Getting a Six Pac

Zapp Brannigan

Ok here's the story, I'm a 19 year old male (almost 20) with a bit of a belly. I'm not fat or overweight it's just my stomach has no tone whatsoever. Been a member of a gym for about a month now and I've just been doing general cardio and weights but nothing really for my stomach.

Now that I'm planning to get a tattoo on my "cuts" I've decided I need to tone my stomach but don't really know how to go about it other than sit-ups (and lots of them!)

The nitty gritty stuff: I'm 6 foot. I weigh in at 68kg. As for my diet... I eat everything really. Toast (white bread) for breakfast. Usually a sandwhich, white Ham & Cheese, for lunch and then either a curry, spaghetti bolognaise, steak and chips, Chicken Kiev or a good old Ham sunday dinner. I get the odd Dominos aswell.

Any help you folks give would be greatly appreciated!

cavanmaniac

As you'll see from my thread below, I'm far from an expert but one thing I do know is no white bread. Some of the other stuff you're eating wouldn't be part of a diet required to reach the goals you're after either. Consult the sticky at the top for nutrition advice and you'll quickly see that you need 6 small meals of day with the required balance of nutrients, along with a decent exercise programme, to get where you want.

Alot of people, myself included, post this type of thread but as I found, best to go to the stickies first.

Sleepy

A six pack is created in the kitchen rather than the gym so take a look at the nutritional stickies at the top of the forum.

For exercises to tone your abs, I'd recommend floor wipers, they tear my abs to ribbons!

amazingemmet

Zapp Brannigan wrote:

The nitty gritty stuff: I'm 6 foot. I weigh in at 68kg. :eek:

One your verging on underweight for your height. Your diet is terrible work on cleaning that up first as was said a six pack is made in the kitchen not the gym. Though seriously Adding 15kgish would do you a world of good for your shape especially if you wanna get tattooed more of you to fill. Though my tattooist hates me as every tiem i go see her my back has gotten wider

Zapp Brannigan

Underweight? Well I am a skinny b*llox! The thing about my diet is I'm an incredibly fussy eater and usually always hate the good stuff
Not looking too good now!

Fobia

I hate to hijack your thread Zapp, but I'd imagine the answer to my questions would interest you too!(We're of similar height and weight) Better than having 2 sixpack threads at once, anyway.

My diet is good etc etc, however, in terms of actual exercises, I really do despise floor work. So was wondering, if I started doing squats, would it be possible to give the situps etc a miss? Or is there no replacement for good'ol planks/crunches etc? Also, does the Ab machine work at all? It's never been included in any of the routines I've gotten over the past year (I'm fairly toned and whatnot, but abs need alot more definition!), but I'd certainly prefer it over floorwork any day! Also I'm quite underweight atm, I've been trying to put on weight "naturally" for a long time, but am going to try some whey powder starting next week as I'm the same height as OP but only 66kg, does putting on weight make ab definition easier/harder/the same?

amazingemmet

Having bigger muscles makes them easier to see also "you can't flex bone".

If you wanna have better abs when "toned" you need bigger abs how do yuo do that? by gaining size all over your body.

Like i'm six foot and fairly lean visible six pack striations across chest but i weigh in about 82kg and i still look skinny.

Vegeta

amazingemmet wrote:

Like i'm six foot and fairly lean visible six pack striations across chest but i weigh in about 82kg and i still look skinny.

Doubt you look skinny to others though (the old negative self image issue) If you are a lean 82kg (implying a decent amount of muscle) then you are in better shape than most people

woolymammoth

everything you need to know in one handy place.

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Six-Pack-Abs

have fun.

Marathon Man

Awesome link woolymammoth. Those v-ups are the business and are as now part of my routine.

Esse85

Sort out your diet, make sure its protein rich, have about 6 meals a day. Have plents of fruit, veg, snack on nuts such as almonds., drink plenty of water, cut out the pizza's, take away food.

Males all have a 6 pack, your problem is you have a layer of fat covering your abs. The best way to burn fat is do cardio on an empty stomach at least 4 days a week for 40 minutes, and do 45 minutes of weights later on in the evening.

If you do compound excercises such as bench press, squats and deadlifts then there's really no need to do direct ab work.

If you gave at least 12 weeks following these guidelines, you'd notice a vast improvement.