Everyone wants one, no normal person knows how to get one and they are the single most prominent icon of being in great shape.
We see pictures of people in magazines and online who have them but no matter how are you train or diet it just never seems to happen.
Firstly let’s deal with the media. Many, if not most photos of peoples abs out (especially celebrities) that are in the media are not real. The majority of the world does not walk around permanently ripped to shreds. For example. I have a six pack…..most of the year….ish. Does it look like the picture I’ve posted now? well let’s just say that after Christmas it’s a little blurry….. However this is not photo shopped it is just me 2 weeks from a competition so I was well into a dieting phase. The things that you see in the media are usually:- an old photo, a cleverly edited photo, or a snapshot when a person has hit a peak which is an unrealistic level of condition to maintain. So now you understand that the pictures you see are generally not real. I’ve even see a program where a photographer did the body transformation photoshoot on the same day! The picture below (as embarrassing as it is) is me right now. Literally I’ve just taken it in my office.
I’ve over eaten during the Christmas period, the lighting is rubbish and it has not been edited. However it is a real photo of a real person and has been done right now on my ipad. I know what I can look like when I’m lean so I would never willingly put this photo out to sell myself. It was just to show the difference in images you see to what is real.
All that being said, does it mean an average person cannot attain to achieve their own six pack? The truth is anyone can and does have a six pack, but (and it’s a big but) you need to live your life far better than average to see it. The beyond average person sacrifices a lot of ‘normality’ to have a ripped body, and, most people are simply not willing to do what it takes.
If you do have the motivation to try to get a six pack, here are my rules to follow:-
Lose body fat. You can’t see your abs with fat over the top. We all have a six pack, it’s just our anatomy. You wont ever see it with 4 inches of gut over the top.Incorporate big lifts like dead lifts, squats, pull ups, over head presses and bench presses into your workout. These make the core work very hard.Manage simple sugars. Too much sugar causes excess body fat to accumulate around the belly.Try to limit steady state CV. Excess CV causes high cortisol levels which cause belly fat to be retained. It also tightens your hip flexor muscles which alters your posture and will hide your abs.Eat cleanly year round. Watch your food intake as a matter of lifestyle not a crash diet. Long term commitment yields long term results.Direct ab training is not compulsory (smart arses will say you don’t need to do any…blah blah boring) however direct ab training increases the muscle size. Larger abs mean they will poke through your fat sooner.Don’t drink alcohol. The only people that have visible abs that drink regularly are teenagers, and genetic freaks. Real people can’t do both.
So that’s it. A few dodgy pics of me and the simple way to see you six pack. I’ve got mine, go find yours.
Keep on liftin`
Ali ‘Fat Al’ Stewart
