Six Pack 101: How To Develop And Display Rock Hard Abs

NutritionFat Loss
Written By Nathan Young Jr.

“Abs are made in the kitchen” chances are you’ve heard the phrase a time or two; if not I’ve heard it enough for each of us, for acceptable reason. Six pack abs are mostly a diet-based venture. The percentage is all phraseology.. Some say “abs” are 70% nutrition some 80% some 90%. What I can guarantee is it’s a lot of percent. Yet even at 90% there’s 10% slack; this is how you get 100% there.

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How To Get A Six Pack

Saying you want abs brings about a checklist with two items: obtain thick enough abdominal muscles and acquire a low enough body fat percentage.

One without the other means no visible abs for you my friend. That means the fupa will remain. It means your beer gut is here to stay.

To iterate, it’s important you understand “abs“ are made by ab exercises. You can sculpt a nice shape with moves to stimulate the rectus abdominis, however that will only change what is seen if your body fat is low enough.

This means to open up for ab viewing you must have your fat percentage in a good spot, do hundreds of crunches daily and not a single ab will be shown unless your body fat is where it needs to be. 

On the other hand if you’ve gone through life and avoided putting those ab muscles to use.. A single digit body fat percentage won’t result in abs. Look at kids, most have low body fat, but no abs. Need the muscle too.

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What Are Abdominal Muscles

To create you need understanding. Abdominal muscles, or abs, are often used interchangeably with core, though it’s similar to a square being a rectangle, although a rectangle is not a square. Abs qualify as core, but core is much more than abs. Your core consists of: 

[3]

[3]

  • Rectus abdominis: responsible for bending, crunch-like action aka trunk flexion and contributes to lateral trunk flexion i.e., side crunch-like moves.

  • Transverse abdominis: activated when you pull your belly button toward your spine, as if to squeeze sideways into a small space like Indiana Jones. Plays a major role in your ability to complete many lifts.

  • Internal and external obliques: dominant in lateral trunk flexion and trunk rotation.

[4] Multifidus: Main Focus Is To Stabilize Your Spine.

[4] Multifidus: Main Focus Is To Stabilize Your Spine.

[5] Erector Spinae: Main Player In Trunk Extension Which Includes Going From Bent Over To Upright I.E. Deadlifts.

[5] Erector Spinae: Main Player In Trunk Extension Which Includes Going From Bent Over To Upright I.E. Deadlifts.

All muscles that protect and mobilize your spine are considered core muscles. Each is elemental to physical health, power, strength, and explosiveness. Since we’re here for visible abs today.. You are to ensure to carve out time for the core muscles responsible for creating that look you have in mind. Those muscles are: rectus abdominis and external obliques.

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How To Develop Abs

Number one on this two-part checklist is to develop six pack muscles (rectus abdominis) with the frame (external obliques).

This process is no different than any other muscle group: it’s about hypertrophy.. Growing muscles. Packing on those fibers. To make this reality, your requirement is to stimulate and supply protein. The stimulation breaks down tissue, the protein provides what’ll repair tissue making it more equipped than before under the right conditions.

I recommend directly targeting rectus abdominis and external obliques a few times weekly. Here are some exercises to help:

  • Upper rectus abdominis: sit up, supine crunch, cable crunch, v up, ab rollout

  • Lower rectus abdominis: supine leg lift, hanging leg lift, toe to bar, flutter kicks, toes to sky

  • External obliques: side crunch, Russian twist, windshield wipers, heel touches, standing oblique crunch

Note: you do need to directly work those beach ab muscles for development. Other exercises like squats and deadlifts do utilize core, but it’s inadequate stimulation of the mirror muscles to take you from no six pack to six pack. Once you have the pack, they’ll help you maintain. 

On to revelation.

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How To Reveal My Abs

Again, to put those bad boys on display one must obtain a low enough body fat percentage. What that percentage is relies on how developed your abs are, gender, and genetics. 

On genetics, we all store noticeable fat in a particular order. For me, the first spot is my face. For someone else it may be the arms or stomach. Two individuals could have the same body fat percentage, same ab development, and only one have a visible six pack.

Regardless, around sub 20% body fat I’ve seen abs with some ladies and under 16% for some gentlemen.

The name of the game is calories in vs. Calories out. If your body fat percentage is too high your abs will continue to win this extended game of hide and seek. To get the win you’ll need to implement a calorie deficit.

This means consume less calories than you burn. You can help burn more calories through resistance training, non-exercise activity, and cardio. I suggest hitting each muscle group at least once weekly and cardio 1-6 times a week. I mentioned resistance training for abs will shape the six pack, but resistance training overall will shape your body as you lose fat.

Exercise is the assistant, but the main player here is creating a deficit via nutrition. Figure your calorie needs by using a Katch-McArdle or St. Mifflin-Jeor calculator, then subtract 300-1000 from that number.

Your sum is an estimate of the amount of calories you should average per day to start making strides. You don’t want to lose too fast, because other issues will arise like muscle atrophy and plateaus, so be patient with a loss of 0.5-4 pounds max per week.

You should only go above losing 2 pounds a week if you have an exuberant amount of fat to lose.

A strong portion of these calories are to come in protein form. Without protein you’ll be without abs and even other muscles for that matter. 

Don’t neglect recovery either. Have to bounce back from workouts and maintain a healthy metabolism. Too much work and not enough rejuvenation is disastrous for central nervous system efficacy.

Note: water retention is a factor. It won’t be such a deal that it’ll withhold you from witnessing your abs, but it’ll impact the clarity in what you see. Keep your water intake up and ensure your sodium to potassium ratio is on par. 

Another note: if your body fat is low and you aren’t satisfied with your ab development.. Develop them. You can do so with a maintenance diet, meaning consume about the same number of calories as you burn. Or you can opt for a lean bulk, then trim any unwanted fat later.

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My Thoughts

It may have been somewhere in middle school that I decided the pack life was for me (abs) - not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, 5, 6, or 7 😏.. I was gunning for that 8 pack. I said to myself I’d have an 8 pack or die trying.

Determined!

Mad crunch variations, but in time I did obtain that six pack. The 8 never happened.

I was under the assumption the higher number of “abs” you had, the more work you must have put in.

So I’m here to share; you have a genetic formation for your rectus abdominis.. Some get 6, some 4, some 8, some 10, some even have odd numbers like 5 or 7.. A specific number is beyond your control (blame the parents if you don’t like your set up). What we control is how defined that number is.

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So, It’s About That Time

You get a six pack through development and maintaining a low body fat percentage. Say goodbye to that fupa and put your beer belly on the bus by covering all aspects: eat according to plan, work the six pack muscles, conduct resistance training, and do your cardio.. Then you’ll be putting those muscles to use, Be Great.

Nathan Young Jr.
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