Six Pack ABS Secrets

Top Fitness Model Diana Chaloux – LaCerte shares her secret to achieving INSANE Six Pack Abs

Since my fitness career began back in 2005, my abdominals have been one of my strongest physical features. The question I hear most often, and typically on a daily basis is “How do you get your abs to look like that?”, or “What abs routine do you do?” or “What pill do you take to make your abs look like that?” Brutal truth is this, I HATE training abs. It is actually my least favorite muscle group to train and because of that I rarely do more than a 5-10 minute ab workout once a week! Lucky for me, there’s more to attaining an insane six pack than doing crunches. I decided it was high time to share the truth and “secrets” about six pack abs and some tips on how you can reveal yours!

Secret #1: You already HAVE a six pack.

Yes, I’m talking to you! Every human being possesses the muscle groups that combined create the abdominals, the main ones are the Transverse Abdominus, Rectus Abdominus, Internal Obliques, External Obliques.  Anytime you do movements such as sitting up, standing up, bend or twist to the side (just to name a few), you are engaging and using your abdominal muscles. When it comes to your abs, it’s not a matter of “getting” a set, you’ve already got your own, and who knows, you may have the most insane six pack in the world. The problem is, that the majority of people will never actually see those muscles because they are covered by a layer….or multiple layers of fat.

Secret #2:  Spend more time in the kitchen not the gym.

This should actually be secret number one, but I thought it was important to establish the point that your abs are already there in the first place. If you take away any tips from this article, this is the most important one to understand if you ever want to have visual abdominals. Here’s the deal. If your abdominals are covered with fat (which they are if you can’t visually see them), then you have to reduce your body fat and get it low enough so that you can actually see muscle through the skin. 80% of the equation when it comes to being able to transform your body, get lean and reduce body fat is all about your nutrition. I’m not talking about going on a crash diet or starving yourself, those methods won’t get you abs, they will actually aid you in just the opposite, stripping your body of lean muscle tissue and slowing your metabolism. If you want to see your abs and not just for one day, but for the rest of your life, then you have to change your eating habits for good. That means that you are going to need to eat the right amount of calories, and eat frequently throughout the day so that your body can become a fat burning machine. The staples of your diet need to be lean protein sources such as chicken, fish, turkey and eggs, healthy carbohydrates including brown rice, sweet potatoes, whole grains and fibrous vegetables, and good for you fats that come from sources including olive oil, flax seed oil, almonds and avocados. If you are serious about your six pack, then you need to be serious about the foods that you eat. You will need to plan on doing some prep work so that you have enough food for your day and are never caught in a situation where your only choice for what to eat is a bad one.

Secret #3: There is NO magic pill and NO miracle exercise that will get you a six pack.

If you don’t accept this fact, and continue to search for the magic pill or exercise to get abs, then you will never uncover that coveted six pack. The longer that you buy into the hype of how easy it is to have visual abs, the longer you continue to waste money on gadgets and pills that promise to whittle your waist or flatten your tummy, the longer it will be until you actually start to see them.  The sooner you accept the fact that you CAN get a six pack, but it’s going to take hard work and commitment to your nutrition and training, the sooner you will be on your pathway to success.

Secret #4: One Body Fat percentage does NOT fit all

You have to get your body fat percentage low in order to see visual abdominals, however the number is not going to be the same for each person. I’ve seen women who carried the majority of their fat weight in the butt and thighs, who have attained visual six packs with their overall body fat still in the upper teens, and vice versa I’ve seen women who are busting their butts and have body fat in the low teens and can still barely see the shadowing of their abs. I’ve seen similar situations in men. In general for women, some can see their abdominals when their body fat dips into the lower teens in the 12-15% range, for others they may need to get significantly lower in the 9-11% range before they can see them, and for others still, they may have to push even lower. For the men, some can begin to see abs at 10-11% body fat, while others may need to dip to the 6-8% range, and others still will have to push down below 5% to get the visual effect. A lot of this is determined by genetics and there’s nothing you can do to change that side of things. It just means that some people are unfortunately going to have to push harder and get leaner if they are set on seeing their six pack.

Secret #5: There’s no such thing as spot reduction

I get really fired up when I see the ads that claim to target belly fat, “Just take this pill and watch belly fat melt away!” or “Do this ab routine for 3 minutes a day and you’ll uncover your six pack!” I’m like….dang..THAT’s all I really had to do!! LOL…that would have been SO much easier!! Unfortunately, that’s a bunch of bologna. There’s no such thing as spot reduction. You can’t say to your body, “Body, I’m going to eat right and exercise, and I’d like you to first burn off the fat stores from my stomach rather than the rest of me.” Wouldn’t that be nice! Here’s the deal. If you have a tendency to hold fat in your mid section more so than the rest of your body, then it will take longer for those fat layers to diminish. The first place that your body stores fat is typically the last and most stubborn place for it to release the fat.  It will eventually take the stores from your stubborn areas if you stay consistent and work progressively.

Secret #6: You CAN NOT alter your genetic makeup.

When it comes to visual abs, there are a number of things that you DO have control over, such as your nutrition and exercise choices. The one thing that you do NOT have control over is how they are shaped. The genetic structure of your abs is what it is, there are no exercises that you can do to change that shape. My abs for example have a unique shape, the top four look like little bricks to me, and there is a deep cut in the center of my top two. I didn’t do anything to create this shape, there’s no exercise I can tell you to do that will cause your abs to have the same shape as mine. Rather than trying to focus on changing the shape of your abdominals, you have to put your focus on making your specific shape and form the best that it can be.

Secret #7: You CAN increase the density of your abs.

You may not be able to change the structure of your abs, but you can increase the density and size of the muscles. As with any other muscle group, if you train progressively with resistance and are eating sufficient calories and allowing sufficient recovery and repair time, you can add mass to your abdominals. When your abs are thicker, you actually gain the advantage of being able to visually see their structure even when your body fat percentage is a bit higher. Now ladies, don’t worry that you’re going to get “bulky” abs by training them with resistance, the abdominals are a thinner muscle tissue and the likelihood of them becoming too thick is slim.

Secret #8: You do NOT need to train abs every day.

I hear this one a lot, “I train my abs every day, do thousands of crunches, and still don’t see my abs.” I was actually guilty of doing this myself back in my college days when I still had no clue about nutrition and “8 Minute Abs” had just come out on the market, I think my girlfriends and I did it every day, and couldn’t figure out for the life of us why it seemed to make no difference visually. Your abs are like the other muscles in your body, when you work them, they need rest and recovery time in order to repair and become stronger, working them one to three times a week for core strength purposes is sufficient. You can work them more often than that if you would like to, since the majority of time we are training abdominals with only the weight of our torso you aren’t likely to be overloading them on a regular basis, but it’s not necessary. Just remember that working them more isn’t going to allow you to visually see them sooner.

Secret #9: The BEST ab exercise revealed!

Ok, drum roll please…I’m going to reveal the number one exercise that will aid you in uncovering your svelte six pack…it is…wait for it….the TREADMILL!! That’s right, I said the treadmill. Let me explain. One of the best ways to shed body fat is through cardiovascular exercise where you are burning more calories in a shorter period of time. A pound of fat is 3500 calories, so doing cardio can help you get those numbers in.  That doesn’t mean to skip out on your strength training and just do cardio, strength training highly stimulates the metabolism and aids in building and maintaining lean muscle tissue, so you need to do both for best results. Your cardio doesn’t necessarily HAVE to be the treadmill. It can be whichever type of cardio you prefer including stair climbing, elliptical, biking, aerobics classes, this list can go on and on. Another important note is back to nutrition. If your nutrition is NOT on point and you are consuming more calories than you are expending you will still not lose body fat no matter how much cardio you are doing. Also, work HARD during your cardio sessions. Don’t slack off and take your time and barely break a sweat because you believe you are staying in the “fat burning” zone. The harder you work, the more calories your body is going to burn, which means you will burn more fat, the best cardio for fat burning is actually high intensity intervals, the harder you work, the longer post workout it will take your body to recover, which means your total calorie burn ends up being higher overall. Don’t waste your time doing 20 minutes of abs, get your butt on the treadmill (or other cardio machine) to get to the goal in a more timely manner.

Secret #10: You DO need to train your abs on a regular basis.

After all this talk on nutrition you may be thinking that you can just totally skip the abs routines altogether. That’s not the case. You do need to train them a couple of times a week. This is not for visual purposes, but rather for core strength.  Your core, which includes your abdominals, obliques, back and pelvis aids in stability and proper posture, these muscles need to be strong in order for you to perform every day activities with ease, to be able to strength train at your best, and to help you avoid injuries. A couple days per week choose anywhere from 5-10 core strengthening exercises and perform 1-2 sets of 12-20 repetitions. Core strengthening can be done on the floor on a bench, on a stability ball or on a machine. Some great core strengthening movements include: Abdominal crunch, plank, side plank, reverse crunch, hanging leg raise, bicycles, superman, bridges, oblique twists, V-sits and many more. Change up your exercises every couple of weeks to ensure that your core is strong and balanced at all angles.

There you have it! All my secrets to insane abdominals! If you take these tips to heart and apply them, you will be well on your way to a fantastic midsection worthy of flaunting.

Want my help? Check out the Hitch Fit Online Personal Training Plans –We can help you get your very own set of Six Pack Abs!