Do You Want Muscular Abs? 9 Steps To Get Your Own Six Pack Abs!

Every beginning bodybuilder is working on building muscular abs, getting their own six-pack abs. I think it’s important to dispel some of the myths involved in “getting ripped” abdominals. Forget what you see on TV, and learn the truth about how to get in shape.

• Step 1: Get rid of the flab first! You may strengthen and tone your abdominal muscles with exercises but the results won’t show unless you lose the fat on top. Gotta work on that diet!
• Step 2: Crunches are as good or better than sit-ups. Your abdominals are only involved in the first part of a sit-up. Once your shoulders lift off the floor, lower back and hip muscles take over and it’s no longer important to your abs to continue to your knees.
• Step 3: Take a day or two break on working your abdominal muscles. You don’t want to overwork your neck and lower back, so take a break.
• Step 4: Do only 10 – 15 reps a set. Treat ab muscles like other muscle groups. If you can do more reps it’s probably too easy and exercise or you’re not doing it right.
• Step 5: The floor works as well as a machine or gizmo. Machines work your back and hips possible more than your abdominals. Floor exercises can be more varied and challenging.
• Step 6: Lift from your abs, don’t use your head and neck. You’ll avoid neck pain if you learn this technique.
• Step 7: Don’t move your elbows during ab exercises. Leave them out and rounded inward slightly to avoid pulling on your neck.
• Step 8: Along with keeping your abs pulled in, do not flatten or arch your back. Keep about an inch between the floor and the small of your back.
• Step 9: When doing a crunch, don’t neglect to curl forward like you are doubling over.

While exercise alone may not get you muscular abs, you will need it to build those six-pack abs.

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Eat Meat and Other Saturated Fats and Still Get Ripped Abs!

Meat lovers, there’s good news for you because you can eat saturated fats and still get ripped abs! It’s probably been drummed into your head that it’s bad to have fat in your diet. Fat is important to our body’s well being. Fat is in our cells and is a necessary ingredient to allow the cell to function properly. We should be careful not to replace healthy fats with those in processed foods. Those fats cause our cells to battle the unwanted “damaged fats” and can lead to degenerative diseases.

Consuming healthy fats actually helps our body produce hormones, build muscles and maintain a healthy balance. It is important to have a good balance of healthy fats, proteins and carbohydrates in our daily diets. Don’t let your goal to get ripped abs stop you from eating healthy saturated fats!

Let's take a look at what the healthy fats are:

High fat fish – wild salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines, and herring are all really good sources of the healthy omega -3 fats. We need to counteract the high doses of omega-6 fats we consume with omega-3’s. A lot of health problems could be avoided if we include a healthy amount of omega-3 oils. You can also add flax seeds and walnuts to your diet along with the fish.

Seeds - Seeds are another great source of healthy and natural unprocessed fats. Flax seeds, for example, have a high omega-3 content. Try to grind flax seed yourself because it is very reactive to light and heat and may produce free radicals. And remember NEVER to cook with flax seed oil!

Avocados – Like guacamole? Avocados are are a blend of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and saturated fats. Avocados are natural, healthy and provide nutrients and fiber and well as flavor to your food. Fresh avocados are great in sandwiches or made into guacamole.

Coconut fat (about 92% saturated fat) – a healthy, natural fat that has certain triglycerides that promote a healthy immune system. Coconut fat doesn’t stick, it converts easily into energy. Using coconut oil is a lot than using polyunsaturated oils which lack stability and create damaging free radicals. Fresh coconut, organic coconut milk and virgin coconut oil are all good sources.

Extra virgin olive oil – Choose the extra virgin variety because it originates from the first pressing of olive. It also has the most antioxidants. Of course, olive oil and vinegar make a good salad dressing choice, better than the commercial ones that are made of highly processed and refined soybean oil. Soybean oil is extracted with industrial solvents, making it a good reason to avoid it!

Nuts – Nuts contain healthy unprocessed fats, minerals andnutrients. Raw or dry roasted nut have healthy benefits, but you should avoid the ones cooked in oil. Almonds, macadamias and cashews are good sources of monounsaturated fats. Walnuts are also a good source of omega -3 oil.

Dark, bittersweet chocolate - This variety of chocolate contains about 70% cocoa which makes it preferable over milk chocolate containing only 30% to 55% cocoa. The cocoa bean is made up of a healthy, natural fat that contains antioxidants with approximately 59% saturated fat. The dark, bittersweet chocolate has less corn sweeteners, sugar and milk fat also. Use common sense don’t eat too much since it is still rich in calories.

Meats – A staple in people’s diet for thousands of year. The right kind of meat has a lot of benefits, if you get it from healthy animals. You should get your meat meat, eggs and dairy from organically raised, free range animals.

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The Top Fat Loss Secrets for Flat Six-Pack Abs

An interview by Geovanni Derice with Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by a fitness professional from NYC, Geovanni Derice, of 4evertoned.com. The interview is below and I think you're going to like it...I reveal some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of that stubborn stomach fat to uncover those flat six pack abs that everyone wants.

"GD: Welcome Mike Geary to 4everToned's Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself.

MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 15 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning. At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I'm 30 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis.


I decided earlier in my 20's that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we've reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That's why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process.


I've expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.


GD: Now Mike, there's so many things out there as to what works and what does not work...if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to get flat abs, what would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.
There's so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is...after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There's so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn't even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.


The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat. In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.
For the third thing, let's talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.


I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.


GD: What are people doing wrong when it comes to developing the coveted "6 pack abs"?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat 6-pack abs is...are you ready for this? They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time spent on abs exercises. Sounds crazy, but it's true.


Remember, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and increasing your metabolic rate. That just does not happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs.


Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That's what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat sixxer!

GD: Which exercises are the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum defintion with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book).
However, maximum definition in the abs and midsection comes from losing bodyfat, and the most effective exercises featured in my program for that goal are various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking flat abs, focus on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing...and that is fat loss. What recommendations have you used to successfully help your clients lose fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which accounts for almost half of the book, but I'll try to make some nice simple generalizations to get people started on the right path immediately. The most important thing is that your diet is as natural and unprocessed as possible. It almost always comes back to the overprocessing of food that makes it unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body.


For example, why eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains. Why eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when you can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and so forth.


The point is to not fall for some gimmick like low carbs, low fat, high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another. Your body needs all macronutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Trying to cut an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I get into much more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for sharing with us all of this great information. 
Well, I hope you enjoyed this interview and plucked several nuggets of info to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs shortly. If you don't already own a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of my Truth about Six Pack Abs book and discover the entire system I've developed for ridding yourself of that extra ab fat for good!
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