Getting perfect abs – the 4 key ingredients
Most people automatically think of crunches and sit-ups when they think about making the effort to build washboard abs for (probably) the first time in their lives.
The unpopular truth is, it’s really going to need 4 combined elements to get the type of results you see showcased in magazines and movies; there really aren’t any short cuts, sadly. All the activities are necessary and they’re aimed at the crucial combination – lose the fat while building the muscle.
Your Diet
The major realization here is, you can spend the rest of your life working on crunches but if you’re still wearing a fat suit, you’ll never have ripped abs.
So your diet has to be one that makes fat loss inevitable. First thing being, think about calories — you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Second, you need a good balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fat – and yes, there IS healthy fat. You need the protein because you want to build muscle and also to help muscle recover from exercise; and, protein can help with appetite control. You need carbs for energy. And healthy fat because some forma of fat – not those in a burger or ice cream, I might add – are an essential part of a balanced diet.
Cardio Exercise
Why cardio? Because 3500 calories = 1 lb of fat, so if you want to lose the fat to expose that six-pack, cardio helps to burn the calories, and therefore burn the fat.
Strength exercises
Strength training has the biggest impact on the metabolism … meaning, if you perform strength training regularly, you’ll literally put your body in a position where the metabolism speeds up and … you’ve guessed it, your burn fat more quickly. Big muscle exercises – squats, bench presses, lunges, etc – performed regularly will have a bigger impact on metabolism even than cardio and certainly more than small muscle exercises (bicep curls, for example) although it all helps. The faster you burn the fat … the faster you get those great abs you’re working so hard for.
Abs-specific exercises
And only now do we come to the exercises that most people have in mind from the outset – crunches, sit-ups, and leg-lifts in all their variety.
So, this is the path for great abs; but the biggest obstacle isn’t actually associated with any of these. The biggest challenge is in your head, and it’s simply this – are you willing to pay the price?