If you’ve been working out for a while, thinking “I need a six pack” you’re already sick of the amount of content available on the internet promising you six pack abs in a ridiculously stupid amount of days.

I’m not going to give you a step by step guide to getting that six pack, truth is no one who has a six pack knows exactly how they got it, most of the people who have it are genetically structured to easily lose the fat and the others are hardcore builders who have bigger problems than a six pack.

So this is going to be a journal almost of what I’ve learned on my journey, none of this will work the exact way it worked for me, but most of it will work if you’re willing to put a little effort into it.

Why you won’t get a six pack in the next week or month.

This is one of the most important aspects of getting a six pack; understanding that the closer you get to getting ripped, the harder you have to work, and all of this hard work takes time. It’s not a crash course.

See the human body is genetically programmed to survive, now don’t get me wrong, our ancestors might have looked amazing but as far as your body goes, the primary concern is to live, not look fabulous.

When you’re starving your way through a harsh famine, a six pack doesn’t do much help but unfortunately for us, a kilo of fat goes a long way. Looking at it from that perspective it’s easy to see why losing fat isn’t your body’s main priority.

Lose the fat

Notice how I haven’t mentioned anything about building your ab muscles this entire time? There’s a reason why. You can have Arnold Schwarze-whatever abs, but as long as those abs are hiding under a thick slab of fat, you won’t see any of it.

The main priority in getting ripped should be to lose the fat, if you’ve done enough of the right things to lose the fat, chances are your abs are sufficiently developed already. Of course a certain level of crunches and ab exercises go a long way in improving definition but crunches won’t warrant six pack abs, losing the fat will.

Cardio

Cardio workouts or more colloquially workouts that involve elevated heart activity such as jogging, cycling and the stepper are the best and invariably only ways to losing the fat in significant proportions. But here’s the thing, sprinting at top speed for five minutes doesn’t beat walking briskly for one and a half hours.

It’s about duration not intensity. As a rule of thumb it takes about 20 minutes of cardio activity for the body to switch from using Glucose (Glycogen) as its primary energy to using fat as the same. So any cardio you choose to do should be maintained for 30 to 40 minutes, in order to maximize the fat burning potential.

Fat Burners

Fat burners are great, these are scientifically proven products (most of the good ones are) and most of them are safe to a certain degree. By no means am I endorsing the use of fat burners but if you want to use it there’s no reason why I would preach against it, however I will mention that most of these products along with many other sports supplements are strenuous to the kidneys and require a certain level of water intake and other supporting behaviours.

The catch however is that these products are only as good as the work you do. If you pop pills and sleep at home nothing on the market will do you any good. Here’s the thing, most of these products are thermogenic; which means that they increase physical stimulation the same way green tea or coffee does but to a greater extent.

If you sleep there isn’t much use in a thermogenic. The second function of these products is that it curbs appetite which of course is a largely helpful factor for those of us who haven’t enough will power and self control. The important point is that none of these products provide much that cannot be achieved naturally.



By Dilshan Senaratne