can select more advanced ab exercises or use variations of the existing exercises to make them more difficult, decrease your rest period between sets, increase the number of reps being performed during each set (up to a maximum of around 20 reps) or increase the number of exercises being performed in each of your ab workouts (up to a maximum of 5 exercises).

6. Train abs a maximum of twice a week

In order to achieve the goal of attaining 6 pack abs it is not necessary to train your abdominal muscles more than twice a week. As mentioned previously, in order to achieving the physiological changes of increasing muscle size and reducing body fat from around your midsection, a combination of exercise, nutrition and supplementation is required.

However, the exercise that is required involves both aerobic exercise and resistance exercise for the entire body. Plus, when it comes to specific abdominal exercises, there is simply no need to perform ab workouts more than twice a week because more frequent exercise will over-train the muscles and because 'spot reduction' (which is specifically targeting body fat overlying a body part by working the muscles underneath it) does not occur.

7. Perform 2-3 sets of 3-5 exercises in each of your ab workouts

Performing several abdominal exercises in each of your ab workouts ensure you're able to work all of the abdominal muscles. Also, performing multiple sets per exercise ensures a deep stimulus of the muscles involved. By using this approach during your ab workouts you can rest assured that you will be stimulating the muscle fibres well enough to induce muscle growth.

Then, when you combine this with the other essential components of achieving 6 pack abs, which are performing resistance exercise for the entire body and following a suitable nutritional plan and supplementation plan, you will be amazed at the changes that occur in your midsection.

8. Perform regular weight training exercises for all your major muscle groups

Regular weight training provides your muscles with a stimulus for muscle growth. If your nutritional habits are suitable, the combination will help to increase your muscle mass. An increase in muscle means that your metabolism also increases, which results in a corresponding increase in your metabolism. This increase in your metabolism means that you can burn off body fat faster and achieve your 6 pack abs much sooner!

Therefore, perform a weight (resistance) training workout 3-5 times a week and incorporate your ab workouts into 1 or 2 of those training sessions.

9. Perform aerobic exercise 3-7 times a week

Aerobic exercise is an essential part of helping you burn off body fat quickly. Not only does it help you burn up calories, some of which may come from stored body fat, during the exercise session itself, but it also provides a range of other benefits to assist you with shedding the fat from your body.

Aerobic exercise can keep your metabolism elevated for quite some time after the completion of the exercise session, it increases the level of oxidative (fat-burning) enzymes in your muscles, it also makes your body a more efficient user of oxygen, which is required for the oxidation (burning) of body fat. Therefore, make sure you perform a minimum of five 15-30 minute aerobic exercise session a week.

Some of these sessions are best to perform after your weight training sessions when your body is in a mildly carbohydrate-depleted state, which induces greater fat burning.

10. Use a suitable nutritional plan and supplementation plan

If you would like to finally achieve 6 pack abs, then nutrition and supplementation are vitally important! There is simply no way you can achieve 6 pack abs if the muscular midsection you achieve through exercise is covered by a layer of ugly fat! You simply can't get 6 pack abs by eating pizza and drinking beer every day!

If you would like to get an example of a nutritional plan to help you burn body fat quickly and easily without starving then read, Healthy Diet Plan. Also, for information about supplements to help you burn off body faster, please read, Top Fat Burners.

If you would like to know even more principles to help you get 6-pack abs, then Click Here!

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