There’s a misconception that you need to focus on your torso to get Six-Pack Abs. It’s more than just crunches and leg raises though.
Focusing all your efforts on your abdominal region is only going to strain your midsection, hence, slowing its growth.
It requires more than just focused effort. One can go to the gym twice a day for seven days a week and still see no results. It just doesn’t work that way.
Your body needs a certain level of detailing that will require more than just the obvious. You’ll be surprised to find out that getting those abs to pop out require exercising the least.
Now, you’ll find out more about it once we talk about these six-pack abs 6 Strategies.
Calorie deficit
There’s some truth to not eating carbs to get six-pack abs. The misconception though is when you totally neglect it.
Not taking carbs is like having a negative bank balance. You still need something to keep your account afloat. The same analogy can be used with your abs.
While carbs aren’t the most friendly food for the abs, the muscles still need such to process other macronutrients properly. That said, a calorie deficit is essential.
Cutting weight requires a certain serving of carbohydrates enough to process your recommended daily caloric intake. The said intake should depend on your body fat percentage.
You’ll have to hold unnecessary cravings for 12 to 16 weeks because calorie deficits will definitely make you feel hungry. That doesn’t mean your body isn’t nourished. It just got used to having too much.
Of course, you still need to work out to make sure your body burns the calories you take. Just make sure your intake breaks even with what you burn.
Pump up that protein
Speaking of macronutrients, you need to increase your protein intake too to make sure your ab muscles repair right.
Great abs require a very high-protein diet. You’ll need something to make sure that swell keeps swole especially when you overwork your abs.
The scientific explanation is simple. Protien contains amino acids that prevent muscle breakdown. It helps repair broken down fibers to reinforce it and make it stronger.
A high-protein diet also drives up your metabolic rate. This allows you to burn that excess fat when combined with a calorie deficit.
Pumping up that protein provides low-calorie satiety too. It tricks you into feeling full, thus the lesser chance that you will cheat on your diet.
Lay off junk foods
Junk food is the root of all evil when it comes to six-pack abs. Stuffing your face with chips and fast food will only give you empty nutrients.
We won’t go scientific with you here. All you need is common sense. Will bodybuilders and fitness coaches eat junk food if it were really fortified with macronutrients like advertisements suggest?
So the next time you think about centering your cheatday around fast food, you might want to think about how your abs will feel. It doesn’t even need to be what it emotionally feels. It sure doesn’t feel good burning junk food.
Plus, if these foods can last months on a grocery store shelf, then it could last as long too in your body.
Don’t over cardio
Here’s another misconception: doing cardio forever will give me six-pack abs.
Well, there may be some truth to that but only because your heart needs such exercise to be able to properly pump the blood for circulation
Cardio doesn’t directly constitute to abs. If that were the case, all bodybuilders will run marathons everyday instead. The trick is to have a good cardio plan in your program.
Usually, 15-30 minutes of brisk walking is enough. Sometimes even on an empty stomach to burn excess caloric reserves from the day prior.
Besides, no fitness coach in the world recommends its clients to just stay on the treadmill for an entire day every day. They still train their clients to work on the areas that will make the abs look more aesthetically pleasing.
That means doing shoulder and back workouts to make your upper body look like an inverted triangle. Then, all of a sudden the abs look better.
Sporting activities like basketball and soccer can also take the boredom away from a boring cardio workout. 30 minutes of shooting hoops are enough to activate all your muscles.
Don’t be too salty
Sodium causes water retention. That means your excess salt intake makes you look more bloated.
The body part that suffers the most here is your abs because excess water sits stubbornly on that area. It might also be the reason you look fatter despite your weight loss.
Bodybuilders and fighters who are cutting weight usually cut salt from their diet entirely. They’d rather get their recommended sodium intake from supplements.
Good sodium sources include protein shakes and saltwater fishes. Of course you shouldn’t have too much of them too.
It’s recommended to precondition your body to heat by spending at least 15 minutes a day in the sauna to get rid of excess salt. Do it at least a month before your target date to show your new figure.
You should also get used to eating with less flavor too. It helps you get accustomed to less sodium.
Intermittent fasting
This one is a fad that even the elite fitness guys attribute to their six-pack abs. A lot have attributed the weight loss to this type of practice.
Intermittent fasting includes eating your recommended daily caloric and protein intake within an 8-hour period and not take any solid food for the next 16 hours.
That said, it is best to eat your first meal at 11 in the morning to make sure you won’t be eating anything after eight. Even those who don’t exercise use this trick as the lazy way to lose weight.
Nutritionists say that it helps the body maintain its lean muscles whilst increasing insulin sensitivity. It also creates an optimal hormonal environment.
Take note that this isn’t a diet. It’s a strategy to schedule your meals at certain time intervals.
The best way to have six-pack abs is still to combine this strategy with the proper macro count.
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