Everrrrryone wants better abs, don’t they?
Guys, gals, your dad, your pregnant aunt…let’s be honest, a six pack is the centrepiece of a good body.
There are millions of people chasing great abs – in a million different ways. Crunches, planks, walking down the street tensing your midsection while intensely eyeballing some stranger at the same time…
(…Maybe that’s just me).
Anyway, you name the abs move, and someone is trying it right now.
Try as hard as you want – but if you’re making the six mistakes listed in this article then you might aswell drown your sorrows with a six pack of beers. Cos you’ll have no chance of awesome abs.
We’ll talk about each of the six mistakes and I’ll share tips for dealing with each one. It’s then up to you to blast that belly into proper shape.
If you’ve already tried lots of different things in an attempt to sculpt six pack abs then I’m gonna take a guess that you own an ab roller. I’m also gonna guess that it’s probably covered in dust and not been touched in a long time.
Good – because they’re a waste of time. I remember everyone seemed to be buying them about 15-20 years ago. I jumped on the bandwagon and got myself a hideous looking one with a black frame and bright green foam round it.
“I had a layer of fat that was keeping my abdominal muscles well hidden…”
Promised myself I would use the ab roller every day until my stomach turned to steel. And I did – for weeks and weeks. The exercise felt awkward and my neck usually felt more stiff than my stomach ever did afterwards.
After about a month my stomach felt a little bit firmer, but it depressingly looked the exact same. Flat, but with zero definition. No sign of one pack, never mind six.
My conclusion – I just wasn’t doing enough crunches on the ab roller. If only I did 100 each day, and got up to 1,000 per week, then I would have a six pack, right?
Wrong – for two main reasons that are blatantly obvious to me now. First, I had a layer of fat around my stomach that was keeping my abdominal muscles well hidden.
Secondly, the ab roller and ab crunches are ineffective for working the whole core region and some health and fitness experts advise that this move is actually bad for your back.
And that’s why my ab roller is now lying somewhere mangled in the town dump.
Six Reasons Why People Struggle To Achieve Defined Abs
There are various reasons why ripped abs are just a dream for many people, but here are six main culprits.
#1 Poor diet.
Guzzling beer and eating junk food regularly means you aint gonna get anywhere. Obviously.
But assuming you’re not a KFC lovin’, pizza munchin alcoholic, you should still take a good look at what you’re eating every day. Drastically reducing your intake of sugar and refined/simple carbohydrate foods will make a big difference to your waistline and improve your hopes of six pack success.
This is because excess sugar and simple carbs are converted to fatty acids in the liver. These are dumped in the body – and guess where they end up? Your waist, ass, legs…and generally areas where you don’t want fat stored.
For more information on making the correct food choices, click here to check out my ‘Weight Training Diet 101’ article.
Bottom line is: you can exercise as much as you want, but if you’re eating and drinking garbage you should expect to look (and feel) garbage.
Quick tip: make cutting out sugar your number one priority. Replace fizzy drinks with water, ditch desserts after dinner, one sugar instead of two in your tea/coffee…and then gradually wean yourself off it.
#2 Body fat levels are too high.
You can be in good shape overall, but still lack decent abs definition because you’re still carrying too much body fat. For the abdominal muscles to show properly you must obliterate the fat that’s hiding them.
You could do 1,000 crunches every morning for months, thinking you’ll eventually wake up one morning and the six of them will be sitting there…all glistening and golden.
Not quite, my friend. More like you would’ve created one large hard ‘block’ midsection with no sign of definition. The muscle may have been built, but it would still be camouflaged by a wall of lard.
So what are those fat levels? This varies slightly from person to person and it’s not an exact science, but for guys the body fat percentage must generally drop below 12% for abs definition to show, while for women it’s below 16%.
Tom Venuto, author of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle, says the above percentages will result in “good” abs definition. He gives lower body fat levels for “very lean” and “ripped” abs. You can check those numbers out by clicking here.
Quick tip: don’t obsess over body fat percentages. First focus on cleaning up your diet, again primarily by cutting out as much sugar as possible, then those fat levels will naturally drop.
#3 Wasting time doing crunches or other ineffective exercises.
Crunches is the first move most people think of when it comes to abs exercises, and everyone was going nuts for ab rollers when they first appeared on the scene.
But crunches only target a smaller portion of your core, missing out the lower region. Why do a limiting move like this when there are others that hit more muscles?
Also, as mentioned earlier, some health and fitness experts advise against crunches. Ben Greenfield, author of Beyond Training, wrote an excellent article for The Huffington Post titled “Why Crunches Don’t Work”.
He said: “…they place excessive strain on the part of your low back that has the most nerves and is most prone to wear and tear.”
You can read Ben’s article by clicking here.
Quick tip: ditch the ab roller and steer clear of ab crunches.
#4 – Being inconsistent.
You’ve got to keep putting the work in with your training, and it’s got to be backed up by eating a clean diet consistently.
If you’re skipping workout days, or boozing and then inevitably eating junk food afterwards to nurse the horrible hangover then you won’t get results. Simple as that.
The best way to stick with your training is to plan ahead. Will you get up 20 mins earlier every morning and do an abs session on an empty stomach? (I’d highly recommend you do).
Quick tip: schedule your workouts a week in advance, make them non-negotiable. As for your diet, stock up on whole foods and keep the junk out of your cupboards and fridge because if it’s within reach, you’re probably gonna grab that instead of the healthier option.
#5 – Impatience.
Success doesn’t come overnight. It doesn’t come after 21 or 22 nights either. Unfortunately too many people give up on their health and fitness goals because they just ain’t happening quickly enough.
Nothing worth having comes easily. Same goes for awesome abs. Train hard, stay focused, enjoy the process…and the satisfaction you’ll also undoubtedly get from remaining disciplined.
Be patient because small wins will come. It might be that your clothes are a bit looser, you can actually feel proper abdominal muscles for the first time, or you see that first bit of definition in your midsection.
Whatever it is, it will give you the motivation to hit the next level.
Quick tip: Take a ‘before’ picture. Don’t smile in it. In fact, look as crappy as you possibly can. Then, when you’re getting frustrated a bit further down the line (as we all do at times), you can look at your frightening photo and will likely be surprised to see how much progress you’ve actually made.
#6 – Not doing enough to burn fat.
So we know that we need to get rid of the layer of fat around our waist for the abdominal muscles to actually show. But it’s not just a simple case of eating fewer calories to lose excess weight.
A quicker route to success is by speeding up your metabolism. Faster metabolism = more calories burnt = lower bodyfat percentage.
You can do this in several ways. My number one recommendation is weight training that focuses on compound exercises. Studies have shown that by lifting heavy and working several muscle groups you can significantly raise metabolism levels, while developing muscle (including your abdominals) at the same time.
The fat burning effect can last for as much as 24-36 hours AFTER you stop training, depending on the intensity of your weight training, exercises involved and rest in between sets.
Quick tip: – if you’ve not already read my guide on the ‘8 Pillar’ compound exercises then you can download it by clicking here.
Wrapping this up in one sentence…eat clean, ditch the ab crunches, train hard and be consistent, but also be patient, and lift heavy weights to speed up your metabolism to lower those bodyfat levels.
Then the six-pack is inevitable 😉
