Followup to my quest for a 6-pack ABS

[The Honda Pilot]

I have a few questions I have been working on my abs every night (6days a week) for 4.5 weeks now. I know it could be to soon to see results. But when I tighten up my stomach muscles in the mirror it shows a preety darn nice six pack...not quite perfect but nice. So does this mean im close or still far away ? Seing that its only when I tighten up my muscles I figured im close . Once again im not a big guy im only 5'11" 165 lbs... so im not fat just looking for those nice abs. Any help would be great I appreciate it:D

 

[gibbs_6]

I should say your close, but try some weighted ab workouts.This might help to add some depth to your 6-pack, to get the nice deep cuts in them.Mine have faded as I am trying out a bulking cycle that isn't going so well.:think :eek: :silly:

 

[jeffd]

Getting a six pack isn't so hard. It has taken me years to turn mine into a 12-pack. :confused:

I can't speak from personally having a 6-pack, but my wife is a personal trainer ... (which makes me kind of like the proverbial shoe-maker's son :o ) You need to work you abs every day! Crunches work well for starters. The trick to getting them to show all the time is to lose body fat. You can have some serious abs, but if you are sporting 16% body fat you aren't going to see them. Men tend to carry the bulk of their body fat right around the ole' mid-section thus making it difficult to get those ripped up abs. You have to be serious about your diet and exercise routine. I am waaaay past that personally. Chocolate chip ice cream and beer will not leave my diet. It just ain't worth it, man!

-jeffd

 

[Payday2]

It's all down to the diet now. If you can see your abs when you flex them, but not any other time, it's because there is still a layer of fat over them. Men usually gain fat first in thier mid sections, thus, it's the last place they lose it.

Your diet has to be ultra clean to get those last bit of fat off. To see your abs not flexed, you're going to have to be in the 7% body fat range, which, takes a lot of effort and dedication not only on the workout side of things, but also on the diet side.

You can do sit ups, crunches, hanging leg raises, twists, ab rollers, and whatever else you want to do, but if you have a layer of fat over your abs, it's a moot point.

J&K

 

[jeffd]

Is there an echo in here? Ha!

Thanks for backing up my points. :D

-jeffd

 

[The Honda Pilot]

Thanx for the help guys is there a way to find out the percent of my body fat ?

 

[jeffd]

Any good gym should have at the very least the calipers that measure skin fold and thickness. They should take several measurements:
tricep
chest
luv handles
thigh

This is accurate within +/- a couple of percentage points.

To get REAL accurate you need to use the method where you go in water tank. It uses calulations based on mass and bouyancy to more accurately determine body fat.

-jeffd

 

[Racer_x4]

I would do just about anything to lose weight and get abs and everything. I'm like 5'9'' and around 170lbs. I'd like to lose around 20 lbs. or so. I work out and stuff and lift and try not to eat a lot of junk food and crap but it seems like nothing works. Anyone have any suggestions for me? Thanks
Racer X #4:cool:

 

[The Honda Pilot]

Racer X im in the same boat..I been eating low fat, no fat, low calories types of meals and no fat snacks inbetween my meals and no more coke, McDonalds , no more candy and still...not much different . Since I started working out about 3-4 months ago I have went from 155-160 lbs to 165-170lbs. Sounds to me depressing but from what my girl friend and mom say its muscle and that muscle is heavier than fat. I hope there right. This is a bad question to ask seing that im used to do this perticular work out back in school but how are Crunches done ? I have been doing sittups untill about 6 months ago when told to do crunches I stopped doing sittups and started useing that work out peice of machinery that Chuck Norris has a commercial for...cant think of the name off the top of my head at the moment. Thanx in advance

 

[Racer_x4]

The Honda Pilot - To do crunches you only have to do a "half" sit-up. What I mean by that is when you are on the floor, you only have to come up untill your shoulders and lower back are off the floor. You don't have to go all the way up and touch your knees because that doesn't help any at all in fact it's just a waste of time. I do crunches and I get a nice burn around 45-55 reps. It also helps to get a barbell, I use a 25 lb. barbell, and place it on your chest and cross your arms over it to hold on to it. Do some crunches that way, it helps big time. Another way to do abs is to get in the crunch position, but instead of coming straight up, when you come up just twist your abdominal area to your right, then go down, come up, twist to the left. Do some high reps with those. You can also do leg raises, or "6-inches" as we call them in school. lay on your back and straighten your legs and raise them off the ground 6 inches or so without using your hands and keeping your legs straight and locked. Hold them in the air about 20 seconds or as long as you can and do a nice set of reps that way. We do this other thing at school called toe touches and what you do is lay on your back and lock your legs and put them straight in the air and hold a 25 lb. barbell in the air around the chest area and use your abdominal muscles to touch the barbell to your feet. I get a GREAT burn at only around 25 reps doing that:) We do one more kind of ab workout and what you do is lay on your back and get a 25 lb. barbell and hold it behind your head on the floor and lock your legs straight and simultaneously lift your legs and the barbell at the same time and "touch" the barbell to your legs, then go down but DON'T let your feet or the barbell touch the floor, and do a nice set of reps doing that. Sorry I wrote so much but it was kind of hard to explain. Well I hope this helps you:confused:
Racer X #4:cool: