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Sure, most of you who probably visit my profile and frequent bodybuilding/fitness websites have heard it all before. Diet is the key to a great six pack and success in anything related to achieving a pinnacle in either the way your body looks or works.

However, diet, apart from being the main focus here, is not the only thing we need to take into consideration. Proper training of the abdominal region (often neglected and done wrongly), is required. I’m going to start with diet and a brief description of why diet has the most important part to play in achieving a great six pack.

Every one of us has a six pack.

I have a six pack, you have a six pack. What differs between you and I are our body fat percentages.
My body fat percentage is nearing five percent. The average male percentage of body fat is 14%. An athlete’s body fat is in the region of 8%.
For a male, you need a body fat of below 10% to really see any definition of the abdominals. 8% for more of a defined look.
Put it this way, if your body fat is high… you won’t see your abs! You need to diet and exercise correctly.

Let me break this down:
The average, healthy male walking down the street: 14%
The unfit male with the size 40″ waist jeans in McDonald’s: 20% and up
A fashion/fitness male model: 5-6%
A bodybuilder in contest state: 3.5-4%

*Ladies, keep in mind that a low body fat for males and females differs greatly. For example, 12% for a female is LOW! 12% for a male would hardly bring out any abdominal definition. Got me? Good.

After 3% bf, for a male, you are likely to get very ill… or worse, die.
You see, the body still needs a layer of body fat to protect your vital organs and function correctly.

Now we know what body fat has to do with things, we can start to talk about diet.
Now, I can get pretty detailed when it comes to types of diet, etc. But I’m going to standardize one for you guys.
Not everyone’s goal is muscle size, and not everyone has the time for a diet like mine, so I’m going to be loose on the type of diet.

Diet and our food:
Food consists of 3 different macronutrients that are essential to our bodies These should be higher in protein, low in carbohydrates (apart from before and after exercise, and in the morning when the body needs to refuel), and moderate in healthy fats.

Macro nutrients:

*Proteins -

these are the building blocks of muscle. No other macro nutrient builds muscle. Look at eating complete sources of proteins (complete means made up mostly of protein): eggs, egg whites, meats, fish, canned meats, canned fish, whey protein shakes, etc.
*Carbohydrates -

These fuel the muscle. These give us energy and help us recover from workouts along with proteins. This is fuel, not muscle building
Look at eating complex sources of carbs (whole grains, whole-wheat: wheat bread, oatmeal, wholegrain cereals, green vegetables, wholegrain rice, etc). Stay away from simple carbohydrates like sugary sweets, cakes, biscuits, etc. They spike insulin and cause rapid weight gain, especially when you aren’t active!

*Fats -

The correct types of fats help aid correct body and hormone function. Saturated fats, hydrogenated fat, Trans fats, etc. should be avoided. Fats are not bad for you (the correct ones). Don’t think I am telling you to go eat a McDonald’s, lol. Look to consume fats from fish oil, flax seed oil, natural peanut butter, almonds, almond butter, etc. Now you know the types of foods to eat, it is important you eat the correct amount.

For great abs, it is important you burn more calories than you consume.

For this, we need to know your calorie maintenance level (the amount of calories we do not gain or lose weight on). For example, my maintenance level is around 2500 calories these days (it used to be 3800 calories when I was bigger). Now, if I consume under that amount of calories and I also do cardiovascular training and weight lifting for weight loss activities, I am going to lose weight. Get me? I do weight training 4 times a week for a little over an hour. I do cardio on a runner bike on my days off (3 days a week) 45 minutes a time at low intensity. It is important to do low intensity cardio activity because if you do cardio activities that are too intense you burn carbohydrates (we use carbs to fuel our body in activity) and we end up then having to burn protein as another source (protein builds are muscle! so we end up burning muscle if we do cardio too quickly and at an intense pace! Not what we want!). If we do slow pace cardio for 45 minutes a time, we end up attacking fat stores rather than carbs and proteins because the activity isn’t as intense. Get me? It’s the fat we want to burn! This is key to saving muscle and burning fat. Ok… So now we know that we have to eat less calories than we burn, we know that we have to eat complex carbohydrates and diet correctly and accordingly. So now it’s time for abdominal exercises!

Here are two routines you can try that work for me.
Switch it up every workout to keep your abs and body guessing:
These exercises are designed to hit specific areas of the abdominals.
Now this is important, because although I said diet is the most important thing in terms of good abdominals, once you strip away the fat from diet, you want to see GREAT abs – which is why you need to work upper abdominals, sides, lowers, serratus (see the things above my abs, to the far sides on each side - that’s them!)
I won’t bore you with the names, I will list exercises that hit them all for you to try, below:
*remember to keep good form and tension on the abs, never be relaxed with your abs, keep then tight and flexed correctly*

Routine 1:

• Hanging leg raises: 3 sets, 12-20 reps
  • Works the lowers and uppers to a smaller degree.
• Side bends (with a dumbbell or weight plate): 2-3 sets, 12-20 reps
  • Works the sides
• Rope/cable crunches (great exercise) 2 sets – 12-20 reps
  • Works overall abs, a lot of the uppers.

Routine 2:

• Side crunches  – 3 sets – 12-20 reps
  • Works the sides
• Regular crunches *weight weight* - 3 sets – 12-20 reps (you can use a light dumbbell or weight plate to do this)
  • Works overall abs, a lot of the uppers
• Inverted crunches: 2 sets – 12-20 reps
  • Works lower and uppers.

Remember to stretch correctly, drink water and rest.

This is a brief piece I have rushed through at work. I just hope this can be of help to a lot of you guys that have asked about my abs routine, etc. Also keep this in mind: We can only realistically lose a lb of fat or so a week. The rest of the weight loss will be water and muscle – keep that in mind. If you lose weight too fast you will start to look more like unhealthy than before. Slow and steady progress is key to anything fitness related. That is where dedication is my friends.

I will try to follow up this article with a bicep/triceps/arm routine in the near future.

Also, don’t forget to follow me as I transform my physique in THIS 2009 Transformation Journal.

All the best,

James :)

Author: James Dawson Martin aka JamerJay | JJay

Official Website: www.JamesDawsonMartin.com

BodySpace: www.BodySpace.com/JamerJay

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