How to get lean and get a six pack

If you've ever looked in the mirror and been dissatisfied with what you've seen. I know the feeling! Failed diets, failed exercise plans. It leaves you feeling downtrodden, deflated and wanting to reach for those biscuits. Well Don't! Persist! Persistence is key, going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm is key. Why? because one day, all that persistence will pay off. You will get the body you dream of. Now is the time for that persistence to pay off! Anyway, getting lean, getting a six pack and removing the flab requires planning and first and foremost a decent diet. So automatically foods such as chips, burgers and sweets are out. Although if you don't feel you can manage this you could have a few sweets now and again or a burger once a month. Though you've got to be honest with yourself about what you want more. A healthy fit body for life, or a moments pleasure that does nothing good for your body. You cannot spot reduce fat. That is you cannot do loads of sit ups and crunches and expect to see you six pack. Yes, you will grow your abs but if there is fat covering them, no one will see your abs. So the key is to gain a low body fat ratio. To do this you simply need to burn off fat and partake in a healthy diet. Diet is the most important factor! If your diet is useless you will never achieve your aim of a six pack stomach! You need to make sure as well that you create a calorie deficit by burning calories through the exercise. Of course this doesn't mean you need to run, run and run some more. People with broken ankles have gotten six packs. You can run if you wish, you can cycle, you can do any form of exercise that will burn fat! If you eat well and are exercising to burn fat you can expect to achieve a six pack stomach. Just be patient and you will achieve it! Weights are affective at building muscle and burning fat. That is because as you build muscle your body uses more calories and therefore burns more fat by itself. Though this doesn't mean you have to use weights of course. You could do body weight exercises such as press ups. An example would be to do a circuit such as press ups, sit ups, squats, triceps dips, crunches, lunges, hyper extensions. Do these exercises one after the other without rest 3 times and about twenty reps for each to keep up the intensity. As for weight exercises you could simply do bench press, dead lift, squat and shoulder press. This would be sufficient to build muscle. Sets and reps are down to you. I myself would do 4 x 12 because that works for me. For others however this won't work. Some would prefer 3 x 6 so they are using heavier weights. Also, you don't always need to train to failure but you still need to feel challenged. Burning fat can be done by any sort of cardio. I myself am doing triathlons so I am swimming, running and cycling. You of course may just want to play squash. Do whatever works for you but most importantly do what you enjoy! Long cardio is not neccessarily the solution to getting lean. Infact you may find yourself getting into a platue doing this. The best way to burn body fat without losing muscle is high intensity training. High intensity training can basically be interval training. Running, cycling or rowing or a combination of these can be used. Basically you would warm up properly and then do something like 20 seconds sprinting and 10 seconds rest, then 20 seconds and then 10 seconds rest and so on. You may do this 8 times or for how long you can handle it. The advantage of this is also that you get extremely long afterburn. That is your body continues to burn calories after you stop for longer than it would if you simply went running steadily for 45 minutes. What you must remember when exercising your abdominal is to work the whole of the core. Which means do not focus entirely on your abs. Work your back in equal measure to prevent posture problems and injury. Your abdominal is one muscle. Different exercises will simply work different parts of this muscle harder. For example standard crunches will work the upper part harder while reverse crunches will work the lower part harder. An example of how someone might train for a six pack could be: Mon: Weights Tue: Fat burning e.g. cardio Wed: Weights Thurs:Fat burning e.g. cardio Fri: Weights Sat: Weights (optional) Sun: Rest How much rest you take depends upon you. Just make sure you do get some rest! Over training is dangerous as I myself have found out and I still pay the price with shoulder that aches occasionally! And I'm still young! So please avoid it. If you feel fatigued or not up to training then rest. You do not know how important good health is until you no longer have it so be patient and do not take risks by training when you don't feel up to it. Also, if you take up weights get information on proper technique. Not practicing proper technique is like giving a child a gun. Someones gonna end up with a problem. Well that last paragraph was gloomy wasn't it! On a cheerier note motivation is simple! Take a picture of your self when you start and have a look in a months time. If you've really committed you will see a difference. Have a look again a while after an you'll be amazed! Just keep in mind what you want and visualise it when your working out. Persist, persist and persist! As I said diet is the most important factor. Common advice is to eat six small meals a day. Eat around every 2-3 hours to keep your energy and therefore your metabolism up. If your really busy you could take you lunch with you or if there's a decent shop nearby just pop in and get something healthy. Make sure you include high quality proteing in your meals. Protein is very important for building muscle. So six small meals would be breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack, dinner and a final snack. What you eat can be anything that's healthy and not high in bad fats such as saturated fat. I myself love pasta and rice so for me I might eat as follows. Breakfast: Bran flakes, Snack: apple, banana, orange, Lunch: Spiced rice with grilled chicken and peppers, Snack: same as before, Dinner: Pasta with sun dried tomatoes and makerel, Snack: Handful of nuts. This should give you an idea of how to structure what you eat. As for what you eat that's your choice! Obviously avoid processed foods but don't become obsessed. If you can't get anything healthy for a meal don't beat yourself up over it. Eating something is better than starving yourself. Just continue with your healthy eating plan when you can. Your current waistline will determine how long you take to achieve awesome abs. So bear this in mind and be realistic. These are approximations and depend upon how much you commit to training. 38"/40" = Approx 12 weeks+ 36" = Approx 8 weeks 34" = Approx 6 weeks 32" = Approx 5 weeks 30" = Approx 4 weeks 28" = Approx 3 weeks Hopefully this has helped you plan to get a six pack stomach. Good luck!