Thread: How to get six-pack abs as fast as possible!!

When do abs become visible?
How long does it take to get abs? How many weeks of exercising till I see my six-pack? How many sit-ups do I have to do? They’re all commonly asked questions when it comes to getting abs. But the honest truth is that there is no single right answer to these questions.

The most important thing for when it comes to revealing a six-pack is getting to a low enough bodyfat percentage. Everybody already has abs – they’re often just hidden underneath a layer of bodyfat.

Men with a bodyfat percentage of 14-17% are considered fit. Women carry a bit more bodyfat than men do, and are considered fit at a bodyfat percentage of 21-24%. However, if getting abs is your goals you’ll need to drop your bodyfat a bit lower still.

Abs start becoming pretty pronounced at around 12% for men. You’ll have a solid six-pack at around 10% and under. Women will start seeing definition in their abs at around 18% and they’ll be very impressive at around 15%.

In general, you’re abs become more visible the lower your fat percentage gets. How long it will take to get there depends on where you start. If you’ve already have a toned physique, you should be able to see results in a couple of weeks. But don’t get discouraged if you’re still a bit above those numbers. While your road to a six-pack might be bit longer, it will also be more rewarding!

To find out what your starting point is, you can do a three-point bodyfat caliper test. Have someone else help you to get the best results. It’s also a great tool to track your progress!

What are your core muscles?
Apart from lowering your bodyfat percentage through a balanced diet, there are other tools that can help you make your abs more pronounced. A lower bodyfat will make your abs more visible, but to really have them look impressive, you need to train them as well.

This starts by training your core. The abdominal muscles are part of your core, which is made up of all the other muscles in the centre of your body, like the glutes and lower back muscles. A total of 29 different muscles make up your core. That means there are a lot of ways to train it as well.

There are exercises aimed specifically at strengthening your core, like planks and ab wheel roll outs. We’ll get back to these later. But did you know that you also train your core doing big compound lifts?

Compound exercises to work your core
Any good training schedule has big compound movements like the deadlift and the squat. Not only are they great for overall muscular development, if you do them right they’re also great tools to work on your core strength.

Compound movements require you to flex your core, and so also work out your abs. This works in reverse as well: you can count on big improvements to your compound lifts if your strengthen your core by doing exercises like planks. Strong abs aren’t just pretty, they’re useful as well!

Isolation exercises for your abs
Next to doing the big compound exercises, its wise to add a couple of isolation exercises to your workouts that specifically target the abdominals. Your abs are made up of four different muscles that contract in four different directions. That means you’re going to want to hit them from different angles as well, so make sure to add enough variation in your exercises.

For example, perform leg raises and crunches to hit the lower and upper part of the muscles running vertically in your abdomen, the rectus abdominis. To hit the obliques, the muscles running to the sides of your abdominals, you can perform lying twists, twisting crunches and side bends. Finally, planks are a great exercise to hit the innermost abdominal muscles.

It’s important to stay hydrated when you’re working out. But just drinking water can get boring. With the new Body & Fit Water Infuser you can add a twist to your workout hydration!

How many reps?
All muscles in your body are built up from three different types of muscle fibres. There are slow-twitch muscle fibres (type 1) and fast-twitch muscle fibres (type 2A and 2B). Type 1 muscles are mostly recruited with light resistance and high repetitions. However, your abs are mostly made up of type 2B muscles fibres. This type of muscle fibre is best trained with low repetitions and high resistance.

So while you’ll often hear that you should train your abs using a very high number of repetitions, this isn’t actually the case. Instead, for best results, try doing sets of 8-12 repetitions at a moderate to high resistance level, where possible.