Best exercise for a 6pk?

wba88

hey every1,
wot is the best exercise to do every day to get a six pack? i have been doin approx 100 sit-ups a day for 3wks and have seen no improvement at all. just wondering if im on the right track or not.
Thanx

Mr E

Do cardio.

You won't see a sixpack unless your bodyfat is 10% or less.

Dragan

Your brain and learn about diet and nutrition.

Try it.

joejoem

Dragan wrote:

Your brain and learn about diet and nutrition.

Try it.

FYI this quote only makes sense if you read the question first.

wba88

i, without a doubt have less than 10% body fat!

g'em

Dragan wrote:

Your brain and learn about diet and nutrition.

Try it.

patience dearie, patience. Now, big deep breath..

OP, he's right. You can crunch till the end of the world but without good diet your abs will never see the light of day.

wba88

i have been eating a lot healthier this year..

g'em

Your diet has to be high in protein, low in bad fats, ideally 40% protein, 40% carbs, 20% fats (all good fats). Unfortunately a lot of people eat 'healthy' food (low-fat bars, crisps etc.) without realising they're often worse than the originals. post your diet and we can point you in the right direction/ make changes where necessary.

t-ha

wba88 wrote:

hey every1,
wot is the best exercise to do every day to get a six pack? i have been doin approx 100 sit-ups a day for 3wks and have seen no improvement at all. just wondering if im on the right track or not.
Thanx

I'm sorry, I tried to resist - I mean no offence...

...but I just HAD to link to this!

ronbyrne2005

wba88 wrote:

i, without a doubt have less than 10% body fat!

obviously you arent under 10% or you would have a six pack especially with all those crunches your doing.diet and cardio is most important for six pack.

kinda lost

call me stupid i dont care but whats cardio ??

joejoem

kinda lost wrote:

call me stupid i dont care but whats cardio ??

Ok, your Stupid.


Cardio is cardiovascular excersize. Its basically running, cycleing etc. Anything that gets your heart pumping

kinda lost

joejoem wrote:

Ok, your Stupid.


Cardio is cardiovascular excersize. Its basically running, cycleing etc. Anything that gets your heart pumping

Swiming would be good then also i guess?

joejoem

kinda lost wrote:

Swiming would be good then also i guess?

Swimming is a very good all rounder excersize yes, it would be effective as cardio. Im not a big fan myself, I enjoy water sports and recreation but swimming in a line is boring to me.

SBob

ronbyrne2005 wrote:

obviously you arent under 10% or you would have a six pack especially with all those crunches your doing.diet and cardio is most important for six pack.

Bull. If you do even 200 sit ups a day but you dont do them right theres no reason why you would still get a 6 pack after 3 weeks. Its not all about diet obviously thats very important but its not the whole deal.

If you are doing sit ups or crunches, you need to keep the contraction in your abs throughout the excercises. I dont think if you are doing 100 in one go you would be doing them right, if you concentrate on contracting your stomach muscles and go through your crunch slowly, halting at the top for a couple of seconds, coming down and crunching again without relaxing at all you should feel a serious burn way before 100. Do 3 X 30 or something like that and you will have a much more effective excercise. what you were doing would be more like 100 X 1 rep if you know what i mean.

Also vary the excercise, for example you could do three different upper abs excercises like: 3X30 sit ups 3X 50 crunches and maybe something like the plank all on a monday, then on wednesday do 3 lower ab excercises, then on friday do 3 obliques excercises. You'll find loads of examples of these excercises on the web, going from beginner to more advanced levels.

This gives each part a chance to recover. if you want to really concentrate on upper abs you could do crunches on each day, i.e. mon wed and fri along with the excercises above.

I find this a much more stimulating way to train my abs then just doing sit ups every day. If your BF is 10% and you follow this routine i would give it about 6 weeks before you see a significant improvement.

t-ha

SBob wrote:

Bull. If you do even 200 sit ups a day but you dont do them right theres no reason why you would still get a 6 pack after 3 weeks. Its not all about diet obviously thats very important but its not the whole deal.

If you are doing sit ups or crunches, you need to keep the contraction in your abs throughout the excercises. I dont think if you are doing 100 in one go you would be doing them right, if you concentrate on contracting your stomach muscles and go through your crunch slowly, halting at the top for a couple of seconds, coming down and crunching again without relaxing at all you should feel a serious burn way before 100. Do 3 X 30 or something like that and you will have a much more effective excercise. what you were doing would be more like 100 X 1 rep if you know what i mean.

Also vary the excercise, for example you could do three different upper abs excercises like: 3X30 sit ups 3X 50 crunches and maybe something like the plank all on a monday, then on wednesday do 3 lower ab excercises, then on friday do 3 obliques excercises. You'll find loads of examples of these excercises on the web, going from beginner to more advanced levels.

This gives each part a chance to recover. if you want to really concentrate on upper abs you could do crunches on each day, i.e. mon wed and fri along with the excercises above.

I find this a much more stimulating way to train my abs then just doing sit ups every day. If your BF is 10% and you follow this routine i would give it about 6 weeks before you see a significant improvement.

Hmmm, this is all very interesting talk. So SBob, I think I have a problem getting more size on the 3rd ab down on my right hand side - do you have any exercise to help isolate that? Particularly, it's the inner part of that ab?

Oh no wait! Hang on - the rectus abdominus isn't actually a bunch of individual muscles the whole way down the front of your abdomen, it's two single muscle heads (left & right) with ridges - therefore making isolated working of the upper abs a big pile of poo poo!

As a great man (Dan John) once said - if you want great abs, then find something heavy, lift it off the floor and put it over your head. Simple as that, if you go heavy and compound, and keep a good diet, then you'll have abs. If you're under 10%BF and you still have no visible abs then endless sit-ups should be the last thing on your mind because you simply ain't got no core and you need to build yourself some general strength.

g'em

t-ha wrote:

Hmmm, this is all very interesting talk. So SBob, I think I have a problem getting more size on the 3rd ab down on my right hand side - do you have any exercise to help isolate that? Particularly, it's the inner part of that ab?

Oh no wait! Hang on - the rectus abdominus isn't actually a bunch of individual muscles the whole way down the front of your abdomen, it's two single muscle heads (left & right) with ridges - therefore making isolated working of the upper abs a big pile of poo poo!

um Bob, think he has you there, and pretty much agree all the way. Diet IS the most important factor for showing off abs- a flabby belly will hide even the most toned abdominal muscles, and the best way to lose the flab? Why, its through diet of course!! (why isn't there a sarcasm smilie??)

t-ha

g'em wrote:

(why isn't there a sarcasm smilie??)

Dunno . Actually I can't even think what that would look like....





okay! okay! I only posted to show off my new signature

SBob

t-ha wrote:

Hmmm, this is all very interesting talk. So SBob, I think I have a problem getting more size on the 3rd ab down on my right hand side - do you have any exercise to help isolate that? Particularly, it's the inner part of that ab?

Oh no wait! Hang on - the rectus abdominus isn't actually a bunch of individual muscles the whole way down the front of your abdomen, it's two single muscle heads (left & right) with ridges - therefore making isolated working of the upper abs a big pile of poo poo!

As a great man (Dan John) once said - if you want great abs, then find something heavy, lift it off the floor and put it over your head. Simple as that, if you go heavy and compound, and keep a good diet, then you'll have abs. If you're under 10%BF and you still have no visible abs then endless sit-ups should be the last thing on your mind because you simply ain't got no core and you need to build yourself some general strength.

Ok.. so there are excercises people do like sit ups and crunches yes?? I didnt invent these as upper ab isolation excercises.. Disputing that?? no, right well my point was not that you do isolated excercises for each 'ab', but that crunches and sit ups will not reach the whole area, that there ARE excercises that will target the area just above the groin such as knee ups etc, and there ARE excercises that will target the obliques, such as side push ups. And that a combination of all these excercises will be a more effective work out than 100 sit ups a day.
What the hell is wrong with that opinion?

if you are saying that there is a better way to work your core then sit ups etc that is a whole nother point and youd prob be right

If the guy is 10% BF as he says he is, then diet is no longer a factor for him, i have been sub 10% my whole life so when talking about getting abs the issue is the most effective excercises.

Dragan

Face it, i know guys that never do sit ups, they just eat right, get in some cardio and do things like cleans , and big standing military presses.

Oh yeah, and heavy ass push downs, that'll get your abs worked.

I'm not saying that abs specific excercises don't work, of course they do, but let me just say that most of the people banging out a hundred crunches a day aren't doing anything else they should be doing.

Aldini98

Walking to the Off Licence !!!!!!

oxygen_old

t-ha wrote:

okay! okay! I only posted to show off my new signature

And a fine signature it it,for as long as it last before the mods get it

Rogueish

What kind of sit-ups have you been doing? Sit-up with your feet stabilised under a bar, rack or ab bench tend to emphasise the hip flexors rather than the abdominals.

Therefore you may have been working on class A1 hip flexors rather than that six pack.

t-ha

SBob wrote:

Ok.. so there are excercises people do like sit ups and crunches yes?? I didnt invent these as upper ab isolation excercises.. Disputing that?? no, right well my point was not that you do isolated excercises for each 'ab', but that crunches and sit ups will not reach the whole area, that there ARE excercises that will target the area just above the groin such as knee ups etc, and there ARE excercises that will target the obliques, such as side push ups. And that a combination of all these excercises will be a more effective work out than 100 sit ups a day.
What the hell is wrong with that opinion?

if you are saying that there is a better way to work your core then sit ups etc that is a whole nother point and youd prob be right

If the guy is 10% BF as he says he is, then diet is no longer a factor for him, i have been sub 10% my whole life so when talking about getting abs the issue is the most effective excercises.

I'm going to try and sugar-coat this as much as possible so as not to hurt your feelings - the section I've highlighted above...
is wrong.

Edit: thanks oxygen - almost hypnotic isn't it

d-arke

t-ha wrote:

Dunno . Actually I can't even think what that would look like....
okay! okay! I only posted to show off my new signature

Cool Signature.

Quick question, how do you work out how much body fat you have other than seeing how much of your belly/hips you can grab hold off Is it the same as the BMI thing or is it something different

joejoem

t-ha wrote:

I'm going to try and sugar-coat this as much as possible so as not to hurt your feelings - the section I've highlighted above...
is wrong.

Edit: thanks oxygen - almost hypnotic isn't it

Had to log out to see it. Because of people like you I have signatures turned off, not like its not nice

g'em

d-arke wrote:

Quick question, how do you work out how much body fat you have other than seeing how much of your belly/hips you can grab hold off Is it the same as the BMI thing or is it something different

very hard to do accurately on your own- usually done with calipers to pinch the fat and take various measurements around your body- the staff at a gym can often do it for you.It literally measures how much adipose (fat) tissue you have which directly underlies the skin. different to BMI which only looks at the ratio of body weight to height and is very general. Anyone who trains a lot and is quite muscular will be heavy but trim (muscle weighs more than fat, about 3 times)... according to the BMI I'm obese which, beleive me, is very far from the truth.

d-arke

g'em wrote:

very hard to do accurately on your own- usually done with calipers to pinch the fat and take various measurements around your body- the staff at a gym can often do it for you.It literally measures how much adipose (fat) tissue you have which directly underlies the skin. different to BMI which only looks at the ratio of body weight to height and is very general. Anyone who trains a lot and is quite muscular will be heavy but trim (muscle weighs more than fat, about 3 times)... according to the BMI I'm obese which, beleive me, is very far from the truth.

cheers for the info. too bad i left my gym. as for bmi, i'm the right weight for my height etc although at the top end of this scale. i'm like 2 pounds over, or i was before christmas, dam those christmas puddings im probably higher. but its not like im fat or anything... more podgy around the stomach/hips. just needs a tonning up, would like to know the body fat before i go through the hassle of doing sit ups etc.

t-ha

g'em wrote:

very hard to do accurately on your own- usually done with calipers to pinch the fat and take various measurements around your body- the staff at a gym can often do it for you.It literally measures how much adipose (fat) tissue you have which directly underlies the skin. different to BMI which only looks at the ratio of body weight to height and is very general. Anyone who trains a lot and is quite muscular will be heavy but trim (muscle weighs more than fat, about 3 times)... according to the BMI I'm obese which, beleive me, is very far from the truth.

That's not what Dragan PM'd to me


*runs off and gets popcorn and marshmallows*

d-arke wrote:

cheers for the info. too bad i left my gym. as for bmi, i'm the right weight for my height etc although at the top end of this scale. i'm like 2 pounds over, or i was before christmas, dam those christmas puddings im probably higher. but its not like im fat or anything... more podgy around the stomach/hips. just needs a tonning up, would like to know the body fat before i go through the hassle of doing sit ups etc.

I don't really get this - look in the mirror, are you the bodyfat level you would like to be? Yes - congratulations. No - research exercise and diet and get to work! No really, research it, "the hassle of doing sit ups etc." does not inspire my confidence in your knowledge of how to lean out. There's plenty of info on this forum about how to do it.

d-arke

yeah but im too lazy!! i know i know, why am i posting. just doing some ground work. ive looked at the other forums as well. didnt know body fat was different to bmi though, so there ya go i learned something new

g'em

t-ha wrote:

That's not what Dragan PM'd to me


*runs off and gets popcorn and marshmallows*

bless. you'll have to do a lot better than that....

Dragan

t-ha wrote:

I don't really get this - look in the mirror, are you the bodyfat level you would like to be? Yes - congratulations. No - research exercise and diet and get to work! No really, research it, "the hassle of doing sit ups etc." does not inspire my confidence in your knowledge of how to lean out. There's plenty of info on this forum about how to do it.

Once again the man is speaking sense.

As for excercises for the midsection might i suggest the following.

1 set of crunches to failure.
1 set of goodmornings to failure
1 set of side bends, deep stretch, medium weight, to failure.
1 set of hanging leg raises to failure.

This is really all you need to develop your muscles to the point where you will have a six pack. After that, it really is all fat and water retention folks.

joejoem

Dragan wrote:

1 set of side bends, deep stretch, medium weight, to failure.

Different folks different strokes but I think these put unnececary stress on your spine. Elbow to knee crnches in high reps are just as effective imo

Dragan

I think they only put stress on your spine because people do them wrong and bend at the spine. and go down too far.

You pull yourself to side with your oblique and you really can travel that great a distance at all.

DO em right and these bad boys rock, your suggestion is a very good alternative however.

joejoem

Dragan wrote:

I think they only put stress on your spine because people do them wrong and bend at the spine. and go down too far.

You pull yourself to side with your oblique and you really can travel that great a distance at all.

DO em right and these bad boys rock, your suggestion is a very good alternative however.

Do you use a bench and pin your feet against the skirting board?

t-ha

g'em wrote:

bless. you'll have to do a lot better than that....

em... OK

*runs off and gets some celery & cottage cheese*

:v: :v: :v:

g'em

t-ha wrote:

em... OK

*runs off and gets some celery & cottage cheese*

i meant work harder on your insults

joejoem

joejoem wrote:

Do you use a bench and pin your feet against the skirting board?

*Cough* look over here *cough*

t-ha

oxygen wrote:

And a fine signature it it,for as long as it last before the mods get it

Yeah they got it

@g'em - your ...em ...lat spread sucks :eek: a-a-and your medial delt doesn't flow nicely with your tricep on the left side

joejoem

joejoem wrote:

*Cough* look over here *cough*

*Cough* Dragan answer me *cough*

g'em

t-ha wrote:

@g'em - your ...em ...lat spread sucks

talk about hitting a sore spot... :mad:

sweet revenge will be mine someday... but for now I have to go train my legs today and I'm reading, re-reading and reading once again Dragan's mental whatsit post to try and get me ready... hate legs days...

Cravez

g'em wrote:

talk about hitting a sore spot... :mad:

sweet revenge will be mine someday... but for now I have to go train my legs today and I'm reading, re-reading and reading once again Dragan's mental whatsit post to try and get me ready... hate legs days...

Me too, love working upper body but not really a lower body person, started really working hard on my lower body now and my legs are so sore old people are out walking me on the street

Dragan

joejoem wrote:

*Cough* Dragan answer me *cough*

Sweet God!!!!

And the answer is nope, i just do side bends free standing.

joejoem

Michael Cravez wrote:

Me too, love working upper body but not really a lower body person, started really working hard on my lower body now and my legs are so sore old people are out walking me on the street

Ahhh the John Wayne walk from the leg press to the leg curl machine...

Dragan wrote:

Sweet God!!!!

And the answer is nope, i just do side bends free standing.

How do you mean? Just hold heavy dumbells and sway side to side?

Dragan

Pretty much, but you don't sway, you need to use your oblique to pull you down almost. It's hard to explain dude.

Gaillimhtaibhse

wba88 wrote:

hey every1,
wot is the best exercise to do every day to get a six pack?
Thanx

Avoid drinking one.;)

joejoem

Dragan wrote:

Pretty much, but you don't sway, you need to use your oblique to pull you down almost. It's hard to explain dude.

Thats peachy, I have done them before. I thought you were talking about the ones where hou put your hip on the bench, feet against the wall and dip your body to the side.

The ones you are talking about are good, sting a good bit!

Have you ever tried the ones where you hold the weights above your head and bend from side to side. Even with a ****ty 5kilo weight they hurt!

t-ha

joejoem wrote:

Have you ever tried the ones where you hold the weights above your head and bend from side to side. Even with a ****ty 5kilo weight they hurt!

Windmills

& Le side bend (as demonstrated by Mike Robertson);