How To Get a Six Pack Fast: Tired of ‘Aerobics’ and Belly Fat ? Myths and Science

Getting a six pack fast is neither an easy task nor is it hard. There are far too many myths out there in the gyms and internet, which is why I believe it’s time to put an end to it. Knowledge is power, and a lack of knowledge is a weakness.

How to Get a Six Pack Fast and Easy? Science and Myths

You get a “6 pack” when your body-fat percentage is low. Period. Everyone has a “six pack”. It’s just covered with fat. Think of it as a chocolate bar – you have to remove it’s cover in order to see the actual pack. Same thing goes with your body.

Every human has this muscle, rectus abdominis, which is responsible for flexing our lumbar spine. Like any other muscle, it can either hypertrophy (enlargement of cells causing an increase in the muscle size) or atrophy (the opposite). However, that only determines the six pack size. What determines it’s visibility is your body-fat percentage.

It’s almost all about NUTRITION. Not crunches.

As already mentioned, you simply need to decrease your body-fat percentage. If you workout properly (Shortly, your workout routine should be based on heavy, complex, multi-joint exercises), you can rest assured that you get enough stimulus for your rectus abdominis to grow, especially by squats and deadlifts. However, you can even get a six pack with no exercise at all, if your bodyfat percentage is low enough. Working out will simply enlarge them, but their visibility is completely dependent on your body-fat percentage.

Abs crunches are NOT optimal for abs growth.

As already mentioned in the last paragraph, you’d want your workout core exercises to be complex multi-joint exercises. The reason for this is that our body is a highly complex biochemical system, and any isolated exercise such as ab crunces does not trigger any noticeable anabolic stimulus, as opposed to multi-joint exercises, such as the bench press, deadlift and the squat, which trigger a huge, huge stimulus for your whole body to grow as one.

These exercises will give you far better results per time spent. However, keep in mind that they will only enlarge your muscles, and again, you’d need to decrease your body fat percentage so that your newly gained mass is ‘visible’.

There is NO such thing as “lower abs” and “upper abs”.

Rectus abdominis is one single muscle. You can’t emphasize your work on the “lower” or “upper” portion of this muscle, as it contracts as a whole. This is a common myth which is simply false, anatomically speaking. This muscle is responsible for flexing your lumbar spine, and again, it does it by contracting as one.

You can NOT spot-reduce your abs fat without ‘third-party’ intervention.

This myth is as common as Justin Bieber’s original clip on YouTube. You can NOT, in any way other than surgery or ‘third-party’ internvention, lose more fat in a specific area of your body. Our fat proportions are genetically set, and when you are under the proper nutritional circumstances (more information below), you decrease your fat cells volume, but the proportions and the ratio between your different body areas, in terms of fat loss, are all determined by your genetics.

update: Interesting and thought-provoking post from Tim Feriss about the subject – “Spot Reduction Revisited: Removing Stubborn Thigh Fat”

You can NOT tone your abs or any other part of the body by doing high reps.

Another common myth. You can not ‘tone’ your body by doing high reps exercises. Doing high reps will simply emphasize more on you red muscle fibers , which are more incorporated in endurance activities, such as running or swimming. ‘Toning’ your body is completely dependent on your body-fat percentage, as already mentioned before.

It’s not all about CALORIES.

Many people count their calories like crazy. This is insane for me. You don’t have to do it. Fat burning is much more than a caloric balance. There’s a lot of hormonal activity involved, and you can certainly burn fat while consuming a lot more calories than ‘you should’. I believe the most important thing if you want to get rid of that fat that covers your abs, is to stop grain consumption (even whole bread or whole rice, yes), and even minimize fruit consumption (fructose/sucrose is an obstacle for your goal). On the same token, avoid any type of sugar, and simply consume

Fat does NOT necessarily make you fat.

As a natural followup to the previous point, a diet that is so low in carbs will be usually higher in fat. Now, I’ve seen people on a 50-60% fat diets gettin’ lean and sexy. If you have ever seen more traditional cultures with your eyes, some of them consume really high amounts of fat (like the mountainous Filipinos who eat loads of coconuts a day, or African Masai who live mostly on bloody meat), you can’t do anything but wonder how fit they all look compared to the grain-munching westerns.

The most effective diet for fat loss I’ve ever seen is the ‘low-carbs’ – ‘high-fat-high-protein- diet. Call it ‘Primal‘, call it ‘Paleo‘, call it whatever you want, but the principles are the pretty much similar. If you’re a vegetarian or something, you can do it as well (coconuts, nuts and legumes be your best friends).

Okay, Let’s Do The Summary

To sum things up, all you need to do for getting an impressive six pack is:

• Be under a proper diet (see above), so you can lose additional fat mass above your abs. Do it until you reach the point where you’re happy with your abs, and maintain.
• Exercise. Incorporate complex multi-joint exercises to gain a high anabolic stimulus, so your whole body strengthens and grows as a whole, including your abs. Such a workout routine will do wonders for your entire body. Trust me.

Do me a favor, and bookmark this page for sending it to anyone of your friends that might jump on yet another “How to Get a Six Pack In a Week !” scam. It really pisses my nerves how frauds steal time and money from innocent people by promising them nothing but mere lies.

Update: I have written very long new posts about homemade meal replacement shakes for weight loss and home gym equipment that you might be interested in reading.

Update-II: Some new structural tips for losing weight have been added as well.

Ever lost a considerable amount of fat? Still trying to reach your goals? Share with us using the comment box below !

Scientific Reference

O’Keefe JH, Vogel R, Lavie CJ, Cordain L. Exercise Like a Hunter Gatherer: A Prescription for Organic Physical Fitness. Progress in Cardiovascular Disease, 2011;56:471-479.

Remko S. Kuipers1, Martine F. Luxwolda1, D.A. Janneke Dijck-Brouwer1, S. Boyd Eaton, Michael A. Crawford, Cordain L, and Frits A.J. Muskiet.  Estimated macronutrient and fatty acid intakes from an East African Paleolithic diet.  Brit J Nutr , 2010 Dec;104(11):1666-87.