Despite seeming like an impossible dream for many, building defined six-pack abs is actually not that difficult. There is no special secret or hidden supplements that you need to get to build well-defined abs. Instead of wasting money on celebrity endorsed workouts, why not spent time developing your own plan that you are going to work towards.
One of the main aspects that people overlook when trying to get their abs to show is diet. Your diet is key if you actually want to be able to see them muscles underneath the layer of fat on your stomach. When I talk about diet I so not mean barely eating anything but instead eating the right foods that are going to help you build muscle and lose fat.
Take a look at these top tips for sculpting killer six-pack abs.
Stop doing hundreds of crunches everyday
Your abdominal muscles are like any other muscle, if you want them to grow you need to increase the resistance on them when you are training them, Doing hundreds of crunches everyday may allow your muscles to get stronger but they are not going to get bigger as you are not increasing the resistance.
Instead of this you need to focus on a range of different abdominal excercises that are going to really work your muscles and also increase the resistance against them. 4 sets of crunches with a dumbbell is enough crunches that you need to be doing to increase muscle. When it starts to get easier than this is when to increase the weight of the dumbbell.
Just like any other muscle you also do not need to work your abdominals everyday. You need to give them time to grow in between working out so it is a good idea to work them at a minimum of twice a week.
Start doing big compound exercises
Just because you are working your abs does not men that the fat around them is going to drop off. In order to see your abdominals clearly you need to lose the fat around them by reducing your overall body fat level. As well as using your diet to do this, it is also important to do big compound exercises.
These exercises help to shred the fat off your body that is covering your hidden six-pack. As they are using large muscles such as legs and back they are doing to need a lot more calories to repair, thus help you reduce body fat.
Eat more protein
Protein is the essential building block for building muscle. As well as carbs, after a workout your body needs protein to repair the damaged muscles. If you want to pack on the muscle then you are going to need to increase your protein intake. Furthermore protein also makes the body feel fuller compared to other nutrients and so making you likely to eat less.
There are two types of protein. There is fast release protein such as Whey protein that is instantly digested and can get to the muscles straight away. This is great for after a workout when your body needs to repair damaged muscles. It is also good for as soon as you wake up in the morning when you body has had no protein for hours since you went to sleep.
The second type of protein is slow release protein such as Casein. This protein takes many hours for the body to digest and there it is great before you do to bed to ensure your body has enough protein to repair muscles while you are sleeping.
Have a go at HIIT cardio
High Intensity Interval Training allows you to burn a lot of calories while only working out for a short amount of time. An example of a HIT workout is a twenty-minute cardio session which involves jogging to 2 minutes then sprinting for one minute. As well as burning calories, the one minute sprint that you do will be pushing your body and damaging muscles such as legs.
This means that for hours after your workout your body will be using increased calories so that it can repair the damaged muscles in your body. Therefore burning significantly more fat than traditional cardio.
Make some changes to your diet
To get your abdominal muscles showing you do not need to start eating barely anything. Doing this will mean your body using muscles such as your abdominal muscles for energy. Instead you need to make some smart changes to your diet to promote muscle growth and fat loss. Eating clean meals with lots of lean meat is a good start. There is also lots of protein foods available that you can switch for traditional snacks.
