If you’re like every other person on the planet- you want abs.
In fact, you want them so bad that you imagine yourself in epic situations like a scene straight out of some 80s movie where a gorgeous babe is sucking a shot of tequila out of your belly button while all your buddies on the football team cheer you on…
Stonewash jeans are awesome.
Life is awesome.
Abs…are awesome.
Well my friends, if there is a supporter of such a situation, it’s this guy. I want to help get you there.
And here’s how…
Assess Your Situation
What are we working with here Gino?
We talking about a little jiggle that a few tweaks of the diet will take care of?
Or…do your jeans feel more like denim sausage casing?
My point is that we need to figure out where you’re starting point is in order to put the right plan in place. It is too often that people will ask me for a “generic” fat loss plan.
Sorry to break the bad news to ya, but there is no such thing. Everybody has different levels of fitness and different body types.
For instance, ectomorphs will have an easier time achieving a six-pack while on a lifting program that requires heavy compound lifts and consuming more calories.
I wouldn’t have my larger clients on a plan like that because their metabolism and body type would not be able to compensate for the extra calories, nor would their body respond to that type of lifting program in regards to fat loss.
Change Your Diet
Oh come on–like you didn’t know I was going to tell you this.
Abs are made in the kitchen—heard that before?
Said that before. In fact, every fitness website in the world has said that before…but you ain’t listening.
Why?
Because it isn’t that easy right?
Shit gets in the way…or does it? It’s not that “shit” gets in the way, it’s that you didn’t make it as much of a priority as you should have. Now, that isn’t a bad thing—unless you told people it was a priority. Once you tell someone that you are “getting shredded this summer” and don’t follow through—well, you start to make up excuses.
Here is the easiest tweak you can make to your diet, regardless of what body type or situation you are dealing with…
Eat MORE PROTEIN.
Eat Less Starchy, Fructose-laden Carbs.
Eat More Veggies.
Eat Your Omegas.
That’s it—no smoke and mirrors.
Treat Your Abs like a F*#$%ing Muscle
It annoys the hell out of me when I see Johnny Blowout doing Swiss ball crunches for sets of a thousand and then calls is a day.
You need to target your abs like any other muscles. Abdonimals are made up of mostly slow twitch muscle fibers, which respond best to high reps until failure, but don’t neglect the fast twitch muscle fibers. These are the ones that will give your abs that explosive strength, as well as help give them depth and density—this means they will appear without the use of your overhead strobe light at just the perfect angle.
Be sure to target not just your upper and lower abs, but obliques and lower back. Your core needs to be targeted as a whole; otherwise you will never build a complete package. When one muscle lags [most commonly lower back] not only does it lead to a weak core, but you will overcompensate when doing your main lifts such as presses, squats and deadlifts—this will eventually lead to imbalances in posture, impinged rotator cuffs, weak hamstrings…yawn…see what I am getting at here?
Be sure to give your abdominals time to rest and recover. I tend to train abs on a 1 on 1 off schedule. Remember, if you are following a proper lifting regime, chances are that you are indirectly targeting your abs. Overtraining them won’t give them the necessary time to recoup, recover and rebuild.
Drink Water and Balance Sodium to Potassium Ratio
One of the most overlooked aspects of building a lean midsection is fluid intake and retention. Often times people think that they are holding on to extra body fat when, in fact, they are holding on to extra subconscious water weight.
The best way to prevent water retention [without diuretics] is to drink an ample amount of water and keep in eye out for sodium and potassium levels.
Just a tad too much salt.
A few things to keep in mind:
Carbohydrates hold water—too much you will look puffy, too little you will look flat
Sodium retains water—too much you will look puffy, too little you will look flat
Potassium balances out water retention—-Tom much potassium and you will look flat, too little and you will look puffy
You may be looking at the above thinking “You are f-ing out of your mind!”
The only way to truly know how to balance all of these out is by trial and error. Everyone responds differently to carbohydrates, sodium and potassium.
The best way, regardless of how you metabolize them is to drink plenty of fluid. By drinking plenty of fluid you can be sure that you body will ‘flush’ out what isn’t needed and retain what is.
Time to Get Shredded
Now that you have a few tricks to the trade, try and implement them into your routine. I can guarantee if you change you diet, train your abs correctly and drink plenty of fluid you will be one giant step toward achieving your Zoolander-ish abdominal region.
If not you better be ‘ridiculously good looking’ or be best friends with Neil Strauss.
See you on da’ the beach!
***
Be sure to click ‘VOTE’ in the TOP RIGHT corner of the page to help send me to Camp Dirt!!! I need all the support I can get, so be sure to ‘Like’ this article as well and pass it on to your friends.
The post 3 Ways to Get Your Abs to Look Like an Ice Luge in Time for Summer appeared first on Mike Arone Fitness.